EU: Up to UN to decide if Sudan atrocities are genocide

BRUSSELS, August 10, 2004 (AP) — The European Union said Tuesday it would be up to U.N. experts to determine whether killings and other atrocities in the Sudanese province of Darfur amounted to genocide.

The U.S. Congress and some humanitarian groups have accused the Sudanese government of genocide, but the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has held off on making a judgment.

An E.U. military-civilian team that visited the region last week reported Monday that atrocities were being committed on a large scale, but declined to classify them as genocide. Team leader Pieter Feith stressed, however, that his trip was only five days and was not an expert mission.

“It’s up to the United Nations … to make this decision,” an E.U. official said Tuesday on customary condition of anonymity. “The aim of his mission was not to see if this was genocide or not. The aim was to see how the E.U. could further support” resolving the crisis.

The U.N. describes the 18-month conflict in Darfur as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Pro-government Arab militia have waged a counterinsurgency campaign that has seen widespread destruction of villages and the displacement of about 1 million people. Some 30,000 people have been killed.

Among the recommendations made by Feith, an adviser to E.U. foreign policy representative Javier Solana, was a suggestion that E.U. governments and other countries, such as Egypt, send an advisory group of 25-30 police officers to work with Sudanese police.