Following the lead of the Bush administration, the European Union said yesterday that it does not consider the widespread violence in Sudan to be genocide. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana did say that “it is clear there is widespread, silent and slow killing and village burning of a fairly large scale. There are considerable doubts as to the willingness of Sudan’s government to assume its duty to protect its civilian population against attacks.” Solana cited unwillingness to send a significant military force, saying the EU and others are being forced to cooperate with the Khartoum government. Last month, the US House of Representatives voted 422 to zero to describe the situation in Darfur as genocide.