WASHINGTON — In a new signal of its concern over the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, the Bush administration Thursday declared for the first time that the African country's troops and allied militias had committed genocide.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told senators that a State Department report drawn from interviews with 1,000 Sudanese refugees had concluded there was a "consistent and widespread pattern of atrocities committed against non-Arab villagers" in the Darfur region.
Speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Powell said that the Sudanese government and the militias, known as janjaweed, "bear responsibility" for the atrocities and that "genocide may still be occurring."
Human rights groups have been pressing for such a declaration, hoping to increase international pressure to resolve what is considered the world's worst ongoing humanitarian crisis. The United Nations estimates that 50,000 blacks have died and 1.2 million have been displaced as government and allied fighters have attacked village after village in Darfur since a rebellion erupted there in early 2003.
But views differed on whether the new U.S. stand would provide momentum for a solution, since many nations oppose international intervention. At the United Nations, some diplomats even predicted a backlash.
"It will make a difference," said Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akram, whose country opposes intervention. "It is bound to make things more difficult."
Powell played down the possibility that the new U.S. position would make much of a difference, even though some people "seem to have been waiting for this determination of genocide" in order to take action.
"In fact, however, no new action is dictated by this determination," Powell said. "We have been doing everything we can to get the Sudanese government to act responsibly. So let us not be preoccupied with this designation of genocide."
He noted that Sudan was a party to the international genocide convention and, under the agreement, was obliged to prevent and punish acts of genocide. But, Powell said, "to us, at this time, it appears that Sudan has failed to do so."
Sudanese Ambassador Elfatih Mohammed Ahmed Erwa dismissed the U.S. determination of genocide and its call for a U.N.-backed investigation of human rights violations in Darfur.
