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Change Your Life! |
Human rights groups back U.S. in opposing council seat for Sudan |
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News
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October 7, 2000
NEW YORK, OCT 6 (AP) - Human rights campaigners and a former Sudanese slave strongly backed a U.S. campaign to deny Sudan a seat on the U.N. Security Council, saying that granting the country a seat would be like giving Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot or Slobodan Milosevic representation in the world's top peacemaking body. The United States is engaged in intensive last-minute lobbying to promote Mauritius as a rival candidate for an African seat on the 15-member council in next Tuesday's ballot, arguing that Sudan's bid should be rejected because it is under U.N. sanctions and is considered by Washington to be a sponsor of terrorism. Human rights groups called a news conference Thursday to focus on abuses in Sudan, citing a U.N. report accusing the Khartoum government of ethnic cleansing and slavery, and a 1999 U.S. House of Representatives resolution that accused it of "deliberately and systematically committing genocide in southern Sudan." The civil war in Sudan has pitted the Muslim North against the Christian and animist South since 1983, claiming about 2 million lives - more than any other country has lost since World War II. It also has caused more than 4 million people to flee their homes. "Such a toll of suffering ranks with the crimes of Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot," said Adrian Karatnycky, president of Freedom House, a nonprofit organization that promotes human rights and that blames the deaths on the government. "We hope that the vote of the General Assembly on Tuesday will take heed of this record of brutality and violence." Charles Jacobs, president of the American Anti-Slavery Group, added: "We should not be here discussing whether Sudan is fit for a seat at the Security Council. We should be here explaining why Sudan is unfit for membership in the United Nations." A spokesman for Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Elfaith Mohamed Ahmed Erwa, rejected the allegations of genocide and called the human rights groups "Sudan haters" that are now "busy promoting the objectives of the official U.S. foreign policy." Sudan's government says it has tried to arrive at a peaceful settlement in the south, but the spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, accused grassroots groups operating in southern Sudan of providing logistical support to the rebels and prolonging the war. At a closed-door meeting Thursday, Uganda tried unsuccessfully to get African ambassadors to reconsider their endorsement of Sudan, African diplomats said. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has accused the Sudanese government of "incredible criminal terrorism" against his country through the kidnapping of children. A U.S. official said its readout on Thursday's meeting was that the Africa group was split and that "a lot of countries" were coming out in support of Mauritius or against Sudan. More than half a dozen human rights groups at the news conference pledged to continue their campaign to get as many of the 189 U.N. member states as possible to oppose Sudan's candidacy. Roger Winter, executive director of the U.S. Committee on Refugees, recalled that when the Rwanda genocide began in April 1994, Rwanda had a seat on the Security Council and its representatives insisted there was no genocide - just a civil war. "The message that we're trying to send today is, don't make the same mistake," he said. Francis Bol Bok, who was captured during a government-sponsored militia raid on his hometown of Awail in Bahr el Gazal province when he was 7-years-old and spent 10 years as a slave, had another message, especially for African nations. "You must not reward the enslavers of black people," said Bok, who escaped from his captors and is now a 21-year-old refugee in the United States, going to school for the first time.
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