Justice Africa analysis of Darfur Sudan Genocide

I'm amazed it took us so long to spot this excellent analysis. If you want a sense of the internal politics in Khartoum, including why Darfur ultimately may help break the regime's hold on power--and therfor why the regime is so concerned not only to crush opposition but to deny it--even to Sudan's own people. This page is a must read, in my opinion.

About:

The London-based Justice Africa (http://www.justiceafrica.org), which works closely with the Pan African Movement secretariat in Kampala and the Inter Africa Group in Addis Ababa, has extensive experience in the Horn of Africa. It has coordinated a series of conferences with Sudanese civil society and human rights organizations. Justice Africa's directors include Alex de Waal, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, Yoanes Ajawin, Abdul Mohamed, and Paulos Tesfagiorgis.

In response to the question "Is the Darfur conflict genocide?" Justice Africa replies, "If we strictly apply the provisions of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, there is no doubt that the answer is yes." However, this establishes a firm international obligation to act, which is why governments and the United Nations are wary of using the term. Such action, Justice Africa implies, must lead to changes in Khartoum. "The ruthlessness with which the security elite at the heart of the Government of Sudan have operated, and their readiness to turn Darfur into an ethics-free zone, mean that Sudan's future stability rests on the political exclusion or containment of key members of this security elite."