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U.S.: Sudan attacks racially based
From CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- While not directly
calling the crisis in Darfur a genocide, the U.S. State Department has
said that interviews with Sudanese refugees indicated attacks against
the regions' black Africans appeared to be racially motivated.
State
Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington was assessing its
interviews of more than 1,100 Darfur refugees in Chad.
A report
of those interviews, currently being compiled by the State Department,
will be a major factor in determining whether genocide occurred.
The
interviews with the refugees about their experience, Boucher said, were
conducted in a "systematic way" to determine whether the atrocities
against Darfur's black Africans were racially motivated.
Officials have said the project, in essence, was a genocide investigation.
Boucher
said information from the interviews "coincides with the pattern that
we have seen that government forces, Janjaweed militias, Arab groups --
there's a pattern of attacks against non-Arab populations."
"Exactly
what that constitutes in terms of the crime of genocide and how that
needs to be examined and looked at is something that we have to
address," he said.
Boucher said that Secretary of State Colin
Powell was likely to address the issue when he appeareds before the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee next Thursday.
Boucher also
said that the United States was drafting a new U.N. Security Council
resolution on Darfur and would be speaking to council members in the
coming days.
On July 30, the Security Council passed a resolution
threatening action against Khartoum if it failed to disarm the Arab
Janjaweed militias, ostensibly backed by the Sudanese government, who
were killing Darfur's black Africans, and restore security within 30
days.
The 30-day period expired on Monday.
The situation in
the Darfur region has become a dire humanitarian crisis. In addition to
the villagers who have been killed, more than a million people have
been displaced from their homes, fleeing to other places in Sudan or
across the border to Chad.
On Thursday the United Nations'
special envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, said that the African nation's
government is making some progress but that the situation remains dire
and that there are two key areas where the government has not met its
commitments -- stopping attacks by militia against civilians and
failing to take steps to bring militia leaders to justice.
But
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Danforth disputed Pronk's statement
that Sudan stopped offensive military operations, saying there has been
evidence of air attacks on villages in late August.
Still, the
Bush administration said it was not ready to push for sanctions against
the Sudanese government. Boucher said Wednesday the United States was
considering other measures to stabilize the situation in Darfur.
And
Powell said Wednesday, "It has always been a case of orchestrated
pressure in a way that moves the government along, improves the
situation and keeps the pressure up, but not to the point where you
might get a consequence that you would not like or is unintended."
Boucher
and Powell both said the international community is discussing
expanding the current monitoring force led by the African Union, which
is protecting aid workers. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has
advocated an increase in the force.
The conflict in Darfur began
last year when black Sudanese rebels attacked government property,
accusing the government of neglecting Darfur in favor of the Arab
population in Sudan.
The government responded by putting forward
the Janjaweed to put down the rebellion. The warring factions recently
agreed to a cease-fire but violence between them has continued.
Several
international human rights groups estimate that 15,000 to 30,000
civilians have died in Darfur since fighting broke out in February 2003.
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