Kerry wants broader effort by Bush on crisis in Sudan
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER, The New York Times
NANTUCKET, Mass., Sept. 2 — Senator John Kerry called on President Bush on Thursday to take the lead in stopping the killing of civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan by declaring it a genocide, pushing for tough United Nations sanctions on the government, backing the deployment of an international force and raising money for relief aid.
As a United Nations special envoy, Jan Pronk, briefed the Security Council in New York on his findings that Sudan had failed to rein in the Arab militias attacking black Africans in Darfur, Mr. Kerry said the choice facing the Bush administration was “whether to give Sudan another pass or, finally, to punish the real perpetrators of the violence.”
“Many governments want to evade the issue yet again,” Mr. Kerry said in a statement. “I hope ours will not be one of them.”
An estimated 50,000 black Africans have been killed and 1.2 million have been displaced by marauding Arab Janjaweed militias armed and encouraged by the Sudanese government. The United Nation has characterized the campaign of raping women, razing villages, destroying crops and poisoning water supplies as ethnic cleansing, and Congress has declared it genocide. A report by Secretary General Kofi Annan on Wednesday used the term “scorched-earth policy.”
In a sternly worded report based on the findings of Mr. Pronk, Mr. Annan said that attacks against civilians were continuing, that a vast majority of militias had not been disarmed and that “no concrete steps have been taken to bring to justice or even identify any of the militia leaders or perpetrators of these attacks, allowing the violations of human rights and the basic laws of war to continue in a climate of impunity.”
At the United Nations, the United States has taken the lead in pressing reluctant members of the Security Council to act on the Sudan crisis, and on Thursday Ambassador John C. Danforth, formerly President Bush’s special envoy to Sudan, complained that Mr. Pronk was too easy on the Sudanese government.
“The fact of the matter is that the government of Sudan has been directly involved in military action against civilian villages in Darfur, including within the last week, and it’s just important to set that straight,” Mr. Danforth said. Mr. Pronk, he said, was “flat-out wrong” not to have made that point.
Mr. Danforth added that the United States felt it was important to bring as much pressure as possible on Sudanese leaders. “Without that kind of pressure,” he said, “the government of Sudan will try to do its usual job of trying to float through this thing.”
Mr. Kerry noted that the administration had estimated in June that as many as one million civilians could die if the militias were not disarmed and relief aid failed to get through. Yet, he said, the administration “and the international community have not done nearly enough.”
He called on Mr. Bush to “stop equivocating” and declare the attacks a genocide, and to release the findings of a State Department investigation of the crisis. Two dozen experts hired by the department spent a month interviewing refugees and confirming widespread atrocities, and their report, which includes 1,200 interviews, is on the desk of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.
Mr. Kerry also said the president should press the United Nations to create a commission to investigate possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
He urged Mr. Bush to press the Security Council to impose sanctions on the Sudanese government in Khartoum, the capital, including freezing the assets of government leaders and their business affiliates, outlawing arms sales or transfers to Sudan, and embargoing Sudanese oil.
Administration officials have dismissed such talk as unrealistic, however, given the opposition of Security Council members, particularly China and France. On Wednesday evening, Mr. Powell cautioned that sanctions could be vetoed or could make Khartoum more intransigent.
Mr. Kerry also said the United States should provide or help raise the full $531 million needed for food, medicine and other relief supplies. The administration says it will have allotted $295 million by the end of the month.
On the question of military intervention, Mr. Kerry said the administration should push the United Nations to deploy an international force and to authorize it to use all means necessary to disarm militias, protect civilians and allow aid to get through.
Warren M. Hoge contributed reporting for this article from the United Nations, and Steven R. Weisman from Washington.