U.S. evaluates violence in Sudan

WASHINGTON -- Genocide has struck many victims over the past 65 years: European Jews during World War II, Cambodians in the late 1970s, Rwandans in 1994.\nThere may be a new addition: The black African tribes of Darfur province in western Sudan have faced murder, displacement, pillage, razing of villages and other crimes committed by Arab militias known as janjaweed.\nThe dictionary defines genocide as "the systematic killing of a racial or cultural group." The U.S. government is reviewing whether Darfur qualifies for the designation.\n"The janjaweed are the government's militia, and Khartoum has armed and empowered it to conduct 'ethnic cleansing' in Darfur," says Human Rights Watch. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group says Darfur can "easily become as deadly" as the Rwanda genocide of 1994. Then, soldiers, militiamen and civilians of the Hutu majority killed more than 500,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in 100 days.\nAll along, Sudan has denied allegations of complicity with the Arab militias and has blamed rebels for rights violations.\nIn February 2003, the Zaghawa, Fur and Masalit black tribes rebelled against what they regarded as unjust treatment by the Sudanese government in their historic struggle over land and resources with their Arab countrymen.\nCountless thousands of tribesmen have died in a brutal counterinsurgency. The conflict has uprooted more than 1 million, and the Bush administration believes this many could die unless a peace settlement is reached and relief supply deliveries are greatly accelerated. Sudanese cooperation has been limited but is improving.\nThe Muslim-vs.-Muslim conflict is separate from the 21-year war between ethnic Arab Muslim militants in northern Sudan and the black African non-Muslim south. That three-decade-long struggle may be ending thanks to peace accords signed last month.\nA U.S. interagency review is aimed at judging whether the Darfur tragedy qualifies as genocide under a 1946 international convention that outlaws the practice.\n"I believe what is occurring in Sudan approaches the level of genocide," says Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee. He and several colleagues are pushing for $95 million in emergency assistance for Darfur's victims.\nRabbi Marvin Hier, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a group opposed to intolerance in all forms, says Washington could increase the pressure on the Sudanese government by issuing a "stern warning" that, in the U.S. view, it is "close to if not bordering on genocide." This would greatly impact international public opinion, said Hier, founder and dean of the center.\nMark Schneider, a vice president of the International Crisis Group, says Hier may have a point. He also cautions that a genocide designation by the United States could thrust the U.N. Security Council into prolonged debate, deflecting attention from Darfur's massive humanitarian needs.\nA role for the United Nations is made clear under Article 8 of the Genocide Convention: "Any contracting party may call upon the competent organs of the U.N. to take such action under the Charter of the U.N. as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide."\nU.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he wasn't ready to describe the situation in Darfur "as genocide or ethnic cleansing yet," but he called it "a tragic humanitarian situation."\nFor now, the U.S. administration seems to be tilting against the genocide label but is sticking with ethnic cleansing to describe the situation.\nWith so many in Darfur at risk of dying, "legal distinctions about genocide versus ethnic cleansing are going to seem rather hollow," says State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli. The focus, he says, should be on helping the needy.\nHumanitarian access remains a serious problem, the result of both government resistance and the remoteness of the Iraqi-sized province. The United States has been airlifting relief supplies to the region, a costly process.\nOver the weekend, Sudan President Omar el-Bashir vowed to disarm the militias. Also, peace talks Tuesday between government and rebel leaders opened in Berlin. U.S. officials are wary about the Sudanese gestures, pointing out that Khartoum has routinely violated an April 8 cease-fire agreement.