By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS
The Associated Press
Tuesday, November 28, 2006; 6:47 PM

GENEVA -- The U.N. Human Rights Council rejected on Tuesday an attempt to hold the Sudanese government responsible for halting atrocities in Darfur, opting instead for a less-pointed resolution calling on all warring parties to end abuses.

The council, which took over from the discredited U.N. Human Rights Commission June, is dominated by African and Muslim countries that have sided with China, Cuba and other countries in preventing criticism of any government but Israel.

The council voted 22-20 against a resolution from the European Union and Canada demanding the Sudanese government prosecute those responsible for killing, raping and injuring civilians in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

The showdown followed months of negotiations between the European Union and the council's African group on what approach to take toward Darfur, which the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian disaster.

After rejecting the EU-Canada resolution, the council then voted 25-11 with 10 abstentions to approve the African group's resolution.

That resolution called on all parties to the conflict "to put an immediate end to the ongoing violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, with a special focus on vulnerable groups, including women and children."

It also called on those parties not to hinder the return of all internally displaced persons to their homes.

The African resolution does not blame President Omar al-Bashir's government, which has been accused of unleashing brutal militiamen known as janjaweed in fighting Darfur rebels. The janjaweed are widely alleged to have destroyed hundreds of villages, killing the inhabitants, raping women and stealing livestock.

The government has always denied backing the janjaweed. But U.N. investigators said the government armed the janjaweed, and members of the militia have acknowledged receiving state support.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million others displaced since the conflict began in February 2003, when Darfur's ethnic African tribesmen took up arms against what they saw as decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab government in Khartoum.

The council is meant to be a watchdog that monitors and reports on human rights abuses. It does not have the power to sanction but can send fact-finding missions and draw international attention to a country's human rights record.

India, Russia and Sri Lanka were among the countries that rejected the EU measure. Some in the African group broke ranks including Ghana, which voted for the EU measure, and Mauritius and Zambia, which abstained.

"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.