US castigates UN Assembly on Sudan human rights

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 23 (Reuters) – U.S. ambassador John Danforth sharply criticized the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday for avoiding a vote on a resolution denouncing human rights violations in Sudan and endorsing a peace process.

John Danforth US ambassador at the UN. (AP).

An assembly committee, at the instigation of South Africa, made clear in a procedural vote that the measure would be killed on Wednesday, along with one critical of Zimbabwe. The panel includes all 191 General Assembly members.

“I can’t comprehend why the General Assembly would not take a very strong position on the issue of human rights abuses in Sudan,” Danforth told reporters. “I can’t comprehend why the General Assembly would not take a very strong position in favor of the African Union effort (or) the peace process.”

Danforth even questioned the purpose of the assembly.

“One wonders about the utility of the General Assembly on days like this. One wonders if there can’t be a clear and direct statement on matters of basic principle,” he said.

“Why have this building? What are we all about? This to me is a very bad situation,” Danforth added.

Danforth had just returned from Nairobi where he led a rare U.N. Security Council meeting to pressure Sudan and its southern opposition into signing a final peace accord by Dec. 31. The pact is considered a necessary blueprint for Darfur in western Sudan, where African civilians have been raped, killed and driven from their homes by mainly Arab militia searching for rebel groups.

The draft resolution was sponsored by 38 nations, including European Union members, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as the United States. Opposition to the resolution came from developing nations, including nearly all Islamic and African states as well as China.

Diplomats said African nations decided to vote against any human rights resolution condemning an African state, especially those introduced by the developed nations in the assembly or the Geneva-based Human Rights Commission.

“There is this idea in the African group and outside the African group that the issue of human rights is used for political purposes by the north and does not have much to do with human rights,” Algeria’s U.N. ambassador Abdallah Baali told Reuters.

Other diplomats opposing the Sudan and Zimbabwe resolutions said countries like Saudi Arabia with human rights violations would never be targeted because of their importance as oil suppliers to Western nations.

The draft resolution on Sudan expressed “grave concern” at atrocities in Darfur “including forced displacement and arbitrary executions.” There were also forced disappearances, torture and other degrading punishment throughout Sudan, the draft said.

Rape was used as a weapon of war, women and girls were were discriminated against “in law and practice” with female circumcision for young girls widespread, the measure said.

The draft also welcomed the African Union’s efforts in sending troops and monitors to Darfur, peace talks between Sudan and its southern opposition led by Kenya and probes by U.N. human rights bodies.