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Sudan Tribune

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US State Dept.: Sudan genocide hard to prove

By BARRY SCHWEID, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON, Aug 11, 2004 (AP) — As human rights groups demand action against Sudan, the State Department is informing Congress it is difficult to establish that the Khartoum government is trying to destroy the non-Arab community in Darfur.

Adam_Ereli1.jpgAnd even if Secretary of State Colin Powell, who has been weighing a judgment for weeks, decides that Sudan and Arab-led militia in the province are committing genocide, the Bush administration would not be required to take legal action, the department said in an informal analysis obtained by The Associated Press.

Still, a finding of genocide could spur the international community to take more forceful and immediate action to respond to ongoing atrocities, the analysis said.

Asked about a report by Amnesty International this week that the Sudanese government was pressuring people not to report human rights abuses in Darfur, the State Department’s deputy spokesman, Adam Ereli, said he would have no comment on it and other reports.

“We continue to watch the situation carefully,” Ereli said Wednesday. “We are continuing to collect information.”

The U.N. Security Council on July 30 gave Sudan 30 days to rein in the Janjaweed militia and facilitate relief to black Africans uprooted from their homes in Darfur or face the prospect of sanctions.

However, most penalties that the United Nations or the United States could impose would have a negligible impact on the Sudanese government and the militia, said a U.S. official who keeps close watch on the humanitarian situation in the African country.

Freezing Janjaweed’s bank accounts in the United States is considered by U.S. officials to be mostly an empty gesture, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Travel curbs would not apply to diplomats who work at the United Nations, but an international arms embargo might have an impact, the United States has determined, the official said.

Business with Sudan by American firms already is banned because Sudan is listed by the State Department as a sponsor of terrorism.

Meanwhile, since Sudan joined the Genocide Convention last January, like all parties it would be obliged to prevent and punish acts of genocide on its territory.

The State Department analysis, being distributed informally to congressional offices during the summer recess, accuses Sudan of atrocities in Darfur but does not conclude whether they amount to genocide under the international accord.

Conditions that must be met for a declaration of genocide include killing or deliberately trying to bring about the physical destruction of a group and taking those actions against a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

In Sudan, the analysis said, this means determining whether the Arab militia or supporters of the Sudanese government have the specific intent to destroy the non-Arab members of certain groups.

In the past, the State Department has concluded that genocide occurred in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Burundi.

In London, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday that despite Sudan’s promise to improve security in Darfur, Sudanese troops and government-backed militia of Arab nomads continue to attack African farm communities, killing, raping and stealing with impunity.

In Brussels, Belgium, the European Union said Tuesday it would be up to U.N. experts to determine whether atrocities in Darfur amount to genocide.

An EU delegation went to the region last week, then reported on Monday that atrocities were being committee on a large scale but declined to classify them as genocide.

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