Darfur: Who's helping...

..."The butchers of Khartoum"? China and Russia, together with Arab
and Muslim states on the utterly futile--indeed pernicious--new UN human rights body:

China and Russia joined with Arab and Muslim states yesterday [March 16] in urging the U.N.'s human rights watchdog to ignore a report from a mission to Darfur that blamed Sudan for continuing war crimes against civilians there.

The two permanent Security Council members argued that the mission, led last month by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams, failed to gain access to the vast western region of Sudan and had not fulfilled its mandate.

Despite warnings from Western and some African states that failure to act would undermine the credibility of the newly formed Human Rights Council, Muslim and Arab states and their allies backed Sudan's assertion that the report had no legal basis.

[...]

The situation in Darfur is seen by many as a test for the Human Rights Council. The U.N. Commission on Human Rights was disbanded by the United Nations in March 2006, because it had been rendered ineffective and meaningless by political bickering and the membership of so many known human rights abusers.

The U.N. General Assembly chose 47 new members of the new Human Rights Council in May 2006, including China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Cuba, all members that the United States singles out in its annual human rights report. The United States did not apply for membership in the current body. Human rights advocates are watching to see whether the latest incarnation is any more effective than the old commission...

The new Council is fixated on one country alone: Israel. Why, for pity's sake, was Canada "pleased" last year to be elected a member of this predictably dishonest farce?

Meanwhile, the UN force for Darfur fades further into the blood-red desert sunset.

Mark C.

Posted by markc at March 18, 2007 04:56 PM