U.S. says Sudan government involved in violence

WASHINGTON - Several recent violent incidents in Sudan's Darfur region reinforce the U.S. view that the east African nation's government is involved directly in continuing abuses, the Bush administration said Friday.

The administration already made clear this week its unhappiness with a new report from the United Nations that minimized the relationship between the government and Arab militias that have wreaked havoc on Darfur's black African residents since early 2003.

"The government of Sudan's responsibility is clear," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday, alluding to attacks in Darfur last month that were confirmed by an African monitoring group.

During incidents Aug. 24-26, homes were razed in one community and government helicopters attacked another, Boucher said. In a third, five bodies were discovered in a single grave.

"All this information I think is being made available by the African Union," Boucher added.

John Danforth, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, made clear Thursday his disagreement with a report by Jan Pronk, the U.N. special envoy to Sudan.

He said Pronk was "flat-out wrong" in his claim of no evidence of recent collaboration between the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias.

The report assessed the Sudan's compliance with a July 30 Security Council resolution that demanded improvements by President Omar el-Bashir's government in humanitarian and security conditions for the displaced people of Darfur.

More than 30,000 people have died and more than 1.2-million have been displaced.

Last month, U.S. officials interviewed more than 1,000 refugees from Darfur who have sought safety in neighboring Chad. The interviews are part of an information-gathering process to help the State Department determine whether genocide has been committed in Darfur.

Officials said it remains unclear whether summaries of the interviews, now in preparation, will provide enough information to draw a conclusion one way other the other.

Secretary of State Colin Powell has said repeatedly that getting Sudanese government cooperation toward improving humanitarian access and security in Darfur are more important than any finding that the abuses rise to the level of genocide.

Powell is due to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Sudan next Thursday.

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