Graduated United Nations Sanctions on Sudan

By Dr. Gregory Stanton

President, Genocide Watch

The United Nations Security Council should immediately pass a resolution that will impose graduated sanctions on Sudan.

A.  The next Security Council resolution should declare that the atrocities in Darfur constitute crimes against humanity and violations of the Geneva Conventions and their optional protocols.  Use of the word genocide should not become the sticking point.  Just call them crimes against humanity, and then impose ever increasing sanctions to force them to stop the killing and starvation.

The resolution should call upon the government of Sudan to:

1. Halt all bombing and military action in Darfur.

2. Force the Janjaweed militias to disband and confiscate their weapons.

3. Cease supplying weapons to the militias.

4. Allow full, direct access to all displaced persons, villagers, and other persons in Darfur by United Nations relief agencies, without use of the Sudanese government as an intermediary or as the distributor of aid.

5. Call upon member governments to contribute aid, to be delivered if possible to the homes of people in Darfur, so they might not be uprooted and can plant their crops.  If this is impossible, the aid should be delivered to displaced persons camps and refugee camps.

6. Allow United Nations monitors into Sudan to verify compliance with these conditions.

Give the Sudanese government three weeks to meet these conditions, to be verified by U.N. monitors and agencies, and by the Secretary-General himself on his upcoming trip to Darfur.

B.  If it fails to meet these conditions, the Security Council should pass another resolution calling upon member states to:

1. Deny travel visas to all persons in the Sudanese government and military and their families, and anyone associated with the Janjaweed and other militia groups.

2. Freeze all financial assets that these persons hold outside Sudan.

3. Prohibit the transfer, sale, or other supply of arms to the government of Sudan and to any citizen of Sudan, as well as transfer, sale, or supply of arms to any persons who intend to or are likely to supply them, directly or indirectly, to the government of Sudan or Sudanese citizens.

4. Appoint an Arms Embargo Committee of the Security Council, to be assisted by a Commission of Inquiry to investigate any evidence of violations of the arms embargo.

If the Sudanese government still fails to meet the conditions, the Security Council should pass another resolution that adds even more teeth.  The resolution should declare that the Sudanese government has not complied with the earlier resolutions, citing a report by the Secretary-General. It should note the large flows of refugees into Chad, and the attacks by Janjaweed militias into Chad, and bombing by Sudanese government planes of refugees in Chad.  It should act under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, and declare that the situation in Darfur constitutes a threat to international peace and security.

The resolution should call upon the Secretary-General to solicit military personnel from member nations to form a U.N. Darfur peacekeeping operation made up of heavy infantry and  communications and logistics support.  The mandate of this operation will be to provide direct security for the internally displaced persons in camps as well as patrols in Darfur to protect people in their homes from attacks by the Janjaweed militias. The operation’s mandate should specifically authorize military action to protect lives of Sudanese civilians and relief workers.

If the Sudanese government provides armed resistance to this peacekeeping operation, the Security Council should impose a complete embargo on the export of petroleum from Sudan, as well as on the importation of petroleum products into Sudan.