Sudan - "not genocide?"

[RonOnGuitar]

Weekly Summary of events re: Darfur genocide and the US response



(Snipped from link above, full page/info there)



1. The government of Sudan continues to deny there is a problem. But in the US there is new focus on stopping the genocide in Darfur.

[Click on the image at right to see one small example of satellite pictures that document the destruction of villages.]



2. US Secretary of State Colin Powell will visit Sudan the middle of next week, at the same time that United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan will be in the country.



3. Powell is reportedly poised to take a much stronger stance than Annan, including threatening Sudan with sanctions and with war crimes prosecutions of the leaders of the genocide.



4. The US government position is backed by satellite images showing destruction in Darfur that is targeted only at blacks, and not on Arabs, hard data consistent with "ethnic cleansing" and genocide.



Natsios said the State Department and USAID purchased commercial satellite photos showing 576 villages, including 300 that have "been completely destroyed" and 76 that have been "severely damaged. The rest are fine, and they are all Arab. It's clear that ethnic cleansing is going on here," Natsios said. (Washington Post, subscription required)

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Other related news from the papers:



UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he wasn't ready to describe the situation in Darfur "as genocide or ethnic cleansing yet," but he called it "a tragic humanitarian situation."



Here's the kicker:



UNITED NATIONS, May 4 -- Sudan was elected Tuesday to serve a three-year term on the U.N. Human Rights Commission, provoking a walkout by a senior U.S. diplomat who accused the government of helping to drive more than a million African villagers from their homes in Sudan's Darfur province.