Two top UN human rights officials on Thursday stopped short of classifying the situation in Sudan's western Darfur region as a genocide, but said that crimes against humanity and war crimes have "probably occurred on a large and systematic scale."
Moreover, the "climate of impunity" in the conflict-wracked region is such that "we have not turned the corner on preventing genocide from happening in the future, or even in the near future," UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Juan Mendez, told reporters after briefing the UN Security Council.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour presented council members with several recommendations, including the need to deploy international police to aid Sudanese police stationed at refugee camps in Darfur.
The deployment of Sudanese police, she said, has done little to restore the faith of the 1.2 million Sudanese displaced by the fighting in the region and is contributing to the "climate of impunity reigning in Darfur today."
"A mere increase in their numbers is unlikely to restore the lack of faith ... and overcome the sense of insecurity and fear that is prevalent" in the refugee camps, Arbour said.
"It would seem that the only way to reverse that lack of trust would be to accompany the Sudanese police force with an international component in the discharge of their work," she told reporters.
Her recommendations were presented ahead of a Security Council meeting later Thursday with the Sudanese foreign minister -- a meeting which he requested.
Arbour told the council that a key challenge confronting security and aid to the region is "an alarming disconnect between the [Sudanese] government's perception -- or at least its portrayal -- of what is happening in Darfur and the assessment of that situation by almost everyone else."
The government "continues to convey neither a sense of urgency nor an acknowledgment of the magnitude of the human rights crisis in Darfur," she said.
Arbour also highlighted other recommendations, which included boosting the international presence in Darfur and putting an end to the government practice of forcing refugees to return, especially as many of the areas have not yet been secured.
The council on Sept. 18 passed a resolution calling for an international commission to investigate claims of genocide in Darfur.
It also gave the thumbs-up for a significantly expanded African Union force in Darfur, and threatened sanctions against the Khartoum government if it doesn't act to rein in Arab militias blamed for killing over 50,000 people and forcing 1.2 million to flee their homes.
Last week, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who heads the African Union, said the 53-nation body can quickly mobilize up to 5,000 troops to help end the looting and killing in Darfur but it needs hundreds of millions of dollars to deploy the force.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would make a decision about how the US government would refer to the body of water commonly known as the Persian Gulf when he visits Arab states next week. Trump told reporters at the White House that he expects his hosts in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will ask him about the US officially calling the waterway the Arabian Gulf or Gulf of Arabia. “They’re going to ask me about that when I get there, and I’ll have to make a decision,” Trump said. “I don’t want to hurt anybody’s
RSS