by P. Parameswaran
WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell called atrocities in Sudan`s troubled Darfur region genocide and demanded a thorough UN probe into the crisis, hastening moves toward international sanctions on the Khartoum government.
Powell told a Senate hearing that evidence compiled by the United States "concluded that genocide has been committed in Darfur and the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility, and that genocide may still be occurring."
The Sudanese government has been accused of arming and backing Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, that have rampaged through the country`s western Darfur region.
An estimated 50,000 people have been killed and 1.4 million more uprooted in a campaign against black Africans that started out as an attempt to put down a rebel uprising launched in February 2003.
Powell said the United States had proposed a resolution to the UN Security Council, asking for a "full-blown and unfettered" investigation to confirm genocide had been committed and possibly consider oil sanctions on Sudan.
He said "the threat of sanctions is still out there, over them, particularly on the sector that is of greatest concern to them."
Powell admitted that there was an "overall reluctance" by the international community to impose sanctions amid worry they might not have the desired effect but expressed optimism the European Union would back the United States.
At the Security Council meeting Thursday, China and Algeria, the council`s lone Arab member, came out very clearly against sanctions, diplomatic sources told AFP in New York.
In reaction to Powell`s statement, Sudan denied there was genocide in Darfur and doubted moves to impose sanctions would succeed.
"This is just another sort of pressure brought against the government of Sudan by the United States and Western governments," Finance Minister Ahmed Hassan al-Zubeir told AFP on leaving an African Union summit in Burkina Faso.
In Nairobi, Sudan`s deputy parliamentary speaker Angelo Beda said Western powers were "playing with the word genocide" as a pretext to "come in with occupying forces for the sake of oil."
Sudan produces around 250,000 barrels a day of oil, and the government recently announced considerable discoveries of the resource in Darfur.
But a spokesman for the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement, Abdelhafiz Mustafa Musa, called the US move "a welcome development," saying the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed "continued to kill innocent civilians."
The proposed US resolution would call Khartoum to cooperate fully with an expanded African Union (AU) force and for cessation of Sudanese military flights over the Darfur region.
The resolution also provides for international overflights to monitor Darfur.
Sudan is a contracting party to an international genocide convention and is obliged under the convention to prevent and punish acts of genocide.
"To us, at this time, it appears that Sudan has failed to do so," Powell said.
A key provision of the Genocide Convention provides that contracting parties "may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations" to take action to prevent and suppress acts of genocide.
Powell said US evidence from interviews on refugees and other sources showed that the "Janjaweed and Sudanese military forces have committed large-scale acts of violence, including murders, rape and physical assaults on non-Arab individuals."
He said they had destroyed villages and foodstuffs and obstructed humanitarian aid from reaching affected populations, thereby leading to further deaths and suffering.
"Despite having been put on notice multiple times, Khartoum has failed to stop the violence," he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The panel`s chairman Dick Lugar introduced legislation that would provide an additional 300 million dollars in fiscal year 2005 aid to relieve the Sudan humanitarian crisis.
It would add to the nearly 600 million dollars already targeted for Sudan in during that period, Lugar said.
Powell said that the AU force was the "number one priority" for the United States, adding that 25 million dollars had been earmarked for an expanded force, the mandate of which was subject of Nigerian-sponsored talks between Sudan and Darfur rebels.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in Helsinki that the alliance could work together with the EU to provide logistical support to the AU, which has several hundred troops in Darfur monitoring a shaky ceasefire.
Powell stressed that global action was critical.
"Call it a civil war. Call it ethnic cleansing. Call it genocide. Call it none of the above. The reality is the same: there are people in Darfur who desperately need our help," he said.