President Bush imposed sanctions Tuesday against Sudan in reaction to the "genocide" in Darfur, and has ordered actions against 31 companies and three people -- preventing them from doing business in or with U.S. companies.
The three Sudanese people affected include two high-ranking government officials and a rebel leader, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. They were targeted for their roles in fomenting violence and human rights abuses in Darfur, the agency said.
"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.
"My administration has called these actions by their rightful name, genocide. The world has a responsibility to help put an end to it," Bush said.
Bush said he had ordered Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to write up a draft resolution that will be presented to the U.N. Security Council.
Bush intended to announce the sanctions last month in a speech at the Holocaust Museum in Washington but held off to give the United Nations and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir more time to try to resolve the situation.
Bush and other top U.S. officials have grown impatient with Bashir's reluctance to stop attacks by Arab militias widely believed to be supported by the government. The largest of these groups is known as the Janjaweed.
Bashir has also stalled efforts to increase international peacekeeping troops in the region.
Seven thousand African Union troops are in Darfur, and Bashir in April said Sudan would allow a U.N. support force of 3,000 troops into the country, the second phase of U.N. peacekeeping efforts in Darfur.
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