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UN still haggling over language

As the violence continues in Darfur, United Nations representatives continue to fight over the language used in the Security Council’s resolution that would send 26,000 peacekeepers into Sudan.

Sudan’s U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, reacted harshly to a version of the draft that circulated at U.N. headquarters last week, calling it “ugly” and “awful.”

On Monday, however, Abdalhaleem declined to comment on the latest revised proposal, which was circulated to Security Council members over the weekend. “The consultations are at a sensitive stage,” he said.

The latest draft removes a specific mention of ongoing attacks by government forces and janjaweed militiamen against civilians and humanitarian workers in Darfur and drops a strongly worded condemnation of “continued violations” of the Darfur Peace Agreement.

It also scales back the peacekeeping force’s mandate slightly, removing a section permitting the troops to “take all necessary action” to monitor arms violations in the desert region under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.

Chapter 7 deals with threats to peace and security and can be enforced through measures ranging from breaking diplomatic and trade relations to military intervention.

As was the case in Rwanda, I can only imagine that these negations will continue to take place until the overall force of the resolution becomes utterly toothless. The greater the pressure from Sudan to clarify sections of Chapter 7, the closer the peacekeeping force comes to being stripped of any authority in the region, making it not only useless for humanitarians and civilians, but even dangerous for themselves.

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Iraq, another Cambodia?

Recently, presidential candidate Barack Obama was asked whether he felt that the United States should keep troops in Iraq in order to prevent a genocidal frenzy. He replied:

“By that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now — where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife — which we haven’t done. We would be deploying unilaterally and occupying the Sudan, which we haven’t done. Those of us who care about Darfur don’t think it would be a good idea.”

As Goldberg pointed out in an Op/Ed piece in the LATimes, the key difference is that those two genocides weren’t triggered by American occupation and withdrawal.

As often as we hear comparisons between the Vietnam War and Iraq, you would think that a greater number of people would be drawing the same conclusions between the Cambodian genocide and what’s likely to happen in Iraq. If the two follow the same course, we will likely see the United States withdraw from Iraq, followed by a seizure of power from a single faction, which will lead to the first organized steps toward persecution and genocide.

Of course, the truly absurd question becomes, will we once again be throwing our hat in the ring with genocidaires?

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ECCC’s first real act?

After years of foot dragging and legal bickering, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) announced that they have filed a petition to bring five defendants before the tribunal. After the judges review the evidence, a final determination will be made before filing a formal indictment.

The radical communist Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, when 1.7 million people were killed by torture, disease, overwork and starvation.

No Khmer Rouge leader has ever been brought into court to face charges for crimes that resulted in the deaths of as many as one-fourth of the population and left the country in ruin and trauma.

The announcement Wednesday said the prosecutors had submitted for investigation 25 “distinct factual situations of murder, torture, forcible transfer, unlawful detention, forced labor and religious, political and ethnic persecution.”

It listed allegations that it said constitute crimes against humanity, genocide, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, homicide, torture and religious persecution.

While the five names have not been made public, it’s likely the list includes Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, and Kaing Khek Iev. The prosecutors announced that they had submitted 14,000 pages of evidence against the five individuals, including the testimony of 350 witnesses and thousands of pages of Khmer Rouge government documents.

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Emotional Arithmetic

Emotional Arithmetic, a Holocaust related drama, will be closing this year’s Toronto Film Festival (Sept 6 – 15).

The film, based on the Matt Cohen novel of the same name, stars venerable Swedish actor Max von Sydow, Hollywood stalwarts Gabriel Byrne and Susan Sarandon and Canadians Christopher Plummer and Roy Dupuis.

Sarandon and Byrne portray survivors of a Second World War internment camp for Jews in France.

They make plans to reunite after discovering the political dissident (von Sydow) who had protected them at the camp did not die at Auschwitz as they had thought, and is still alive.

The film is of particular interest to me because it deals with the much neglected emotional aspect of Holocaust survival.

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Echeverria cleared of genocide

Last Thursday, a federal court ruled that the 1968 student massacre in Mexico City’s Tlatelolco Plaza was genocide but dismissed charges against former President Luis Echeverria.

Jesus Guadalupe Luna, chief judge in the case, said the massacre was ruled a genocide “because government authorities at the time jointly conducted a prearranged and coordinated action aimed at exterminating a national group of students from various universities.”

But the judge said there was no evidence linking Echeverria to the coordinated killings.

“None, absolutely none, of the evidence provided by the attorney general’s office indicates the participation of Luis Echeverria Alvarez in the preparation, conception or execution of the genocide,” Luna said at a news conference.

The court also ordered authorities to revoke Echeverria’s house arrest, in effect since November.

Federal prosecutors did not indicate immediately whether they would appeal. They have 10 days to file, Luna said.

The massacre, which happened shortly before the Mexican-hosted Olympics, is said to have left 25 people killed, even though human rights groups claim the number might be as high as 350. Echeverria was exonerated in a separate charge of genocide in 2005, for a similar massacre that took place in 1971.