6-20-05, 11:30 am

The Bush administration thinks that genocide is less urgent than its foreign policy agenda as it relates to its so-called on war on terror. For some time, we’ve known that the administration is willing to side with dictators and tyrants – some of whom possess WMD and nuclear weapons – to advance its foreign policy.

In 2004 the Bush administration described mass killings that mounted into the hundreds of thousands in Darfur, a southern state in the Sudan, by government-backed forces to be genocide and pushed for international intervention.

But the new found friendship the administration has with the Sudan shows that it considers genocide so much less urgent that it willingly supports with funds and intelligence those it previously condemned for committing genocide.

Meanwhile a massive humanitarian crisis and human rights atrocities continue in Darfur, according to reports by human rights organizations and news agencies.

IRIN News reports that between May 28 and June 3 alone in Darfur, according to World Health Organization (WHO) officials, 66,617 cases of illness were reported among the estimated 1.6 million people under the agency’s surveillance.

Respiratory infections, malaria, and bloody diarrhea were the leading illnesses. Hepatitis and measles were also present. More than one-third of the cases reported were children under five.

Thirty-one deaths were reported in that 6-day span, two-thirds of which were from severe malnutrition.
The humanitarian crisis has been fueled not only by famine but also but ongoing violence initiated by government forces and government-backed paramilitary squads known as the Janjaweed.

In 2004, the Janjaweed was blamed for killing up to 400,000 Darfurians and displacing over 1 million. Ongoing violence prevents refugees from returning to their homes and rebuilding their farms and villages.

Government forces and the Janjaweed targeted Darfurians because of growing political opposition to the government’s policies and because of their claim to Darfurian lands.

War crimes committed in Darfur were referred by the UN Security Council (UNSC) in March to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for investigation and prosecution. The ICC by rule only takes on cases when ruling authorities in countries where crimes are alleged to have been committed refuse to or are unable to investigate and prosecute those crimes.

So far the Sudan has failed to investigate the 2004 mass killings. Most observers regard a national court set up just weeks after the ICC began its initial investigation as a tactic by the Khartoum government to avoid the ICC jurisdiction.

The Bush administration abstained during the vote on this issue in the UNSC just five months after it labeled the crimes in Darfur as genocide.

Human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch, the Sudan Organization Against Torture, and Africa Action have pointed to evidence since the referral to the ICC that killings and other atrocities have continued.

For example, in late May into early June, government security forces conducted mass arrests of Darfurian tribal leaders. SOAT alleges that at least two deaths resulted from improper treatment and incommunicado detentions.

SOAT argues that political dissidence and the refusal to relocate led to the mass arrests. The mass arrests took place in a refugee area of Khartoum known as Soba Aradi.

Prior to and during, according to SOAT’s report, government security forces tried to pressure the refugees to leave by shutting off the water supply to Soba Aradi.

Reports of continued activity of Janjaweed forces in raping female refugees in the Kalma IDP Camp in the Nyala province of Darfur on May 31 are only the latest of dozens of recent cases sent to the International Criminal Court.

In that same province, Janjaweed forces attacked the village of Um Dom wounding at least two men and killing numerous livestock on May 26.

A statement by SOAT reads in part: 'This continuing pattern of horrific abuse of State power warrants a forceful response from the international community and SOAT is calling on the international community, international NGOs to firmly condemn the actions of the government.'

In addition to arrests, political repression of media that have reported on the atrocities in Darfur and repressive measures by the Khartoum government have also surfaced. The Khartoum Monitor, a paper that refused to withdraw stories critical of the activities of the Sudan government, was raided on May 21 by state security police and its presses stopped. The paper was permanently closed by court order on June 12.

The government of Sudan has also threatened and arrested humanitarian aid workers affiliated with Doctors Without Borders for reporting atrocities and the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

'It’s appalling that instead of arresting the people who have burned hundreds of villages and attacked thousands of women and girls, the Sudanese government is detaining aid workers,' said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director for Human Rights Watch. 'This is a perfect illustration of how far the Sudanese government is prepared to go to silence criticism and deny its own responsibility for massive atrocities in Darfur.'



--Joel Wendland can be reached at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net.