Recent News
US Decision On U.N. Darfur Resolution Difficult, Burns Says
Friday, April 1st, 2005United States Department of State (Washington, DC)
PRESS RELEASE
April 1, 2005
Under secretary of state discusses U.N. vote, situation in Sudan The United States’ decision to abstain on a French-proposed U.N. Security Council resolution that would send Darfur war crimes cases to the International Criminal Court was a difficult one, Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said April 1. Speaking to reporters at the State Department, Burns noted that the United States sponsored two of the three resolutions to address the situation in Sudan that the Security Council passed during the preceding week. Of the resolution involving the International Criminal Court (ICC), he said: “This was a difficult decision for us, for obvious reasons, because of our long-standing position on the International Criminal Court. And our position on that Court has not changed as a result of this action. “But the secretary felt very strongly, as did many others in the administration, that we had to join the international community in a serious effort to see that justice was done in Sudan and that it was very important that the international community speak with one voice on this issue of justice to see if it’s possible that together we can make sure that those guilty of war crimes and atrocities are brought to justice, they’re held accountable and that they are tried before a competent international court and, if they are convicted by that court, serve long sentences. Burns added that the United States played “the critical role with our abstention on this resolution in not exercising the veto that we could have exercised as a permanent member to allow this to go forward.” The result, he said, “will hopefully motivate better behavior and an improvement in the human rights situation in Sudan itself.” Highlighting Secretary Condoleezza Rice’s focus on Sudan, Burns said that Deputy Secretary Robert Zoellick will represent the United States at the Sudan donors conference in Oslo, Norway, April 11-12 and might visit Darfur and Khartoum following the conference. “The secretary, since she took office, has devoted a lot of time to the question of Sudan because of the multiple layers of interest that we have there,” he said, including helping to solidify the North-South peace agreement of January 9 and working with the rest of the international community to address the human rights violations and humanitarian concerns in Darfur. Describing the intensive telephone diplomacy between Secretary Rice and her European counterparts that led to the final version of the third resolution, Burns said, “I think that what the secretary has been able to achieve here is indicative of the improved working relations that we have under her tenure with Europe in general and with other members of the Security Council.”
Loading... 
