EU urged to increase sanctions on Sudan

The EU is coming under pressure to increase sanctions on Sudan when EU foreign ministers meet in Luxembourg on Monday (18 June).

A decision by the US administration to step up sanctions on the Sudanese government - which it accuses of complicity in genocide - has prompted human rights groups to call on EU diplomats to follow suit.

Last month US president George W. Bush announced that 31 Sudanese companies, mostly government-owned, would be banned from the US banking system, in protest at the Khartoum administration’s alleged involvement in the violence in Darfur.

So far, EU member states have pursued sanctions through the United Nations Security Council, but diplomats admit that UN sanctions now look unlikely given Chinese and Russian reluctance.

"It is time to consider [EU] sanctions," said Lotte Leicht, director of the Brussels office of the pressure group Human Rights Watch. "We need targeted punitive sanctions against those who consider that crime pays. It is time to raise the bar."

Pressure is also coming from within the EU, with some member states calling for the EU to follow the US and increase the diplomatic pressure on Sudan.

The Netherlands and the UK have called on EU member states to toughen their position.

"We now have Bush’s statement and what was discussed at Heiligendamm," said one EU diplomat, referring to the meeting of G8 leaders at the German resort on 8 June, "but we don’t know how this will trickle down at an EU level."

Representatives from the EU’s 27 member states meeting today (14 June) were to discuss possible measures.

"We are still in a position of saying ‘we are considering sanctions if things get worse’," said the diplomat, "but we will get an idea of the temperature among member states in the next couple of days."

Other measures under consideration, in addition to expanding the list of individuals on the EU’s sanctions list, include sanctions against those violating a ban on arms exports to the Sudanese government.

That suggestion was rejected at an earlier meeting of EU foreign ministers in March, but may be discussed again this month.

On Monday, EU foreign ministers will call on Sudan to co-operate with the International Criminal Court, which has issued indictments for the Sudanese minister of humanitarian affairs and one rebel leader. Both have been implicated in attacks on civilians in Darfur.

They will also call on Sudan to allow the rapid deployment of a joint UN-African Union force to monitor events on the ground, after the Sudanese appeared to agree to the force on Tuesday (12 June).

Foreign ministers will also discuss the future of Kosovo and Serbia’s continued opposition to granting the province supervised independence.

Talks on Kosovo’s future are to continue in New York after an inconclusive G8 summit. Relations with Cuba and the Middle East will also be discussed.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is expected to update member states on ongoing talks with Iran aimed at defusing the crisis over the country’s nuclear programme.

Solana’s chief aide Robert Cooper met his Iranian counterpart in Vienna to prepare the ground for a possible meeting between Solana and Ali Larijani, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator.

The EU is coming under pressure to increase sanctions on Sudan when EU foreign ministers meet in Luxembourg on Monday (18 June).