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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Sudan faults description of Dafur crisis as genocide
LAST week's declaration of the Dafur crisis as genocide by the United States (U.S.) Secretary of State Collins Powell has draw criticism from the Sudanese government, which alleged that the statement is worsening situation in the conflict torn region.
Giving testimony before the Foreign Relation Committee of the U.S. Senate last week, Powell declared the Dafur conflict as genocide. Analysts see the pronouncement as a prelude to the United Nations (UN) sanction on Sudan.
It was the first time the U.S. executive made such declaration as only the congress had all along held such stance.
But the Sudanese embassy in Nigeria in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday faulted the premise upon which the state department arrived at that conclusion.
Signed by its counsellor, Mohammed Omer Nusa, the statement claimed that Powell's stance was based on observations of an American team that "never set foot in Darfur."
Musa said that the team merely interviewed refugees in Chad living in camps that were safe havens for leaders of the rebel movement.
"So the influence of the rebel movements on the outcome of the American investigation cannot be overstated" the statement read.
According to Sudan, Powell's characterisation was in stark contrast to the more thoughtful assessment of the European Union, the African Union, The Arab League, the Non-Aligned Movement and the International Red Cross.
Sudan said it was surprised that Powell, who admitted that the two rebel groups kidnapped relief workers, failed to hold them accountable for the killing, looting and the burning of villages in Sudan.
The statement further read: "Besides, while the U.S. senators at the hearing agreed without supporting evidence that the government of Sudan has armed and trained the Janjaweed, none asked who armed and trained the two rebel groups.
"This is in spite of the fact that Senator Jon Corzine and former American ambassador to the UN, Richard Holbrooke, wrote in the Washington Post of Septermber 8, that the rebels receive outside assistance primarily from Sudan's Eastern neighbour, Eritrea."
Sudan said that Powell's declaration had only worsened the war as rebel groups currently at the Abuja talks had already declared the peace talks dead.
"They (rebels) have declared the peace talks dead and pledged to wage a full scale war from all directions to bring down the government of Sudan," Musa said.
Peace talks on Sudan's troubled Darfur region were held up on Tuesday as mediators from the African Union prepared to brief the organisation's chairman on the stalemate between rebels and the Sudanese government.
Delegates met briefly, to be told by mediators they would brief the AU chairman, President Olusegun Obasnajo, later in the day on details of the talks so far, after which he would decide if he would meet representatives of the two sides.
The talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja began three weeks ago but have become bogged down in squabbling over security issues and disarmament, with mutual accusations of cease-fire violations.
Meanwhile, death rate among internally displaced people in Darfur region is much higher than the expected rate and surpasses the threshold for a humanitarian emergency.
A mortality survey published on Monday and conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Sudan's Ministry of Health in two areas in the northern and western parts of Darfur indicated.
The result of the survey underscores the need for urgent increases in, and focus on, assistance to displaced people in the region, WHO said in a statement.
The survey, which looked at overall deaths and their causes between June 15 and August 15 this year, found the crude mortality rate to be 1.5 deaths per 10,000 people per day in north Darfur, and 2.9 in west Darfur. The survey was also started in south Darfur, but data are so far incomplete, according to WHO.
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