بوش يقرر فرض عقوبات علي السودان ...

Quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bush to Announce New U.S. Sanctions Against Sudan Over Darfur Edwin Chen 35 minutes ago May 29 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush plans today to announce new economic sanctions against Sudan's government and 30 companies that it owns or controls in a fresh bid to curb the violence in Darfur. ADVERTISEMENT Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir's ``actions over the past few weeks follow a long pattern of promising cooperation while finding new methods of obstruction,'' Bush will say, according to an excerpt from his scheduled 8 a.m. remarks provided by the White House. Bush also will identify three individuals targeted for sanctions, the first time the U.S. has done so unilaterally, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters last night. He said two of three are senior Sudanese government officials linked to the area's militia forces, known as the Janjaweed, and the third is a top rebel leader. The announcement of the penalties is a follow up to a warning Bush gave last month in a speech at the United State Holocaust Museum in Washington. He said at the time that the world has a ``moral obligation'' to halt the genocide taking place in the Darfur region of western Sudan. In addition to the U.S. steps, Bush is directing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to prepare a resolution for the United Nations Security Council that would apply the sanctions on a multilateral basis, the official said. The resolution also would prohibit all military flights in the Darfur region by the Sudanese government and expand the arms embargo, which now applies to Darfur, to the government of Sudan. Intelligence and Enforcement The new effort also will rely on improved intelligence and stepped up enforcement of the existing sanctions against Sudan and some 130 companies owned or controlled by that government. The U.S. has unraveled more about the way the government of Sudan conducts business, which will allow more effective sanctions, the administration official said. Among the businesses being targeted are joint petroleum ventures. Companies and individuals targeted will be barred from doing business with the U.S. and denied access to the U.S. financial system. The official said names of the companies and the three individuals would be released today by the Departments of Treasury and State. Bush is acting now because the situation has deteriorated since he gave his speech April 18 at the Holocaust Museum, the official said. They include attacks in Darfur and more restrictions on access by humanitarian organizations. In the speech last month, Bush said Sudan's government must allow full deployment of a joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force, end military attacks on civilians in the region and stop arming the Janjaweed, which are raiding villages. Time Running Out The president said then that he would give UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-Moon more time to pursue diplomacy even as he warned that U.S. patience is running out. The White House said that Ban has been informed of Bush's intentions. Earlier this month, Sudan approved the deployment of 2,500 UN support troops to the Darfur region to intervene in the humanitarian crisis. The African Union has about 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur who aren't able to provide full protection to civilians in the region. More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur in the past four years in a campaign of violence directed at rebels seeking a greater share of oil revenue and political power from the central government in Khartoum. The fighting has spread to include violent clashes among rival tribes in the region and has spilled over into neighboring Chad, where a dozen major refugee camps operate. Sudan's government has agreed to a so-called UN ``heavy package'' of support, the second of three stages of involvement in the crisis. The third phase would be deployment of more than 20,000 UN peacekeepers to Darfur. To contact the reporter on this story: Edwin Chen in Washington at [email protected]

Quote: واشنطن ستشدد العقوبات على الخرطوم بسبب دارفور قال المسؤولون إنه من المقرر أن تفرض الولايات المتحدة عقوبات جديدة على السودان بسبب الوضع في دارفور. كما ستدفع واشنطن باتجاه تبني مجلس الأمن التابع للأمم المتحدة قرارا أشد لمعاقبة الخرطوم، يشير بالأخص إلى حكومة الرئيس عمر البشير. وسوف يعلن الرئيس الأمريكي جورج دبليو بوش عن هذا الإجراء في الثامنة صباحا بالتوقيت المحلي (الثانية عشرة ظهرا بتوقيت جرينيتش) الثلاثاء، حسبما قال المسؤولون. ومن المتوقع أن تمنع واشنطن المزيد من الشركات العاملة في السودان من الاستفادة بالمنظومة المالية الأمريكية، فيما تعزز الحملة على الأفراد المشتبه بمسؤوليتهم عن العنف في الإقليم السوداني. يذكر أن الصراع بين الحكومة والمتمردين في دارفور أدى لمقتل وتشريد مئات الآلاف. وتتهم جهات دولية عديدة ومنظمات لحقوق الإنسان الخرطوم بدعم الميليشيات العربية الموالية لها والمسؤولية عن ارتكاب انتهاكات واسعة ضد السكان الأفارقة بالإقليم.

Quote: فيما تعزز الحملة على الأفراد المشتبه بمسؤوليتهم عن العنف في الإقليم السوداني.

Quote: The administration officials said the secretary general had been made aware of Bush's plans for sanctions, though they would not say if Bush had spoken personally with Ban.

Quote: Bush Looks To Intensify Pressure On Sudan Economic Measures, U.N. Sanctions Planned By Michael Abramowitz Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, May 29, 2007; A01 President Bush has decided to implement a plan to pressure Sudan's government into cooperating with international efforts to halt the violence in its troubled Darfur region, where his administration said almost three years ago that genocide was taking place. Administration officials said yesterday that the Treasury Department will step up efforts to squeeze the Sudanese economy by targeting government-run ventures involved with its booming oil business, which does many of its transactions in U.S. dollars. Bush will sanction two senior Sudanese officials and a rebel leader, who are suspected of being involved in the violence in Darfur. The United States will also seek new U.N. Security Council sanctions against Khartoum, as well as a provision preventing the Sudanese government from conducting military flights in Darfur. The United Nations has accused Sudan's government of bombing Darfur villages. Bush has been considering such steps for months and was set to announce the plan last month at the U.S. Memorial Holocaust Museum. But he held off at the behest of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, who pleaded for more time to conduct diplomacy with Sudan's president, Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan al-Bashir, toward allowing international peacekeepers into the country. But Bush sees little evidence that the diplomacy is bearing fruit or that Bashir is proving more cooperative in helping halt the violence in Darfur, aides said. As a result, they said, Bush plans to announce the coercive measures this morning at the White House. "We just haven't seen any movement on the part of the government," said a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to upstage the president. The official said Sudanese officials are continuing a long pattern of seeming to promise cooperation while "obstructing" progress in curbing the violence. Administration officials said Bashir and other senior Sudanese officials have continued to thwart efforts at cooperation even after Bush explicitly warned them of the consequences. The day after Bush's speech at the Holocaust Museum, they said, the government bombed a rebel camp, and officials have continued to give speeches rejecting the full complement of peacekeepers. The timing of today's announcement appears certain to anger U.N. diplomats, who have been reporting progress in negotiations with Bashir and have been aggressively lobbying U.S. officials to delay sanctions. Sudan's official news agency reported Saturday that Ban has agreed to travel to Khartoum to negotiate a deal on a United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur. U.S. lawmakers and advocacy groups, meanwhile, have criticized the Bush administration for a tepid response to Darfur despite tough rhetoric from the president, and it was uncertain last night whether they would welcome the long-awaited implementation of what has come to be known as "Plan B" for the region. Religious and humanitarian groups, which have pressed states, universities and corporations to disinvest from Sudan, have criticized as insufficient the elements of Plan B. Bush has been under intense pressure from these groups to do something about the violence in Darfur, which began in 2003 when government-sponsored Arab militias attacked African villages in an effort to quell a rebellion. Eventually, about 2,000 villages were burned, as many as 450,000 people were killed and more than 2.5 million were displaced in continuing violence. The United States labeled it a "genocide" in 2004. Under the new sanction plan to be announced today, 30 companies owned or controlled by the Sudanese government will be added to the 130 already blocked from using the U.S. financial system. The senior administration official said that the U.S. government has devoted considerable resources in the past six months toward figuring out how to bring greater financial pressure on Sudan, and he noted that with today's announcement most of the joint ventures responsible for oil production will be under sanctions. "I am very optimistic that we will be able to put on more pressure than we have previously," the official said. Although the United States has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid and has led calls for action on Darfur, it has been ineffective in marshaling an international response that would bring a lasting peace or provide adequate security to the people of the region, one of Africa's poorest and most remote areas. The Bush administration helped broker a peace deal a year ago that was supposed to have led to the introduction of thousands of additional peacekeepers. But the deal is in shambles and few troops have been added beyond an overwhelmed 7,000-member force from the African Union. Part of the problem facing the United States is that it has already imposed strict sanctions on Sudan -- dating to 1997, when Khartoum was targeted for its support of Osama bin Laden. So it is unclear how much more leverage the Bush administration will have without backing from other nations. China, in particular, has extensive commercial interests in Sudan and has been skeptical of sanctions. Administration officials said they think that Beijing is starting to be more helpful, such as leaning on the Sudanese to allow the African Union force to be better-equipped. Advocacy groups are trying to shame China by threatening a boycott of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The senior administration official said he could not forecast how China and other members of the Security Council will react to the new U.S. initiative.