The United Nations Human Rights Council must “lose no time” in sending a team of investigators to Sudan’s Darfur region, UN chief Kofi Annan urged an emergency meeting of the global rights body on Tuesday.
“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 said in a recorded message to the council’s first-ever session on abuses in Darfur.
“It is essential that this council 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,” he added.
The UN estimates that about 200Â 000 have died and two million people have been forced to flee their homes since the conflict in Darfur began in 2003.
The rights council convened its emergency session after coming under growing pressure to take a strong stance on Darfur and amid fears that the conflict there could spread to neighbouring Chad.
“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.
The Sudanese government has rejected a UN Security Council resolution authorising the deployment of UN troops and police to Darfur, and Annan’s remarks drew an angry response from a Sudanese representative at the council session.
The deputy governor of South Darfur, Mustafa Farah, complained that Sudan was being unfairly targeted and he criticised UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour for lacking objectivity when she demanded the council provide a “credible response” to the “vulnerable civilians” in Darfur.
“The objective … is not to protect human rights but to undermine the dignity and the sovereignty of the weak states,” Farah said.
He also castigated media coverage of the situation in Darfur, saying it involved a litany of lies, repeated daily “until such lies seem to be the truth”.
The UN Council has been criticised by Annan and Western countries for not paying sufficient attention to Darfur and focusing excessively on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
The likelihood of any real action on the situation remains slim, given the council’s politicised nature and internal divisions, EU diplomats said.
Last month, the council rejected a bid by the European Union and Canada to place primary responsibility for preventing violations in Darfur on the Sudanese government.
Instead, it approved a resolution submitted by African countries that made no direct reference to Khartoum.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, EU diplomats said they would seek to break the block vote of African countries on this issue.
Advocacy group Human Rights Watch urged the council to take a firm line against what it called a “disturbing propaganda campaign” by the Sudanese government.
The EU has tabled a resolution calling for a mission to be dispatched under the auspices of the UN’s human rights expert on Sudan, but “does not expect a miracle” on Tuesday, a Western diplomat told the media. — AFP