UN assembly president calls Darfur violence ‘ethnic cleansing’

April 6, 2006 (STOCKHOLM) — U.N. General Assembly President Jan Eliasson said Thursday that “ethnic cleansing” has taken place in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region, but stopped short of describing the violence as genocide.

The U.N. has said crimes against humanity have likely been committed in Darfur, but not genocide as the United States and several other nations claim.

“Of course this is ethnic cleansing,” Eliasson told Swedish public radio. “Genocide, I don’t know if you can use that definition. But that matters less for the individual people who are affected.”

The United Nations has described Darfur as the site of the world’s gravest humanitarian crisis. The Arab-dominated government in Khartoum has been accused of backing the Janjaweed militia against civilians in an area where black African rebels revolted in 2003. An estimated 2 million have been forced from their homes.

“Darfur is a political and humanitarian tragedy and an infected wound in world politics,” said Eliasson, who also is Sweden’s incoming foreign minister.

Eliasson also said it was important to have a humanitarian presence inside the country, “not only to help relieve the distress, but also to have international ears and eyes that may alleviate the conflict.”

He said that it was important that people like Jan Egeland, U.N. Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs, were allowed to enter the region.

Sudan said Wednesday it would allow Egeland to visit Darfur, three days after it barred his flight to the conflict-ridden region of the country.

(ST/AP)