No genocide in Sudan, Annan says

June 17th, 2004.

NEW YORK, June 17, 2004 (dpa) -- While the killings of civilians in Sudan's western Darfur region violate international humanitarian law, they cannot be described as genocide or ethnic cleansing, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said Thursday.

Annan said Sudan would be among several African nations he plans to visit in early July to look into the humanitarian situation in that region, where an estimated one million people have been displaced and thousands killed because of fights between government and rebel troops.

"I cannot call the killing a genocide even though there have been massive violations of international humanitarian law," Annan told reporters.

Annan said the Sudanese government has also denied any involvement in the killings in the Darfur region. Khartoum has been accused of giving support to militia forces composed of Arab ethnics known as the "Janjaweed" to fight local ethnic rebels.

The fighting has caused a humanitarian crisis in Darfur, prompting relief agencies to rush in assistance and accusations of genocide.