How US sanctions in Sudan will work
President Bush moves this week to squeeze the regime, but what can blacklisting 30 companies achieve?
from the May 31, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
Sanctions to help bring peace
The Treasury doesn't necessarily track transactions down to each electron for all SDNs. But the system can apply significant leverage nonetheless. This doesn't mean it's a quick fix for the Darfur crisis. President Bush has labeled the violence there genocide, citing actions of government-backed janjaweed militias. The death toll is estimated at more than 200,000, with another 2.5 million people displaced in the region since 2003.
The Sudanese government is financed heavily by its oil industry, and the new sanctions aren't expected to cut off the nation's oil exports. China, a key customer for Sudanese oil production, has remained opposed to financial sanctions.
China's representative on African affairs, Liu Guijin, said Tuesday that "pressure and sanctions" do not help resolve problems, according to a Reuters report.
The 30 companies targeted by the US include several oil-related businesses, as well as a range of others – in industries from machinery to sugar. The sanctions also restrict financial dealings by three individuals, a rebel leader, and two government officials who the Treasury Department says have acted as liaisons with the janjaweed.
Matthew Levitt, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says sanctions can work alside other measures, such as diplomacy. "They are one part of the tool kit," whether with Sudan or Iran, where the US is concerned about how to curb nuclear-weapons proliferation. The Treasury concluded that Bank Sepah had aided in missile-technology transactions.
Whom the sanctions target
Along with sanctioning 30 government-controlled companies in Sudan, the United States blacklisted three individuals:
Ahmad Muhammed Harun: Sudan's State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs was accused of war crimes in Darfur by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. He's nicknamed "the Butcher of Nuba" after leading a massacre in the Nuba Mountains of central Sudan.
Awad Ibn Auf: He is the chief of Military Intelligence and Security in Sudan and has worked with the janjaweed militias.
Khalil Ibrahim: He heads of the Justice and Equality Movement rebel group, which had refused to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement.
Source: US Treasury Department
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