US walks out of UN in protest at Sudan move

THE US walked out of a UN meeting yesterday in protest at its decision to give Sudan a third term on the Human Rights Commission, the world body’s human rights watchdog.

US ambassador Sichan Siv called the vote an “absurdity” and accused Sudan of massive human rights violations and “ethnic cleansing” in the western Darfur region.

As Mr Siv walked out of the Economic and Social Council chamber, Sudan’s deputy UN ambassador Omar Bashir Manis launched into a heated response, accusing US forces of engaging in degrading treatment of Iraqi prisoners, using disproportionate force and committing “atrocities” against innocent Iraqi civilians.

Finland’s US Ambassador Marjatta Rasi, the president of the 53 nation Economic and Social Council, noted that the slate of candidates from Africa for the Human Rights Commission was uncontested, and it was approved by consensus.

Under UN rules, regional groups decide which countries are nominated to fill seats on UN bodies.

The African group waited until late last week to present its list of candidates for four seats. It presented four names, guaranteeing election for Kenya, Sudan, Guinea and Togo.

The US scrambled to get another African nation to apply in an effort to make it a contested race and unseat Sudan. But with so little time the attempt was unsuccessful.

Mr Siv said the US was “perplexed and dismayed” by the African group’s decision to nominate Sudan, a country that he said “massacres its own African citizens”.

“The least we should be able to do is to not elect a country to the global body charged specifically with protecting human rights, at the precise time when tens of thousands of its citizens are being murdered or left to die of starvation,” he said.

Mr Manis countered: “It is yet very ironic that the United States delegation, while shedding crocodile tears over the situation in Darfur ... is turning a blind eye to the atrocities committed by the American forces against the innocent civilian population in Iraq, including women and children,” he said.

The incident came as a UN human rights mission confirmed “disturbing” findings about massive abuse of refugees fleeing attacks by government-backed militia and Sudanese troops in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

Up to one million people have been displaced, according to the UN.