Attacks in Darfur region are genocide: US Cong

The US Congress unanimously passed a resolution declaring the atrocities being committed in Darfur, Sudan, a genocide, and calling on the White House to intervene multilaterally or even unilaterally to stop the violence.

By a vote of 422 to zero, the House of Representatives and "the Senate concurring" passed the resolution introduced a month ago by New Jersey Democrat Donald Payne stressing that in Darfur 30,000 people have been "brutally murdered", 130,000 have fled to neighboring Chad and more than one million have been internally displaced by the violence.

Quoting the United Nations Resident Humanitarian Coordinator who said that the violence in the poverty-stricken region "appears to be particularly directed at a specific group based on their ethnic identity and appears to be systemized," the resolution "declares that the atrocities unfolding in Darfur, Sudan, are genocide."

It urges the US administration of President George W. Bush to "call the atrocities ... by its rightful name: 'genocide,' and calls on it to lead an international effort to prevent it.

The resolution, adopted late on Thursday, further calls on the Bush administration "to seriously consider multilateral or even unilateral intervention to prevent genocide should the United Nations Security Council fail to act."

It also demands "targeted sanctions, including visa bans and the freezing of assets of the National Congress and affiliated business and individuals directly responsible for the atrocities in Darfur," and urges USAID to help the refugees resettle and rebuild their communities.

The United States on Thursday put forward a draft UN Security Council resolution that could slap sanctions on Sudan if it does not prosecute Arab militia leaders behind atrocities in Darfur.

Reuters adds: Sudan warned Britain and the United States Thursday not to interfere in its internal affairs after Prime Minister Tony Blair said he had not ruled out military aid to help combat the crisis in Darfur.

The United States circulated a draft UN resolution threatening sanctions against Sudan's government if it did not prosecute Arab militia leaders in the western region accused of ethnic cleansing against black Africans in Darfur.