Posted on 03/30/2005 6:05:37 PM PST by Pharmboy
LONDON (AP) - The death toll in Darfur has been underestimated and is likely to be near 300,000, British lawmakers said Wednesday, calling the international response to the human tragedy "scandalously ineffective." At the United Nations, France delayed a vote on a resolution that would authorize the prosecution of Sudanese war crimes suspects by the International Criminal Court in hopes of averting a U.S. veto.
While British members of Parliament dramatically raised the estimated death toll, an official in Prime Minister Tony Blair's government said it remains unknown. The Blair government said Britain and other nations are doing all they can to support the African Union, which has 3,000 soldiers and cease-fire monitors in Sudan's western region.
"The honest truth" is that nobody knows the real death toll in the more than two-year conflict, Hilary Benn, the government's international development secretary, said on Channel 4 television.
Conflict has engulfed Darfur 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 the region's African tribes.
Sudan's Arab government is accused of responding by backing Janjaweed militiamen who have carried out rapes and killings against Sudanese of African origin. The government denies backing the Janjaweed.
Earlier this month, the United Nations estimated that since October 2003, about 180,000 people had died as a result of the upheaval, with about 2 million people displaced.
U.N. officials said that while the March estimate included some deaths due to violence, most were because of disease and starvation.
The French delay of the vote on the resolution putting those allegedly responsible for the killing on trial at the international court was a bow the reality of a potential American veto.
The United States faces a dilemma because it wants the perpetrators of atrocities in Sudan's western Darfur region brought to justice but it vehemently opposes the International Criminal Court on grounds that Americans could face politically motivated or frivolous prosecutions.
France agreed to postpone a vote until Thursday after the United States said it wanted to amend the draft resolution to ensure that no Americans could be handed over to the court, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, U.N. diplomats said.
The United States came up with amendments late Thursday but the diplomats said they weren't acceptable to the nine council members that are parties to the court, including close U.S. ally Britain. In response, France was drafting new amendments which were to be shared with the court's supporters overnight and discussed with the Americans on Thursday, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The 15 Security Council nations have been deadlocked for weeks on the issue of holding people accountable in Sudan, and the court's supporters are now demanding a vote on the French resolution.
The French draft introduced last week would refer Darfur cases since July 1, 2002 to the International Criminal Court. That was the recommendation of a U.N. panel that had found crimes against humanity - but not genocide - occurred in the vast western region.
In Britain's House of Commons, a report by the International Development said a World Health Organization estimate that 70,000 people had died from indirect effects of disease and hunger in the Darfur region was "a gross underestimate."
The report, finished before the United Nations released its revised estimate of 180,000, said the total number of dead is likely to be "somewhere around 300,000."
The document accused the international community of a "scandalously ineffective response" to the situation in Darfur and said governments across the world were guilty of failing to deal with the crisis.
The report said early warnings about the emerging crisis were ignored, humanitarian agencies were slow to respond and the United Nations suffered from an "avoidable leadership vacuum" in Sudan at a critical time.
It also criticized the U.N. Security Council as "divided, weak and ineffective," saying it had been driven by member states' interests in oil and exporting arms.
"One of the tragedies about Darfur is that for the whole of the early part of this disaster the international community seemed to turn its eyes away," committee chairman Tony Baldry told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
The report also recommended referring the Darfur crisis to the International Criminal Court and introducing targeted sanctions and an extension of the arms embargo to cover the Sudanese government.
On Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council voted to strengthen its arms embargo on Darfur to include the government and ordered an asset freeze and travel ban on those who defy peace efforts in the conflict-wracked area.
The Sudanese government on Wednesday criticized that action, saying the new resolution would undermine peace efforts in the area.
The resolution "will also create insecurity in Darfur as it imposes restrictions on the movement of the army and its logistics ... at a time (when) it is expected to provide security and fight rebels, outlaws, and the Janjaweed" militia, Sudan's foreign minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, said in Khartoum.
British Report Says Death Toll in Darfur Near 300,000; Expecting U.S. Veto, France Delays Vote on Resolution to Try Killers
Sort of a side issue, but nonetheless significant, "France agreed to postpone a vote until Thursday after the United States said it wanted to amend the draft resolution to ensure that no Americans could be handed over to the court, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, U.N. diplomats said."
320,000 baby seals die in Canada: MY GOD!! THE INHUMANITY!!
Go figure...
Not to forget the 40+ million preborn Americans ...
Why would the U.S. veto this resolution?
From some research a few months ago:
On a separate issue, it is illuminating that the BBC is reporting that France is opposed to sanctions against the Sudanese:
Some one million people have fled their homes and at least 10,000 have been killed in what the UN calls "the world's worst humanitarian crisis." (107)
France led opposition to US moves at the UN over Iraq. As was the case in Iraq, it also has significant oil interests in Sudan. (107)
Mr Muselier [the French ambassador] also dismissed claims of "ethnic cleansing" or genocide in Darfur. (107)
"I firmly believe it is a civil war and as they are little villages of 30, 40, 50, there is nothing easier than for a few armed horsemen to burn things down, to kill the men and drive out the women," he said. (107)
Human rights activists say the Janjaweed are conducting a genocide against Darfur's black African population. (107)
Those who have fled their homes say the Janjaweed ride on horses and camels into villages which have just been bombed by government aircraft, killing the men and raping the women. (107)
According to Voanews, France's buddy Russia is also contributing to a stable situation in Darfur:
In recent days, Sudan is believed to have received the last of 12 MiG-29 fighter jets it had ordered from Russia. Although the deal was signed three-years ago, the timing of the delivery - five-months ahead of schedule - sparked deep concern about their potential use. (138)
Human-rights groups say refugees in Darfur have testified that their villages were bombed by Russian-made MiG jets belonging to the Sudanese air force. Many activists fear the new jets may be used in a renewed bombing campaign in Darfur. Sudan's threats against foreign intervention in Darfur have also raised fear they could be used against peacekeepers. (138)
It seems like the resolution is worded so that we have to recognize the ICC for Sudanese leaders to be tried there?
Especially not one composed of member countries that have indicated that they would be interested in trying Americans such as our President and SecDef for "war crimes". The French and other interests tacked on the rider to the resolution that says that we have to agree to the authority of that court over our citizens in order for the Darfur monsters to be charged.
Not. Going. To. Happen. Any. Time. Soon.
Now they're going to look stupid and France is desperately trying to keep us from returning the "favor" we did to them at the UN prior to Iraqi Freedom.
Payback's a bi***.
Er, that should be "the 'favor' they did us at the UN".
The UN and the Euro-dreamers propose to end this by having lawyers and judges gather in the Netherlands call 200,000 witnesses and then yak about it for 10 more years and then pronounce a few life sentences for a handful af thugs and stick them in a cushy Euro-jail.
It appears idiot judges with an exaggerated sense of their own importance are not unique to the United States.
Just look at the hypocrisy over Iraq. Nearly everyone agrees that Saddam was a butcher, a tyrant, a supporter of international terror and a human rights violator. But nobody did anything to take him out. When the USA decided he was a threat, the far left threw a conniption and called for war crimes charges be brought against Americans - but they never had a conniption over Saddam's gassing of 300,000 people, of his support for terror, of his multiple unprovoked attacks against sovereign states, etc and never called for him to face charges. We know the truth about these fools.
The UN and other countries must capitulate on this. If they want both an ICC and the USA taking the lead role in policing the world - which they do - then they have to absolve Americans from facing ICC charges. It's just that simple. They can't have their cake and eat it too.
See post 15
the UNquagmire.
Unfortunately, no. And worst of all, by 'front burner' the world always means the United States must invade and begin cleaning up. It's sickening how atrophied the rest of the world is when it comes to dealing with situations like this one. Always on the back of Americans... Damn them, damn that UN.
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