EU lawmakers call Darfur crisis ‘genocide’, urge trials of militiamen

STRASBOURG, Sept 16 (AFP) — The European parliament on Thursday urged Sudan to arrest and try those guilty of committing crimes against humanity in the strife-torn western Darfur region, saying the crimes amounted to “genocide”.

In a resolution that earned widespread backing, EU lawmakers urged Sudan “to end impunity and to bring to justice immediately the planners and perpetrators of crimes against humanity, war crimes and human rights violations, which can be construed as tantamount to genocide”.

The Strasbourg assembly said that should Khartoum fail to do so, “the international community will have to find a way of ensuring they are brought to justice, including those responsible in the present Sudanese regime”.

An estimated 50,000 people have died in Darfur and another 1.4 million have been displaced in what UN officials have called a campaign of ethnic cleansing by state-sponsored Arab militias against black Africans.

EU lawmakers said that those responsible for the violence could be tried in the International Criminal Court, the world’s first permanent war crimes court.

They condemned Sudan “for its deliberate support in Darfur of the targeting of civilians from certain communities” including “killings, the use of sexual violence against women, looting and general harassment”.

Noting Sudan’s recent importation of Russian-made MIG warplanes, the EU lawmakers called on the UN Security Council to “consider a global arms embargo on Sudan”.

On Monday, European Union foreign ministers renewed a threat of sanctions against the Sudanese government unless it moves to disarm the Arab militia wreaking havoc in Darfur.