Representatives of 50 countries on Wednesday vowed to do whatever it takes to avoid a repeat of the World War II Holocaust, as they wrapped up an international conference on genocide.
Delegates said they were "committed to using and developing practical tools and mechanisms to identify as early as possible and to monitor and report genocide threats to human life and society in order to prevent the recurrence of genocide, mass murder and ethnic cleansing."
Their final declaration, presented after three days of discussions in the Swedish capital and adopted by consensus, is to serve as a political basis for future discussions and follow-up mechanisms.
Noting that the Holocaust "challenged the foundations of human civilisation," the participants agreed to shoulder "our responsibility to protect groups identified as potential victims of genocide ... drawing upon the range of tools at our disposal to prevent such atrocities."
For starters, the 50 countries said they would "seriously and actively" consider UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's proposal, at the opening of the conference Monday, for the creation of a Committee on the Prevention of Genocide and a Special Rapporteur on the genocide prevention, who would report directly to the UN Security Council.
There was however no mention in the final declaration of the International Criminal Court, which is widely considered to be one of the most promising new tools in the fight against genocide.
Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson said Wednesday that the ICC received the support of "the overwhelming majority of countries".
Washington has long expressed fears that the court could become a forum for politically motivated prosecutions of US citizens, especially soldiers deployed abroad, and has waged a world-wide campaign to ink immunity pacts since the court came into being in 2002.
On Tuesday, the conference was told that 13 countries face the threat of genocide, with Sudan, Myanmar and Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at greatest risk.
The other eight countries in danger are Somalia, Uganda, Algeria, China, Iraq - despite the US-led regime change there - and Afghanistan, Pakistan and Ethiopia.
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