UN Turns Up Heat On Sudan

The U.N. Security Council approved a resolution Saturday threatening sanctions against Sudan unless it acts to rein in Arab militias accused of violence in Darfur that the United States has called genocide.

The vote was 11-0 with four abstentions, by China, Russia, Pakistan and Algeria.

Those countries opposed sanctions and several other provisions that they said could antagonize the Sudanese government and end its cooperation with international efforts to cope with the massive humanitarian crisis in Sudan's western region of Darfur.

The United States, which introduced the resolution, revised it three times, each time softening language to try to get broader support and avert a Chinese veto.

It was only after a last-minute meeting between U.S. Ambassador John Danforth and China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya, who unsuccessfully sought additional changes, that Beijing decided to abstain rather than exercise its veto power. To pass, resolutions by the 15-member council need nine "yes" votes.

The resolution strongly endorses the deployment of a beefed-up African Union force with an expanded monitoring mission that would actively try to prevent attacks and mediate to stop the conflict from escalating.

More than 50,000 people have already died and over 1.2 million have fled their homes to escape the violencem, which has been denounced by the United States as genocide.

It also authorizes Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was in the council chamber for the vote, to rapidly appoint an international commission to investigate reports of human rights violations in Darfur and determine "whether or not acts of genocide have occurred."