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6-04-2005 The Scotsman UN turning a blind eye to Darfur deaths, says Straw By Gethin Chamberlain BRITAIN yesterday accused other members of the United Nations Security Council of turning a blind eye to the atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan. In a strongly worded statement, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said they had put commercial or political interests above their commitments under the UN charter. Mr Straw did not name the countries he had in mind, but China, France and Russia have all faced accusations from human rights groups and charities operating in Sudan that they have blocked efforts to halt the killing in a conflict that has so far claimed at least 300,000 lives. "There are still members of the so-called international community, members of the Security Council and others, who are turning a blind eye from clear atrocities which have taken place in Darfur," Mr Straw said. His comments came as the International Criminal Court in the Hague took delivery of a sealed list of 51 people accused of committing war crimes in Darfur. The list includes senior Sudanese government and army officials, militia leaders and rebel and foreign army commanders but the ICC will not reveal the content of the list and will only decide later who it wants to indict. The ICC also took charge of box loads of documents about alleged war crimes in the region from a special United Nations commission. The UN Security Council voted last week to refer alleged crimes against humanity committed during more than two years of rebellion in Darfur to the ICC. The ICC is the world's first permanent global criminal court established in 2002 to try cases of genocide and major human rights violations. Serge Brammertz, the deputy ICC prosecutor for investigations, said: "We will now proceed with the analysis of the documents and prepare a work. We will put together a team of analysts and investigators." He said it was too early to say when the ICC might issue indictments or arrest warrants over Darfur and added he hoped the Sudanese government would help with the investigation. "We hope there will be constructive co-operation. We will co-operate with international institutions and governments to collect as much information as we can." Sudan has said it will refuse to hand over its citizens to face trial abroad, and tens of thousands of Sudanese marched through the capital Khartoum yesterday in response to the government's campaign against the UN's war crimes resolution. Chanting slogans denouncing the United Nations and the United States, protesters stopped at the UN building, then the British embassy and finally the American embassy, where they shouted: "Down, down, USA." At the UN building, they called Kofi Annan, the secretary general, a coward and an agent of the United States. The state-owned mobile phone company MobiTel had publicised the protest march through a text message to many subscribers on Monday evening. The war crimes resolution is the last of three aimed at putting pressure on Sudan to stop the crisis in Darfur. Meanwhile, the Sudanese government has been accused of seeking to intimidate humanitarian relief agencies in Darfur by arresting or detaining at least 20 aid workers since December. Human Rights Watch, which has campaigned against the genocide, said that rebels had also detained or attacked aid workers. The group called on all parties to the conflict to ensure the safety of humanitarian aid workers and enable them to reach Sudanese civilians in need of assistance. "The Sudanese authorities are using the same strong-arm tactics against aid workers that they have used against human rights defenders," said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Donor governments should condemn Khartoum's attempts to intimidate aid workers and others assisting civilians in Sudan."
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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