Genocide is taking place in Sudan in violation of international law, both houses of Congress declared in a joint resolution July 22.
The joint resolution said, “The atrocities unfolding in Darfur, Sudan, are genocide” in violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, signed in Paris in December 1948.
The resolution notes that “an estimated 30,000 innocent civilians have been brutally murdered, more than 130,000 people have been forced from their homes and have fled to neighboring Chad, and more than 1 million people have been internally displaced” in the western region of Sudan known as Darfur.
The government of Sudan has been accused by U.S. officials, United Nations (U.N.) workers and human rights advocates of orchestrating attacks by Arab militias known as Janjaweed against the African populace of the Darfur region.
In addition to declaring the crisis in Sudan to be a case of genocide, Senate Concurrent Resolution 133: “deplores the failure of the U.N. Human Rights Commission to take appropriate action with respect to the crisis … particularly the failure by the Commission to support United States-sponsored efforts to strongly condemn gross human rights violations committed in Darfur.”
• “calls upon the U.N. and the U.N. secretary general to call the atrocities being committed in Darfur by their rightful name: genocide.”
• “calls on the member states of the U.N., particularly member states from the African Union, the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, to undertake measures to prevent the genocide … from escalating further, including the imposition of targeted means against those responsible for the atrocities.”
• “commends the [Bush] administration’s leadership in seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict … and in addressing the ensuing humanitarian crisis, including the visit of Secretary of State Colin Powell to Darfur in June 2004 to engage directly in efforts to end the genocide and the provision of nearly $140 million to date in bilateral humanitarian assistance through the United States Agency for International Development.”
• “calls on the administration to continue to lead an international effort to stop [the] genocide.”
• “calls on the administration to impose targeted means, including visa bans and the freezing of assets, against officials and other individuals of the government of Sudan, as well as Janjaweed militia commanders, who are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.” (BP)
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