Despite International Condemnation, Sudanís Top Diplomat Denies ëGenocideí by Larry Luxner Khidir Haroun Ahmed is very much on the defensive these days. As Sudanís highest-ranking official in Washington, Ahmed is in the awkward position of having to justify his governmentís continuing war against rebels in western Darfur provinceóa war that has led to human suffering on a scale that is unmatched anywhere else in Africa at the moment, or the world for that matter. ìThis is genocide, and according to USAID [U.S. Agency for International Development], worse is coming,î said Peter Kranstover, an official with the U.S. Committee for Refugees. He told The Washington Diplomat that 2.5 million people ìare in desperate need of aid,î but that only half that number are receiving it. ìThe government has to be taken to task for what has transpired,î Kranstover said, referring to Khartoumís support for the Arab militia groups known as the Janjaweed. ìThereís good evidence from a number of different sources that they encouraged and armed irregular forces in order to put down any type of dissent, and any group that happens to be against their very strong, centralized government policy. Thereís well-documented coordination between the Janjaweed and the S udanese Air Force in bombing villages, poisoning wells and destroying infrastructure.î Yet Ahmed said itís not fair to blame the Sudanese government when the real culprits are two rebel groupsóthe Justice and Equality Movement, affiliated with the Sudan Liberation Armyóa non-Arab group that took up arms against Khartoum alleging mistreatment by the Arab governmentóand the Sudan [Sudanese] Peopleís Liberation Army, formed in 1983 by the mostly animist or Christian populations in the South. ìRebellion is the major cause of this problem. The government did not go on a rampage to get rid of these people,î he said. ìIn February 2003, these two rebel movements launched their attacks, in their own words, to get attention. They destroyed nearly all the police stations in Darfur and killed hundreds of police officers. That created a security vacuum, with no law enforcement in an area the size of Texas.î Measuring more than 900,000 square miles, Sudan is the largest country in Africa. Itís the same size as the United States east of the Mississippi River, and is a potentially wealthy country, with vast reserves of precious metals and possibly petroleum. Between 32 million and 35 million people live in Sudan; Ahmed isnít quite sure how many because no reliable census has been conducted in years. Yet other statistics tell the real story. In addition to the current volatile situation in Darfur, a punishing civil war between the predominantly Muslim north and the animist and Christian south has raged since 1955 (although there was a cessation between 1972 and 1983), killing more than 2 million people, creating 4.5 million internal refugees and boosting Khartoumís capital to 6 million. Starvation is rampant, especially in the south, and Sudan remains on the United Nationsís list of the worldís 48 least developed countries. In Darfur, the situation is especially critical, with the number of displaced people likely to rise by 500,000, according to the United Nations. ìToday, still increasing numbers of the population of Darfur are exposed, without any protection from their government to hunger, fear and violence,î said an Oct. 4 report by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the U.N. Security Council. ìThe numbers affected by the conflict are growing and their suffering is being prolonged by inaction. In a significant proportion of the territory, security conditions have worsened.î Between 5 million and 6 million people live in Darfur, and theyíre composed of 83 different tribes. But the non-Arab rebel groups are composed of only three tribes, the Zaghawa, Masalit and Fur peoples. ìYou had a breakdown of law enforcement, so there was a chaotic situation where people turned against each other, burning, looting and committing all kinds of atrocities. But the government has never been in a position to commit atrocities against its own people,î Ahmed claimed. ìThat makes no sense.î Kranstover, who spent a great deal of time visiting Sudanese refugee camps in neighboring Chad, doesnít buy that argument for a minute. ìFrom what I was able to gather by speaking with a number of Sudanese refugees both in camps as well as refugees in villages along the border with Chad, they told me that the Janjaweed visit every day, shooting their guns in the air to let the Sudanese know they shouldnít come back. This is clearly an indication that an insecure situation continues to prevail.î Amnesty International and other human rights groups have reported that women and girls have suffered multiple forms of violence during attacks on their villages, including rape, killings, the burning of homes and the pillaging of livestock. Women have also been reportedly tortured during interrogation by security forces for being relatives of suspected rebels. The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) recently admitted that the crisis in Darfur isnít going away anytime soon. ìThe aid crisis is going to continue at least until the end of next year,î WFP spokesman Greg Barrow said, adding that this yearís intense media focus on Darfur and a stream of high-level foreign visitors has helped, but that the world must not forget the crisis when attention fades. ìThis is a very, very precarious situation. The levels of humanitarian aid will need to be sustained at or above the same level as this year.î Ahmed, who with his wife Howaida Abdulkarim Mahmoud has six children, said that the international community contributes only 50 percent of the necessary aid to Sudan, and of that 50 percent, around 85 percent, or about $100 million, is coming from the United States, specifically USAID. ìI am amazed that despite this outcry over Darfur, the other rich countries do not help our people,î he said. ìWe are very grateful to the Bush administration for its engagement and approach to the Sudan issue through constructive engagement, contrary to the previous [Clinton] administration, which was working for regime change.î Ahmed wouldnít say which candidate he prefers, only that ìwhoever wins this election, we are hopeful that he builds upon what we have achieved together, in terms of peace, cooperation and combating international terrorism.î Because the United States doesnít have full diplomatic relations with Khartoum, Ahmed, 52, still holds the rank of chargÈ díaffaires rather than ambassador. He presides over 20 staffers working at Sudanís modest three-story embassy on Massachusetts Avenueóthe site of many recent demonstrations calling for an end to the atrocities. Ahmed said itís ironic that both President Bush and Sen. John Kerry have used the word ìgenocideî to describe Sudanís actions against the people of Darfur, but that ìnobody else at all, including the African Union, the European Union, the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conferenceî has done so. Asked why, the Sudanese diplomat said itís a matter of election-year politics. ìKerry brought it up two months ago, and then unfortunately both candidates were trying to show which one is more humane. One candidate is accusing the other of not doing enough to stop this so-called genocide in the making. So the other side has to respond, saying, ëNo, weíre doing our job.íî He added: ìIím not denying that thereís a human tragedy, but we have to be frank. For some time, Sudan has become a domestic issue with respect to the North-South civil war. You have a coalition of opposing groups, with the religious right perceiving the war as between Muslims and Christians, and the African American community perceiving it as similar to apartheid, i.e. Arabs versus black people. So this coalition is back in business.î Kranstover said such accusations are ìabsolutely untrueî and ìa reflection of the conspiratorialî mentality of the Sudanese regime, which he says consistently obscures the truth about Darfur. In September, the Sudanese Embassy was closed for a three-week period, presumably because of the Riggs Bank scandal (See August 2004 issue of The Washington Diplomat). Ahmed said the closure had nothing to do with the demonstrations, which sometimes only attracted 10 or 15 people and other days several hundred, including well-known personalities such as actor Danny Glover. ìI invited the protesters to come and talk to me, but very few of them did,î Ahmed said, noting with a visible sigh of relief that the protests have since stopped. ìMaybe they felt they achieved their goal by making the administration characterize the situation as genocide.î Perhaps itís no surprise that Ahmed finds himself constant ly explaining his governmentís actions to newspaper reporters and before television cameras. ìThe issue is in the media now, almost every day. Frankly, weíre having a very tough time. And what we are very surprised with is that nobody has raised a finger against the people who should be treated as terrorists, those who perpetrated this in the first place, who killed tribal chiefs and contributed to the collapse of law and order in that region.î Larry Luxner is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.