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President Bush finally announced that the U.S. would impose sanctions on Sudanese businesses to stop the regional violence he has termed a genocide – unfortunately, his action has come years too late.

On Tuesday, Bush announced economic sanctions on 31 companies owned or controlled by the government of Sudan, aiming to send the message that the Sudanese leadership must take action to stop the conflict, which has been ongoing since 2003.

Bush also said the U.S. would target sanctions against three specific individuals responsible for the violence, barring them from doing business with U.S. companies and from receiving aid from the U.S. financial system.

“The people of Sudan are crying out for help and they deserve it,” Bush said in a statement Tuesday. “The United States will not avert our eyes from a crisis that challenges the conscience of the world.”

With the decision, the U.S. government is now part of the growing number of institutions – including the University of California – that have taken economic actions to condemn the violence and urge the Sudanese government to bring an end to the killings.

Even though economic sanctions alone are unlikely to end genocide worldwide, institutions can and should take these types of actions.

But it is unfortunate that it took the Bush administration four years to come to the conclusion that its actions on the Darfur conflict should go further than powerful words.

In July 2004, Congress voted to call the conflict a genocide, and in June 2005, Bush followed suit.

But it took until Tuesday, almost three years after the first admission that a genocide was occurring, for the government to translate its words into any sort of real action.

For at least four years, Janjaweed militias have been systematically killing civilians in the Darfur region in Sudan, allegedly with the support of the Sudanese government.

According to the most recent figures, the violence has claimed more than 200,000 lives and displaced more than 2.5 million people – though by now the toll is likely much higher, as those figures have been used for years as the conflict has continued.

The announcement that the U.S. would impose sanctions comes six weeks after Bush threatened Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, saying the U.S. would act if al-Bashir did not allow U.N. peacekeeping forces to deploy in the country, permit aid to reach the Darfur region, and terminate his support for the Janjaweed.

In the past, the U.S. has given humanitarian and peacekeeping aid to Sudan, but Tuesday’s announcement is the first strong action against the government.

The economic sanctions are without a doubt commendable, like the divestment campaigns that have come before them.

Too often, the world has sat by and watched as governments or groups have conducted systematic mass murder, with leaders seemingly forgetting their previous commitments of “never again.” So to see the U.S. government follow the example of universities and businesses to stop such violence is heartening.

But as soon as the government can recognize that such an event is occurring, it should begin to take concrete steps to stop it. Three years is simply too long.