There hasn’t been much in the news about the Darfur situation recently. Here’s an article from the Washington Times on why the UN cannot get anywhere trying to protect the refugees. To read the whole article you may have to register with the Washington Times, but it’s free and easy to do.
China, Russia oppose Darfur-abuse report – World – insider.washingtontimes.com
China and Russia joined with Arab and Muslim states yesterday in urging the U.N.’s human rights watchdog to ignore a report from a mission to Darfur that blamed Sudan for continuing war crimes against civilians there.
The two permanent Security Council members argued that the mission, led last month by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams, failed to gain access to the vast western region of Sudan and had not fulfilled its mandate.
Despite warnings from Western and some African states that failure to act would undermine the credibility of the newly formed Human Rights Council, Muslim and Arab states and their allies backed Sudan’s assertion that the report had no legal basis.
"The so-called mission failed to make an on-site visit. The report cannot be considered objective … and has no legal basis," China said in a statement to the 47-state council, which was echoed by Russia.
After initially agreeing to the mission, the government of Sudan refused to grant visas to the five-member team because the country objected to one of the mission members. It said the member had previously spoken of genocide in Darfur, thus could not be objective.
The U.N. investigators, asked by the council in December to examine reports of massive abuse in Darfur, were forced to conduct their work from neighboring Chad and in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, headquarters of the African Union.
Observers estimate 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million driven from their homes since fighting broke out between rebels and government-backed Arab militias four years ago in Darfur.
The Sudanese government denies responsibility for abuses and blames rebel groups that have refused to sign a peace deal.
Here is a further article from the Washington Post, March 14th on Sudan and the UN efforts to stop the Darfur genocide.
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