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Pressuring Sudan

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published June 2, 2007

President Bush sent an important message this week by toughening sanctions against Sudan for its complicity in the genocide in Darfur. Bush not only followed through on his threat six weeks ago, but he laid the mass murder and displacement of innocent black Africans squarely at the feet of the government in Khartoum, not its allied Arab militias. And just as important, the president challenged the West and its African allies to do more to stop the slaughter. "The people of Darfur are crying out for help," Bush declared, "and they deserve it."

Bush's strong, clear language underscored the immediacy of the crisis. Since 2003, Sudan's government and its janjaweed militias have killed more than 200,000 and driven 3-million from their homes in an effort to cleanse the western region of rebels and black farmers. Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, has gamed the diplomatic process, frustrating attempts to replace a poorly equipped African force with heavily armed and mobile U.N. peacekeepers. Even the latest proposal to fuse the 7,000 Africans into a 20, 000-strong "hybrid" force of African and U.N. troops falls short of the security requirements needed for a war-torn region the size of France.

Under the new sanctions, 30 companies owned or controlled by the Sudanese government and an additional company accused of shipping weapons to Darfur will be added to a list of firms barred from the U.S. financial system, making it a crime to do business with them. Bush blocked the assets of two Sudanese government officials and one rebel leader. He said that Washington would more aggressively enforce existing sanctions, and work with Britain and other allies on a new Security Council resolution that would expand the arms embargo on Sudan and prohibit the government from flying offensive military missions in Darfur.

Bush deserves credit for keeping Darfur on the international agenda, and for giving the international community a framework for moving from talk to action. These steps will increase pressure on China, which has extensive commercial ties in Sudan, to push Khartoum to control the militias, the first step in bringing the government and the rebels to the negotiating table. Already in the wake of the president's move, the European Union said it would consider new sanctions. Africa needs to follow suit. Only the hammer of sanctions and military force will keep this humanitarian crisis from further engulfing central Africa.

[Last modified June 1, 2007, 22:02:46]