The UN Human Rights Council dissolved a group of experts tasked with monitoring abuses in Darfur after demands from African countries to ease the political pressure on Sudan.
The unanimous decision on Friday to halt the mission of the seven rights experts came a week after the group accused Sudan of failing to protect civilians in Darfur from rape, torture and other violence.
The task of overseeing Khartoum's progress in protecting human rights in Darfur will now fall to the UN's special envoy to Sudan, Simar Samar, whose mandate was unanimously extended for a year.
Rights groups condemned the decision not to renew the group's mandate.
"There has been an unacceptable compromise by the council on the issue of Darfur," Julie de Rivero of the New York-based Human Rights Watch said.
"We feel that Sudan has been rewarded for its obstruction and its failure to implement recommendations" made by the expert group, she said.
European officials expressed satisfaction at the decision, saying Samar would be able to continue working.
One senior European diplomat, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said the council would continue to engage Sudan.
But de Rivero said negotiations this week between the main blocs within the council -- the EU, African states and the Organization of the Islamic Conference -- appeared to have been aimed at appeasing the government of Sudan and its allies.
More than 2.5 million people have been displaced and over 200,000 people have died as a result of the four-year conflict between the region's ethnic African rebels and the Arab-dominated Sudanese government and its militia allies.
In March a UN fact-finding mission led by US Nobel laureate Jody Williams said the government of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir had orchestrated militia attacks against civilians. The Arab and Muslim dominated rights council rejected the recommendations of Williams' team, voting instead to create the expert group it has now dissolved.
The council also decided on Friday to send its UN special investigator for Myanmar back to the Southeast Asian country for a follow-up to his visit last month.
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, a Brazilian professor, last week released a report on his trip in which he accused Myanmar's military-led government of downplaying the number of people that were killed or imprisoned in the September crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators.
The council also extended by three years the mandate of its independent investigator on human rights in the fight against terrorism.
Martin Scheinin, a Finnish professor, has been highly critical of US practices in combatting terrorism.
A resolution to extend the mandate of the council's expert on freedom of religion was opposed by Muslim countries but passed after a vote of 29-0 in favor, with 18 abstentions.
Muslim countries had demanded changes to the resolution to bring it in line with Islamic law, which forbids religious conversion, but were unable to muster sufficient support for their position.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not