U.N. report finds no genocide in Sudan

UNITED NATIONS – A U.N. commission on Sudan has concluded that systematic, government-backed violence in the western region of Darfur was not genocide, but that there was evidence of crimes against humanity with an ethnic dimension.

The report documents violations of international human rights law, incidents of war crimes by militias and the rebels fighting them, and names individuals who may have acted with a “genocidal intention.” But there was not sufficient evidence to indicate that the Khartoum government had a state policy intended to exterminate a particular racial or ethnic group, said diplomats familiar with the report.

It recommends referring the cases to the International Criminal Court, but leaves other options open. The United States, which opposes the court, has proposed setting up a war crimes tribunal in Tanzania to prosecute war crimes committed in Darfur.

The report was submitted to Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday by a five-member independent commission he assigned last October to investigate violations of human rights in Darfur, determine whether acts of genocide occurred and identify the perpetrators. It is not expected to be made public until Sudan has a chance to review the assessment and it is presented to the Security Council next week.

Last September, the U.S. State Department concluded that genocide had occurred in Darfur based on interviews with about 1,800 refugees in neighboring Chad. Their accounts showed that the violence was targeted and coordinated by the Sudanese government and state-backed militias, the State Department said.

But the designation appeared to put more pressure on the United States to act than on Sudan. The Security Council has declined to place sanctions on Sudan, instead offering rewards to cement a peace agreement between the north and south that they hope would shore up a settlement in Darfur.

Sudan’s warring sides signed a peace agreement in early January, but the move has yet to halt a separate conflict in Darfur. A rise in violence in past weeks has displaced thousands of civilians and obstructed access for aid workers. Cease-fire monitors from the African Union reported an aerial bombing by government planes in South Darfur as recently as Wednesday.