In Rwanda a decade ago, Hutu extremists slaughtered an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus as various factions argued over the use of the word.
"We all had the Rwanda experience, and we all have to live with ourselves," said Charles Snyder, the State Department's senior representative on Sudan and the former acting assistant secretary of state for African affairs.
A mother gives her ailing son dirty water in Darfur, where hunger is widespread and disease rampant.
(Jahi Chikwendiu -- The Washington Post)
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_____Crisis in Sudan_____
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Q&A: Darfur A brief explanation of the issues and current humanitarian situation in Western Sudan.
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Photos: Sudan's Rebels
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Sudan's Ragtag Rebels (The Washington Post, Sep 7, 2004)
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U.N. Envoy to Sudan 'Wrong,' Danforth Says (The Washington Post, Sep 3, 2004)
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U.N. Envoy Urges Sudan To Let Peacekeepers In (The Washington Post, Sep 2, 2004)
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Rebels in Sudan Region Say No Letup in Attacks (The Washington Post, Aug 29, 2004)
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Sudan Not Curbing Militias, Diplomats Say (The Washington Post, Aug 28, 2004)
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Meanwhile, analysts have said the United States is reluctant to antagonize Sudan because the Bush administration does not want to jeopardize a U.S.-backed peace deal to end a separate civil war with rebels in southern Sudan. In addition, Sudan, which once harbored Osama bin Laden, now plays a role in the war on terrorism.
High-ranking Sudanese officials, including the head of National Intelligence Security Services and the former external affairs intelligence chief, are among the key figures ordering and coordinating the violence in Darfur, State Department sources said.
"Senior Bush administration officials appear reluctant to publicly identify senior officials involved in the atrocities in Darfur, including First Vice President Osman Taha and NISS chief Salah Abdala Gosh, because these officials are also in charge of the counterterrorism efforts and have been cooperating with U.S. officials," said Ted Dagne of the U.S. Congressional Research Service. "Targeting these officials could end cooperation on counterterrorism."
Human rights analysts said that describing killings in Darfur as genocide does not prescribe a specific U.S. course of action.
"Just calling it a genocide does not open a magic book," said Jerry Fowler, staff director on the Committee on Conscience at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. "But it raises the moral and political stakes. You can't just say it's genocide and then not get involved."
Members of the State Department who contributed to the new report also worked in Kosovo and Bosnia. After touring the camps, they likened their experiences there to their experiences in Sudan and discussed the need for additional international pressure to end the violence in Darfur.
"If you have women without their men, that changes the face of the future society," said Jan Pfundheller, a retired police officer from Brewster, Wash.
"I was shocked by the scope of the tragedy," said Pfundheller, an expert on sexual violence. "What happened in Kosovo was evil. This is more vast and equally as evil."
