Sudan Panelists Blast U.S. State Department Missteps on Darfur Genocide

by Lis Kidder
'05 Staff Writer

(Virginia Law Weekly) - In a panel discussion of the situation in Darfur and the Sudan on Tuesday, Jemera Rone, counsel for Human Rights Watch Africa Division, gave students a detailed account of the ongoing campaign of ethnic-cleansing in Darfur, where every day more than 100 people are killed.

The genocide in Darfur began as a counter-insurgency operation in February 2003, in response to an uprising by Darfurian rebel groups angered by the oppression of the black African population by the central government, comprised primarily of Arabs.

The government's policy quickly became one of extermination, as they unleashed paid militias with the promise that they could do what they wished - steal, abduct, rape - if they took care of Khartoum's problem. Panelist Mohamed Yahya, a Darfurian and chairman of the Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy, explained that eight thousand villages of black African tribes have been completely destroyed by Sudanese air force bombing and marauding militias. Yahya spoke of people frantically scattered by helicopter gunships into the barren desert wilderness, ending up in obscenely overcrowded camps throughout Darfur, or crossing the border into Chad, where they face equally desperate circumstances of starvation and disease.

"People are living in the bushes. They are killed just like rabbits," he said, trying to impress upon the audience the gruesomeness of the genocidal policy adopted by the Sudanese government, which includes widespread gang-rape of women in front of their families, throwing children into massive bonfires, and the mass execution of civilians as they run terrified from the inferno raging through their village. "They want to wash all of the blacks out of Sudan," Yahya explained.

The international community, once again failing to keep its promise of "never again," has done little to intervene in the crisis. "I feel so sad when the law that is meant to protect people all over the world has failed to protect my people in Darfur," Yahya exclaimed.

The U.S. is equally culpable in this failure. Panelist Roger Winter, former USAID Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance discussed his understanding of the administration's ineffectiveness in Darfur. "I think right now we have sent all the wrong signals to Khartoum," he explained. "We have sent signals that are saying, 'What we ultimately want to do is normalize relations with you.'" Looking incredulous, he asked, "How can you normalize relations with a government that is doing what we have called genocide?"

Winter believes that the explanation for the U.S. government's inaction lies in the State Department's overemphasis on diplomatic relations at the expense of tens of thousands of innocent human lives. He explained, "The Africa bureau, which is the weakest unit in the department, is in the lead on this issue, and it is their view that dominates within the system. The U.S. diplomatic establishment does not like dealing with a word like genocide." Audience members looked confused, because Winter's assertion runs contrary to the declaration of former Secretary of State Colin Powell during his testimony at a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last September. Mr. Powell provoked both praise and ire from the international community when he stated, "Genocide has occurred and may still be occurring in Darfur."

Winter explained that at the time Powell made this statement, "no single individual in the State Department supported the term genocide." He continued, "many of the recommendations I saw were that he not use that word." The day before the hearing, according to Winter, Powell poured through hundreds of pages of testimony and reports from humanitarian organizations.

"He considered what he read and decided to go in and use the word 'genocide' in the hearing," Winter said, "It became U.S. government policy, but it was the man himself saying, 'This is the right thing to do.'"

Despite this courageous move by Powell, the United States has taken no meaningful steps to stop the slaughter of black Africans in Darfur, he said.

The view of the panel was unanimous: The only way to stop the genocide in Darfur is to deploy a large multinational peacekeeping force. "I think that the Congress and the White House and the population of the United States would support intervention," Winter said.

"The people of Darfur cannot wait even one more month. We need people to help us. We need the international community to help us," Yahya told the audience. "Right now we don't have anyone to help us."