Government-sponsored genocide and a government-engineered humanitarian crisis continue in the Darfur region of the Sudan, says Africa Action, a US based organization that promotes peace, equality, and justice for Africa.
A visit late last week by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick saw the Bush administration official accepting promises by the Sudanese government to prosecute perpetrators of mass killings in that country.
Both Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s refusal to travel to the Sudan and Zoellick’s acceptance of the Sudanese promises indicate the Bush administration’s backing away from last summer’s pronouncement that mass killings in Darfur constituted genocide.
Despite a flurry of promises by the Sudanese government to prosecute war criminals and the Bush administration’s back tracking on its earlier characterization of the crisis as "genocide" in order to sidestep the ICC, all the evidence shows that the Sudanese government bears responsibility for continuing crimes, and therefore cannot be trusted to prosecute war criminals.
This renewed cooperation with a government that by all accounts bears some serious responsibility for mass killings and internal displacement of millions comes just days after a series of UN Security Council resolutions were adopted to deal with the Darfur crisis.
The UNSC agreed to tighten sanctions against the Sudan, to deploy a 10,000 person peacekeeping force to the country, and to refer war crimes allegations to the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Human rights observers, the political opposition in the Sudan, and local witnesses have accused the Sudanese government of supporting a militia called the Janjaweed in mass killings of people in Darfur of other ethnic backgrounds who possessed valuable land or who are suspected of political opposition to the Khartoum government.
The Janjaweed stands accused of killing as many as 400,000 people and displacing up to 2 million. Human rights activists further accuse the government of exacerbating the crisis by failing to provide humanitarian assistance to millions of refugees.
The Bush administration allowed passage by abstention of the ICC referral resolution only with great reluctance and under great pressure from charges of double standards on human rights, hypocrisy, and increasing revelations about war prisoner torture and abuses committed by US military personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Cuba within a framework adopted by Bush administration officials in 2003.
The administration is ideologically opposed to the ICC and has fought to undermine its jurisdiction and work by pressuring dozens of countries to accept bilateral agreements exempting US personnel from the court’s jurisdiction.
The purpose of Zoellick’s trip is an effort to blunt the need for the ICC by reversing the harsh charges of genocide the administration leveled last summer and by publicly accepting the Sudanese government’s promises to prosecute the criminals.
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Rules governing the jurisdiction of the ICC allow its use only as a last resort if governments of countries in which atrocities are alleged to have been committed refuse to prosecute perpetrators of those atrocities.
Regarding the Bush administration’s apparent acceptance of the Sudanese government’s promises to prosecute, Salih Booker of Africa Action said, "We are outraged by Zoellick’s refusal yesterday to acknowledge that genocide is still ongoing in Darfur." Booker added, "A U.S. policy of ‘constructive engagement’ with this genocidal regime is morally repugnant and will not achieve security for the people being slaughtered in Darfur."
Booker pointed to evidence that mass killings and government-sponsored atrocities are continue, recalling that "The Bush Administration declared seven months ago that genocide was occurring in Darfur, and since this time the evidence has clearly shown that the genocide is continuing and the death toll is mounting."
Recent reports described the destruction of the village of Khor Abeche in south Darfur at the hands of government-sponsored militias.
In addition to destruction of villages, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a briefing paper earlier last week that showed how the Sudanese security forces, including police deployed to protect displaced persons, and allied Janjaweed militias continue to commit rape and sexual violence on daily basis.
These recent reports were based on interviews with women living in refugee camps along Sudan’s border with Chad.
Rape and sexual violence is a major feature of the Janjaweed militia’s operations.
Women interviewed by HRW accused the Sudanese government of making a horrible situation worse. They said authorities in Bindisi, West Darfur, harassed and detained pregnant girls and women, threatening them with charges of fornication if they did not pay a fine.
HRW called on humanitarian agencies to pay special attention to the crime of sexual violence and provide resources for special medical assistance for women victimized by it.
The Sudan Organization Against Torture (SOAT) also has publicized information about the Sudanese government’s repression of political opposition. "The gross violations of human rights including arbitrary arrests, detentions and harassments continue apace in the Darfur region," says SOAT. "The targeting and widespread recourse to torture of civilians accused of supporting and joining the rebellion with impunity remains systematic."
Despite a flurry of promises by the Sudanese government to prosecute war criminals and the Bush administration’s back tracking on its earlier characterization of the crisis as "genocide" in order to sidestep the ICC, all the evidence shows that the Sudanese government bears responsibility for continuing crimes, and therefore cannot be trusted to prosecute war criminals.
--Joel Wendland is managing editor of Political Affairs and maybe reached at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net.
