Zoellick’s assertion of Darfur ignores systematic genocide
Genocide Intervention Network
– Contact: Ivan Boothe, Communications Director, Genocide Intervention Network
(202) 557-1636, [email protected], www.GenocideIntervention.net
State Dept. Reneging on Responsibility to Protect Civilians
Nov 14, 2005 (WASHINGTON) — The Genocide Intervention Network today strongly condemned Assistant Secretary of State Robert Zoellick’s mischaracterization of the current genocide in Darfur, Sudan, as a “tribal war.” More than a year ago, President Bush and the United States Congress declared that genocide was occurring in Darfur, and the facts of the conflict have not changed since that time.
Many politicians made similar claims to Sec. Zoellick during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, attempting to draw attention away from the responsibility of international governments to protect civilians being systematically slaughtered by their own government. Like in Rwanda, the Genocide Intervention Network said, the use of the “tribal war” explanation in Darfur ignores the calculated political decisions being made by the Sudanese government in conducting genocide.
Since the genocide began in 2003, more than 400,000 civilians have been killed and 2.5 million Darfurians have been displaced.
“The civilians of Darfur have not been fighting a two-sided tribal war,” GI-Net Education Director Rajaa Shakir said, “they have been fleeing a government-sponsored campaign to eliminate them.”
Zoellick’s comments, made to reporters in Khartoum on Nov. 9, asserted that the United States cannot “clean it up” in Darfur because Western peacekeepers would not want to “get in the middle of a tribal war of Sudanese.” Two days later he said, “If people are determined to kill each other there’s not a lot the United States can do.”
The Genocide Intervention Network responded strongly to this assertion.
“The only parties that are ?determined’ to kill are members of the genocidal government of Sudan and members of the Janjaweed militia that they have employed,” Shakir said.
Like the organized militia that managed to kill 800,000 Rwandan civilians in 100 days, the Arab Janjaweed militia is working to carry out the orders of its government. Members of the Janjaweed belong to a variety of Darfurian ethnic groups, but are united in their close relationship with the government of Sudan and their systematic slaughter of Darfurian civilians.
“The people of Darfur are not destined to fight,” Shakir said. “History has shown us that genocide is not a set of random acts of violence, it is the result of strategic political decisions. Given our position in the world, even a little diplomatic pressure by the United States to encourage the United Nations or NATO to take a stronger role in intervention efforts would make a big difference.”
Indeed, GI-Net said, Zoellick’s statements are a disturbing movement away from former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s accurate portrayal of the situation a year ago as a “consistent and widespread” pattern of genocide.
“This was a coordinated effort, not just random violence,” Powell said on Sep. 9, 2004.
The majority of the 400,000 civilians who have been killed in Darfur are not part of the anti-government and anti-Janjaweed militias – they are unarmed, non-combatant men, women and children who have been mercilessly attacked and driven from their homes, GI-Net said.
“The Bush administration and the State Department have previously used the term genocide in correctly assessing the situation in Darfur,” GI-Net Chief Executive Mark Hanis said. “Sec. Zoellick’s comments are an unfortunate distraction from what the United States can do – and indeed, what it must do as part of its responsibility to protect civilians from genocide. His claims seek to renege on that responsibility.”
A poll conducted in July by PIPA-Knowledge Networks revealed that 71 percent of Americans, seeing the genocide for what it is, believe the United States and NATO should provide equipment and logistical support to the African Union peacekeepers in Darfur.
The Genocide Intervention Network works to mobilize an anti-genocide constituency in the United States and Canada to raise the costs for inaction by politicians in the face of genocide. GI-Net, accessible online at GenocideIntervention.net, empowers its members with the tools to support initiatives that directly protect civilians in Darfur from genocidal violence.