US urges Sudan to allow in UN rights mission
Feb 16, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — The United States on Friday called on Sudan to reverse its decision to bar United Nations human rights investigators from visiting Darfur, where the U.S. government says genocide has taken place.
The Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council voted to send a fact-finding mission to Darfur, but Sudan this week did not issue visas to the team waited as it waited in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.
“The United States is deeply disappointed that the Government of Sudan has publicly announced it will not grant visas,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement. “The United States calls on the Government of Sudan to grant the entire team entry into Sudan.”
The Human Rights Council in December established the mission for Darfur, where at least 200,000 people have died, 2.5 million villagers have been uprooted and rape is widespread since fighting between government forces, allied militias and rebel groups erupted in 2003.
The new U.N. emergency relief coordinator plans to visit Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic in late March to survey the impact of the disastrous conflict, his office said on Friday.
John Holmes, the former British ambassador to Paris, assumes his post on March 1, succeeding Norwegian Jan Egeland, who was instrumental in bringing the Darfur crisis, now the world’s largest humanitarian operation, to the attention of the U.N. Security Council in 2004.
Violence in Sudan’s western region of Darfur has spilled over into neighboring states. Refugees from Darfur are flocking into Chad with both countries supporting each other rebels. Armed gangs have also organized themselves in the Central African Republic.
The leaders of all three nations agreed at a meeting in Cannes, France on Thursday they would not back rebels attacking each other’s territory — repeating a pledge that has failed to stop fighting in the past.
(Reuters)