Sudan to implement UN Human-Rights resolution

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Apr 23, 2005 (AP) — Sudan on Saturday said it would cooperate with a U.N. Human Rights Commission resolution that assigned a special rapporteur to survey the situation in Sudan, particularly the troubled western Darfur region.

An aerial view of the destroyed Seraf village, in west Darfur along the Sudan and Chad border, April 22, 2005. (Reuters).

It was the first government reaction to the resolution adopted Thursday by the Geneva-based 53-nation commission.

Najeeb Al-Khair Abdul-Wahab, state minister for foreign affairs, said Sudan was “committed to the resolution … and to work according to the government mechanisms to implement it.”

In comments carried by the official Sudan News Agency, Abdul-Wahab said the government would consult with the U.N. Commission on the duties of the special rapporteur and Sudan’s mechanism to improve the human-rights situation.

The resolution condemned all parties in Sudan for the continued, widespread and systematic violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Darfur, a situation which the United Nations has called one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

An estimated 180,000 people have died in the Darfur conflict since February 2003, when two non-Arab rebel groups took up arms against the Arab-dominated government to win more political and economic rights for Darfur’s African tribes. Sudan is accused of backing Janjaweed fighters who are blamed for raping and killing non-Arab civilians.