1/26/05

Annan Delays Report on Sudan Atrocities 

Khartoum To See Report Before Council 

By BENNY AVNI Special to the Sun 


   UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Annan’s much-anticipated report on whether the mass killings in Sudan’s Darfur region amount to genocide, which was due yesterday, will be delayed by at least a week and the government of Sudan will be allowed to see it before members of the Security Council. 
   On Monday, Mr. Annan admonished United Nations member states for failing to prevent past cases of genocide, and called on them to apply the post-Holocaust cry of “never again” to Darfur. In his speech during Monday’s special session on the Holocaust, Mr. Annan acknowledged that his report was due yesterday. 
   Mr. Annan’s spokesman, Fred Eckhard, however, said yesterday that the process of finalizing the report will not be completed before next week, even though the Security Council, which last October requested Mr. Annan to prepare the report, determined it should be finished yesterday. 
   The committee that prepared the report, headed by Italian judge Antonio Cassese, has finished writing the 100-page tome, Mr. Eckhard said. It is expected to be “transmitted” from Geneva and translated into six languages before it is made public. “The United Nations would give the report to the Sudanese government for comment, allowing three days for that process,” he added. 
   The position of the U.N. is that Khartoum should be allowed to look at the report first, but the Sudanese will not affect its conclusions. “I hope [Khartoum] will not be able to change it,” said the chair of the Africa desk at Human Rights Watch, Georgette Gagnon, which has been following the U.N.’s handling of Darfur closely. However, the mere fact that the government is allowed to look at the report before it is issued “puts them in a better position,” she said. 
   The question of whether genocide took place in Sudan, where nomadic Arab militias have systematically displaced roughly 1.5 million non-Arab villagers, killing hundred of thousands in the process, carries legal ramifications. 
   The Genocide Convention, enacted in 1951, calls for punishing perpetrators, although any such punishment should be applied by a “competent U.N. body,” such as the Security Council. 
   The council so far has been unable to agree on any meaningful action toward the militias known as Janjaweed, or the Sudanese government, which backs them. American diplomats however, believe that it would be harder for Sudan’s allies on the council, including China, to resist tough action if Mr.Annan determines that genocide is occurring, as did Secretary of State Powell. 
   Several diplomats told The New York Sun that they expected the Cassese report will fall short of defining the Darfur carnage as genocide, and that it would not even name any names. Either way, China sees sanctions as “counterproductive” Ambassador Wang Guange told the Sun.