The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously passed a resolution on the two crises in Sudan, saying it would take "appropriate action" against any party failing to fulfil its commitments.
The council also strongly endorsed an agreement signed by the Sudanese government and the southern SPLA rebels earlier Friday, in which they promised to reach a final peace deal before the end of the year.
In the resolution, the Security Council "condemned all acts of violence and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by all parties, and emphasized the need for perpetrators of all such crimes to be brought to justice."
But the resolution immediately drew harsh criticism from humanitarian and human rights organizations as being too weak, and no improvement from previous resolutions.
The Human Rights Watch senior Sudan researcher Jemera Rone said that although it was positive that the north-south conflict was put into the spotlight, the resolution had taken a big step back on the Darfur conflict.
"This resolution is much weaker on Darfur than previous ones, which included deadlines for improving the situation in Darfur and threat of sanctions if they failed to do so. I am afraid the government of Sudan will take this as a blank check to continue its persecution of civilians in Darfur," Rone told reporters.
"It has failed to put words into action. It doesn't give any signal to Khartoum that it has to stop arming the Janjaweed militia," James Dyson of Amnesty International told reporters as the resolution was passed.
Dyson said the priority, in order to stop violence in Sudan's western Darfur region, must be to place a full UN arms embargo on the Sudanese government.
The European Union already has an arms embargo in place against the government, but the UN has only a limited arms embargo in place, covering non-government entities, in reality the Janjaweed militias accused of committing widespread atrocities against civilians in Darfur.
One of the rebel groups in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLM) had earlier urged the Security Council to impose an arms and oil embargo in the Sudanese government.
The humanitarian organization Oxfam condemned what it called the "Security Council's weakness on Darfur."
"From New York to Nairobi a trail of weak resolutions on Darfur has led nowhere ... we needed the council to take action now, not more diplomatic dithering," the organization said in a statement.
The resolution also expressed its "serious concern at the growing insecurity and violence in Darfur, the dire humanitarian situation, continued violations of human rights and repeated breaches of the ceasefire."
Jemera Rone of Human Rights Watch said she believed the resolution had been watered down on Darfur because of "a false idea of the Security Council that the government of Sudan will not sign a north-south peace agreement if it is under too much pressure regarding Darfur.
"But this government does not respond very well to carrots -- it responds better to threats," said Rone.
The highly-publicized war in Darfur in western Sudan started early last year, when non-Arab rebels rose up against the government, saying they had been denied a fair share of the country's resources.
The government then unleashed the Arab Janjaweed militias, who have been accused of a wide range of atrocities against civilians in Darfur.
An estimated 70,000 people have died, and 1.5 million people have been displaced.
Despite assurances to the contrary, civilians continue to be harassed by government forces as well as the Janjaweed militias.
Before the vote on the Sudan resolution, representatives of the Sudanese government and the SPLA rebels signed a so-called memorandum of understanding, in which they commit themselves to reach a conclusive peace agreement for the south of the country before Dec. 31.
The war between the government and the mainly Christian SPLA rebels in southern Sudan has been going on for 21 years, claiming the lives of two million people from violence and war-induced famine.
Peace talks mediated by the regional body Inter-Governmental Authority on Development have been going on in Kenya for more than two years.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS