US Powell calls Sudan atrocities ‘genocide’
WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (AFP) — US Secretary of State Colin Powell called atrocities in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region “genocide” and called for a thorough UN probe into the crisis, hastening moves toward international sanctions on the Khartoum government.
Powell told a Senate hearing that evidence compiled by the United States “concluded that genocide has been committed in Darfur and the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility, and that genocide may still be occurring.”
The government in Khartoum has been accused of arming and backing Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, that have rampaged through Sudan’s western Darfur region.
An estimated 50,000 people have been killed and 1.4 million more uprooted in a campaign against black Africans that started out as an attempt to put down a rebel uprising launched in February 2003.
Powell said the United States had proposed a resolution to the UN Security Council, asking for a “full-blown and unfettered” investigation to confirm genocide had been committed and possibly consider oil sanctions on Sudan.
He said he had spoken to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the matter.
The resolution would “request a UN investigation into all violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law that have occurred in Darfur, with a view to ensuring accountability,” Powell said.
In reaction to Powell’s statement, Sudanese Finance Minister Ahmed Hassan al-Zubeir denied there was genocide in Darfur.
“This is just another sort of pressure brought against the government of Sudan by the United States and Western governments, the kind of general political pressure that shows the US is not a friend of Sudan,” al-Zubeir told AFP on leaving an African Union summit in Burkina Faso.
In Nairobi, Sudan’s deputy parliamentary speaker Angelo Beda said his country was confident the UN Security Council will not impose sanctions.
“We don’t think the United States will make it in the Security Council,” Beda told a press conference. “We are a member (of the UN), we have our supporters,” added Beda who is touring east African to rally support.
But a spokesman for the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement, Abdelhafiz Mustafa Musa, called the US move “a welcome development”. He added: “This has been our position all along that the Sudanese government and its militia, the Janjaweed, have continued to kill innocent civilians in Darfur.”
The proposed US resolution would call Khartoum to cooperate fully with an expanded African Union (AU) force and for cessation of Sudanese military flights over the Darfur region. “The AU force is our number one priority,” Powell said.
The mandate of the new force is the subject of Nigerian-sponsored talks between Sudan and Darfur rebels in Abuja, Nigeria.
The resolution also provides for international overflights to monitor Darfur.
Sudan is a contracting party to an international genocide convention and is obliged under the convention to prevent and punish acts of genocide.
“To us, at this time, it appears that Sudan has failed to do so,” Powell told the Senate foreign relations committee.
A key provision of the Genocide Convention provides that contracting parties “may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide.”
Powell said US evidence from interviews on refugees and other sources showed that the “Janjaweed and Sudanese military forces have committed large-scale acts of violence, including murders, rape and physical assaults on non-Arab individuals.”
He said they had destroyed villages and foodstuffs and obstructed humanitarian aid from reaching affected populations, thereby leading to further deaths and suffering.
“Despite having been put on notice multiple times, Khartoum has failed to stop the violence,” he said.
Powell, who had made a recent trip to the crisis area with Annan, said global action was critical to meet the desperate needs of the Darfur people.
“Call it a civil war. Call it ethnic cleansing. Call it genocide. Call it none of the above. The reality is the same: there are people in Darfur who desperately need our help,” he said.
Powell said while he expected the Sudanese government to reject the US conclusion of genocide, the simple way for Khartoum to avoid condemnation was to end the attacks and hold to account those responsible for past atrocities.
“That is the only way to peace and prosperity for this war-ravaged land.”