Carter: No Genocide In Darfur, US Exaggerating

From Islam Online:

No Genocide in Darfur: Carter

October 5, 2007

“If you read the law textbooks … you’ll see very clearly that it’s not genocide,” said Carter.

CAIRO — The United States is exaggerating when it described the Darfur conflict as “genocide,” former US president Jimmy Carter has said, warning that the use of the term was legally inaccurate and “unhelpful,” The Christian Science Monitor reported Friday.

“There is a legal definition of genocide and Darfur does not meet that legal standard. The atrocities were horrible but I don’t think it qualifies to be called genocide,” said Carter, a member of the group of Elders who visited Darfur and included Archbishop Desmond Tutu, rights advocate Graca Machel, and entrepreneur Richard Branson.

Nobel laureate Carter, whose charitable foundation, the Carter Center, worked to establish the International Criminal Court (ICC), said: “If you read the law textbooks … you’ll see very clearly that it’s not genocide and to call it genocide falsely just to exaggerate a horrible situation I don’t think it helps.”

Carter said the problems in Darfur need a political solution and called on participants at crucial peace talks in Libya on October 27 to be patient.

Washington is almost alone in branding the 4 1/2 years of violence in Darfur genocide.

Khartoum rejects the term, European governments are reluctant to use it and a UN-appointed commission of inquiry found no genocide…

Pampering

Carter’s criticism of the West’s handling of the Darfur crisis was joined by veteran UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who accused the West of “pampering” the rebels.

“The international community has acted rather irresponsibly on all this in the past by pampering a lot of these people around – not really wondering whether they really represented anybody and whether they were acting responsibly,” said Brahimi.

Brahimi warned that the West needs to ensure that the people of Darfur are properly represented at the talks.

Brahimi also urged a comprehensive peace in Sudan, Africa’s largest country.

“We cannot solve Darfur if the CPA (comprehensive performance assessment) is crumbling,” he said.

Brahimi’s and Carter’s comments come at the end the Elders’ two-day mission to Sudan…

The mission is the first for “The Elders”, a group launched by fellow Nobel laureate and former South African president Nelson Mandela.

They went to experience first hand the suffering of the people of Darfur and find ways to end violence in a region plagued by four years of civil war that has left an estimated 200,000 people dead, according to UN estimates.

Sudanese authorities say only 9,000 people have died.

Well, that’s settled then.

Thanks so much, Jimmy “I’ll never criticize a dictator” Carter.

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