US:George Bush yesterday bowed before America's most successful experiment in grassroots organisation - the coalition of Hollywood, religious groups and student activists on Darfur - and ordered economic sanctions against Sudan.
George Bush yesterday bowed before America's most successful experiment in grassroots organisation - the coalition of Hollywood, religious groups and student activists on Darfur - and ordered economic sanctions against Sudan.
The sanctions announcement and a pledge by Mr Bush to press for further action from the UN was timed to pre-empt next week's G8 summit meeting which is expected to discuss Darfur, according to US officials.
The sanctions came three years after the White House first used the word "genocide" to describe the situation in Darfur, galvanising university campus groups, religious organisations and Hollywood A-listers such as George Clooney.
More than 200,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Darfur and more than 2.5 million forced to flee.
"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," Mr Bush said yesterday. "The people of Sudan are crying out for help and they deserve it."
The measures bar 30 companies that are owned or have close ties to the Khartoum government as well as another company suspected of shipping arms to Darfur, from conducting transactions in US currency. In addition, Washington will strengthen enforcement action against 100 Sudanese companies already under sanctions.
The sanctions also criminalise economic dealings with three officials: Awad ibn Auf, Sudan's intelligence chief; Admad Mohammed Harum, a Sudanese official accused of war crimes at The Hague; and Khalil Ibrahim, a rebel leader who refused to sign the Darfur peace agreement.
Mr Bush has been under increasing pressure to act on Darfur from not just Hollywood stars but also from leaders of his Christian support base.
He is also said to be personally frustrated by Sudan's refusal to allow UN peacekeepers in the region. He had been widely expected to make an announcement about sanctions last month in a speech at Washington's Holocaust museum.
He said yesterday he had held off implementing the sanctions for more than a month because Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, wanted time to negotiate with Sudan's government. But Mr Bush said Sudan had immediately stepped up attacks in the region. "The dire security situation on the ground in Darfur has not changed," Mr Bush said.
He said he had instructed Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, to work with the security council on a new resolution to punish Khartoum for blocking the UN peacekeepers.
The US is seeking an arms embargo on Khartoum, as well as a ban on Sudanese military planes flying over Darfur.
Despite Mr Bush's affirmation of continuing American support for Darfur, yesterday's announcement received only a lukewarm response from activists.
"These measures are too late and too little," said David Rubenstein, the director of the Save Darfur Coalition, in a statement. He said the sanctions would have to be rigorously enforced.
"The president must set a short and firm deadline for fundamental changes in Sudanese behaviour, and prepare now to implement immediately further measures should Khartoum continue to stonewall." Other activists were more scathing. "It's pure political showmanship. How is this more than an inconvenience for Khartoum?" asked Eric Reeves, a Sudan scholar and leading campaigner at Smith College in Massachusetts. "This is merely a contrivance."
But Andrew Natsios, Washington's special envoy to Sudan, said the sanctions were intended to be largely symbolic. "The purpose of these sanctions is not the sanctions [ but] to send a message to the Sudanese government to start behaving differently."