On Aug. 30, the U.N. Security Council will start debating whether Sudan has met its commitment to disarm the Janjaweed militia that is responsible for the death of some 50,000 people and the displacement of 1.5 million from their villages and farms in the Darfur region of Sudan.

		Kenneth H. Bacon is the president of Refugees International, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. (www.refugeesinternational.org).

Concurrently, the U.S. State Department is conducting an investigation to determine if the government of Sudan is guilty of genocide. Most of the dead and displaced are Africans and the killers are largely Arabs.

In July, Congress passed a resolution declaring that "the atrocities in Darfur, Sudan, are genocide" and calling on the members of the United Nations "to undertake measures to prevent the genocide."

Genocide is not a term the U.S. Congress uses lightly. In 1948, after the Nazi Holocaust, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."

Despite the congressional declaration, the Bush administration, governments of other major countries and the leadership of the United Nations all are reluctant to use the term genocide. This may be because the Genocide Convention says that "The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide ... is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish." At the moment nobody seems willing to use aggressive diplomacy or economic sanctions, let alone military force, to stop the killing in Darfur.

Arab militias called Janjaweed are destroying villages inhabited by African farmers. The government of Sudan claims that the conflict reflects the growing competition for arable land as the desert spreads, forcing nomadic Arab herders to clash with African farmers.

But evidence from human rights groups makes it clear that the fighting in Darfur is much more than an economic dispute. Coordinated air assaults and Janjaweed attacks are systematically killing Africans and depopulating entire villages. Refugees International has reported accounts of African children being burned alive by Janjaweed and of Arab militia poisoning wells with dead animals to prevent the return of African farmers.

Janjaweed rape of African women is rampant; in June The Washington Post ran a chilling account of rape in Darfur under the headline: " 'We Want to Make a Light Baby': Arab Militiamen in Sudan Said to Use Rape as Weapon of Ethnic Cleansing."

In June, Pierre Prosper, America's ambassador at large for war crimes, said that "we see indicators of genocide" in Darfur but that "we are not in a position to confirm" the signs. While the United States investigates possible genocide, the killing continues.

Whether the United States determines if the government of Sudan is guilty of genocide may ultimately depend on a finding that the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum is acting with "intent to destroy, in whole or in part" the African tribes in Darfur.

In July, Human Rights Watch reported that it had obtained documents from Sudanese officials in Darfur that "incontrovertibly show that government officials directed recruitment, arming and other support" of the Janjaweed militias.

The United States has already uncovered indications that the Sudanese government is trying to hide evidence of genocide. "The government is in the villages attempting to move mass graves," Andrew Natsios, the administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, told a State Department briefing in April.

What would the United States and other nations do if they acknowledged genocide in Sudan? Any response would be expensive and complex, which may be why the world has been so slow to act in the face of evidence that has been accumulating for at least a year.

Response could range from overt condemnation of the government of Sudan for genocide to tough sanctions against the leaders of Sudan and the nation's growing oil industry to the use of military force against the Janjaweed and the Sudanese air force. The imposition of a no-fly zone, such as we maintained over Iraq for years, would be difficult but effective. Shooting down Sudanese planes or helicopters would quickly stop the bombing.

In April, while marking the 10th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said: "The United Nations has a moral responsibility to ensure that vulnerable peoples are protected and that genocides never occur again."

As the United Nations begins considering whether the government of Sudan has done enough to reduce violence in Darfur to escape sanctions or other action, Security Council members will have an opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to ending genocide.