16 September 2004
U.S. Pressing U.N. Security Council for Vote on Darfur
Secretary-general urges council to act
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- Submitting a revised version of its draft Security Council resolution on Sudan, the United States September 16 pressed for a vote quickly, saying that time is critical in the race to save lives in Darfur.
The revised text still contains the basic points of the original draft that was first submitted September 9, endorsing an expanded, proactive African Union (AU) monitoring mission and asking the United Nations to establish an international commission to investigate reports that genocide has been committed in Darfur.
U.S. Ambassador John Danforth said that the key points of the resolution are "getting the AU in and providing maximum support for it; also, calling for the parties to get back to the table in Naivasha and complete the North-South agreement; and calling for the world to meet its commitments with respect to the funding for humanitarian relief."
The new draft is "essentially the same as what we've had before," the ambassador said. "We always attempt to accommodate people where we can and listen to people's thoughts and incorporate them where it is possible to do that" during negotiations.
The council scheduled a private meeting on the revised draft, but no date has been set for a vote. Nevertheless, Danforth said that he hoped the vote would take place before the week ended because "time is of the essence.....When the reports are 10,000 people are dying every month, then every day counts."
As the council was discussing the revisions, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in an unusual move, made a strong plea for the council to act, saying, "It is urgent to take action now."
"Civilians are still being attacked and fleeing their villages even as we speak, many months after the government committed itself to bring the militias under control. The cease-fire is also being violated by both groups. Both sides have to stop violating the cease-fire," he said.
"I have urged the Security Council to act on the draft resolution without delay and to be as united as possible in the face of this crisis," Annan told journalists. "This is the first time in the council's history that it has ever been seized under Article 8 of the Genocide Convention, and it seems to me inconceivable that it should fail to respond."
The council must be fully engaged, the secretary-general said, and appealed to all member states and organizations with the needed logistical and financial capabilities to do whatever they can to make the AU deployment happen as quickly as possible.
The secretary-general also said that he asked High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour and U.N. special adviser on the prevention of genocide Juan Mendes to visit Darfur immediately to see what can be done now and in the future to provide better protection for civilians. "Their job is not to describe or characterize what is happening, but to see what more can be done to stop it, and to prevent further abuses," Annan said.
A U.S. spokesman said that the changes in the new draft reflect an attempt to give "some credit -- and I emphasize some credit -- where credit was due to the Government of Sudan" for improving humanitarian access. But the new draft retains the demand that Sudan submit the names of Jingaweit militia and others arrested for human rights abuses and calls on all Sudanese parties to take the necessary steps to ensure that human rights violations reported by the African Union monitors are addressed.
Also retained in the draft resolution is the threat of "additional actions," which could include an oil embargo and/or sanctions against members of the Sudanese government, if Khartoum doesn't comply with the resolutions or fails to cooperate with the African Union monitoring mission. It says the council will make that determination "after consultations with the African Union."
The new draft also "urges the Government of Sudan to refrain from conducting military flights in and over the Darfur region in accordance with its commitments," replacing language requiring Sudan to stop all military flights over the Darfur region.
The change on the military flights "clearly was 'a give' on our side," the U.S. spokesman said. "We are not comfortable with this ... it is not as strong as we wanted it to be," but the change was an attempt to keep the council united.
Nevertheless, the spokesman said, in Resolution 1556 "it is very clear that it is unlawful to attack civilians by land or air" and that revised paragraph is a reference to the cease-fire agreement and restates the fact that such attacks are still illegal.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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