End Darfur violence or face sanctions, Bush tells Sudan

Source: CNN.
April 18, 2007.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- President Bush warned Sudan's president on Wednesday that he has one last chance to stop violence in Darfur or else the United States will impose sanctions and consider other punitive options.

Bush said he has decided to give U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon more time to pursue diplomacy with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir but made clear in a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Museum that his patience is limited.


"President Bashir should take the last chance by responding to the secretary general's efforts and to meet the just demands of the international community," Bush said.

Bush raised the possibility of an international no-fly zone aimed at preventing Sudan's military aircraft from flying over Darfur. He accused the Sudanese of painting military planes white to disguise them as United Nations or African Union aircraft.

"I'm also looking at what steps the international community could take to deny Sudan's government the ability to fly its military aircraft over Darfur, and if we don't begin to see signs of good-faith commitments, we will hear calls for even sterner measures. The situation doesn't have to come to that," Bush said.

Bush has been frustrated at the international community's failure to stop what he calls genocide in Darfur, where more than 200,000 400,000 people have been killed since 2003.