The United Nations’ top human rights official charged Friday that Sudan established, armed and supported Arab militias that allegedly expelled more than a million villagers in Sudan’s Darfur province and killed thousands.
So why is Sudan on the UN’s "Human Rights" panel?
Sudanese forces and the Janjaweed militias engaged in "a reign of terror" that "may constitute war crimes and or crimes against humanity," Bertrand G. Ramcharan, the acting U.N. high commissioner for human rights, wrote in a 16-page report on Darfur. Sudan’s U.N. ambassador, Elfatih Erwa, denied that his government armed the militias, insisting that any government killings of civilians were the accidental byproduct of a civil war that flared up in Darfur last year.
How in Hades is mass rape an "accidental byproduct" of anything?
| "Yer Honor, she wuz askin' for it, standing there so provactively like that in her burqa!" |
"We have not been targeting civilians, but as I have said, there is a war," he said. "A bomb does not differentiate between a civilian or the military. In some modern states, they call it collateral damage." The U.N. report, which was based on a two-week trip by a U.N. delegation to Sudan last month, cited "disturbing patterns of massive human rights violation in Darfur perpetrated by the government of Sudan and its proxy militia."
So disturbing, that the UN has decided to ... issue another report!
| But it's a strongly worded report. |
It also noted that some senior Sudanese officials privately admitted for the first time that Sudan had "recruited, uniformed, armed, supported and sponsored the militias" that have carried out the worst excesses in Darfur. The U.N. report echoed some of the key findings of a report issued Wednesday by the New York-based group Human Rights Watch. That report charged the Sudanese government with committing "ethnic cleansing," but Ramcharan did not use the term in his report, citing the lack of an internationally recognized definition. Ramcharan, who briefed the U.N. Security Council on the U.N. mission’s findings, called for the deployment of human rights monitors in Darfur and the establishment of an international commission of inquiry to probe violations, a possible prelude to war crimes prosecution.
| Nothing in there about deploying well-armed troops to kill the janjaweed, though, is there? |
James Morris, the American executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, also called on Sudan to meet its commitment to provide access to humanitarian relief officials in Darfur. The U.N. Security Council remained silent on the crisis, resisting pressure from human rights groups to criticize Sudan. Council diplomats said the council’s African governments — Angola, Algeria and Benin — opposed action, arguing that it would constitute interference in a member state’s internal affairs.
"Shucks, they slaughter each other, what business is it of ours? It's not like they feel pain like we do."
"So it's not a matter of skin color or culture, it's..."
"Right. They don't feel pain like UN employees do. Just think of them as statistics." |
Other governments voiced concern that a confrontational approach to the crisis could disrupt peace talks between Khartoum and Christian insurgents in southern Sudan. Instead, the United States and other council members settled on issuing their own statements behind closed doors. After the meeting, the U.S. representative, Stuart W. Holliday, declined to endorse the United Nations’ conclusion that Sudan participated in the attacks on civilians. But he said Khartoum has responsibility for bringing them under control.
The UN must take direct responsibility for legitimizing Sudan’s status in the midst of its atrocities. To empanel Sudan on a "Human Rights" commission only facilitates a sense of immunity for them and is tantamount to tacit approval for their acts. The UN should have expelled all Sudanese legates, issued formal letters of protest and initiated efforts to send peace keeping troops immediately. Instead, for yet another time, people are dying while UN wankers nibble their canapes. |