HEY, IT REALLY IS ALL ABOUT THE OIL:

Powell's Darfur Declaration: Why Foggy Bottom took so long to characterize the Sudanese--and Rwandan--atrocities as "genocide." (Duncan Currie, 09/15/2004, Weekly Standard)

The concern is that using the word genocide initiates responsibilities under the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Approved by the General Assembly in December 1948, the Convention obligates all signatories to stop genocide whenever it occurs. The key provision is Article 8. It reads in part: "Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide."

A spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan told the New York Times that Powell's declaration was roughly commensurate to invoking Article 8. If so, it would be historic. As Freedom House's Nina Shea has noted, it would mark "the first instance that a party to the 1948 Genocide Convention . . . has formally charged another party with 'genocide' and invoked the convention's provisions while genocide has been in progress."

By the protocols of the Convention, if the United Nations formally uses the term "genocide" in regard to Sudan, it has a legal obligation to act. So far it has not. The Arab League and the African Union, meanwhile, have both claimed there is no genocide in Darfur. The European Union says it has insufficient information to decide.

But the Bush administration hopes Powell's Senate testimony will galvanize Security Council backing for a new U.S. draft resolution on Sudan. The resolution has three main components. First, it threatens oil sanctions if Khartoum doesn't rein in the Janjaweed. Second, it calls for a U.N. commission of inquiry to probe whether the regime and the militias are complicit in genocide. And third, it seeks an expanded African Union security force in Darfur.

According to the Washington Post, Security Council members Germany, Britain, and Spain all support establishing a commission of inquiry. But China and Pakistan, two major importers of Sudanese oil, strongly oppose sanctions, as does Algeria. Beijing has warned it may veto the U.S. resolution.

Should the U.N. route fail, Powell's declaration of "genocide" will make it harder for the United States not to act.

Time for another speech by the President about what the U.N.'s obligations are in the world.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 15, 2004 2:09 PM