UN backtracks in Darfur resolution, says HRW

NEW YORK, Nov 19, 2004 (PANA) — The UN Security Council has retreated
from its previous stance to hold the Sudanese government
accountable for alleged human rights abuses in Darfur,
Human Rights Watch (HRW) charged Friday.

Displaced Sudanese women collect water at a communal pump in Kekabiya, north Darfur. (Reuters).

A new resolution was passed Friday by a unanimous vote of
the Security Council’s 15 members, urging parties to the
Sudan crisis to ceasefire immediately.

“While today’s resolution recalls prior Security Council
resolutions passed in July and September, it leaves out the
explicit demand in those resolutions for Khartoum to disarm
and prosecute the government-backed Janjaweed militias,” the
New York-based rights group said.

In addition, it said the new resolution had omitted language
in the Resolutions 1556 and 1564 that specifically threatened
“further measures,” including the possibility of sanctions.

“Instead, it includes a much milder warning to take appropriate
action against any party failing to fulfil its commitments,”
HRW said.

“We fear that the Sudanese government will take this resolution
as a blank check to continue its atrocities against the civilian
population in Darfur,” said Jemera Rone, Human Rights Watch’s
senior Sudan researcher.

The rights group called on the Security Council to monitor the
situation closely and follow through on its prior commitments “to
end the massive human rights abuses in Darfur.”

“Don’t leave the people of Darfur unprotected,” Rone added.