The US finally says what it should have already - and too many others haven't - about Darfur: Secretary of State Colin L. Powell declared Thursday that the United States viewed the killings, rapes and destruction of homes in the Darfur region of western Sudan as genocide, and he called on the United Nations Security Council to recognize that the situation required urgent action. While the declaration has no immediate effect on the role or obligations of the United Nations, said Fred Eckhard, spokesman for the Secretary General, Kofi Annan, it could be viewed as tantamount to invoking Article 8 of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide - the first time that any nation had invoked that provision calling upon the United Nations to take action. In toughly worded testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Powell said he had concluded that genocide had occurred after studying the findings of experts who had interviewed victims of violence in western Sudan, where attacks have been carried out by government-backed militia known as the Janjaweed. 'When we reviewed the evidence compiled by our team,' Mr. Powell said, 'we concluded - I concluded - that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility, and that genocide may still be occurring.'