From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Wed Jul 16 2008 - 11:14:21 EDT
US president threatens Sudan with more sanctions
Wednesday 16 July 2008 06:30.
July 15, 2008 (WASHINGTON) - The US president George Bush threatened the
Sudanese government with more sanctions if he does not facilitate the
deployment of peacekeepers and flow of aid in Darfur.
"We're trying to work with Bashir to make sure he understands that there
will be continued sanctions if he doesn't move forward" Bush told
reporters at a press conference in the White House today.
The US president refused to comment on the request submitted by the
prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to the judges for
issuance of arrest warrant against the Sudanese president Omar Hassan
Al-Bashir on Monday.
"We're not a member of the ICC, so we'll see how that plays out" the US
president said.
The ICC's prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked pre-trial judges on Monday
to issue arrest warrants for Sudan's head of state.
Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes
against humanity and two of murder. Judges are expected to take months
to study the evidence before deciding whether to order Al-Bashir's
arrest.
Bush said that the US wants to maintain a North South peace agreement
and see full deployment of the long due African Union - United Nations
troops in Darfur.
He also voiced frustration with the slow peacekeepers deployment.
"There's the same sense of consternation and the same sense of
frustration that things haven't moved quicker. I talked to Ban Ki-moon
about the issue and he told me - I think he told me that by the end of
this year a full complement of AU troops will be there" Bush said
"Then the question is, will the government help expedite the delivery of
humanitarian aid?" he added.
Bush met privately with his special envoy to Sudan yesterday for the
first time since he returned from Khartoum last month.
The meeting was closed to the press but the White House spokesperson
Dana Perino told reporters that Bush and Williamson discussed the
implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the
North and South.
The deal also does not cover a separate conflict in the western region
of Darfur, where tens of thousands of people have been killed and
hundreds of thousands driven from their homes since rebels took up arms
in early 2003.
(ST)
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