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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wayners who wrote (30897)	6/15/2004 12:08:02 PM
From: lorne	Respond to of 81568

Rock blasts UN on Sudan crisis Security Council failing to protect civilians, Canadian ambassador says By SHAWN McCARTHY With a report from Reuters Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - Page A16 theglobeandmail.com UNITED NATIONS -- The Security Council has failed miserably in its responsibility to protect the people of the Sudanese region of Darfur, who are being displaced and slaughtered in a civil war, Canada's envoy to the United Nations said yesterday. In an open debate at the council, ambassador Allan Rock accused the 15-member body of ignoring long-standing pleas to intervene and push both sides to end attacks on civilians. Mr. Rock said the council failed for months to heed warnings from aid groups and from its own human-rights commission about the looming humanitarian disaster in Darfur, finally responding just three weeks ago. "Such inexcusable delays put at risk the lives of those that this council is charged with protecting," he said. "The Security Council's moral authority is underpinned by its willingness to respond effectively and promptly to threats to international peace and security, and it must demonstrate greater resolve in addressing even sensitive and politically challenging situations." Mr. Rock spoke as the council held a full-day open debate on how the world body should respond to the plight of civilians caught in war zones where their governments either cannot protect them or actively target them. Canada has long argued that the council has a responsibility to protect such civilians, transcending national sovereignty -- a position many Third World countries reject for fear of big-power intrusion into their domestic affairs. Mr. Rock called the situation in Darfur "a particularly egregious example" of the UN's failure to act despite a national government's refusal to protect its citizens. He urged the council to adopt resolutions urging the parties involved in the conflict -- he did not mention the Sudanese government specifically -- to do everything in their power to end the "crimes against humanity" being committed there and bring those responsible to justice. The ambassador stopped short of labelling the attacks on local black farmers by government-backed Muslim militias as "ethnic cleansing" or "genocide." But activists are urging the council to declare the Darfur situation a genocide in the making, since such a finding would require intervention under international law. On the weekend, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington is investigating whether that is the case. In Khartoum on Sunday, UN special representative Asma Janahjir said she was "disturbed and alarmed by the gravity of human-rights abuses perpetrated" in Sudan. But her greatest concerns were saved for Darfur, where two rebel groups have been fighting the Sudanese government since early last year. UN agencies and relief organizations estimate that at least one million people have fled their homes and become internally displaced since fighting broke out, while another 150,000 refugees have escaped across the border into Chad. "I am deeply concerned," Ms. Janahjir said. "The crisis is not over and the right to life of [millions of] people is seriously threatened." A report issued in May by the UN's acting high commissioner for human rights found that Janjaweed militias -- loose bands of Arab fighters recruited and armed by Khartoum -- have carried out murders, rapes and other atrocities against the region's black population. Ms. Janahjir's briefing echoed many elements of that report.