UN panel stops short of calling Sudan killings genocide
By Nick Wadhams
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 1, 2005 (AP) – A UN commission has concluded that the Sudanese government and militias carried out mass killings and probably war crimes in the Darfur region, but stopped short of calling the violence genocide, according to a report released yesterday.
The panel recommended that the International Criminal Court investigate evidence of widespread abuses including torture, rape, killings of civilians, and pillaging.
While the commission was clearly reluctant to pronounce a verdict on the violence, it said many of the worst attacks ”may amount to crimes against humanity.”
”The conclusion that no genocidal policy has been pursued and implemented in Darfur by the government authorities, directly or through the militias under their control, should not be taken in any way as detracting from the gravity of the crimes perpetrated in the region,” the report said.
It recommended that the Security Council immediately refer the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court, the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal, saying ”serious violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law by all parties are continuing.”
The United States has accused Sudan’s government of directing militia fighters who attack civilians in what Washington calls a genocidal campaign in Darfur, where a two-year conflict has left tens of thousands of civilians dead.
Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said yesterday the UN report undermines the US genocide claims. ”They didn’t say that there is a genocide,” Osman said from the Nigerian capital of Abuja, where he is attending an African Union summit.
But a top negotiator for the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army said yesterday: ”If genocide means killing systematically people in one area, then there is genocide. For us, there is a genocide. Nobody can argue about it,” Abakar Mohamed Abu el-Bashar said by telephone from London.
Meanwhile, the Sudanese government and Darfur insurgents said they will relaunch peace talks in Abuja this month, raising hopes for a negotiated end to the conflict that three earlier peace conferences and a cease-fire agreement have failed to calm.
Sudan’s Darfur tumbled into war when rebels took up arms in February 2003. The most recent Darfur peace conference began Dec. 11 in Abuja, but rebels boycotted meetings with government delegates two days later, alleging a new government offensive. The talks broke down entirely within weeks.
Darfur’s smaller insurgent group, the Justice and Equality Movement, said yesterday that it would attend the talks if African Union negotiators it says have treated them unfairly are ”serious and objective,” said Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed, a top rebel official.
Mohammed also said the insurgents’ leadership wanted other intermediaries to join the talks, which have previously been held by the union. ”We are asking for a new kind of mediator. America and the European Union must come forward,” he said by phone from Eritrea.
The government and the Sudanese Liberation Army both said their negotiators would return to Abuja for further talks. A Western diplomat said the conference was scheduled for the third week of February.
On Sunday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the Security Council should continue to consider sanctions against Sudan over violence in Darfur, although deliberations have stalled due to divisions among members. ”I believe that sanctions should still be on the table,” Annan said.
The Darfur conflict began when rebels took up arms against what they saw as years of state neglect and discrimination against Sudanese of African origin.
The government is accused of responding with a counterinsurgency campaign in which an Arab militia, known as the Janjaweed, committed wide-scale abuses against the African population. An estimated 1.8 million people have been displaced in the conflict.