UN bows to pressure on Darfur but little hope of progress
Dec 11, 2006 (GENEVA) — The UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session on violations in Sudan’s strife-torn western region of Darfur on Tuesday, after a rebuke from Kofi Annan that it has not paid enough attention to rights violations in the province.
Diplomats said though they did not expect major progress owing to the council’s politicised nature and internal divisions.
The council has been heavily criticised by many parties, not least the outgoing UN secretary general, for its reticence on the conflict which the UN estimates has claimed over 200,000 lives to date.
“How can an international community which claims to uphold human rights allow this horror to continue?” Annan said in a speech last week to mark Human Rights Day.
The Sudanese government is also coming under increased international pressure to accept an international intervention in Darfur’s deepening crisis there.
The conflict has caused some two million people to flee their homes, and there are signs it is spilling over into neighbouring countries such as Chad and the Central African Republic.
Just this weekend, 22 civilians were killed and 10 wounded when gunmen ambushed a vehicle in Sirba, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state.
The Sudanese government blamed the attack on rebels.
In an address to the Human Rights Council last month, Annan said Darfur deserved at least as much if not more attention than grave violations in Palestinian territories and Israel, which have been its main focus to date.
“There are surely other situations, besides the one in the Middle East, which would merit scrutiny by a special session of this council. I would suggest that Darfur is a glaring case in point,” Annan said.
Nevertheless, diplomats do not have high hopes for Tuesday’s session, given the council’s track record.
The European Union, which has tabled a resolution for the session calling for a mission to be dispatched under the auspices of the UN’s ‘special rapporteur’ or independent human rights expert in Sudan, “does not expect a miracle,” a Western diplomat told AFP.
“Everyone seems determined to send a mission there, but it all depends on its mandate, composition and how it will work with UN organisations on the ground and the special rapporteur for Sudan,” another diplomat said.
Last month, the Council rejected a bid by the European Union and Canada to place primary responsibility on the Sudanese government to prevent human rights violations in the conflict-riven Darfur.
Instead, an African resolution that made no direct reference to Khartoum’s role in the conflict was passed in its unaltered form with 25 votes in favour, 11 against and 10 abstentions.
“The issue is trying to break the monolithic nature of the African group,” the Western diplomat said.
The Sudanese government itself remains opposed to UN intervention and has disputed the number of reported casualties in the province.
President Omar al-Beshir said recently that only 9,000 people had been killed since the conflict in Darfur began in 2003.
The UN Security Council in August adopted a resolution calling for the deployment of 20,000 UN peacekeepers in Darfur, but Beshir has so far rejected such an option as well as proposals for a “hybrid” AU-UN force.
(AFP)