Sudan
US efforts successfully block Sudan seat in UN Security Council

afrol.com, 11 October - "The Clinton Administration deserves praise for successfully blocking the government of Sudan from gaining a seat on the UN Security Council," says the US Committee for Refugees (USCR), which welcomes yesterday's UN General Assembly vote that awarded Africa's new two-year seat on the UN Security Council to Mauritius over Sudan. US government officials fought an uphill diplomatic battle in recent weeks to help defeat the Sudanese government's bid for a highly coveted position on the Security Council. 

- The Clinton Administration deserves praise for its determined and effective efforts, the organisation, deeply involved in humanitarian aid to Sudanese civilians, USCR stated today. 

- The government of Sudan is viciously breaching every human rights and humanitarian standard for which the United Nations stands, said Roger Winter, executive director of USCR. "The Sudanese government even engaged in bombing a civilian target in south Sudan on the very day the UN vote occurred. Its electoral defeat in the General Assembly should be welcomed by all who value the United Nations and the principles it is supposed to embody." 

Winter commended the Administration and stated that "this outcome demonstrates that the Administration can work effectively on Sudanese issues when officials focus their energies. The US government can make a difference in the long Sudanese conflict-a conflict that has produced more than 2 million war-related civilian deaths and the largest population of uprooted civilians anywhere on earth. 

- We encourage the Administration to utilize the same tenacity and leadership to deal effectively with the Sudanese government's bombing of hospitals, schools, relief centers, and other civilian targets, Winter stated. "The Administration can lead the international community in confronting the outrages of the Sudanese government, if it wills to do so." 

Yesterday a Sudanese government plane bombed a school and a food distribution site in the village of Ikotos in southern Sudan's Eastern Equatoria Province. Ten humanitarian aid workers and thousands of Sudanese civilians were at the site during the bombing. It is at least the 64th time Sudanese planes have bombed a civilian or humanitarian target in southern Sudan this year, and at least the 129th such bombing during the past two years, according to a compilation by international aid workers in the region. More than 4 million Sudanese are internally displaced, and some 400,000 are refugees in neighboring countries. 

Source: US Committee for Refugees

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