Outgoing Secretary-General of the United Nations (U.N.), Kofi Annan, makes a speech at the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, December 11, 2006. (Dave Kaup/Reuters)
Posted on 12/12/2006 12:24:32 PM PST by NormsRevenge
GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations chief Kofi Annan demanded on Tuesday that the world body's human rights watchdog, meeting in special session on Sudan's Darfur, send a clear message that the "nightmare" of violence there had to stop.
"The people in Darfur cannot afford to wait another day. The violence must stop. The killings and other gross violations of human rights must end," Annan said in a statement to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.
The Council, launched last June in a plan to make the U.N. more effective, must decide on what kind of mission of inquiry to send to the troubled western region of Africa's largest state where aid officials say more than 200,000 people have died in three years of violence.
It is seen as a credibility test for the new body which has been accused of focusing too much on the Middle East and ignoring what the U.N. has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Urging the 47-state body to send a team of "independent and universally respected experts," Annan said the Council must show Darfur's people that "their cries for help are being heard" because the situation there was worsening.
"It is essential that the Council (issue) a clear and united message ... that the current situation is simply unacceptable," said Annan, who steps down as Secretary-General at the end of 2006.
Khartoum says Darfur, where long-simmering ethnic violence erupted into war in 2003, has improved since a peace treaty earlier this year with one leading rebel group.
It disputes the death toll in the region, where over 2 million have been driven from their homes, and pins the blame for violations on rebel groups that are still fighting.
Sudan's representative at the Council session, Farah Mustafa, accused Western media of distorting the picture. "It has been repeating lies, day after day," he said.
However, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, echoing Annan's warnings, said that civilians continued to be the target of deliberate and "devastatingly brutal" attacks in what was an "unrelenting tragedy."
MASS RAPE
She said in a speech that evidence compiled by her office since 2004 pointed to a systematic failure to protect civilians, prevent violence and bring those responsible to justice.
Sudan denies arming the so-called Janjaweed militia blamed by Arbour and others for some of the worst offences.
"If we have not seen the genocide process, we are very close to that," European Union special representative for Sudan Pekka Haavisto told a workshop on the margin of the Council session.
European officials said that the Council debate, which would continue on Wednesday, was part of a diplomatic drive to get the Sudan government to accept U.N. reinforcements for African Union troops who are trying to police a region the size of France.
But Sudan's representative said the aim of those calling for a mission of experts was not to protect human rights but to "undermine the dignity and sovereignty of a poor state."
While accepting a mission, the African group on the Council wants it to be composed of diplomats from the Geneva-based body, who the Europeans say lack the expertise for an effective probe.
(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay)
Outgoing Secretary-General of the United Nations (U.N.), Kofi Annan, makes a speech at the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, December 11, 2006. (Dave Kaup/Reuters)
Hey Kofi, just pass another resolution. That will fix everything.
Yeah, uh huh, sure.
Send them a strongly worded note?
LOL!
Now he speaks up?
Trying to tidy up before leaving the job, eh?
blah, blah, blah, little blue helmets, blah, blah, blah, do nothing, blah, blah, blah, feel good, blah, blah, blah, blah, sounding righteous, blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, right, act to blame it all on the USA and UK and Israel.
This reminds me of a shop I worked in the day it was sold.
Management took photos of it the way it really was and labeled them "Before". Next they made us sweep the floors and stack clean new (and empty) boxes in our stock areas and photographed them and labeled them "After".
Then they took the before and after photos and proudly displayed them in the lobby.
'Bout time. However, no one in the U.N. membership has offerred to do anything about the situation in Darfur. Will it be left up to the U.S.?
That's what I'm sayin'! What a joke.
In other news, Ray Nagin demands inspections on all levees in New Orleans.
What are they going to do, volunteer our military? We need to stay out of this one, let the rest of the world do their part for a change.
Dopi Kofi couldn't wait a second to single out the US for personal retribution in his comments yesterday, so, in speaking about Darfur today, did have any special comments for China and Russia, who have been preventing stronger Security Council action on Darfur??? No???
Sorry, my mistake, I forgot that the portfolio of the United Nations General Secretary only requires that he periodically attack the United States, not actual thugs and dictators!
Hey Coffee, How about we pass several more resolutions and adopt a wait and see mentality. Oh wait, that doesn't work. How about this. Why don't you shut your unrighteous, immmoral, and evil spewing mouth.
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