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U.S. Congress Calls for Sanctions Against Sudan Government

President Beshir of Sudan

WASHINGTON D.C., Oct 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Accusing the government of Sudan of alleged "low intensity ethnic cleansing," the U.S. Congress has sent the White House a resolution calling for a series of sanctions against Khartoum it fails to make progress on ending its 19-year civil war.

The measure calls for the U.S. President to consider downgrading or suspending diplomatic relations with Sudan and instructing U.S. executive directors to international financial institutions to vote against and actively oppose any loans, credits or guarantees to the Khartoum government.

It also states the U.S. president will take all the necessary steps to deny Khartoum's access to oil revenues as well as seek a United Nations Security Council resolution to impose an arms embargo on Sudan.

Titled the Sudan Peace Act, the bill accuses the government of using "raiding and slaving parties [as] a tool for creating food shortages and [as] a systematic means to destroy the societies, culture and economies of the Dinka, Nuer, and Nuba peoples in a policy of low-intensity ethnic cleansing."

The bill also stated that the best chance for ending the war and protecting human rights in Sudan was through an internationally sponsored peace process.

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir reacted angrily Wednesday to a U.S. bill calling for sanctions against Sudan if negotiations to end the 19-year civil war in the African state fail to make quick progress.

"We are not an American state ... We are free and our resolutions are taken by our National Assembly and any resolution against the Sudan is meaningless if it is not passed by our parliament," Beshir told Members of Parliament.

Frustrated by slow progress toward a peaceful settlement in Sudan, the U.S. House of Representatives also called late Monday for a war crimes investigation in Sudan, to hold those who slaughtered civilians responsible.

The Sudan Peace Act, approved by a 359-8 vote, also urges President George W. Bush to consider downgrading or suspending diplomatic relations with Sudan if progress toward peace is not achieved soon.

Beshir, speaking to MPs congratulating him on the recapture of the southern garrison town of Torit, said the Americans "have previously imposed several sanctions on us and if they strike us today we will not succumb to them."

Passage of the resolution would undermine the peace process as it coincided with the government's "victory" in Torit, five weeks after the strategic town fell to the rebels, Beshir said.

He accused Washington of giving the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) 100 million dollars in aid, and said, "it will be useless and they will only gain regret even if they pay the rebel movement another billion dollars."

Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said his government would seek to prevent the house resolution's implementation by the U.S. administration.

Ismail said his government expected such "an unfair" resolution when it suspended the peace negotiations with the SPLA in Kenya, after Torit fell to the rebels on September 1 and the government launched a drive to regain it.

Under a framework peace deal reached in Machakos, Kenya on July 20, southern Sudan won the right to vote on full secession after six years of self-rule, during which they will be exempt from the Islamic law applied in the north.

The groundbreaking protocol, achieved a few months after Bush named a senior envoy to Sudan, raised hopes of ending the war between the Arab and Muslim-dominated north and the mainly animist and Christian south.