Posted on 01/31/2005 5:48:41 PM PST by Libertas aut Mortis
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) - Sudan's foreign minister said Monday a U.N. report concluded that no genocide was committed in his country's Darfur region, where tens of thousands of civilians have died in a nearly two-year crisis.
At U.N. headquarters in New York, diplomats confirmed that the report did not find that Sudan had committed genocide, but they said it was very critical of Sudanese government actions. The report was expected to be circulated in New York on Tuesday.
The United States has accused Sudan's government of directing militia who attack civilians in what Washington has called a genocidal campaign in the western region.
"We have a copy of that report and they didn't say that there is a genocide," Sudan Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said on the sidelines of an African Union summit in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
Last year, the United Nations said the Darfur conflict created the world's worst humanitarian crisis. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Sunday a report on the situation would be forwarded to Security Council members "very shortly."
Annan declined to say whether the team made a determination that genocide was committed.
"Regardless of how the commission describes what is going on in Darfur, there is no doubt that serious crimes have been committed," he said.
U.S. diplomats at the United Nations said recently they would make proposals to the Security Council to bring the perpetrators of atrocities in Darfur to justice.
Also Monday, Sudan's government and Darfur rebels said they will reopen long-stalled peace talks in Nigeria in February. Three previous peace conferences and a cease-fire agreement have failed to calm the violence.
Both Osman and representatives of allied Sudanese rebel groups the Sudanese Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement said they would attend the latest meetings, which a Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity were scheduled to begin the third week of February in Abuja.
The most recent peace conference began Dec. 11 in Abuja, but rebels boycotted meetings with government delegates two days later, alleging a new government offensive. The talks broke down entirely within weeks.
The Justice and Equality Movement, the smaller insurgent group, would attend the talks if AU negotiators treated them fairly and were "serious and objective," Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed, a top rebel official, said Monday.
He added that insurgent leaders wanted a new mediator for the talks.
"America and the European Union must come forward," he said by phone from Eritrea.
The Darfur conflict began in February 2003 when the two rebel groups took up arms against what they considered years of state neglect and discrimination against Sudanese of African origin.
The government responded with a counterinsurgency campaign in which an Arab militia, known as the Janjaweed, committed wide-scale abuses against the African population. An estimated 1.8 million people have been displaced in the conflict, and more than 70,000 people are believed to have died from hunger and disease since March.
Sickening!
The Worthless U.N., The Largest, world (U.S.) funded club of anti-semite, anti-christian, capitalist hating, bunch of arrogant, passive, no-spine loving islamic/muslim AND terrorist Happy country defenders, the world has ever Known !
They turn a Deaf Ear & Blind Eye when it comes to the slaughter of Christians any where in the world. Hell, they do nothing for Tribal slaughters OR ethnic cleansing raids! And the UN supports the A.U. (african union), IT has learned well from the UN. It also does Nothing!
After taking more than TWO YEARS to draw-up a Security Council resolution censuring Sudan, U.N. diplomacy is ensuring the Islamist regime won't be held accountable for attacks on black Muslims in the country's western region. AGAIN, in the realm of the U.N.- Christians Slaughterd = No Big Loss.......
Well, of COURSE it did. If it hadn't, it'd have had to DO something. And we know how the UN hates that 'work' stuff.
muslims never commit genocide....didn't you know?
Uh-oh -- Somebody in the Sudanese government is going to bed without cookies and milk.
Well, it was only tens of thousands. A few million here, a few million there, and pretty soon you are talking about Genocide...
F--- the UN.
Hear hear.
We should start a movement to kick the UN out of the USA. This organization is a joke that has cost humanity way too much blood. a failed experiment of socialists and do-nothing gooders
Yup, and Kofi has oil interests in Sudan. But whose counting...
While reading I intended to comment, but now the only suitable response is "The UN is a dirty, filthy, nauseating joke."
Yes this is digusting.
There is a movement...
GO here: www.moveamericaforward.org
See their commercial its GREAT!
Yeah, right.......................
I hope the United Nations Building in New York crumbles to the ground. That would be justice.
God help America for having ANY part of that corrupt organization. What more will it take for us to come to our senses.
There is no punishment cruel enough for those resposible for hiding the truth.
*ping* thanks dude
Yes it does, however as long as the UN is financed by the USA, then.....Oh, wait a minute....
Brilliant deduction Mo1, however I beat you to it by about 25 years....
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