12 March 2004
Khartoum Support of Ethnic Cleansing in Darfur Jeopardizing Peace
Congressmen frustrated with Islamic regime's "lies and deceit"
By Jim Fisher-Thompson
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- U.S. lawmakers agreed with top U.S. government officials March 11 that the Sudan government's support of ethnic cleansing in the country's western Darfur region is jeopardizing a peace process that has been making good progress and that the U.S. Government recently paid $4 million to facilitate.
House Africa Subcommittee Chairman Ed Royce (Republican of California) began the hearing on the impact of the Darfur conflict on the peace process by declaring: "There is no doubt about who is responsible for the carnage in the western region of Darfur. The [Khartoum] government has been rightly condemned for its attacks on the people of this isolated region."
As for the millions of mainly southern non-Muslims who have been murdered and hounded from their homes during the 20-year-long civil war, Royce said: "There is no doubt where the responsibility for this calamity lies. This Congress is on record condemning the National Islamic Front (NLF) Government of Sudan for genocide. It does not get clearer or starker than that."
Royce stressed that both Congress and the Bush administration agree that the attacks in Darfur are imperiling the settlement of a 30-year conflict that has already cost two million lives and displaced four million people. Before turning to State Department officials, he made two additional points: that perpetual negotiations are not in the cards and that the window for peace is closing fast.
Acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Charles Snyder told the lawmakers he was optimistic about a peaceful settlement to the civil war, but added, "We can't be where we are today on April 21," a benchmark date for the end of a portion of the peace talks set by the U.S. Sudan Peace Act.
"In Darfur people are dying in large numbers so we do not have the leisure for a long negotiation process," Snyder added.
Roger Winter, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) assistant administrator for democracy, conflict and humanitarian assistance, who recently visited Darfur, said non-Muslim Africans are being driven from their homes there in a systematic way. What is going on there is nothing short of "population clearing" or "ethnic cleansing," he ddeclared.
Winter said the violence was similar to Khartoum government attacks in the south that employed a combination of "Arab [Islamic] militias, aerial bombardment and a massive pattern of rape." In Darfur, he said, "you could see it from the air. This is a familiar pattern to us."
On reaction from Khartoum, Winter said, "What we see from the Sudan Government is spin control [propaganda]." The reality is that Darfur "is a place where tensions are so high we could be facing a massacre," he said. "The great humanitarian need now is not just for food but for protection. There must [inevitably] be a robust international presence," Winter concluded.
Charles Snyder said he did not envision an international force intervening in Sudan any time soon, although, he added, the U.S. Government had suggested a U.N. peacekeeping presence of between 8,000 and 10,000 men for sometime in the future.
However, Snyder echoed Winter, saying: "Of particular concern are the activities of the largely Arab Jingaweit militias. They are systematically burning African villages, killing and abusing civilians. We have rejected the government's claim that, while it may have originally supported the Jingaweit, they are now out of its control. These militias are proxies for the government and Khartoum bears responsibility for their conduct, whether they say they have control or not."
Representative Donald Payne (Democrat of New Jersey), who for years has castigated dictators and tyrannical regimes in Africa, characterized the Khartoum government as "a brutal regime responsible for deaths of many innocent civilians" that is creating "a situation in Sudan that is heart-wrenching and unmatched in its tragedy and brutality."
Despite what "the charm architects of the National Islamic Front" say, "there is no doubt to whom the land belongs" in Darfur and who is doing the attacking, Payne said. Asking an intern to hold up a large color photograph of a horribly malnourished child recently taken in Darfur, he said: "The Islamic government is good at lies and deceit. We should actually be banning travel to this country by Sudanese officials with this blood on their hands."
Representative Tom Tancredo (Republican of Colorado) voiced amazement at the audacity of the Khartoum government's aggression, coming so close to what was hoped would be the conclusion of peace talks. "Did they really think we wouldn't be watching this [conflict in Darfur]?" he asked rhetorically. He said his message to the Khartoum government was: "Sudan is on our radar screen and it will not get off."
According to Tancredo, "The scale of human catastrophe comes into clearer view with each passing day. The United Nations now claims that over a million civilians are internally displaced in Darfur, with an estimated 110,000 fleeing to Chad." He said the worst part is that "unfettered humanitarian access to the region is not happening," putting the lives of thousands at risk of starvation.
The lawmaker captured the subcommittee's frustration with the Khartoum government when he said: "We've been here before. It's déjà vu."
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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