SUDAN’S SANCTIONS

Economic sanctions against Sudan, as President Bush recently announced, will, by themselves, do little to end the killings in the Darfur region. But, as part of a policy that includes building support for an international peacekeeping force, they are a necessary way of ratcheting up pressure on the Khartoum government.

President Bush announced a broadening of existing sanctions against the Sudanese government along with stepped-up enforcement. He also announced sanctions against a rebel leader and two senior officials believed responsible for the violence.

The president will have Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice work with Britain and other allies to have other countries impose similar sanctions. Mr. Bush is pressing a United Nations resolution to impose an arms embargo and to prohibit Sudanese military flights over Darfur.

For more than four years, Arab tribal militias known as Janjaweed have been killing non-Muslims in the Darfur region. More than 200,000 have died as a result of the violence and more than 2 million people have fled to neighboring Chad. Faced with international condemnation, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has repeatedly said he is prepared to stop the violence. He has not.

Sanctions will increase the pressure, but more is needed. One problem is that Sudan’s major export is oil, much of which goes to Asia. China, a member of the UN Security Council, has said it will oppose sanctions that involve oil and Sudanese officials say American and European sanctions will have little effect because the country does most of its business with Asia.

Because sanctions have been threatened for years – Maine lawmakers last year approved the termination of state government investments in companies doing business in Sudan – companies and businesses likely have already moved assets that would be frozen.

Further, says Colby College government Prof. Ken Rodman, Sudan is not Serbia. The African country is not so desperate to end its economic isolation that it is willing to compromise to get economic sanctions lifted as Serbia did during the Bosnian war, he says.

As for military force, President al-Bashir’s government has so far refused a peacekeeping force of African Union and UN troops and the international community isn’t likely to support military operations that the Sudanese government opposes.

That leaves diplomacy, which, because it is slow, sadly means thousands more are likely to die. President Bush said, “I promise this to the people of Darfur: The United States will not avert our eyes from a crisis that challenges the conscience of the world.” With eyes focused on Darfur, the difficult work of finding more ways to end the violence begins.