Global Policy Forum

By Saul Hudson

The United States declared on Thursday genocide has occurred in Sudan's Darfur region and blamed the Khartoum government and Arab militias for the crisis that has driven more than a million people from their homes."We concluded that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility and genocide may still be occurring," Secretary of State Colin Powell said in testimony prepared for delivery to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Ahead of Powell's testimony, Sudanese lawmakers said a genocide ruling would hurt peace moves throughout Africa's largest country and could trigger Somalia-style chaos in the oil-exporting nation. "It will break everything. And the consequences will be so shameful," Angelo Beda, deputy speaker of Sudan's parliament, told a news conference on a visit to neighboring Kenya. "The U.S. is acting like a bull in a china shop."

While U.S. officials have said a declaration of genocide does not impose significant legal obligations on them, the use of the term could influence the diplomatic debate as the U.N. Security Council weighs a U.S.-proposed resolution that threatens oil sanctions if Sudan does not stop the abuses. "It doesn't automatically authorize force but it should change the dynamics of the negotiations," said Nina Bang-Jensen, director of the Coalition for International Justice, a nongovernmental group that conducted research on Darfur for the State Department. "This is genocide," she said. "There is a moral and legal imperative to act."

"LIKE SOMALIA"

Rebels began an uprising in Darfur in February 2003 after years of low-level fighting between mainly African farmers and Arab nomads over scarce land and water resources. Human rights groups have accused Arab Janjaweed militia of killing, raping and uprooting African villagers. Some 1.2 million people have fled their homes in what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Beda and his two fellow team members, touring several African capitals to put Khartoum's case on Darfur, said U.S. pressure on Sudan's Islamist rulers on Darfur would stir fresh separatist turmoil elsewhere in the country, would complicate Darfur peace efforts and could torpedo peace moves in the south.

"Our fear is that when the (Darfur) rebels hear this (determination of genocide), they will not come to us (for peace talks). They will think that the U.S. can simply throw the government away and they will come to power in Khartoum, and destroy (southern peace talks taking place in the Kenyan town of) Naivasha," Beda said.

"If the government is not there, the situation will be almost like Somalia," Beda said. Beda said that while there was "bad killing" there was no genocide. He encouraged reporters, particularly African ones, to visit Darfur to see for themselves that that was the case.

At Darfur peace talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja, Darfur rebels said negotiations with the Sudan government had reached stalemate and were on the verge of collapse. The two sides have been far apart on key security issues, including disarmament.

NO OPTION

Attempts by mediators to water down a security blueprint in a bid to keep the rebels and government talking do not seem to have persuaded the government to agree, a rebel spokesman said. "After the rejection by the government, we don't have any option but to go back to our constituencies," said Ahmed Hussain Adam of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel group.

The United States submitted a U.N. resolution on Wednesday threatening oil sanctions if Khartoum does not stop abuses and accept a large African Union (AU) monitoring force. Beda dismissed that threat, implying it would be voted down in the Security Council by Khartoum's allies. Sudan pumps about 320,000 barrels per day, and importers include China and Pakistan, two Security Council members who oppose sanctions. The draft U.N. measure also proposes an expanded mandate for African Union observers of a shaky April cease-fire in Darfur.

In Khartoum, Ghazi Salaheddin Atabani, a senior member of the ruling National Congress Party, told Reuters the government would be open to more AU troops and monitors, but expanding the mandate could be seen as a threat to Sudan's sovereignty.

A group of British-based charities urged more aid to Darfur, criticizing Japan for giving only $6 million in bilateral aid so far in 2004, France $9.6 million and Italy $10.8 million. In Nairobi, Jean-Marie Fakhouri, Sudan operations director for the U.N. refugee agency, said the U.N. did not have half the $400 million needed to tackle Darfur's refugee crisis.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Opheera McDoom in Khartoum, Tume Ahemba in Abuja, William Maclean in Nairobi and Andrew Cawthorne in London)

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