UN Security Council briefed on Darfur violence
By Daniel Van Oudenaren
January 29, 2009 (WASHINGTON) — The UN Security Council was briefed Wednesday on the situations in both Darfur and DR Congo in a closed meeting.
The Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Edmond Mulet, made the presentation.
Speaking from New York, a UK representative said they did not expect the Security Council to move on anything immediately.
One U.S. diplomat said that they had not expected any product from the meeting other than a statement from the French permanent mission.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the deputy permanent representative of France, said after the briefing that the Security Council members supported an immediate end to hostilities and added, “The members of the Security Council also underlined the paramount importance of an inclusive political process.”
About three million Darfuris are currently displaced by violence and are mostly concentrated in urbanized camps, according to UN figures.
UN Security Council resolutions have banned offensive air operations in Darfur and mandated a peacekeeping operation.
During an address to the Council today, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said, “we must find more effective means to protect innocent civilians around the world.”
“In Sudan, the genocide in Darfur continues,” said Rice. “More than two and a half million persons have fled their homes and hundreds of thousands have died in the conflict to date. Recent fighting between rebels and government forces have put countless civilian lives at risk and the Government of Sudan continues its campaign of bombing innocent civilians.”
Mulet told the press that civilians in Darfur “have been the recent victims, again, of this fighting.”
Rice said the U.S. is “determined to act to prevent such violations of international humanitarian law.”
She then endorsed the activity of the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose prosecutor is seeking to arrest Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir on charges of genocide, murder and war crimes.
The U.S. ambassador said that the ICC “looks to become an important and credible instrument for trying to hold accountable the senior leadership responsible for atrocities committed in the Congo, Uganda, and Darfur,” a transparent reference to Al-Bashir and other accused leaders.
(ST)