Darfur denial

Editorial, The Boston Globe

Feb 6, 2005 — THE UNITED Nations Commission of Inquiry that has compiled devastating documentation of crimes against humanity in the Darfur region of Sudan nevertheless brought shame on the UN by submitting a report last week that absolves the National Islamic Front regime in Sudan of the crime of genocide.

The commission did find that the murdered civilians of Darfur — probably more than 200,000 already — and the 2.4 million ethnically cleansed refugees facing death from disease and malnutrition have suffered from violations of international humanitarian law.

The commission even identified the government in Khartoum and its Arab militia allies known as Janjaweed as the parties responsible.

These crimes are described as “killing of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillaging and forced displacement throughout Darfur.”

Moreover, the commission said these crimes were perpetrated “on a widespread and systematic basis.” Yet in what seems a politically motivated contortion of language and logic, the commission concluded “that the Government of Sudan has not pursued a policy of genocide.”

Using — or misusing — the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the commission decided that Khartoum’s crimes satisfied only two of three elements needed for such a finding.

Khartoum’s “deliberately inflicting conditions of life likely to bring about physical destruction” met the standard for genocide, the report found. It also allowed that the Fur, Massalit, Zagawa, Jebel, Aranga, “and other so-called ‘African’ tribes” fit the Convention’s definition of a “protected group being targeted by the authors of criminal conduct.”

Nevertheless, the commission’s report declared that “the crucial element of genocidal intent appears to be missing, at least as far as the central government authorities are concerned.”

This conclusion was reached despite a recognition that some of Sudan’s “government officials may commit acts with genocidal intent.”

But only genocidal intent can explain Khartoum’s policy to kill off the 2.4 million refugees by destroying their villages and the lifesustaining basis of their agriculture and then fostering violence that prevents food and medical assistance from reaching large numbers of them.

The Bush administration is wrong to oppose — for other reasons — the commission’s suggested referral of the Darfur crimes to the International Criminal Court. But the commission, in denying the existence of the Darfur genocide in a way that suits the amoral interests of governments represented in the UN, has failed to end a much greater wrong — the genocidal annihilation of Darfur’s African tribal groups