British report estimates 300,000 deaths in Darfur conflict
By Associated Press
Published March 31, 2005
LONDON - The death toll in Darfur has been underestimated and is likely to be around 300,000, British lawmakers said Wednesday, calling the international response to the human tragedy "scandalously ineffective."
But an official in Prime Minister Tony Blair's government said the death toll remains unknown and Britain and other nations are doing all they can to support the African Union, which has 3,000 soldiers and cease-fire monitors in Sudan's western region.
"The honest truth" is that nobody knows the real death toll in the more than two-year conflict, Hilary Benn, the government's international development secretary, said on Channel 4 television.
Conflict has engulfed Darfur since February 2003, when two non-Arab rebel groups took up arms against the Arab-dominated government to win more political and economic rights for the region's African tribes.
Sudan's Arab government is accused of responding by backing Janjaweed militiamen who have carried out rapes and killings against Sudanese of African origin. The government denies backing the Janjaweed.
Earlier this month, the United Nations estimated that since October 2003, about 180,000 people had died as a result of the upheaval, with about 2-million people displaced.
U.N. officials said that while the estimate included some deaths due to violence, most were because of disease and starvation.
A report by the International Development Committee of Britain's House of Commons said a World Health Organization estimate that 70,000 people had died from indirect effects of disease and hunger in the Darfur region was "a gross underestimate."
The report said early warnings about the emerging crisis were ignored, humanitarian agencies were slow to respond and the United Nations suffered from an "avoidable leadership vacuum" in Sudan at a critical time.
It also criticized the U.N. Security Council as "divided, weak and ineffective," saying it had been driven by member states' interests in oil and exporting arms.
The report recommended referring the Darfur crisis to the International Criminal Court.
On Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council voted to strengthen its arms embargo on Darfur to include the government and ordered an asset freeze and travel ban on those who defy peace efforts.
