US Congress Says Attacks In Darfur ‘Genocide’

Late Thursday, July 22, the US Congress unanimously passed a resolution declaring the atrocities being committed in Darfur "a genocide", and calling on the White House to intervene multilaterally or even unilaterally to stop the violence.

By a vote of 422 to zero, the House of Representatives and "the Senate concurring" passed the resolution, introduced a month ago by New Jersey Democrat Donald Payne, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Payne stressed that in Darfur 30,000 people have been "brutally murdered", 130,000 have fled to neighboring Chad and more than one million have been internally displaced by the violence.

The resolution "declares that the atrocities unfolding in Darfur, Sudan, are genocide."

It quoted the UN Humanitarian Coordinator, who said that the violence in the poverty-stricken region "appears to be particularly directed at a specific group based on their ethnic identity and appears to be systemized".

Multilateral Action

The resolution urged the US administration of President George W. Bush to "call the atrocities … by its rightful name: ‘genocide,’ and calls on it to lead an international effort to prevent it.

It further calls on the Bush administration "to seriously consider multilateral or even unilateral intervention to prevent genocide should the United Nations Security Council fail to act."

The measure also demands "targeted sanctions, including visa bans and the freezing of assets of the National Congress and affiliated business and individuals directly responsible for the atrocities in Darfur," and urges USAID to help the refugees resettle and rebuild their communities.

UN Resolution

In an apparently coordinated move, the United States Thursday put forward a draft UN Security Council resolution that could slap sanctions on Sudan if it does not prosecute Arab militia leaders accused of being behind atrocities in Darfur.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell met UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to discuss the crisis in an effort to tighten the screws on the Sudanese government and get Khartoum to stop the so-called Janjaweed armed groups.

"They have been supporting and sustaining some of these Janjaweed elements. This has to end," Powell told reporters.

"It’s a catastrophe. People are dying at an increasing rate."

Washington said it would present a revised draft resolution to the UN Security Council on Thursday about the situation in Darfur.

British ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said he thought the 15-nation council could now "quite speedily" agree on an amended resolution that would send a "very firm" message to Khartoum.

The US Congress resolution came one day after reports that British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was a key ally to US President George W. Bush in making the case of Iraq invasion, mulls a military intervention in Sudan.

Iraq-Like Situation

The Sudanese government, on its part, dismissed reports about foreign plans for military intervention.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail warned that if Britain sent soldiers to the region, "in one or two months, these forces are going to be considered by people of Darfur as occupying forces and the same incidents you are now facing in Iraq are going to be repeated in Darfur".

Ismail also said that "more than 60%" of the population in Darfur were against the rebels and that the Khartoum government was doing its best to disarm the militias.

Ismail, currently visiting Paris, further added that Sudan would withdraw government troops from its violence-wracked Darfur region if Britain sends forces in.

"If he (Blair) is to send troops to Darfur, let him inform us officially and what we will do is withdraw our troops from Darfur."

Ismail went on saying, if such a development occurred, "we will give him the chance if he can give security to Darfur".

The conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region began in February 2003 with a rebel uprising against Khartoum, protesting that the largely black African region had been ignored by the Arab government.