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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States declared on Thursday genocide has occurred in Sudan’s Darfur region and blamed the Khartoum government and Arab militias for the crisis that has driven more than a million people from their homes.
“We concluded that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility and genocide may still be occurring,” Secretary of State Colin Powell said in testimony prepared for delivery to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Ahead of Powell’s testimony, Sudanese lawmakers said a genocide ruling would hurt peace moves throughout Africa’s largest country and could trigger Somalia-style chaos in the oil-exporting nation.
“It will break everything. And the consequences will be so shameful,” Angelo Beda, deputy speaker of Sudan’s parliament, told a news conference on a visit to neighboring Kenya.
“The U.S. is acting like a bull in a china shop.”
While U.S. officials have said a declaration of genocide does not impose significant legal obligations on them, the use of the term could influence the diplomatic debate as the U.N. Security Council weighs a U.S.-proposed resolution that threatens oil sanctions if Sudan does not stop the abuses.
“It doesn’t automatically authorize force but it should change the dynamics of the negotiations,” said Nina Bang-Jensen, director of the Coalition for International Justice, a nongovernmental group that conducted research on Darfur for the State Department.
“This is genocide,” she said. “There is a moral and legal imperative to act.”