9-10-05, 10:32 am
On this day last year (Sept. 9), the White House declared that genocide was taking place in Darfur, Sudan. This announcement was the result of political pressure from Congress and citizen pressure from across the U.S. The legal finding was itself based on overwhelming evidence from a study of the region completed by the State Department the previous month. The U.S. remains the only government to acknowledge the crisis in Darfur as genocide, thereby invoking special responsibilities to act.
However, since September 9, 2004, the Bush Administration has done little to stop the violence and provide protection to the people of Darfur. Despite important opportunities and obligations, and growing public pressure, the President has failed to take the necessary steps to ensure an urgent multinational intervention to stop this genocide.
Instead, the Bush Administration’s other interests in Sudan have inhibited its response to the crisis in Darfur. U.S. diplomatic engagement in ending the long-running civil war between the northern government and southern rebels, and the U.S. desire to maintain an intelligence-sharing relationship with the Sudanese government in context of the so-called 'War on Terror' have both been considered more important than saving lives in Darfur.
A decade after the U.S. blocked international action on the genocide in Rwanda, the White House has abdicated its responsibilities to stop the genocide in Darfur. It has left the African Union (AU) to deal with this crisis, even while it knows that the AU lacks the capacity and the mandate to protect the people of Darfur. The death toll in Darfur now exceeds 400,000 people, more than 2 million people have been displaced and left homeless, and the genocide continues. It is clear that U.S. financial support for humanitarian efforts in Darfur, limited official travel to the region, and occasional remarks about U.S. engagement have failed to substitute for assertive international leadership to provide the protection to the people of Darfur necessary to stop the genocide.
The following is a chronology of the failure of the Bush Administration over the past year to stop the genocide in Darfur:
September 9, 2004: President Bush issues a press statement acknowledging that genocide is taking place in Darfur. Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that genocide has been committed in Darfur, and that the government of Sudan and its proxy militia bear responsibility, but he denies logic by stating that 'no new action is dictated by this determination.'
September 18, 2004: The United Nations (UN) Security Council passes a weak U.S.-sponsored Resolution (1564), which presses the Government of Sudan to end the violence in Darfur but fails to impose strong measures to ensure this outcome. Indeed, this follows the expiration of a deadline set in a previous resolution, by which the government was supposed to have disarmed the Janjaweed militia. Resolution 1564 also requests that the Secretary-General establish an International Commission of Inquiry to investigate reports of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law in Darfur.
September 21, 2004: President Bush briefly mentions the 'terrible suffering and horrible crimes in Darfur' in remarks to the UN General Assembly, and reiterates the U.S. finding that genocide is occurring, but he fails to propose urgent international action to stop the genocide.
October 1, 2004: President Bush responds to a question on Darfur during the first Presidential debate by emphasizing that genocide is occurring but failing to propose action to address the crisis. He simply states that the AU observer mission in Darfur should be supported.
October 18, 2004: President Bush commits to supplying two military transport aircraft to support the small African Union mission in Darfur.
November 1, 2004: President Bush extends Executive Order 13067, which was first invoked in 1997, and which maintains sanctions against Sudan and states that the actions and policies of the Sudanese government pose an extraordinary threat to U.S. national security.
November 19, 2004: The UN Security Council passes a weak U.S.-sponsored Resolution (1574), which again demands that the government, its militia forces and the rebel groups cease violence in Darfur, and expresses support for AU plans to increase its mission to 3,320 observers.
January 9, 2005: President Bush commends the signing of the North-South Peace Agreement in Sudan, and urges the government of Sudan to end atrocities in Darfur and allow the free movement of humanitarian workers and supplies.
February 1, 2005: In response to the UN Commission of Inquiry report on Darfur, a State Department spokesperson emphasizes that the U.S. stands by its conclusion that genocide had been occurring in Darfur, and states that the continued accumulation of facts on the ground, and the facts in the UN report itself, support that view, and that the U.S. continues to hold that position.
March 31, 2005: The U.S. abstains as the UN Security Council adopts a resolution to refer cases of war crimes in Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
April 14-15, 2005: U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick travels to Sudan to meet with senior officials from the genocidal regime in Khartoum. While in Sudan, Zoellick evades media questions on the crisis in Darfur and refuses even to use the word 'genocide'.
April 20-22, 2005: Maj. Gen. Salah Abdallah Gosh, Head of the Sudanese intelligence agency, is flown to Washington on a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) jet to discuss intelligence sharing in the context of the so-called 'War on Terror.' Gosh has been accused by numerous human rights groups and members of Congress of planning attacks on civilians in Darfur.
April 25, 2005: Media reports indicate that the White House has leaned on Congressional allies to strike the Darfur Accountability Act from the budget supplemental appropriation bill, claiming it might impede the North-South peace process in Sudan.
May 27, 2005: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and European Union (EU) agree to send air transport, vehicles, training and other materials to support the expansion of the AU mission in Darfur. The U.S. agrees to provide additional financial support for this mission.
May 31, 2005: Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick again travels to Sudan, continuing a policy of constructive engagement on the part of the Bush Administration with the genocidal regime in Khartoum.
June 1, 2005: President Bush breaks months of silence on the crisis in Darfur by repeating his Administration’s position that genocide is occurring, but offers only a transport plane to support the AU mission.
June 9, 2005: NATO agrees to help the AU with airlifts and training for its mission in Darfur.
June 22, 2005: Deputy Secretary Zoellick’s testimony before the House Committee on International Relations confirms that the U.S. has an intelligence-sharing relationship with Sudan, which is impacting the U.S. response to the crisis in Darfur. Zoellick emphasizes that U.S. support for the small AU operation is the centerpiece of U.S. policy on Darfur.
July 7, 2005: NATO begins a three-month airlift of AU observers into Darfur, and the U.S. commits to supporting NATO’s work in the coming weeks by transporting about 1,200 Rwandan troops and equipment from Rwanda to Sudan to participate in the AU observer mission.
July 9: Deputy Secretary of State Zoellick again visits Khartoum to represent the U.S. at the inauguration of the Government of National Unity. Zoellick also makes a third, and uneventful, trip to Darfur to meet with local leaders, NGOs and humanitarian groups and internally displaced people (IDPs).
July 21: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits Sudan to meet with senior government officials in Khartoum and to visit camps for displaced people in Darfur. However, a fracas between Sudanese security officers and Rice’s entourage appeared to generate greater attention and indignation from U.S. officials and media than did the ongoing genocide in that country. Rice repeats that the Administration’s position remains that genocide is occurring in Darfur.
July 26, 2005: The State Department announces the appointment of Roger P. Winter as Special Representative of the Deputy Secretary of State for Sudan, tasked with engaging with the new Government of National Unity and advising the Secretary and Deputy Secretary on policy related to Darfur and to Sudan in general.
August 1, 2005: President Bush issues a statement expressing condolences to the family of Dr. Garang, First Vice President in the Government of National Unity, who has just died. Secretary of State Rice emphasizes that the U.S. remains committed to the cause of peace in all of Sudan, including resolution of the 'humanitarian crisis' in Darfur.
September 8, 2005: For more than two years, a growing number of communities and organizations across the U.S. have been demanding leadership from the White House to stop the genocide in Darfur. This diverse movement now includes a range of religious groups, student activists, African-American groups, relief agencies, and human rights organizations of all kinds.
On the one-year anniversary of the Bush Administration’s declaration of genocide in Darfur, a coalition of these groups and their supporters gather outside the White House to condemn the failure of political leadership on the part of the President in ensuring protection for the people of Darfur, and to urge immediate action to stop the genocide in Darfur.
This event, called 'A Day for Darfur', is co-sponsored and endorsed by the following groups: Africa Action, American Jewish World Service, Armenian National Committee of America, Darfur Rehabilitation Project, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Faithful America, Greater Washington Jewish Task Force on Darfur, Human Rights First, NAACP, National Council of Churches, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Save Darfur Coalition, Sojourners, STAND, Sudan Peace Advocates Network, TransAfrica Forum, and the United Methodist Church.
NOTE:
U.S. Humanitarian Assistance for Darfur (2003-present) = $710,000,000
U.S. Spending on Iraq War & Occupation (2003-present) = $192,000,000,000
From Africa Action
