America, Britain Prepare Sanctions for Sudan

UNITED NATIONS — Despite pleas from Secretary-General Ban to allow "space" for diplomatic negotiations with Khartoum, America and Britain are set to impose measures to punish Sudan for its defiance of the Security Council.

"Sanctions are being prepared," a senior American diplomat said yesterday, speaking on condition of anonymity about the latest Security Council maneuverings. America is also considering sending a high-level envoy to Khartoum in the next few days to ratchet up the pressure, another diplomatic source said.

Chinese and Russian diplomats advised caution yesterday, citing Mr. Ban's plea to delay the imposition of sanctions. "Let me have some political space to deal with this dialogue" with Khartoum, Mr. Ban told reporters Monday.

"I don't think there is appetite in the council for sanctions right now," Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, told The New York Sun yesterday.

But a new military cooperation deal signed yesterday between Sudan and its most important ally, China, may indicate that even Beijing believes sanctions are inevitable.

China is "willing to further develop cooperation between the two militaries in every sphere," the defense minister, Cao Gangchuan, told Sudan's Joint Chief of Staff, Haj Ahmed El Gaili, who was on a week-long visit to Beijing yesterday, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

In addition to the agreement, however, Chinese officials also pleaded with Sudan to accept the Security Council's plan for placing 22,000 U.N.-backed troops to protect victims in Darfur. A U.N. diplomat said yesterday's signing was a "pre-emptive strike" by Beijing, which, he said, is seeking to sign as many deals as possible before it is forced to join the rest of the council in imposing economic and military sanctions on Khartoum.

Last week, Mr. Ban met with Sudan's President al-Bashir on the sidelines of an Arab League summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The two men asked their aides to leave the room as they spoke face to face for a long while. Mr. Ban's aides say that the secretary-general is now convinced that he was able to sway Mr. Bashir.

Mr. Ban, however, got similar promises from the Sudanese president a month earlier during an African summit. But after the council voted on a plan to significantly boost the 7,000-troop African Union force in Darfur, Mr. Bashir rejected the council resolution.

As five A.U. peacekeepers were killed in Darfur on Monday, Mr. Ban asked for a delay of sanctions at least until after a high-level meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, later this week between Mr. Bashir and Darfur envoys from the United Nations and the African Union.

Three weeks ago, British ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said London was ready to propose new sanctions as a response to Khartoum's intransigency. Washington politicians also are demanding more vigorous action to end the carnage in Darfur.

According to a Washington Post columnist, Jackson Diehl, President Bush, who is not pleased about the lack of results, recently demanded that his special envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley "come up with something stronger" than yet another package of sanctions.