Rights Panel Rejects Darfur Resolution

Refugees from Sudan's Darfur ethnic conflict who have fled to Chad, collect water in the Djabal Refugee Camp in the eastern town of Goz Beida, in Chad on Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2006, among some 218,000 refugees from Darfur seeking refuge with the Central African nation. On Tuesday, Chad's information Minister accused some refugees of working for Sudan's government to destabilize his country and called for the camps to be evacuated. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena) (Christophe Ena - AP)

"Some governments in Africa do have a conscience," said Mariette Grange, of Human Rights Watch. The other African countries "should be in solidarity with the victims, and not in solidarity with the abusers," she added.

But she said she was encouraged that the 20 votes in favor of the EU measure were well over the 16 votes required to call an emergency session on Darfur, A number of Western delegations are ready to consider calling such a session, she said.

Canadian Ambassador Paul Meyer, who had joined with the EU in trying to pass a strong resolution, said that at least the council, set up six months ago, was finally addressing Darfur. Others were less impressed.

"It's another disappointment," said John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He called it "another example of the poor performance of the Human Rights Council, another reason why those who advocated going ahead with this council will have a heavy burden to bear."

The African resolution praised the government for cooperating with a U.N.-appointed expert on the human rights situation in Sudan and "calls upon the government to continue and intensify its cooperation with the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms."

A peace agreement signed by the Sudanese government and one rebel group in May has been ignored, and the violence has escalated in recent months. The accord committed the government to disarming the janjaweed, whom the United Nations has cited as being involved in recent atrocities.

The 47-nation council welcomed the peace agreement and called on the other rebel groups to sign it.

"The council notes that the Darfur Peace Agreement stipulates the principles of enhancing accountability and preventing impunity," the African resolution said. "It calls on all parties to uphold the principles which are equally applicable to states and non-state actors and to cooperate fully in the implementation of the agreement."

It also urged all sides to allow U.N. human rights monitors and aid workers full, unfettered access to those in need.

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Associated Press writer Frank Jordans contributed to this report.