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05/04/2004: "Please let the UN run Iraq!"
The UN again shows what it's made of:
Sudan won re-election to the United Nations main human rights watchdog on Tuesday, prompting the United States to walk out because of ethnic cleansing in the country's Darfur region.
Sudan's envoy immediately accused the U.S. delegation of "shedding crocodile tears," and said the United States had turned a blind eye as Iraqi prisoners were mistreated and civilians were harmed in battle.
Fourteen seats were filled on Tuesday for the 53-nation U.N. Human Rights Commission based in Geneva. Many were decided by regional groups before Tuesday's voting in the Economic and Social Council in New York.
In the African regional group, Sudan, Guinea, Togo and Kenya, were chosen for three-year terms on the commission, beginning in January.
Sichan Siv, the U.S. delegate to the council, accused Sudan of having no right to sit on the rights commission because of ethnic cleansing in Darfur where government troops are accused of backing Arab militia which pillage black Africa villages, raping and killing. The Khartoum government denies it is involved in ethnic cleansing.
"The United States will not participate in this absurdity," said Siv before briefly walking out of council chambers. "Our delegation will absent itself from the meeting rather than lend support to Sudan's candidacy."
He also walked out a year ago when Cuba won a seat on the commission.
Sudan's deputy U.N. ambassador, Omar Bashir Mohamed Manis, said the United States had no right to accuse anyone of human rights violations after the allegations of mistreatment of Iraqis held in U.S.-run prisons in Iraq.
The US mistreats a small number of Iraqi prisoners (actions for which the soldiers in question will undoubtedly be severely punished, and changes made in the way said prisoners are handled). The Sudanese government kills or permits to be enslaved almost two million of its non-Muslim citizens over the course of a decade-plus civil war. I can see why Manis would think those were morally equivalent actions–if he were a conscienceless psychopath.
