Nigeria president- AU wants to bring Darfur rights abusers to justice

By THOMPSON AKPOGO, Associated Press Writer

ABUJA, Nigeria, Mar 8, 2005 (AP) — The African Union is studying how to bring human rights violators in Sudan’s western Darfur region to justice, Nigeria President Olusegun Obasanjo said Tuesday.

“The African Union is still actively seeking an acceptable means of bringing the culprits in violation of human rights in Darfur to book, to achieve justice and reconciliation” in Darfur, Obasanjo, who also is the AU chairman, said in a statement.

The U.N. Security Council is debating how to hold accountable those responsible for the worst crimes in Darfur, where a campaign of violence by militia allegedly allied with the government has displaced an estimated 2 million. No firm estimate of the direct death toll of the violence yet exists.

A dozen of the 15 Security Council members want to refer suspects to the world’s first permanent war-crimes tribunal, the International Criminal Court, in The Hague, Netherlands.

The United States, which has opposed the Hague court, wants them tried in a new tribunal that would be set up in Tanzania specifically for Darfur.

Obasanjo said the 53-nation, continentwide bloc he heads hasn’t yet reached a consensus on the issue, but that the African Union would ensure any final position was in line with what the Security Council decides.

Obasanjo has played a leading role in attempts to broker a peace between Darfur rebel groups and the Sudanese government, but three rounds of peace talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, have failed to stop fighting.

In New York on Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the Security Council to move faster to confront the crisis in Sudan and called for more international troops in Darfur.

The African Union has deployed about 1,800 soldiers of an expected 4,000-strong force in Darfur.