POWELL FINDS GENOCIDE IN DARFUR: Killings in Darfur constitute genocide

Here is the official text and summary of US Secretary of State Colin Powell's prepared testimony this morning before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This is a must-read.

Excerpt from the summary:

Citing the recently completed State Department investigation that was conducted in the refugee camps in Chad with the assistance of the American Bar Association and the Coalition for International Justice, Powell identified "a consistent and widespread pattern of atrocities (killings, rapes, burning of villages) committed by Jingaweit and government forces against non-Arab villagers" from which "we concluded that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the Government of Sudan and the Jingaweit bear responsibility -- and genocide may still be occurring."

The secretary made copies of the evidence the State Department team compiled available to the committee.

[Click here for the key passages on the finding of genocide, from the full text of Powell's testimony.]

From the BBC UK: "US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said the killings in Sudan's Darfur region constitute genocide. Speaking before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr Powell said the conclusion was based on interviews with Sudanese refugees.

He was speaking as the UN Security Council prepared to debate a US resolution that threatens oil sanctions if Sudan does not stop the abuses.

His use of the term genocide is likely to influence the diplomatic debate. The draft resolution presented by Washington is due to be discussed later on Thursday.

Mr Powell blamed the government of Sudan and pro-government Arab Janjaweed militias for the killings. "We concluded that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility and genocide may still be occurring," Mr Powell said.

The Sudanese government says it believes Sudan's allies within the UN will not agree to sanctions."

Update - More via Reuters: "U.S. Declares Genocide in Sudan"

Update (thanks to Dan, in comments) from The New York Times "Powell declares genocide in Sudan in bid to raise pressure."
Update: Bloomberg story "..Sanctions threat builds"

Update: ABC News has reaction from the government of Sudan.

Beda [deputy speaker of Sudan's parliament] and his two fellow team members, touring several African capitals to put Khartoum's case on Darfur, said U.S. pressure on Sudan's Islamist rulers on Darfur would stir fresh separatist turmoil elsewhere in the country, would complicate Darfur peace efforts and could torpedo peace moves in the south.

"Our fear is that when the (Darfur) rebels hear this (determination of genocide), they will not come to us (for peace talks). They will think that the U.S. can simply throw the government away and they will come to power in Khartoum, and destroy (southern peace talks taking place in the Kenyan town of) Naivasha," Beda said.

"If the government is not there, the situation will be almost like Somalia," Beda said.

Beda said that while there was "bad killing" there was no genocide. He encouraged reporters, particularly African ones, to visit Darfur to see for themselves that that was the case.

Update: Sudan Tribune, "Powell gives chilling accounts from Darfur refugees to back genocide claims."

Take action:

We can thank Colin Powell for taking this important and courageous action with one click here and a quick email message..

Photo by Alex Wong, Getty Images, courtesy The New York Times

Comments

[Wikus Hattingh]

Hmm, obviously Mr Powell has not been paying attention to any of my comments. Shame on you Mr Powell, but I guess you're an American firster after all. Nothing wrong with that, I just wish you would be more honest when you're grabbing resources. I find this moralistic posturing really annoying.

[Jim Moore]

Wikus, the facts are speaking for themselves. This conclusion that the government of Sudan is guilty of genocide, backed up by data that meets high standards, has already been long ago reached by many other independent observers, including independent human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International(who are not slow to condemn others, by the way. Amnesty International has a major campaign in the United States against violence in prisons and the use of electrical stun guns). In any case, the next step is a referral to the International Court, which will over the next few years examine the evidence carefully, and in the end will prosecute those who it deems guilty.
This declaration by the United States is a major victory for people who are oppressed by authoritarian regimes.

[Dan]

But even now Powell is leaving himself a get-out, by saying that genocide 'may still be occurring', not 'is still occurring'. Great news, though.

[Ingrid]

Hello Jim (and Dan - where've you been?!) the email address for Colin Powell you've provided at the end of this post worked well. Here is a copy of what I have just sent:

Thank you to the Bush Administration, and in particular Secretary of State Colin Powell, for everything they have done to help the Sudanese in Darfur and Chad - and for having the courage to declare that the killings in Darfur constitute genocide.

God bless America, and thank you - from Ingrid Jones, Dorset, England, UK.

http://meandophelia.blogspot.com
http://passionofthepresent.org
- - -

Note, the reply I received states that messages congratulating the Secretary are carefully recorded.

Today, a friend sent me a quote by the philospher Bertrand Russell:

"Most men would rather die than think, and many do."

This afternoon, I was minded of the quote when I saw the BBC's breaking news on Powell finding genocide in Darfur. It made me hope the regime in Khartoum would start doing some real thinking.

[Wikus Hattingh]

Jim, Ingrid,

Don't forget that the answers you come up with in any kind of enquiry depend on the questions asked. Since it was clear from the outset that the "world" focussed only on the government's culpability, Mr Powell's conclusions were foregone.

I ask again, why isn't anybody holding the rebels responsible for a) starting this war and b) refusing to cease fire? Also, why is America complaining now about the authoritarian regime when it undermined the democratic one by supporting the southern rebels and destroying its factories with missiles?

Remember also that Mr Powell's case for genocide hinges on the supposed fact that it is non-Arab blacks that are being decimated. I have seen reliable sources that call this assumption into doubt. The plainest indications are that this is the latest manifestation of ancient feuding between nomads and settled tribes. What is new is the presence of armed rebels. Who is arming them?

By pronouncing a guilty sentence on the Sudanese government, America is merely opening up another front in its war against Islam, this time hoping to enlist black Africa's support as well. The supposed "humanitarian" nature of this intervention will conveniently serve to distract from criticism of its role in Iraq.

Regards
Wikus

[Jim Moore]

Wikus, I respect your opinions and think they are important for readers of Passion of the Present to consider.

However, in important ways the Sudan and Iraq cases are near opposites. In the case of Sudan the pressure to act has come mainly through worldwide civil society, rather than governments. The initial evidence for crimes against humanity was mainly collected by independent private organizations, who are involved in development and relief efforts.

This is very different from Iraq, where the main evidence and justification for intervention came from intelligence agencies such as the CIA, as well as a from members of the well-organized Iraqi exile community.

The reason that many of us are nearly in tears over today's announcement is that there has been so little action on the part of the great powers, the US included, in a situation that has been in dire need of outside help for many many months.

If you go back and look at the record you will see that those most actively calling for action are humanitarian, human rights and religious organizations. Our own blog and web campaign is made up of a very wide spectrum of concerned citizens, from around the world, including from Africa. If you check links to our three basic URLs through Technorati, you can get a sense of the diversity and independence of our grassroots network. The Save Darfur Coalition is made up of over a hundred religious, charitable, and humanitarian organizations. DarfurGenocide.org is supported by Faithful America, a project of the US National Council of Churches.

I realise that many of those I have mentioned are US-based organizations, and may be suspect to you. I must say, honestly, that I believe these organizations and their leaders are among the most independent voices in America, and that I believe America, for its faults, is a nation that encourages independent thinking and open dialogue. I believe that the consensus on Sudan has very wide support from many sectors of American Society--right, left, center, and off the charts.

Finally, the Rwandan-provided African Union monitors have been reporting atrocities from the time they arrived in Sudan. This is despite being denied mobility by the Sudanese government through phony fuel shortages and so on.

President Obasanjo of Nigeria, who is leading the AU effort has, I believe, been even-handed with both the government and the rebels, and has chastised both sides as necessary. But he has concluded over the past few weeks that the government continues to work with the militias to carry out atrocities. Obasanjo and his colleagues have concluded that what is needed is a large AU peacekeeping force to stop the violence and to start to sort out how to move forward toward a peaceful, diverse Sudan.

I don't think that most observers share your sense of causality in regard to this crisis. Perhaps in a temporal sense the rebels committed violence first by attacking the government. I don't know. But one cannot argue that rebel attacks, even if they were indeed first, "caused" the larger humanitarian crisis, with more than a million innocent people made homeless, and thousands killed, maimed, raped and terrorised.

The cause of the humanitarian crisis--whatever its initiation--is a massive and well-documented campaign of systematic attacks on and destruction of villages across a vast area, carried out by government bombers and helicopter gunships attacking in conjunction with ground forces of militia and government troops.

It is the nature and magnitude and targeting of this campaign that constitutes the genocide. It does not matter from the standpoint of either morality or international law whether this campaign is being conducted for purposes of counter-insurgency, or whether the first aggressor was a rebel or a government unit. It does not matter who the opponents of the government are, nor who they are supported by. The crime of genocide can never be justified.

The crime must be stopped, and a process of social reconciliation and rebuilding promoted. I don't pretend to know how to do that, but it seems to me that lestablishing a large presence of AU troops is a start.

[Dan]

And here's the New York Times story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/international/africa/09CND-SUDA.html?ex=1252468800en=a9110563b24686d2ei=5090partner=rssuserland">http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/international/africa/09CND-SUDA.html?ex=1252468800&en=a9110563b24686d2&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland">http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/international/africa/09CND-SUDA.html?ex=1252468800en=a9110563b24686d2ei=5090partner=rssuserland

The only new input I can see is the reaction from former UN ambassador Richard Holbroke:

"Should he have done it earlier?" Mr. Holbrooke said in an interview. "Probably. But the important thing is to put maximum pressure on the government in Khartoum, and this is a significant step."

Mr. Holbrooke said, however, that the administration should take other steps, such as appointing a high-level envoy to the African Union and to the talks on Sudan, as it did earlier when it appointed former Senator John C. Danforth as a special envoy on the separate issue of the civil war between northern and southern forces in Sudan.

The NYT also highlights Powell's denial of the significance of the term (I suspect that, like placing the genocide in the past, this is something he's doing just to cover his back):

"Some seem to have been waiting for this determination of genocide to take action," Mr. Powell said. "In fact, however, no new dictation is dictated by this determination. We have been doing everything we can to get the Sudanese government to act responsibly. So let us not be too preoccupied with this designation."

A moment later, he added: "Call it civil war. Call it ethnic cleansing. Call it genocide. Call it `none of the above.' The reality is the same. There are people in Darfur who desperately need the help of the international community."

[Wikus Hattingh]

Jim,

I think pointing out the instigators of the current conflict is of utmost importance. The fact that all those international organizations are pointing the finger at the GoS and some even claiming that it is a religious war, merely shows that they too have been caught up in the anti-Islamic hysteria that is being cultivated by the American propaganda-machine.

Given the conspiratorial circumstances of the Iraq-attack, don't you think questions about possible CIA backing for the Darfur-rebellion is highly pertinent?

[Wikus]

Ingrid, it is very meaningful that you would quote Bertrand Russell:

"Most men would rather die than think, and many do."

Wasn't he a great supporter of that other project for the improvement of humanity... what was it called again...?

Anyway, dying rather than thinking is what Americans are currently doing in Iraq. Let that be a warning.

[Wikus]

Jim writes:

"But one cannot argue that rebel attacks, even if they were indeed first, "caused" the larger humanitarian crisis, with more than a million innocent people made homeless, and thousands killed, maimed, raped and terrorised. "

Certainly they are causing it even at this moment by holding out for a favourable deal and not agreeing to a ceasefire?

[Ingrid]

Wikus, Thank you for your comments. You should start a blog.

Here is the exact quote:

"Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so."

Bertrand Russell

English author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970)

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUrussell.htm

[Wikus]

"Wikus, Thank you for your comments. You should start a blog."

Hey, you're not trying to get me off your back, are you?

From the website you linked to:
In his Autobiography published in 1967, Bertrand Russell wrote about how people in London reacted when they heard that the war was over.

"They commandeered the buses, and made them go where they liked. I saw a man and a woman, complete strangers to each other, meet in the middle of the road and kiss as they passed. I watched the crowd, as I had done in the August days four years before. The crowd was frivolous still, and had learned nothing during the period of horror, except to snatch at pleasure more recklessly than before. I felt strangely solitary amid the rejoicings, like a ghost dropped by accident from some other planet. The crowd rejoiced and I also rejoiced. But I remained as solitary as before."

So his main problem with humanity was its frivolity. That figures - you humanitarians and communists want us all to suffer and if not, to feel guilty about other people's suffering. That is the essence of Christianity as well, I suppose...

[Anna Luise]

I enjoy reading through this informal place. I will surely visit you again to see if anything new appears on it.
Good luck for the future.

[Chelsea]

Over the past few months me and a few other girls in my school have been promoting the green ribbon campaign and collecting money for Darfur. We are thoroughly interested in helping to do whatever we can to stop this humanitarian crisis. Your page was extremely informal. If anyone here has additional information about the crisis or any queries at all, feel free to contact me via email, (SaveDarfurCHS@hotmail.com).