U.S. Report Finds Sudan Promoted Killings

[gottaB]

A State Department report detailing atrocities in the Darfur region of western Sudan concludes that the Sudanese government has promoted systematic killings based on race and ethnic origin, but officials said Tuesday that there was strong debate over whether Secretary of State Colin L. Powell should classify the violence as genocide.

State Department lawyers reviewing the report, based on 1,136 interviews collected in 19 refugee camps in neighboring Chad last month, said the evidence of rape, killing of male babies, use of racial epithets, burning of villages and displacement could easily meet the legal definition of genocide. Powell visited Darfur in June and requested the investigation.

A draft of the report, which was obtained by The Post and which will be issued in its final form Thursday, says the Sudanese government in coordination with the Arab militia known as the Janjaweed sought victims who were non-Arabs. Assailants often shouted racial and ethnic epithets such as "Kill the slaves" and "We have orders to kill all blacks."

Use of the word genocide is "a political question now," a high-ranking State Department source said. "Not a legal one."

U.S. Report Finds Sudan Promoted Killings....

[gottaB]

1. for those who don't want to register with WP

http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=5293

[gottaB]

2. Powell Leans Toward Genocide Finding in Darfur

http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6186039

[reorg]

3. would the rapes and the killings of children in Iraq and Afghanistan

also qualify as genocide in your opinion?

According to estimates by indigenous groups, in Iraq alone the killings of civilians number above 30000. Killed directly, not indirectly as most of the estimated number of starved refugees in Darfur, and the estimated 500000 to 1000000 in pre-war Iraq due to sanctions.

[gottaB]

4. several points

1. Deaths attributed to sanctions. You know that's not a straighforward case. Hussein's government must be held responsible for the choices it made. The ethics of US policy and UN actions are open to debate, but I have yet to see credible evidence of genocidal intent on the part of any players except for the government of Iraq.

2. Civilians killed in Iraq. I beleive there is evidence that the US has violated international humanitarian law and the laws of warfare in a number of instances. There are other cases that may not meet the criteria for war crimes, but which nonetheless reflect a callous disregard for human life. This has consistently been my position on this board. I have seen evidence of genocidal rage on the part of some soldiers. There is no example of US forces committing ethnic cleansing, as, for example, the Mahdi Army has done. It seems to me that all parties in the conflict have been guilty at times of indiscriminate use of weapons and disregard for the safety of civilians, and that is the reason for the high number of civilian deaths. It is not genocide.

3. Murder by starvation is hardly indirect in the case of Darfur. It is slow, and therefore offers an opportunity for others to intervene and prevent it, but when it finally happens it is murder.

4. Since you are a fan of death tolls, I will note that estimates for the current death toll in Darfur range from less than 5000 to well over 200,000. At this time, any number less than 80,000 dead due to lack of food and clean water reflects an unconscionable denial of the evidence.

[struggle4progress]

5. Kerry: Sudan Should Not Be New Rwanda

AFP: 9/9/2004
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, Sept 9 (AFP) - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said Thursday that the United States should not allow the 1994 genocide in Rwanda to be repeated in Sudan's Darfur region.

"We simply cannot accept another Rwanda," Kerry told the National Baptist Convention USA.

"The United States should ensure the immediate deployment of an effective international force to disarm militia, protect civilians and facilitate delivery of humanitarian assistance in Darfur," he told the meeting of black Protestant churches here.

"If I were president, I would act now. As I've said for months, I would not sit idly by," Kerry told the group. <snip>

http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=26750

[reorg]

6. Kerry is absolutely right

The most important thing currently is the delivery of humanitarian aid:

>>"If we do not get enough money by the end of the year, we may have to cut resources," Egeland said. He added that many countries did not give as much as they could and he hoped they would give more.<<

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=42970&SelectRegion=East_Africa


The good news is:

>>First food convoy for Sudanese refugees arrives in Chad: WFP

NAIROBI, Sept 9 (AFP) - A convoy of UN trucks carrying a first
emergency food aid consignment across the Sahara desert for Sudanese
refugees has arrived at a refugee camp in eastern Chad, the UN World
Food Programme (WFP) announced on Thursday.

"The arrival ends a 2,800-kilometre (1,750-mile) journey from
Libyas Mediterranean coast and opens up a new route to feed tens of
thousands of Sudanese refugees," who fled the violence-torn western
Sudan's Darfur region, WFP said in a statement released in Nairobi. ... <<

http://www.sudan.net/news/posted/9740.html


Of course it was never realistic to expect that Sudan could "reign in" and disarm all bandits and militia forces within 30 days, especially given that the insurgents in Darfur to this day decline to do their part of the deal. Understandable that the government of Sudan wants to have a say in who and how many outside armed forces come in and help.

Kerry is sort of lucky that he is not yet in the position to have to determine what an "effective international force" might have to consist of. A larger contingent of AU forces, funded with money from the EU, who have offered help in this respect, seems to be a realistic aim. It is probably the only solution, short of a full-scale, Iraq-style intervention, which certainly is not what Kerry has in mind.