Islamic countries said Wednesday they would try to stop the U.N. Human Rights Council from considering a hard-hitting report accusing Sudan of orchestrating atrocities in Darfur on grounds that the mission which produced it did not visit the region.
Instead, a new U.N. mission should be appointed, with the members approved by the Sudanese government, so that human rights violations in Darfur can be investigated properly, senior officials of the Organization of the Islamic Conference told reporters.
"We didn't recognize the mission to have fulfilled its mandate, and we rejected the report," said Babacar Ba, the OIC's representative to the United Nations in Geneva.
His words echoed those of the Sudanese government, which on Tuesday told the 47-nation council that Khartoum "strongly and resolutely" opposes any consideration of the report written by a team of experts led by Nobel peace laureate Jody Williams.
Ba said the OIC had tried to persuade the council's chairman, Luis Alfonso de Alba, "not to release the report because it is a non-report."
The 35-page document, which was drawn up outside the country after Sudan refused to grant the team visas, was posted on the council's Web site on Monday, but it has yet to be taken up by the body.
It urges the United Nations to protect civilians against a Sudanese government-orchestrated campaign in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced by four years of fighting.
Sudan's only problem with the mission was the inclusion of former acting U.N. rights chief Bertrand Ramcharan, Ba said.
Sudanese Justice Minister Mohammed Ali al-Mardi refrained from naming Ramcharan in his speech Tuesday, but he said he was especially concerned about "the outspoken expressions by a member of the mission of a preconceived judgment about the situation in Darfur" and making allegations of genocide in violation of standards of impartiality and neutrality.
"If the council designates another acceptable man to be a member of this council, I'm sure the Sudanese will receive this mission," Ba said, adding that "we in the OIC group will propose this and we want this mission to be sent to Darfur."
"The mission should be composed of impartial names, and also agreed by the government," said OIC secretary-general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.
European countries are pressing for the current report to be accepted by the council and its recommendations, including the deployment of a joint United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force as demanded by the U.N. Security Council, to be implemented.
Source: The International Herald Tribune