Original source URL: http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-10/03/article04.shtml US Amplifies Darfur Crisis Eyeing Regime Change: Report The aid workers maintain that the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Darfur similar to that in other African regions CAIRO, October 3 (IslamOnline.net) The US administration is making too much fuss about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur as it tirelessly seeks a regime change in Khartoum, international aid workers have told Britain¹s The Observer. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the aid workers, citing their hands-on experience in the troubled Sudanese region, concluded there was no genocide in Darfur but only diseases and malnutrition, which are daily occurrences in Africa. The United States has often called the situation in Darfur "genocide" and accused the Sudanese government of backing the Arab militias Janjaweed in their alleged attacks on African Darfuris. The US House Of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution in July, condemning the "genocide" taking place in the oil-rich province. However, the charge, The Observer said, was rejected by officials of both the European and African Unions and also privately by British officials. Dr. Hussein Gezairy, Regional Director of World Health Organization¹s Eastern Mediterranean Region, had told IslamOnline.net that the situation in the area did not amount to genocide or ethnic cleansing. Africa-like Many aid workers interviewed by the British paper were puzzled that Darfur had become the focus of such hyperbolic American warnings when there were crises of similar magnitude in both northern Uganda and eastern Congo. "I've been to a number of camps during my time here," one aid worker said, "and if you want to find death, you have to go looking for it. It's easy to find very sick and under-nourished children at the therapeutic feeding centers, but that's the same wherever you go in Africa." Another aid worker told the paper: "It suited various governments to talk it all up, but they don't seem to have thought about the consequences. I have no idea what (US Secretary of State) Colin Powell's game is, but to call it genocide and then effectively say, ŒOh, shucks, but we are not going to do anything about that genocide¹ undermines the very word Œgenocide¹." The aid worker was referring to a September 9 testimony by Powell before the Congressional Foreign Relations Committee in which he had accused Sudan of committing "genocide". The UN Security Council late on September 18 passed a US-drafted resolution threatening to "envisage" sanctions against Sudan's oil industry unless the government meets its commitment to restore security to Darfur. "Not Disastrous" The Observer says USAID has become politicized under the Bush administration The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said in a recent nutritional survey of Darfur that the crisis is being brought under control, The Observer said. "It's not disastrous," one of those involved in the survey told the British newspaper. "Although it was certainly a disaster earlier this year, and if humanitarian assistance declines, this will have very serious negative consequences." The WFP said last month it had delivered food for nearly one million people in the restive region. The United Nations labeled the Darfur conflict, erupted in February 2003, as the world's worst current humanitarian crisis, putting the number of people killed at 10,000 to 50,000 and over one million reportedly forced to flee their homes. Politicized Aid The British paper said that US aid organizations, chiefly the US Agency for International Development, risk losing credibility as they have become increasingly "politicized" under the administration of George W. Bush. It said two senior USAID officials have long held strong personal views over Sudan. Both its current chairman Andrew Natsios, a former vice-president of the Christian charity World Vision, and Assistant Administrator Roger Winter have long been hostile to the Sudanese government, The Observer said. US officials, in effect, kept fueling the warmongering rhetoric on Darfur. Influential leaders of the US evangelical organizations had signed a letter asking Bush to consider a military action against Sudan. The Guardian reported on August 2 that British Prime Minister Tony Blair was making the case for a "colonial war " against Sudan because of its growing oil reserves, as there are no signs of highly-touted claims of genocide in the Arab country. -- -------------------------------------------------------- Posting archives: http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/?lists=newslog Escaping the Matrix website: http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal website: http://cyberjournal.org Community Democracy Framework: http://cyberjournal.org/DemocracyFramework.html Moderator: •••@••.••• (comments welcome)
