The Obama administration released a new U.S. policy on Sudan today. You’ll find the complete strategy statement here.
As Enough, Genocide Intervention Network, Save Darfur, and others have pointed out, the policy roll-out constitutes just a small bit of what’s urgently needed from the United States.
We’ve been openly critical of the Obama administration recently for its on-the-record statements about Sudan. Namely, we were dismayed when the U.S. Sudan Envoy publicly supported the use of “gold stars” and “smiley faces” in his diplomacy, which was his bizarrely symbolic way of justifying the value of offering unearned incentives (e.g., normalization of relations, etc.) to the Sudanese government’s genocidaires.
Given the above, the new policy provides a tiny measure of relief. It contains some good on-paper commitments and positions, including:
“Assessments of progress and decisions regarding incentives and disincentives must not be based on process-related accomplishments (i.e. the signing of a MOU or the issuance of a set of visas), but rather based on verifiable changes in conditions on the ground.”
“Accountability for genocide and atrocities is necessary for reconciliation and lasting peace.”
We’re glad that the Obama administration intends to use verifiable on-the-ground changes as the key metric for judging Khartoum’s behavior. And we’re also glad that, contrary to what the administration has signaled previously via its Sudan Envoy, it is insisting now that “[t]here will be no rewards for the status quo, [and] no incentives without concrete and tangible progress” (to mention the words of UN Ambassador Susan Rice from a State Department press conference today).
All this said, there are already on-the-ground developments that demand President Obama’s attention, and which will test his promise to use appropriate pressures (including multilateral sanctions) to change Khartoum’s behavior. In a Los Angles Times Op-Ed today, Enough’s John Prendergast draws attention to Omar al-Bashir’s apparent attempt to delay or cancel an important Sudan independence referendum through the use of state-sponsored violence in Southern Sudan — more info and explanation can be found in the Op-Ed.
So, in the face of this and other current Sudanese government abuses, the key question is: What is the Obama administration going to do right now to combat this impunity? If it fails to act on the fierce urgency of now, it will completely lose the faith of the Sudan advocacy movement, and much more importantly the millions of Darfuris whose lives are hanging on a bare thread right now.
