WOLF BLITZER, host: Susan, let me start with you. What we just heard from the Sudanese foreign minister — is he right when he says that only the United States is accusing Sudan of genocide?
SUSAN RICE, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Wolf, that interview with the Sudanese foreign minister revealed a lot. No, he’s not right. There are people all over the world who have termed this genocide.
BLITZER: But has any other government?
RICE: The United States is the principle government that has termed it genocide. It did so after an exhaustive investigation on the ground, with over 1,000 experts who conducted interviews throughout the region.
President Bush, the U.S. Congress, and many of the American public have called this genocide — quite rightly so.
The foreign minister really was spectacular in his dissembling during that interview. He really is, to be charitable, a disgrace to the people of Sudan and particularly to the government of southern Sudan.
This is much more than a civil war. There are civil wars all over the world, but the government of Sudan made a conscious decision to go one step further and employ tactics that amounted to genocide: rape, displacement, murder, burning of villages, to wipe out large parts of entire tribes. And as a consequence, hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost.
Commentary
The Current Situation in Darfur
October 7, 2007