SUDAN: Sudan Likely to Avoid Harsher U.N. Sanctions

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 29 1996 (IPS) - Sudan faces the imposition of diplomatic penalties by May 10, but it is likely to avoid harsher U.N. sanctions for its alleged role in an attempt on the life of Egypt’s president last year.

At a time when two Arab nations, Libya and Iraq, already are under seemingly indefinite U.N. embargoes, many nations — including veto-wielding U.N. Security Council members China and Russia — clearly feel sanctions on Sudan may be one embargo too many.

During a debate last week on the Sudan case, Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavrov warned that the Council must not seek to isolate Sudan with sanctions before it establishes solid evidence that Khartoum was involved in the plot to assassinate Hosni Mubarak.

The Russian envoy also took the occasion to register Moscow’s objection to the “indefinite application of sanctions” on some countries — presumably including former Soviet allies Iraq and Libya.

“The arbitrary application of sanctions is essentially flawed,” Lavrov argued. He contended that Khartoum must not be placed, as other pariah nations have been, in a situation where it would face severe international penalties that are virtually impossible to lift.

The Security Council voted Friday to ask all countries to reduce the size of the Sudanese diplomatic staff and to restrict travel by members of Sudan’s government and armed forces. It also called on all organisations not to convene conferences in Sudan.

But, in a clear defeat for the United States and Britain, which have lobbied for months for tough sanctions against Sudan, the Council did not impose any measure affecting Khartoum’s economy or arms trade.

“Sanctions are often in the way of a settlement,” said Ambassador Qin Huasun of China in explaining why his nation joined Russia in abstention. “Imposing sanctions on Sudan before incontrovertible evidence is on hand will create a bad precedent for the future work of the Council.”

Despite such warnings, the United States and Britain, both of which wield vetos in the 15-member Council, are continuing their campaign to isolate Khartoum diplomatically.

The current penalties are left to the discretion of each nations, and several Council members — including Indonesia — made it clear that they accepted the penalties only because they are not mandatory.

For many diplomats, abstentions by Russia and China signal that Washington and London will have an uphill battle in levying any further sanctions, as they have threatened to do if Sudan fails to comply with requests to extradite the men suspected of trying to assassinate Mubarak last Jun. 26.

For weeks, U.S. diplomats had prodded the Council to consider at least sanctions to prohibit international flights by Sudan Airways, which Washington claims helped ferry Egyptian radicals to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where they tried to kill the Egyptian president when he arrived for the annual summit of the Organisation of African Unity.

Although the suspected assassins are members of Egypt’s Islamist Gamaat al-Islamiya, Ethiopian investigators accuse Khartoum of sheltering and transporting the alleged attackers.

However, Lavrov noted the Ethiopian government has been unable to provide any proof of a Sudanese link to the suspects. (At least one of the suspected plotters, Mustafa Hamza, is in a part of Afghanistan-controlled Islamist Taleban militias, according to the Arab newspaper ‘Al-Hayat’.)

The lack of evidence forced the Council to abandon sanctions against Sudan Airways in its resolution, originally drafted by Egypt. Diplomats here also ruled out any arms embargo against the war-torn nation.

Instead, the Council has instructed all states to adopt the mild diplomatic sanctions by May 10, and keep them in place until Sudan ensures the “extradition to Ethiopia for prosecution the three suspects sheltered in Sudan.”

But Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin, Sudan’s U.N. ambassador, told the Council that Khartoum does not know where the suspects are. He said reports of Hamza’s entry into Afghanistan are a sign that the suspects, if they had ever left Ethiopia for Sudan, may now have left.

Yassin questioned the penalising of Sudan for the assassination attempt without any trial, noting that U.N. reports and the Council resolution all “avoided deliberately the fact that the subjects are Egyptian citizens.” The current trial of some suspected plotters in Addis Ababa also is under question because it is being conducted in closed courts, he said.

“Sudan denies completely that it is involved in any terrorist acts in any state,” Yassin stressed.

Lavrov, who claimed that some Security Council members were more concerned “to isolate Sudan internationally” than to find Mubarak’s attackers, warned that the Council should not escalate the dispute by imposing tougher sanctions within 60 days, as allowed by the current resolution.

But U.S. Ambassador Edward Gnehm who criticised the Friday resolution as too weak, refused to back down. “In failing to impose more meaningful sanctions against Sudan, we risk further insecurity and instability for the people of Eastern Africa, the Middle East and Sudan,” she warned.