US raising stakes over Darfur crisis

It's these kinds of accounts the genocide-investigation team - run by the American Bar Association - is probing. A preliminary report is due at the end of July.

If it leads to a genocide declaration, the biggest impact would be political and moral pressure on the US to intervene, says Jerry Fowler, staff director of the Committee on Conscience at the US Holocaust Museum. The issue of sending in troops would certainly arise, he says. But there is nothing in UN genocide treaties requiring that "when you declare genocide you have to send in troops," he says. Rather, there are general calls on signatories to prevent genocide and punish perpetrators.

Meanwhile, neither Amnesty International nor Human Rights Watch has declared genocide in Darfur, saying they need more information. The Holocaust Museum, however, Monday will label Darfur a full-fledged "genocide emergency," the first such warning in its history.

Refugees are convinced of the ethnic nature of the attacks. "They're trying to change Darfur into Dar-Arab," says Asama Haron, a refugee in the Oure Cassoni camp, and a former secondary school teacher. (In the local language "dar" means "home of." And the "Fur" are a dominant regional tribe. Thus, Darfur.)

The UN appears to be skirting the issue of genocide. The new US resolution, which Kofi Annan saidhas passable support, calls on Sudan's leaders to "apprehend and bring to justice Janjaweed leaders" within 30 days - and threatens that the Security Council will "consider ... the imposition of sanctions" if Sudan doesn't comply.

Congress was much firmer. In its unanimous non-binding resolution, it urges the White House to describe the Darfur crisis "by its rightful name - genocide." Congressional pressure, observers say, stems from a trifecta of lobby groups. The first: Conservative Christians who engaged on Sudan because of a separate, ongoing conflict between Muslim northerners and mostly Christian southerners. The second: genocide-sensitive Jewish groups. The third: African-Americans outraged at their black brethren being killed by Arabs.

Mr. Prendergast says he hasn't seen so much lobbying on an Africa issue "since the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s." There's even a poll on the issue - a rarity in Africa topics.

Some 56 percent of Americans say the Darfur crisis is genocide, according to a PIPA-Knowledge Networks survey. Also, 69 percent said if the UN declares the crisis genocide, the world body and the US should act to stop it, including by sending troops. Only 14 percent said they've heard "a lot" or "some" about Darfur.

Sudan's Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, meanwhile, has accused the US of meddling in domestic affairs, as it did in Iraq. He said last week that Sudan arrested 100 Janjaweed leaders and was preparing to put them on trial.

And Mrs. Muhammad awaits the next chapter from her UN-provided tent in Chad. Like many refugees, she still has her watch set an hour ahead of Chadian time - to Sudanese time. It symbolizes, she says, how much she wants to "go home."

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