Annan: Stop the suffering in Darfur
[oas:casperstartribune.net/news/world:Middle1]
GENEVA -- His time at the helm of the world body nearing an end, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan stepped up his efforts Tuesday to force a halt to atrocities in Darfur, demanding the U.N. Human Rights Council send an independent team of investigators to the volatile Sudanese region.Annan, whose 10-year stewardship of the United Nations ends Dec. 31, was joined by top U.N. officials and agencies increasingly frustrated in their efforts to bring relief to people suffering from nearly four years of bloodshed."It is urgent that we take action to prevent further violations, including by bringing to account those responsible for the numerous crimes that have already been committed," Annan told the 47-nation council's emergency session on Darfur. The body is expected to decide Wednesday whether to pass a resolution, which would be nonbinding, but increase political pressure.The council, which replaced the widely discredited Human Rights Commission in June, has used its six previous sessions to pass eight resolutions denouncing Israeli treatment of Arabs. No other government has been accused of rights violations.
Annan said militias were attacking defenseless civilians in Darfur and that "large numbers of women" were being raped."I urge you to lose no time in sending a team of independent and universally respected experts to investigate the latest escalation of abuses," Annan said in a recorded video address opening the meeting.Annan stopped short of singling out the Sudanese government, but said the council should send "a clear and united message to warn all concerned, on behalf of the whole world, that the current situation is simply unacceptable and will not be allowed to continue."But Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, cited "credible evidence" that the Sudanese military was responsible for ground attacks and aerial bombardments of civilians.The Sudanese government also is accused of unleashing the janjaweed militia to help its forces counter ethnic African groups who rebelled in 2003. More than 200,000 people have been killed and some 2.5 million people have fled their homes, according to U.N. estimates.Annan's outspoken humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, warned that "several hundred thousand lives will be at risk" unless they are protected from militia attacks.This may be "the last opportunity for this council, the government of Sudan, the African Union and all of us to avert a humanitarian disaster of much larger proportions," Egeland told the council Tuesday, his last day on the job.However, the deputy governor of South Darfur, Farah Mustafa, said the situation was "ill-represented and distorted," and he accused Arbour of bias."The international media and the office of the high commissioner have coordinated pressure on the government (of Sudan) so that it (will) give its consent to international troops," Farah said. The council should instead support the existing peace agreements and the African Union troops, he added.Annan's comments, which were likely to be his last to the council as secretary-general, reflected his increasingly blunt criticism of the international community's failure to stop atrocities in Darfur and his disappointment with the council, which was created at his urging this year.With unusual candor, Annan said Saturday that the United Nations was falling short of its responsibility to protect human rights in Darfur.Annan commissioned highly critical reports of the U.N. role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide and the 1995 massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica, which was supposed to be a U.N.-protected enclave. Both took place when Annan headed the U.N. peacekeeping department.At a U.N. summit in 2005, world leaders agreed to a proposal by Annan that there is a collective global responsibility to protect people from genocide, war crimes and ethnic cleansing. The Security Council adopted a resolution in April reaffirming the agreement.Annan has been pushing for that global responsibility to be exercised in Darfur, with U.N. peacekeepers on the ground and political pressure for a cease-fire.In one of the latest incidents of violence, two refugees were shot and killed Sunday by AU peacekeeping troops in a riot in the west Sudanese town of El-Geneina.The riot began during a funeral for 30 refugees slain Saturday by the janjaweed militia. The killings were the first time Darfur refugees had died at the hands of peacekeepers; a spokesman for the AU mission said troops fired in self-defense.A U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said a government plane bombed a North Darfur village on Monday, killing eight members of one family."What has been happening in Darfur is a disgrace," Ireland's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Paul Kavanagh, told the council. "The whole of Africa knows it, as do decent people the world over."AP writers Bradley S. Klapper, Frank Jordans and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Alfred de Montesquiou in Khartoum, Sudan, contributed to this report.
[oas:casperstartribune.net/news/world:Middle1]
GENEVA -- His time at the helm of the world body nearing an end, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan stepped up his efforts Tuesday to force a halt to atrocities in Darfur, demanding the U.N. Human Rights Council send an independent team of investigators to the volatile Sudanese region.Annan, whose 10-year stewardship of the United Nations ends Dec. 31, was joined by top U.N. officials and agencies increasingly frustrated in their efforts to bring relief to people suffering from nearly four years of bloodshed."It is urgent that we take action to prevent further violations, including by bringing to account those responsible for the numerous crimes that have already been committed," Annan told the 47-nation council's emergency session on Darfur. The body is expected to decide Wednesday whether to pass a resolution, which would be nonbinding, but increase political pressure.The council, which replaced the widely discredited Human Rights Commission in June, has used its six previous sessions to pass eight resolutions denouncing Israeli treatment of Arabs. No other government has been accused of rights violations.
Annan said militias were attacking defenseless civilians in Darfur and that "large numbers of women" were being raped."I urge you to lose no time in sending a team of independent and universally respected experts to investigate the latest escalation of abuses," Annan said in a recorded video address opening the meeting.Annan stopped short of singling out the Sudanese government, but said the council should send "a clear and united message to warn all concerned, on behalf of the whole world, that the current situation is simply unacceptable and will not be allowed to continue."But Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, cited "credible evidence" that the Sudanese military was responsible for ground attacks and aerial bombardments of civilians.The Sudanese government also is accused of unleashing the janjaweed militia to help its forces counter ethnic African groups who rebelled in 2003. More than 200,000 people have been killed and some 2.5 million people have fled their homes, according to U.N. estimates.Annan's outspoken humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, warned that "several hundred thousand lives will be at risk" unless they are protected from militia attacks.This may be "the last opportunity for this council, the government of Sudan, the African Union and all of us to avert a humanitarian disaster of much larger proportions," Egeland told the council Tuesday, his last day on the job.However, the deputy governor of South Darfur, Farah Mustafa, said the situation was "ill-represented and distorted," and he accused Arbour of bias."The international media and the office of the high commissioner have coordinated pressure on the government (of Sudan) so that it (will) give its consent to international troops," Farah said. The council should instead support the existing peace agreements and the African Union troops, he added.Annan's comments, which were likely to be his last to the council as secretary-general, reflected his increasingly blunt criticism of the international community's failure to stop atrocities in Darfur and his disappointment with the council, which was created at his urging this year.With unusual candor, Annan said Saturday that the United Nations was falling short of its responsibility to protect human rights in Darfur.Annan commissioned highly critical reports of the U.N. role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide and the 1995 massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica, which was supposed to be a U.N.-protected enclave. Both took place when Annan headed the U.N. peacekeeping department.At a U.N. summit in 2005, world leaders agreed to a proposal by Annan that there is a collective global responsibility to protect people from genocide, war crimes and ethnic cleansing. The Security Council adopted a resolution in April reaffirming the agreement.Annan has been pushing for that global responsibility to be exercised in Darfur, with U.N. peacekeepers on the ground and political pressure for a cease-fire.In one of the latest incidents of violence, two refugees were shot and killed Sunday by AU peacekeeping troops in a riot in the west Sudanese town of El-Geneina.The riot began during a funeral for 30 refugees slain Saturday by the janjaweed militia. The killings were the first time Darfur refugees had died at the hands of peacekeepers; a spokesman for the AU mission said troops fired in self-defense.A U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said a government plane bombed a North Darfur village on Monday, killing eight members of one family."What has been happening in Darfur is a disgrace," Ireland's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Paul Kavanagh, told the council. "The whole of Africa knows it, as do decent people the world over."AP writers Bradley S. Klapper, Frank Jordans and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Alfred de Montesquiou in Khartoum, Sudan, contributed to this report.
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