KHARTOUM, 31 May 2007 — Sudanese officials and analysts yesterday dismissed new US sanctions over what Washington termed Khartoum’s genocide in Darfur as being a largely political exercise rather than harsh economic curbs.
While one official said economic sanctions could hurt in the long term, but that his country was counting on its “friends” to avert this, notably China, which takes 60 percent of its oil exports.
“I am sure that the companies targeted (by Washington) have long put alternatives in place” to minimize this kind of sanction, said Mohammed Mahjub Harun, a member of Sudan’s institute of strategic studies.
He and other analysts saw the sanctions announced on Tuesday by US President George W. Bush as a means of pressing Khartoum into accepting an international peacekeeping force for Sudan’s western region of Darfur.
The United Nations says 200,000 people have been killed there and two million made homeless since rebellion broke out four years ago. That drew a harsh crackdown by Sudan’s army and its feared Arab Janjaweed militia allies, which has been blamed for widespread murder, rape and burning of villages.
Sudan disputes those estimates, saying 9,000 people have died.
“This is only a reinforcement of sanctions that have existed for 10 years and have not prevented the Sudanese economy from developing thanks to close links formed with Asia,” said Harun.
The stricter sanctions will bar another 31 companies, including oil exporters, from US trade and financial dealings, and take aim at two top Sudanese government officials, the Treasury Department said.
Hassen Mekki, a political science lecturer, pointed out that the latest sanctions exclude some Sudanese companies that trade with the United States, such as those which produce Arabic gum used in making the soda drinks manufactured by giant American companies.
But Ahmed Sharif Osman, another analyst, said the sanctions would have an impact, albeit limited. “This impact will be measured in the volume of financial transactions going through the American system.”
In Khartoum, presidential adviser Mazjub Al-Khalifa told reporters the decision “highlights the hostile intentions and points to the fact that the United States does not want peace in Darfur.”
Meanwhile, three former rebel leaders from eastern Sudan were appointed yesterday to senior posts in the Khartoum government, as called for by a peace deal signed last year, a government official said.
