Sudan says US in no position to give rights lectures after Iraq scandal

CAIRO, May 9 (AFP) — Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said Sunday the United States could longer claim the moral high ground on human rights after revelations of its prisoner abuse in Iraq.

In statements to the Egyptian press, Mustafa said the mistreatment of prisoners in US-run jails in Iraq was “inhuman” and exposed the “double standards” of US lecturing about human rights.

The minister denied widespread allegations of ethnic cleansing and even genocide in the war-ravaged western Sudanese region of Darfur, where government-backed Arab militias have been fighting non-Arab rebels.

“If this is genocide, where are the mass graves?” he asked.

UN officials estimate more than a million people have been driven from their homes in fighting and scorched-earth attacks against minority non-Arab communities in the region.

Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan said Friday that the Sudanese government was committing massive human rights violations that might amount to crimes against humanity.

US representatives to the United Nations walked out of a meeting in New York on Tuesday to protest the re-election of Sudan to the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR).

“The United States will not participate in this absurdity,” said Sichan Siv, the US representative to the UN Economic and Social Council before it re-elected Sudan to the rights panel.