Bush tightens squeeze on Sudan

Tougher – but not too tough.

In essence, that may be the policy the Bush administration is trying to follow as it applies new pressure on the government of Sudan to end the fighting in Darfur.

Economic sanctions announced May 29 are an expansion of existing US financial restrictions and reflect US impatience with continued obstinacy on the part of Sudan's president, Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on allowing international peacekeepers into his country.

At the same time, the US may not want to alienate other nations crucial to any eventual Sudan settlement, such as China. Nor do officials wish to precipitate a further military and humanitarian crisis to which the world community may be ill-equipped to respond.

The new penalties "represent an incremental tightening of the screws," says Lee Feinstein, senior fellow for US foreign policy and international law at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

President Bush first announced the increased sanctions in April.

Their implementation was delayed following a plea from UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, who wanted more time for international diplomacy to work.

But Bush has grown impatient with the apparent reluctance of Bashir to stop attacks by Arab militias widely believed to be supported by the Sudanese government.

Last November, Bashir agreed to a three-step UN plan to bolster the current overstretched, 7,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force.

In April, the Sudanese president acceded to the second part of this plan: a deployment of 3,000 UN troops and civilian personnel in a so-called heavy support package.

But since then the Sudanese leader has repeated his opposition to a meaningful African Union – UN force and generally gone back on previous commitments.

"President Bashir's actions over the past few weeks follow a long pattern of promising cooperation while finding new methods for obstruction," said President Bush in announcing the new economic sanctions.

Bush announced a four-step plan. First, the US will "more aggressively" enforce existing sanctions, he said. Second, the Treasury Department will add 30 companies owned or controlled by the Sudanese government to the sanctions list.

The bottom line of these additions will be that most joint ventures responsible for Sudanese oil production will be under the sanctions regime, according to the Bush administration.

Third, the US will target a transport firm accused of ferrying weapons to the Sudanese government and militia forces in Darfur. And finally Bush has directed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to consult with allies on a new UN Security Council resolution.

"For too long the people of Darfur have suffered at the hands of a government that is complicit in the bombing, murder, and rape of innocent civilians," said Bush. "My administration has called these actions by their rightful name: genocide."

By themselves, the new sanctions may be unlikely to change Sudan's behavior, say some US analysts. After all, existing economic strictures appear to have had little effect on Darfur violence.

But if the US move is the first step in an overall international attempt to ratchet up pressure the result might be something else, says Jennifer Cooke, co-director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

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