Bush threatens Sudan sanctions on Darfur

WASHINGTON, April 18 (UPI) -- U.S. President George W. Bush Wednesday compared mass killings in Darfur to the Holocaust, threatening new sanctions against the government of Sudan.

"The brutal treatment of innocent civilians in Darfur is unacceptable," Bush said in a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. "It's unacceptable to me. It's unacceptable to Americans. It's unacceptable to the United Nations."

Bush said Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir must comply with international demands and allow full deployment of U.N.-African Union peacekeeping troops in the war-torn region, as well as end support for the Janjaweed militia -- blamed for more than 200,000 deaths. More than 2.5 million have been displaced in an area about the size of Texas.

The horse-mounted Arab militia has plundered humanitarian aid to the region.

Bush warned the United States was prepared to tighten U.S. economic sanctions by barring 29 Sudanese companies from the U.S. financial system, expand an arms sale embargo and target individuals responsible for human rights violations to "call the world's attention to their crimes."

He was joined by writer Elie Wiesel and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who he directed to prepare a U.N. Security Council resolution to tighten sanctions on Sudan.