Europe, Africa ask for Sudan’s cooperation to end Darfur abuses
March 21, 2007 (GENEVA) — European and African delegations to the U.N. Human Rights Council proposed two near-identical resolutions on Darfur Wednesday, but neither goes beyond calling for an expert panel to work with Sudan on ending atrocities in the region.
The cautious wording of the two documents underscores how difficult it has been for the 47-nation council to reach agreement on how to address the killings, rapes and other abuses that have plagued the western Sudanese region for the last four years.
They also rely on a level of cooperation from Sudan’s government that has so far been refused to the international community.
Both the EU and African resolutions, which will be taken up Friday, call for the establishment of an expert group to work with Sudan on protecting Darfur civilians from the fighting that has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million.
They refer to a report released last week by a team of experts led by U.S. Nobel laureate Jody Williams which concluded that Khartoum was responsible for attacks by government-backed militias against civilians.
But while the proposal by Germany, on behalf of the 27-nation EU, expressed concern over ongoing rights violations committed by both the government and rebel groups in Darfur, the African Group’s resolution praised Sudan for its readiness to improve human rights in Darfur.
Neither proposal endorses the recommendation of the Williams report that U.N. peacekeepers be deployed to Darfur in support of a poorly equipped African Union force there.
And both avoid any reference to travel bans on war crimes suspects recommended by the hard-hitting Williams report, or the demand that Sudan cooperate with prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague who are examining rights abuses in Darfur.
The council has few powers beyond issuing reports and making recommendations, but its ability to function as the world’s top human rights forum is seen as a key test of former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan’s drive to make the global body more effective and credible.
Annan and his successor Ban Ki-moon have both called for the council to take a firmer stand on all human rights crises around the world. In its nine-month existence, it has only explicitly censured one country, Israel.
Muslim countries have rallied behind Sudan since the issue of Darfur first came up in 2004 at the council’s predecessor, the discredited Human Rights Commission.
Last week they were joined by a number of African countries, as well as China and Russia, who have successfully lobbied to avoid having their own records scrutinized, in dismissing the Williams report. Sudan, which refused her team entry into the country, completely rejected it as biased.
(AP)