Khartoum rejects US accusations of genocide in Darfur

KHARTOUM, Sept 13 (AFP) — Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha dismissed US accusations his government was guilty of genocide against non-Arab minorities in Darfur as grandstanding ahead of November presidential elections.

“We believe this was part of the election campaign and a result of pressure by the Zionist lobby on the two American parties,” Taha told a Khartoum news conference.

“There is no genocide in Darfur and there is no evidence or signs of genocide, not even mass killing.”

Taha insisted that all European ministers and even some US officials who had visited the war-wracked western region had found no proof to back the finding of US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The Sudanese vice president saw an Israeli hand in the crisis that has seen his government hauled before the UN Security Council.

“What is going on in Darfur is a fierce Zionist campaign against the Sudan,” he said.

“I have never seen in my life such a direct Israeli intervention as it is now in Darfur region. The Israelis think they have put the Euphrates (Iraq) in their pocket and they are now moving towards the Nile, Egypt and the Sudan alike.”

Powell told a Senate hearing Thursday 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.”

Washington has since been lobbying the Security Council to adopt a new resolution establishing a UN commission of inquiry for Darfur, where the world body estimates as many as 50,000 people have died in a bloody government clampdown on ethnic minority rebels.

Taha accused the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement of meddling in the Darfur crisis and warned that long-running peace talks with the southern rebels in the Kenyan town of Naivasha were at risk as well as talks with the Darfur rebels in the Nigerian capital.

“The role played by the SPLM … in support of the rebel movements in Darfur will have an adverse effect on the Abuja as well as Naivasha talks.

“We will need an explanation by (SPLM leader John) Garang on his recent statements about Darfur,” Taha said, adding that he still expected to lead the government delegation to a new round of talks in Naivasha later this month or early next month.

The vice president also accused the opposition Popular Congress party of detained Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi of conspiring with the Darfur rebels to topple the government.

The security services had “uncovered a plot the Popular Congress was planning to carry out in coordination with the Justice and Equality Movement to create an atmosphere for overthrowing the government,” he charged.

“The Popular Congress has trespassed all red lines and laws governing political practice and has begun practising military activity,” said Taha, adding that any ban would nonetheless be in accordance with the law.

The Sudanese authorities launched a major crackdown on the party last week after the reported discovery of several arms caches.

Party officials said the crackdown was continuing Monday with the arrest of several senior leaders, including Turabi’s son Siddeiq.

Turabi himself was also transferred to Kober prison from the Khartoum North remand home where he had been under house arrest since being released from hospital following a hunger strike against his continued detention, the officials said.

The 74-year-old Islamist leader was once the power behind President Omar al-Beshir’s regime but has spent most of the past four years in detention.