WASHINGTON, Sept 29: US Secretary of State Colin Powell lamented in remarks released on Wednesday that other nations have not joined the United States in declaring that genocide is underway in Sudan's troubled western region of Darfur.
"I must say, I am disappointed that not more nations have made this clear statement of what's happening there," Mr Powell said, renewing the US belief that pro-Khartoum Arab militias are conducting a campaign against Darfur's indigenous black African population that is "genocide".
"Reality though ... is whatever you call it, genocide, ethnic cleansing or any definition you apply to it, people are suffering out there and we have to do everything we can to help them," he said in a radio interview with talk-show host Michael Reagan that aired on Tuesday.
Mr Powell, who made the genocide determination on Sept 9, said his assessment was based on carefully documented information and was not taken lightly and noted that the US Congress had used the term a month earlier in reference to the crisis in Darfur.
"I waited until some people I had sent out there to examine the situation returned," he said. "Based on what they reported to me, genocide was taking place in Darfur under any definition that you'd like to use with respect to the Genocide Convention."
"I called it genocide because the facts fit the Genocide Convention, the treaty that we all signed up to," he said. "Once those facts fit, I felt an obligation under the Convention to bring the matter to the attention of the (UN) Security Council."
Despite Powell's determination, no other country has offered a similar assessment and the latest UN Security Council resolution on Darfur calls simply for an investigation into whether genocide is occurring.
According to the United Nations, some 50,000 people have been killed and 1.4 million driven from their homes in the 19-month conflict that began when rebels rose up against Khartoum to demand an end to the alleged marginalization of their region - populated mainly by black Africans.
The Sudanese government responded by giving the Arab militias, known as the "Janjaweed," free rein to crack down on the rebels and their supporters. Sudan denies genocide is underway but has grudgingly accepted the demands of UN Security Council resolution 1564, passed on September 18, which calls for Khartoum to rein in the militias and provide security and aid distribution to allow displaced people to return to their homes.
It also requires the government to prosecute militia and security force commanders responsible for the grosser abuses in the government's clampdown, which human rights groups say include the wholesale destruction of minority villages and systematic resort to rape as a weapon.
In the interview, Powell also urged the international community to support the planned deployment of 3,000 to 4,000 African Union peacekeepers to Darfur. "We'll have to help provide airlift to get them in there and to sustain them there and to get them the helicopters, the trucks, the vehicles and everything else they need to get around and do their job that they now don't have," he said. -AFP