UN to hold emergency Darfur meeting

The UN Human Rights Council will hold an emergency meeting on the Darfur crisis following a request to do so today by 29 countries, UN spokesman Rolando Gomez said.

The request was sent in a letter drafted by 20 nations from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, said Ambassador Vesa Himanen of Finland, which currently holds the presidency of the European Union.

Nine more countries, including Nigeria, Morocco, South Africa and Cuba, submitted a motion in support, meaning the measure easily achieved the 16 signatures necessary to call a special session.

“We hope that we will have a profound discussion on the situation” in Darfur, said Himanen, “and we hope it is done in a constructive spirit and that there will be a clear and specific outcome to this session.”

He said the creation of a fact-finding mission was “one of the options” during the emergency meeting, but refused to speculate on whether or not there would be any specific censure of Sudan.

Today, the 47-nation council narrowly voted down a demand that the Sudanese government prosecute those responsible for killing, raping and injuring civilians in Darfur in favour of a proposal from African countries, supported by Muslim nations, that called on all parties in the conflict to end human-rights violations.

The weaker resolution was the result of heavy lobbying by the Sudanese government, which invited ambassadors from African countries to Darfur days before the council resumed work.

“The text adopted by the Human Rights Council was unsatisfactorily weak,” said Nicholas Thorne, British ambassador to UN offices in Geneva.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Louise Arbour, the top UN human rights official, then told the council they had to do more.

“A combination of both the secretary-general and the high commissioner for human rights emphasising just how awful the situation in Darfur is has helped us return to the charge and we have had little difficulty in getting the necessary support for a special session of the Human Rights Council on Darfur,” Thorne said.

The special session will be held on December 12, he said.

“We will be doing everything we can to ensure that the reality of the situation on the ground is exposed in the Human Rights Council,” Thorne said.

African leaders, meanwhile, meet in Nigeria to discuss bolstering the 7,000-strong African peacekeeping force in Darfur region with UN troops. The move is opposed by Sudan.

Three years of fighting between government and rebel forces in Darfur have caused the deaths of more than 200,000 people and forced some 2.5 million from their homes, according to UN estimates.