US Backtracking on Darfur

The United States has played a leading role in attempts to deal with the crisis in Darfur by donating hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid, providing logistical and financial support to the AU mission, and pushing for various resolutions and sanctions in the UN Security Council. In September, the Bush administration even took the unprecedented step of labeling the situation "genocide."

But now it appears as if the Bush administration is intentionally lessening its pressure on Sudan.

On a recent visit to Sudan, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick backed away from the earlier genocide designation and offered an oddly low estimate of the death toll in Darfur. Shortly thereafter, the State Department released a fact sheet claiming that an estimated "63-146,000 'excess' deaths can be attributed to violence, disease, and malnutrition because of the conflict;" a figure that is less than half the commonly accepted estimate. Noted Sudan expert Eric Reeves wrote of the State Department's estimate "This is not epidemiology: this is propaganda" and claimed that it called into question "not only the motives of those who have compiled it, but the moral and intellectual integrity of those ... who would cite it."

And last week, Mark Leon Goldberg reported that the administration was working to kill the Darfur Accountability Act.

On the same day, the Los Angeles Times reported that Sudan had become an key source of intelligence information for the CIA and that Sudan's intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Salah Abdallah Gosh, a man widely thought to be responsible for directing military attacks against civilians in Darfur, had been brought to Washington for a meeting with intelligence officials aboard a CIA jet.

The LA Times report revealed that Sudan had provided valuableinformation regarding al Qaeda's operations, captured and handed overIslamic extremists operating in Sudan, and even detained militantsmoving through Sudan on their way to join forces with Iraqiinsurgents.There is no doubt that Sudan feels it deserves to be rewarded for thisassistance and it remains to be seen what, if anything, the Bushadministration intends to offer in return.These new revelations raise complex questions about our priorities asa nation and serious questions about the future of Darfur. But whatmust not be ignored in this debate over realpolitik is that millionsof people are still in desperate need of humanitarian aid. Thus, weask you to join the Coalition for Darfur as we seek to raise money for organizations providing lifesaving assistance to the people of Darfur.