Sudan demands proof of UN Darfur death toll (Sound familiar?)

ABC News (Australia) ^ | March 15, 2005

[Stoat]

Sudan demands proof of UN Darfur death toll

Sudan has demanded the United Nations produce evidence to support a UN statement which said 180,000 people had died of disease and hunger over the past 19 months in the troubled Darfur region.

The spokesman for UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland said on Monday that Mr Egeland had estimated that more than 180,000 people had died in Sudan's Darfur from hunger and disease over the past 18 months.

UN spokesman Brian Grogan said the toll does not include people killed during ongoing violence in Sudan's western region.

Sudanese Government officials called the figure a ploy to pressure the UN Security Council to take action against Sudan.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said the figure was not mentioned during Mr Egeland's trip.

"Whether it is part of the pressure on the Security Council to pass the resolution, which I tend to believe, or a different agenda we don't know," he said.

The UN Security Council is divided over a resolution on Sudan, on issues including imposing targeted sanctions, and the referral of those suspected of war crimes in Darfur to the International Criminal Court.

The council has been deliberating for more than a month.

Mr Mustafa says Mr Egeland should produce research and figures to support his claim.

Sudan has long denied a UN estimate last year that up to 10,000 people were dying every month in makeshift camps housing almost two million people, who fled their homes during the more than two-year-old rebellion in Darfur.

The World Health Organisation said at the end of January that the figure of 10,000 a month had dropped but that thousands were still dying each month in the camps.

Sudan itself has no reliable figures but has in the past mentioned figures of around 7,000 total dead during the rebellion by non-Arab tribes, who accuse the Government of discriminating against them in favour of Arab tribes in the remote region bordering Chad.

[Stoat]

This isn't a perfect analogy of course, but when I read this I was reminded of Saddam's Iraq, where the ploy was to endlessly deny wrongdoing and demand proof, then when proof is provided it's rejected and dismissed....efforts to provide additional proof are rejected by specious National Sovereignty and paranoid 'they're all out to get us' drivel.  I suppose they think that they can lead the UN around by the nose for 20 years like Saddam did, and the way that things are going, they just might be right.

In the meantime, untold thousands or even millions die.

And the United States is lambasted as 'imperialistic' and 'brutal'?

Ask any of the common people (and even most in their 'government') of Sudan where they would rather be right now.

[spinestein]

[The UN Security Council is divided over a resolution on Sudan, on issues including imposing targeted sanctions, and the referral of those suspected of war crimes in Darfur to the International Criminal Court.]

Of course they're divided. Some of the countries are democratic nations that believe in unalienable rights, and some of the countries are totalitarian dictatorships that don't.

[drt1]

Anytime the UN is involved in ANYTHING you can expect this kind of bureaucratic dithering. If you didn't know these were real Human Beings who were being systematically slaughtered you might think you were listening to a couple of accountants quarreling over the accuracy of the Earnings Before Taxes number on a tax return.

The UN will provide some answers to the Sudan, the Sudan will dispute them, the UN will study the issue further, conduct negotiations and submit the matter to the Security Council where it will be .... Studied some more.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

This isn't a perfect analogy of course, but when I read this I was reminded of Saddam's Iraq...

Ah but don't forget the mantra from 1991 up until 2000 was that 10000 children die every month due to US sancations on Iraq. Interesting that Human Rights watch stopped doing reports after Iraq was liberated.