Darfur denial:

The UN Commission of Inquiry that has compiled documentation of crimes against humanity in the Darfur region of Sudan nevertheless brought shame on the UN by submitting a report last week that absolves the National Islamic Front regime in Sudan of the crime of genocide.

The commission did find that the murdered civilians of Darfur and ethnically cleansed refugees facing death from disease and malnutrition have suffered from violations of international humanitarian law. The commission even identified the government in Khartoum and its Arab militia allies known as Janjaweed as the parties responsible. Yet in what seems a politically motivated contortion of language and logic, the commission concluded “that the government of Sudan has not pursued a policy of genocide.”

But only genocidal intent can explain Khartoum’s policy to kill off the 2.4 million refugees by destroying their villages and the life-sustaining basis of their agriculture and then fostering violence that prevents food and medical assistance from reaching large numbers of them. The US is wrong to oppose the commission’s suggested referral of the Darfur crimes to the International Criminal Court. But the commission, in denying the existence of the Darfur genocide, has failed to end a much greater wrong — the genocidal annihilation of Darfur’s Afri-can tribal groups. — The Boston Globe