Islamic states seek new UN rights probe of Darfur
March 14, 2007 (GENEVA) — Muslim and Arab states on Wednesday rejected a report by a U.N. human rights team that accused Sudan of fomenting crimes against civilians in its Darfur region, and called for a fresh investigation.
Echoing the line taken by Sudan, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) states said that the fact that the team led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams never got to Darfur had invalidated its findings.
The mission’s report to the Human Rights Council accusing Sudan of orchestrating and taking part in gross violations against civilians in Darfur should be re-done by a team that could evaluate conditions on the ground, top OIC officials said.
“We have to understand that this report was not done properly,” said OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. “A new mission should be formed and be sent to Darfur and make an objective and impartial report,” he told journalists.
The OIC, made up of 57 countries, backed Khartoum’s decision to deny the team entry to Darfur, where observers say 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million driven from their homes since a revolt began there in 2003.
Sudan denies responsibility for abuses, which Washington calls genocide, and blames them on rebel groups which refused a 2006 peace deal. It also says the death toll is exaggerated and that Western media have blown the conflict out of proportion.
Khartoum refused visas for the five-strong group because it objected to the inclusion of Bertrand Ramcharan, a Guyanan who sent the world body’s first rights team to Darfur during his stint as acting human rights chief in 2003-2004.
In February, the team visited neighbouring Chad, to where the violence in Darfur has overflown, and the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, headquarters of the African Union which has some 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur.
The mission’s report, which was called “very authoritative” by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, is due to be presented formally to the Council on Friday.
Diplomats say there will be a struggle over how to handle the findings within the Council, formed last year to give greater credibility to U.N. efforts to protect human rights.
The influential OIC has 17 members on the Geneva-based body, whose response to the situation in Sudan is seen by many as a key test of its effectiveness.
Despite its rejection of the mission, the OIC was “following with anxiety” reports of murder, rape, torture and persecution in the vast desert region of Sudan, Ihsanoglu said.
“It is not acceptable, and there is a need for big efforts to protect and promote the human rights of the people in this area,” he told a Geneva news conference.
(Reuters)