AP News, May 30th, 2007
Sudan's ambassador to Washington said Wednesday that sanctions ordered by President Bush threaten to unravel peace agreements and break his country apart.
Ambassador John Ukec Lueth Ukec said the sanctions would end up hurting ordinary people rather than government officials.
Bush ordered the sanctions Tuesday to pressure President Omar al-Bashir's government to stop aggravating the violence in Sudan's vast Darfur region on the Chad border. The sanctions target government-run companies involved in Sudan's oil industry, as well as three individuals, among them a rebel leader suspected of being involved in the Darfur bloodshed.
Ukec contended in a news conference that the sanctions would affect the supply and distribution of basic necessities and lead to more suffering.
"I don't think that the government officials _ hundreds of them _ will stop getting tea and sugar," he said. "It is just a death sentence to a large number of people."
He said that sanctions will hamper negotiations under way for peace in Darfur and other conflict regions in Sudan and could harm the stability of the country.
"Although the policy of the United States is to keep Sudan as one country, what it is doing is disintegrating Sudan," Ukec said.
The Darfur violence involves black African Muslim rebels in a 4-year-old fight for autonomy in the region against militia allegedly supported by the mainly ethnic Arab central government. A negotiated cease-fire and a separate peace agreement, which was accepted only by the largest rebel group, are in force but hardly noticed.
The U.S. push for sanctions comes at a delicate time in negotiations for a 23,000-strong U.N.-African Union "hybrid" force for Darfur and efforts by special envoys for both organizations to get all combatants to the negotiating table to try to reach a political settlement strong enough to hold.
