Genocide Has Been Occurring in Darfur, U.S. Government Reaffirms
United States welcomes U.N. commission on Darfur but differs on conclusion

By Charles W. Corey
February 1, 2005
Washington File Staff Writer
http://usinfo.state.gov/dhr/human_rights.html http://usinfo.state.gov/dhr/human_rights.html 
Washington – Even though the U.S. government welcomes the work that has been completed by a United Nations commission of inquiry on Darfur, the United States still stands by its own conclusion reached September 2004 that genocide has been occurring in Darfur, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said February 1.
Speaking to reporters at the department’s regular noon briefing, Boucher stressed: “We stand by the conclusion that we reached that genocide had been occurring in Darfur.  And we think that the continued accumulation of facts on the ground, the facts that are reported here in the commission's report, supports that view, that conclusion that we reached and continue to hold.
“Nothing has happened to change those conclusions,” Boucher said.  We stand by those conclusions.”
Boucher’s comments came in response to the January 31 release of a report by the U.N. International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, which concluded that the government of Sudan did not pursue a policy of genocide in Darfur but that crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed that “may be no less serious and heinous than genocide.”
Boucher told reporters the U.S. government will continue to work with the international community to stop the violence and the atrocities in Sudan.  “We're calling on the Government of Sudan to take steps, he said.  We're calling on the rebels to take steps, immediate action to stop the violence.”
He said the United States is continuing to work with the African Union to expand its peacekeeping presence in Sudan.  Additionally, he said, “we are continuing to support the efforts being made for a political solution, support the efforts being made by Africans in countries like Nigeria to try to reach a political solution.”
Boucher said now that the U.N. commission has completed its report, “we need to move … to the stage of accountability.”  As part of that process, he said, “we are discussing elements of our proposals for accountability with other [U.N.] Security Council members and with interested African countries.
“We believe that the best way to address these crimes, as detailed in the report, is to establish a U.N. and African Union tribunal that would be based in Arusha, Tanzania.  It would involve African countries integrally in the process, in keeping with the African Union's leading role in Darfur,” he said.
“We understand that the commission itself talks about the International Criminal Court (ICC),” Boucher noted, but he cautioned, “We think it's important for the Security Council to consider the various options, and we believe that having accountability for these crimes in a tribunal that's based in Arusha, Tanzania, is the best way to ensure accountability.”
When asked about the case being referred to the ICC, as suggested by the commission, Boucher said there should be no “automatic referral to the ICC and that “when you look in more detail at the facts and the legal aspects of this, we do think that the tribunal in Africa is a preferable way, is the better way to ensure that there is accountability to these crimes.”
Boucher said there are a number of advantages in referring the case to a tribunal in Africa.  Such an option, he said, “would involve the Africans and the African Union in playing a continuing role for accountability, as they have played one in trying to stop the crisis in Darfur to begin with.”
Such an option, he said, “also has the practical advantage of building on the existing infrastructure of the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
“That would allow the Sudan tribunal to commence more rapidly, to take advantage of the expertise in lessons learned in dealing with the crimes in Rwanda.”
Boucher also pointed out that the U.N. Commission of Inquiry, in its reporting, details crimes that took place in 2001 and 2002.  “Those crimes pre-date the establishment of the International Criminal Court, and … therefore the court wouldn't have jurisdiction over those crimes,” he said.
“So you have all the crimes of 2001 and 2002 that couldn't be handled by the International Criminal Court because of the way its statute reads, whereas a tribunal in Africa could deal with all the crimes that have been committed in Darfur from the beginning.”
For these reasons and others, Boucher told reporters, the U.S. government is proposing to other governments the establishment of a tribunal in Arusha.  “We think it's important that the council look at the various options seriously,” he said.
Boucher said the United States is also proposing the establishment of a U.N. peacekeeping mission for Sudan that could “support the African Union and the eventual deployment to Darfur, as conditions permit.”  He said the United States is also making proposals on how to increase pressure on the parties to abide by their commitments under current standing U.N. resolutions that are already in place.
“We have, in our consultations already with a number of council members on this question, made clear we believe it's time to move toward sanctions.  We have raised a number of measures, including oil sanctions and targeted sanctions, with other council members, and we'll continue discussion of those,” he told reporters.