Military

DATE=03/30/2005

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT (CQ)

TITLE=BRITAIN / SUDAN (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-323585

BYLINE=MICHAEL DRUDGE

DATELINE=LONDON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

///EDITORS: In sixth graf of text, changed word "scare" to "scarce." No other changes.///

HEADLINE: British Lawmakers Decry Sudan Violence

INTRO: A committee of the British Parliament says about 300 thousand people have been killed in ethnic warfare in Sudan's western Darfur region. That figure is more than four times larger that the United Nations' estimate. VOA's Michael Drudge has details from London.

TEXT: The International Development Committee of the House of Commons has issued its findings in a report published Wednesday.

The committee says the U.N. World Health Organization has made a "gross underestimate" by reporting only 70-thousand deaths in the Darfur conflict, which began in February, 2003.

The committee estimates 300-thousand people have been killed and that the attacks on civilians in Darfur are -- in the report's words -- "no less serious or heinous that genocide."

In the committee's view, the world community is guilty, as the report puts it, of a "scandalously ineffective response" to the crisis. Committee Chairman Tony Baldry elaborated on that point in comments to British radio.

///BALDRY ACTUALITY///

"One of the tragedies about Darfur is that for the whole of the earlier part of this disaster, the international community seemed to turn its eyes away or it was just not willing to recognized the scale and the horrendousness of what was actually going on."

///END ACTUALITY///

The Darfur fighting traces its roots to the competition for scarce water resources between black farmers and Arab herdsmen. In 2003, two black rebel groups took up arms, saying the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum had neglected the region's needs.

In response, Arab militias, called Janjaweed, began attacking black villages. Survivors of the attacks and international human rights observers say the Sudanese military has given air support to the Janjaweed, although Khartoum denies this.

The fighting has uprooted about two million people from their homes in what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The British government is playing down the parliament committee's criticism. The Department for International Development says London has helped negotiate a ceasefire in Darfur and has contributed nearly 125 million dollars for relief operations there.

The British report came out just hours after the U.N. Security Council approved a travel ban and the seizure of assets of individuals responsible for atrocities or cease-fire violations in Darfur.

The committee recommends stronger sanctions, including trials in the International Criminal Court of those accused of major human rights abuses. (Signed).

NEB/MWD/WD