An article published on Feb. 8, 2007 in the Voice entitled “Natsios on Darfur: not genocide” contained three significant errors. First, the article incorrectly referred to “the recent deployment of 10,000 more United Nations troops.” While the United Nations has authorized the deployment of forces into Darfur, the government of Sudan has not allowed that deployment to take place.
More importantly, the article stated: “[U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Andrew] Natsios emphasized that the crisis in Darfur is not the first of its kind, saying that the Arab and African populations in Sudan have fighting (sic) since the late 1980s.” Besides the evident syntax error, the sentence is flawed because it does not accurately portray Natsios’ point. Upon reviewing the speech, it is clear that Natsios did not intend to say that genocide has occurred previous to the current Darfur conflict. He was instead emphasizing the violent context within which the conflict is taking place.
Finally, and most importantly, both the headline and lead sentence of the article stressed that Natsios declined to call the current conflict a “genocide.” While we stand by our account that Natsios is opposed to using the word “genocide” to continue to describe the current situation in Darfur, the article should have included a sentence stressing that Natsios still believes that, at its height, the crisis constituted a “genocide.”
Unfortunately, the flawed article was published in our print edition, but a corrected version was published online early Thursday afternoon.
The original version of the article has generated a storm of controversy among advocacy groups on the many sides of this complicated issue. It is a lesson in how quickly a story from any newspaper, however small, can be disseminated internationally in the digital age. I want to take this moment to apologize to Professor Natsios and all our readers for this very significant error. The Voice is currently undertaking reforms to ensure that this never happens again.
