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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
SUDAN: US pressures Khartoum over Darfur situation
NAIROBI, 16 Jun 2004 (IRIN) - The United States government is threatening to take action against Sudan over what it said were ongoing human rights atrocities in the western region of Darfur.
"We do not intend to stand by while violence and atrocities continue in Darfur," said Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Charles Snyder in a statement before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Tuesday. "Our message to the government of Sudan is clear: Do what is necessary now, and we will work with you. If you do not, there will be consequences. Time is of the essence. Do not doubt our determination."
Snyder said the US administration was "exploring actions" it could take against individuals responsible for the situation in Darfur, specifically by "freezing assets they may have in the US and prohibiting the issuance of visas to them".
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said last week that the US government was considering whether the mass displacements and killings in Darfur constituted "genocide". He said the matter was being discussed "inter-agency" and that lawyers and policy officials were looking into it.
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide - to which the US is a signatory - defines genocide as acts "committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, [ethnic], racial or religious group". Such acts include killing; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of a group; and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a group in whole or in part.
Over one million non-Arabs have been displaced within Darfur, predominantly by attacks conducted by Arab Janjawid militias, who are reportedly allied to the government. Up to 200,000 people have fled to neighbouring Chad, while estimates of numbers killed vary from between 15,000 and 30,000. According to the US Agency for International Development, a further 350,000 may die over the coming months from a combination of hunger and disease.
Snyder said the situation in Darfur was one of the US government's highest priorities. "We have surprised the government of Sudan by our tough actions on Darfur. Clearly, the government of Sudan had calculated that our desire to see a north-south accord might lead us to adopt a softer approach on Darfur. That was a major miscalculation, and the government now understands that."
He said the conflict was clouding prospects for the implementation of a comprehensive peace accord between the government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army. "We cannot and will not lessen pressure on the government of Sudan and allow what is happening in Darfur to continue in order to achieve a north-south peace accord... Continued instability in western Sudan would fatally complicate efforts to implement a north-south accord."
Last week, the Sudanese government, which denies any responsibility for the human rights abuses, accused US media of a "smear campaign" against it over the conflict, saying coverage was "unbelievably biased" against Khartoum.
On 14 June, Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir announced on Sudanese television that the army was "in control of the situation" in Darfur and that "peace" had been achieved because of the sacrifices made by the armed forces. He added that the army would continue to guard and defend the peace "with all the means at its disposal".
A ceasefire signed on 8 April by Khartoum and Darfur's two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, has reportedly reduced levels of insecurity to some degree, according to relief workers. But thousands of Janjawid - whom the government is committed to neutralising under the terms of the agreement - are continuing their attacks against civilians, while the army has also reportedly conducted aerial bombardments.
In May, a London-based think-tank, Justice Africa, reported that grave human rights abuses being committed had compelled Sudan watchers to ask who was responsible for the policies being enacted. "Suspicion falls upon the clique of senior security officers who have, over the years, presided over serious abuses in Juba, the Nuba mountains and the oilfields, and on those who have been most closely associated with the militia strategies in Kordofan and Darfur", reaching back as far as the early 1980s, it said.
The report can be found at: http://www.justiceafrica.org/bulletin.htm
The Sudanese deputy ambassador in Nairobi, Kenya, Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, told IRIN on Wednesday that he had no comment on any issues relating to Darfur. "I have no idea about Darfur," he said.
Snyder said that the conflict in Darfur had, in act, "profoundly shaken" the Sudanese government, because it posed a greater threat to it than the war in the south ever did. Support for Darfur's rebels was coming from Darfur's predominantly Muslim population and could fuel other insurgencies in other parts of northern Sudan, he noted. "This, I believe, explains why the government of Sudan has adopted such brutal tactics in Darfur. The government is determined to defeat the JEM and the SLM/A at any cost to the civilian populations."
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004
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