WITNESS-Battling to borrow money in sanctions-hit Sudan

By Andrew Heavens

KHARTOUM, July 5 (Reuters) - The United States achieved at least three things when it stepped up economic sanctions on Sudan: it banned most trade between the two countries, froze Sudanese assets and closed the door on my British mortgage.

Trade sanctions are presented as sophisticated instruments -- ways of forcing change in foreign governments without resorting to war. But in today's inter-connected world, economic penalties designed to hit one country can quickly spread beyond their original target.

"We can't open a mortgage account with your address in Khartoum," the officer from Bank of Scotland International told me over the crackling phone line. "It's on our list of sanctioned countries."

A journalist from Britain, I was trying hard not to sound too desperate. We had already been turned down by two other lenders without explanation. My family's dreams of buying a little semi-detached corner of England -- somewhere to spend our holidays back home from Khartoum -- were fading.

"But I'm British and I want to buy a house in Britain," I told the bank official, with the slightest note of pleading in my voice. "We haven't imposed any trade sanctions on Sudan. It's only America."

The bank official was sympathetic, but there was nothing he could do. "If there are sanctions imposed from another country, from a risk point of view we can't get involved either."

FALL FOUL

The key word there was risk.