Row over UN rights commission continues

The US State Department on Wednesday voiced opposition moves to plans in the US Congress to withhold American dues to the UN because of last week’s ouster of the US from the UN Human Rights Commission in a secret ballot, which saw Sudan and other “human rights abusers” elected. The non-election of the US was galling enough to US congressmen, but the election of Sudan - which is on the US list of states sponsoring terrorism, and was recently described by US President George W. Bush as “a disaster for all human rights” - had reinforced a deep disillusionment in the US Congress about the UN, the Associated Press agency (AP) reported on Wednesday. The Human Rights Commission election, by 54 UN member states on the UN Economic and Social Council, follows a series of public disagreements between Sudan and the new US administration, which has come under strong pressure domestically to take a harder line against Khartoum on human rights - and particularly religious rights. News organisations reported Bush’s “human rights disaster” comments and an allegation that Khartoum was using humanitarian aid for southern Sudan for its own interests and not to relieve suffering; these were strongly denounced by Sudanese presidential adviser for the South, Makki Ali Balayil. He also denounced the US appointment of a special humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, saying that it appeared from Bush’s comments that “the new envoy will proceed from a hostile attitude, and from ideas and convictions which have been formed beforehand and which are not related to reality,” AFP quoted Balayil as saying. The latest session of the UN Human Rights Commission, which concluded on Monday, expressed “concern at violations in areas under control of the government, including restrictions on freedom of religion, expression, association and peaceful assembly, arbitrary arrest and detention without trial, and cases of torture”. It also called on Khartoum “to cease immediately all indiscriminate aerial bombardments of the civilian population”, and for the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) “to abstain from using civilian premises for military purposes”. It urged all parties to the conflict to respect and protect human rights; to put in place an effective and monitored ceasefire; to resume peace talks immediately; and to stop the use of weapons against the civilian population.