NATO says UN should decide on atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region

RUSSELS, Aug 10, 2004 (Xinhua) — The European Union (EU) said Tuesday that UN experts should determine whether killings and other atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan amounted to genocide.

“It’s up to the UN to make this decision,” said an EU official,who asked not be identified.

On Monday, the EU said that it has found no evidence of genocide in the troubled region of Darfur, though there was widespread violence there.

The 25-nation organization has sent a fact-finding mission to Sudan recently, which was headed by Pieter Feith, an adviser to EUforeign policy chief Javier Solana.

The UN estimates that around 50,000 people have died as a direct or indirect result of the conflict in Africa’s largest country.

Sudan has said it expects to meet UN demands to make progress in security and human rights in the region in a bid to avoid sanctions.

The East African country has around three weeks left to show itis serious about disarming militia known as Janjaweed in Darfur, where the UN says conflict has triggered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, or face sanctions.

Sudan’s government has been accused of arming the militia to carry out a campaign of ethnic cleansing. It denies the charges and says the Janjaweed are outlaws.

The UN and Sudan agreed on a pact last week to disarm the Janjaweed and other outlawed groups, establish safe areas for the displaced and address the humanitarian disaster.