Nigeria’s Obasanjo unconvinced on US call of ‘genocide’ in Darfur

WASHINGTON, Dec 3 (AFP) — Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said Thursday he is unconvinced about a determination by the US government that “genocide” is being inflicted on Darfur’s indigenous black African population.

Asked in an interview with CNN if he agreed with the call by the administration of US President George W. Bush, Obasanjo replied: “Now, what I know of Sudan it does not fit in all respects to that definition.”

“The government of Sudan can be condemned, but it’s not as … genocide,” Obasanjo said, hours after meeting President Bush at the White House.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has lamented that other nations have not joined the United States in declaring that genocide is underway in Sudan’s troubled western region of Darfur.

Powell, who made the genocide determination on September 9, has said Washington’s assessment was based on carefully documented information.

The US Congress has also used the term in describing the Darfur humanitarian crisis which has provoked headlines around the world.

The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003, when rebels rose up to demand an end to the marginalisation of their region by Khartoum as well as a bigger share of Sudan’s riches. The United Nations has described the conflict as the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian crisis.

More than 70,000 people have been killed or have died from hunger and disease in the area, according to the United Nations, and another 1.5 million have been displaced.

Obasanjo said he agreed with Bush that there is an acute problem in the region that needs to be addressed, but added that “the real issue of Darfur is governance.”

“It is a political problem which has mushroomed into a military (one) when the rebels took up arms,” the Nigerian leader said.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines genocide as the attempted or deliberate and systematic extermination of an ethnic or national group.