6-23-05,9:26am

Just nine months after the Bush administration described mass killings in Darfur, a southern state of the Sudan, by government-backed militia and government security forces to be genocide, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick told Congress that the Bush administration is maintaining an intelligence-sharing partnership with the government of Sudan.

In testimony before the House International Relations Committee yesterday, after this admission, Zoellick failed to describe any new and urgent U.S. action designed to stop the genocide and protect civilians in Darfur. As numerous human rights organizations continue to publicize reports of atrocities, including killings, arbitrary arrests of political dissidents, rape of women and children, violence aimed at refugees, destruction of villages, an enormous humanitarian crisis, and political repression, Zoellick sought to portray the administration’s meager logistical support for the African Union mission in Darfur as the centerpiece of its plan to stop the genocide.

The Bush administration secured Khartoum’s promises to promote Bush administration foreign policy objectives in Northeastern Africa and the Middle East in exchange for material assistance and tacit legitimation of its ruthless regime.

According to numerous human rights organizations, as many as 400,000 people were killed between August 2003 and March 2004 by government-backed militia known as the Janjaweed and government security forces. Well over 2 million people have been displaced from their homes in Darfur (one-third of the state’s population) and continue to live in dire situations as a result of the violence. The violence continues today.

Causes of the atrocities include political repression aimed at dissident forces that had built a popular base in Darfur and the desire to control land and resources owned by non-Arabic Darfurian farmers. The Sudanese government pitted ethnic groups against each in order to intensify the violence and to try to accomplish its political goals.

Salih Booker, executive director of Africa Action, a US-based African affairs organization, condemned the administration’s Sudan policy: “This Bush Administration policy of acquiescence to genocide is indefensible. To the White House, the so-called ‘war on terror’ trumps genocide in Africa.”

Booker added, “It is undeniably clear that the Bush Administration is sacrificing the people of Darfur for what it considers to be more pressing priorities.”

Africa Action has called for the U.S. to take every step necessary through the United Nations to establish a mandate for an international force to protect civilians, and to deploy such a force in support of existing African Union efforts in Darfur.



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