by Charles Whelan
SEOUL, Sept 10 (AFP) - Sudan`s foreign minister on Friday rejected US accusations that his government carried out genocide in the region of Darfur, saying the charges were a reelection ploy by US President George W. Bush.
Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said the Bush administration was using Darfur`s humanitarian crisis to distract attention away from the mounting US death toll in Iraq.
"We strongly believe the Bush administration is trying to distract internal and international attention away from what is taking place in Iraq to avoid pressure from the Democrats during the ongoing presidential election," Ismail told AFP in a telephone interview.
"They should not use our humanitarian crisis for their own political agenda."
The minister, on a five-day visit to South Korea, was responding to US charges of genocide in the Darfur region, where an estimated 50,000 people have been killed and 1.4 million more uprooted since February 2003.
The Sudanese government has been accused of arming and backing Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, which have rampaged through the western Darfur region.
Bush said in Washington Thursday he was appalled at the violence which he and Secretary of State Colin Powell described as genocide.
Powell earlier told a Senate hearing that evidence compiled by the United States concluded that the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed militia bore responsibility for the genocide.
However Sudan`s foreign minister said it was the same Bush administration that claimed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
"Regrettably, now they are saying there is no evidence of weapons of mass destruction, after they invaded Iraq and lost over 1,000 American sons and daughters," he said.
"As we have seen (Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld`s weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, we are now seeing Powell`s genocide in Sudan."
He said the Bush administration was "furious" at the rising death toll in Iraq, and was desperate to deflect attention away from the war there as Bush battles for reelection against Democrat John Kerry.
Powell said the US has proposed a new resolution to the UN Security Council, asking for investigation, possibly sanctions on Sudan.
The proposed US resolution would call on Khartoum to cooperate fully with an expanded African Union force and for cessation of Sudanese military flights over the Darfur region.
Ismail said the US findings of genocide were based on a flawed investigation of a "negligible" percentage of people.
He said the European Union, the Arab League, the African Union, the Non-Aligned Movement and the Organization of the Islamic Conference had all dismissed allegations of genocide.
"It is not for the United States to unilaterally label what is going on in Darfur as genocide," he said.
"I know that it is because of the election, but I hope that their inner feelings tell them they should not destroy the image of an African nation just to win votes."