by Corine Hegland
03/24/2007

Below is an excerpt from the National Journal:

Frustrated by Sudan's intransigence on curbing violence in Darfur, the Bush administration is preparing to levy sanctions against three Sudanese leaders. Andrew Natsios, the administration's special envoy to Sudan, told lawmakers of the decision on Tuesday in a classified briefing.

Last April, the United Nations Security Council targeted four midlevel Sudanese leaders by freezing their assets and banning their travel, a move designed to pressure both the Sudanese government-backed militias and the rebel leaders into protecting civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan.

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American diplomats are now consulting with their British counterparts about bringing before the Security Council similar restrictions against higher-ranking Sudanese officials. But the Bush administration plans to proceed with sanctions (which would apply only to U.S. activities) soon, whether the council acts or not, according to administration sources. In addition, the Treasury Department is examining its enforcement of current sanctions against companies linked to the Sudanese government, considering whether to restrict additional companies, and studying the possibility of choking Sudanese financial institutions out of transactions conducted in U.S. dollars.

The long-threatened imposition of more-coercive measures against Khartoum comes amid a rapidly deteriorating situation on the ground. On March 18, the United Nations reported that refugee camps in Darfur were nearly full and that rampant attacks from both government-backed militias and rebel factions had cut off at least 900,000 civilians from aid agencies.

The humanitarian lifeline in Darfur is "increasingly fragile," said Ken Bacon, president of Refugees International, at a March 20 hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations African Affairs Subcommittee. "If it fails, if the World Food Program pulls out, if food workers can't get in, we could see tens of thousands of people starve in a relatively short time."

The violence in Darfur has spilled over into the neighboring countries of Chad and the Central African Republic, threatening a deadly regional conflagration. Each country has its own internal problems and complicated relationships with rebel groups from the other countries, and the porous borders between the three nations make it easy for refugees, bandits, and militias to move back and forth, according to Bacon.

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"Attacks on civilians are widespread in both Chad and CAR and have left thousands of civilians without livelihood, shelter, or food," James Swan, deputy assistant secretary of State for African affairs, told the Senate subcommittee.

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Hopes lifted a bit late last year, when the Sudanese government accepted a plan to bring U.N. peacekeepers into the region to work with the understaffed and inexperienced African Union peacekeepers, but those hopes were crushed on March 9 when U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon got a lengthy letter from Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir reneging on the deal.

Frustration is palpable in both the administration and Congress. Natsios said on March 7 that he had told Bashir that the "United States is tired of delays," and that if progress on a peace deal and humanitarian access doesn't occur swiftly, the "growing movement in the West and in Africa to take other measures will simply accelerate."

In Congress, a flurry of Darfur-related bills and resolutions have been introduced this year. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of a new Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, introduced two bills this month, both with bipartisan support. One would expand the United States' ability to prosecute genocide crimes to cover those committed outside the United States. The other would authorize states to pursue divestment from foreign companies invested in the Sudan.

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In February, Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., with backing from Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and John Sununu, R-N.H., introduced a resolution calling on the U.S. government and the international community to pursue a regional solution to the problems of Darfur, Chad, and the Central African Republic.

In the House, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., introduced a divestment bill in January mandating that the Securities and Exchange Commission require companies to disclose any Sudan business operations and to block U.S. government contracts with such companies, unless their Sudan work is related to humanitarian or peaceful operations.

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But the United States has only a limited relationship with Sudan, blunting the impact of any unilateral moves. Darfur experts say that leveraging American and British fury into international action by the Security Council is the key to changing Sudan's behavior.

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"The Security Council is split on how to proceed," Gagnon said. China and Russia, which have oil and business dealings with Sudan, "want more talk and dialogue and consent, and others want tougher action."

But international pressure is building, bit by bit. On February 27, the International Criminal Court prosecutor presented evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity against two Sudanese officials. On March 9, the U.N.'s new Human Rights Council received a damning report -- on which it has not yet acted -- on Sudan's complicity in human-rights abuses in Darfur. And when Bashir reneged on the peacekeeping deal, China's U.N. ambassador expressed his disappointment, saying there seemed to be "some miscommunications and misunderstandings," and thus raising hopes that China would support, or at least abstain from, a U.S. and British-backed resolution levying sanctions on Sudan.

"The rope's gone around their neck, but nobody's pulled the thing tight yet," said Alex Meixner, policy director of the Save Darfur coalition. "There's layer after layer of pressure tactics -- some international, with the International Criminal Court and the Human Rights Council; some diplomatic; and talks of new sanctions -- but none of it is action yet. There's a lot of movement but not a lot of results."

If the rope isn't pulled soon, though, the United States will implement its own "Plan B," according to Natsios.

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