DARFUR: 'EU ALL BARK AND NO BITE'
TVE Monitor
STRASBOURG - Euro-MP Glenys Kinnock has slammed EU inaction on Darfur and called for targeted smart sanctions against the "Khartoum regime" that include Sudan's exclusion from the 2010 World Cup.
Glenys Kinnock’s appeal came as the European Parliament backed a resolution urging the UN to set a date for the full deployment of its hybrid force to the region.
Speaking in Strasbourg Wednesday (Feb. 14), Labour’s European spokesperson on international development and Co-president of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States - EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, said: "The international community has, and is, failing to fulfil its responsibility to protect innocent civilians. The EU must urgently impose its own targeted and phased smart sanctions and not wait for the UN Security Council to agree on essential new measures – on an arms embargo covering all of Sudan, asset freezing, travel bans and consideration of an oil embargo."
Kinnock said there should, at least, be bars on investments, technical equipment and expertise and serious consideration of sports sanctions such as excluding Sudan from the 2010 World Cup. "This means that European pressure has to put on FIFA," the Euro-MP said.
"The EU position is weak and untenable and I can only say that if Darfur was, for example, Lebanon, then real sanctions would be getting more discussion time at Council level," Kinnock said, adding: "Khartoum knows that Europe is all bark and no bite and that is why today we call for strong new economic, legal and military measures."
Public condemnation was not enough. "We want solutions which reflect the concerns we share about the tragedy that is Darfur."
The European Parliament joint motion for a resolution on the Darfur crisis is calling for:
- the UN to set a date for deployment to Darfur; with or without Sudanese consent;
- the international community and EU to supply equipment for enforcement of the no-fly zone over Darfur that it identified as established by UN resolution 1591; and
- the EU to apply sanctions, possibly including an oil embargo. (END)
