EU summit urged to back tough Sundan sanctions

BRUSSELS, Dec 13 (Reuters) European Union leaders should support tough new sanctions action against Sudanese leaders for failing to end rights abuses in Darfur, a leading thinktank and an international human rights group said today.

The International Crisis Group and Human Rights Watch called on the eve of a summit in Brussels for the extension of travel bans and asset freezes, and the targeting of Sudan's petroleum revenues and foreign investment.

''It's time for the screws to be tightened on Khartoum,'' former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, president of the International Crisis Group, said in a statement.

He said President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had ''just been laughing at the 'do this or else' resolutions'' passed by the UN Security Council and needed to be pressed to stop attacks on civilians, accept a proposed new African Union-UN peacekeeping force, and cooperate fully in political settlement efforts.

''Millions of civilians are paying the price for nearly four years of unkept promises and empty commitments,'' said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

They said the EU should put travel bans and asset freezes on 50 or more individuals named in UN reports.

Sanctions should also target foreign investment and the supply of goods and services to the petroleum and associated sectors and offshore assets of businesses affiliated with the ruling National Congress Party, the groups said.

They also called on the International Criminal Court to investigate crimes against humanity and threaten tough action against any future crimes.

To back its 2005 demand that the Sudanese government cease offensive military flights over Darfur, the UN Security Council should immediately establish a ''No Fly Zone'', supported by France and Germany in particular, if aerial attacks on civilians again intensified, the groups said.

EU states should in addition back quick Security Council moves to establish a new UN peacekeeping mission in Chad and the Central African Republic aimed at deterring the movement of insurgent armed groups across the border.

At least 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in fighting among rebels and government forces in Darfur since 2003. Khartoum disputes the death and pins the blame for violations on rebel groups that are still fighting.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said a head of a report to the UN Security Council tomorrow that he plans to indict suspects for atrocities in Darfur by February -- nearly two years after he was asked him to probe the region.

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