US refugee committee urges Bush to act on Darfur

CAIRO, May 13 (Reuters) – U.S. President George W. Bush must take action to stop the killing in Sudan’s Darfur region and prevent hundreds of thousands of displaced people from starving to death, the U.S. Committee for Refugees said in a statement.

The committee compared the conflict to the 1994 Rwandan genocide and warned Bush he would be remembered for inaction — as former President Bill Clinton was after Hutu extremists killed about 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Rebels launched a revolt in arid Darfur in western Sudan in February last year, accusing the Khartoum of neglect and arming marauding Arab militias who loot and burn African villages. U.N. officials have called the conflict ethnic cleansing.

The government denies the charge, saying the Arab militias, also known as Janjaweed, are outlaws.

“We concur with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and…many others who…call for strong action now. Unless President Bush heeds these calls, he risks repeating Clinton’s mistake in Rwanda,” the committee, a non-governmental organisation, said in a statement sent to Reuters.

“The world knew about Rwanda then and knows about Darfur now.”

Clinton visited Rwanda in 1998 and apologised for not recognising the crime of genocide.

“For the sake of his name in history, Mr. Bush must avoid ever having to make a similar apology over Darfur.”

U.N. officials and aid groups say one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises is unfolding in remote Darfur, where about one million are displaced and more than 110,000 refugees are encamped in neighbouring Chad.

Earlier this month Sudanese military sources and rebels said fighting was continuing in central Darfur, despite a truce signed in April between the two sides. Darfur is roughly the size of France.

“Everyone knows what’s happening and who’s to blame: the Sudanese government, which has been committing massive crimes… to displace the indigenous population, has not disarmed its proxy Janjaweed militia, and is blocking access by the international community,” the committee said.