“In the man-bites-dog story of the year, the U.N. last week took the Obama Administration to task over its lax efforts to enforce the [Darfur] arms embargo, while praising the Bush Administration. “In contrast to that leadership of 2004 and 2005, the United States appears to have now joined the group of influential states who sit by quietly and do nothing to ensure that sanctions protect Darfurians,” Enrico Carisch, who was the top U.N. investigator of violations of the arms embargo until October, said in written testimony before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa.”
- In a Huffington Post Op-Ed, John Prendergast urges President Obama to live up to his Nobel promises. Here’s the relevant section from Obama’s Oslo address last week:
“Those regimes that break the rules must be held accountable. Sanctions must exact a real price. Intransigence must be met with increased pressure — and such pressure exists only when the world stands together as one.”
Really, then? Where are the strong sanctions against the Sudanese government, then? What pressure is being imposed to stop genocide?
Rewind that tape. Here’s an April 25, 2006 Charlie Rose interview with then-Senator Barack Obama:
The future President talks about the need to impose international pressure on the Sudanese government in order to stop the genocide in Darfur.
Fast forward three years. Now that he has the power to create change and hope for the people of Darfur, what is President Obama doing on Sudan? Where is the public condemnation — why did he stay silent when Khartoum expelled thirteen vital humanitarian aid organizations from Sudan earlier this year? And most importantly, why isn’t he demanding pressure NOW?
The U.S. needs to lead the international community in imposing targeted multilateral sanctions against the Sudanese government’s top leaders. Based on his public statements and promises during these past few years, it’s clear that President Obama knows his Sudan policy — he knows what will stop Sudan’s mass murderers. So what is he waiting for?
Friday, November 6th, 2009 by the OurPledge Team -3-
In a live webcast event on Tuesday, November 10, 2009, Save Darfur Coalition President Jerry Fowler and STAND Student Director Layla Amjadi will sit down with Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration and NSC Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs Samantha Power to discuss the administration’s plan for Sudan and ask them your questions.”
This is a great opportunity for Sudan advocates to ask General Gration and Samantha Power some tough questions about the Obama administration’s Sudan-related plans.
In an unflinching blog post published last month, Will Inboden over at Foreign Policy’s Shadow Government blog tore apart the Obama administration’s new Sudan policy review document.
We don’t agree with all of his criticisms, but one of them is definitely spot-on:
“…[T]he Obama administration seems rather obtuse about the lessons of history, even the recent past. Such as remembering that [Sudan's President] Bashir, besides presiding over the serial murder of his own people, is also a serial violator of negotiated agreements. Or that it was only under the pain of sanctions (and a poignant awareness of American military might in the wake of 9/11) that Khartoum came to the negotiating table with then-Special Envoy John Danforth to eventually end the North-South war and forge the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in early 2005. Or that the Bush administration’s efforts in its latter years to end the Darfur genocide included a series of positive inducements offered to Bashir by numerous presidential envoys — such as upgraded diplomatic relations, removal from the terrorism sponsor list, cessation of sanctions, etc. — that ultimately did not avail in changing Bashir’s behavior.”
The upshot: history proves that the Sudanese government only responds to concerted pressure.
President Obama should remember and should not repeat the previous U.S. administration’s Sudan failures. He should remember that President Bush tried a strategy of laying out a red carpet of incentives for the Sudanese government — a strategy that undeniably failed.
FYI: In response to the U.S.’s Sudan policy rollout last week, Stop Genocide Now has posted some simple but important actions that you can take to keep the pressure on the Obama administration. As many within the Sudan advocacy movement have pointed out, it’s one thing to state intentions. It’s another thing entirely to act in order to save and protect lives.
“Many critical humanitarian services that Darfuri civilians relied on have been cut back or halted since the Sudanese government expelled key aid agencies after the president was indicted by the International Criminal Court in March this year. For women and girls, the situation is particularly dire. The organizations expelled were the ones that provided medical care, and psychosocial and legal services to women and girls who had been raped—something that happens with depressing regularity whenever they try to leave the outskirts of the camps.”
Saturday, October 24th, 2009 by the OurPledge Team -2-
Urge President Obama to impose strong targeted sanctions against the Sudanese government’s genocidal regime. Because millions of lives are at immediate risk.
The Obama administration has released a new policy on Sudan. While comprehensive on paper, this policy must be implemented immediately. Here’s our take on the news.
Much will be said about whether or not the administration’s on-paper plan is too soft on the Sudanese government. No matter what comes out on Monday, though, the Sudan movement should not try to turn the news into its own red herring.
Ultimately, execution will be EVERYTHING during this next year. A Sudan planning document and statements of intentions are no substitute for action. If the Obama administration wishes to sit at negotiating tables with Khartoum, then the Sudan advocacy movement has no issue with this. But we do have a problem with General Gration’s actions so far, which have been motivated by his belief that diplomatic prodding alone can move the universe. Such an approach might work with other political actors and other problems. In this case, though, the historical record points starkly to one truth: Omar al-Bashir and his regime, who are responsible for killing or else destroying the livelihoods of millions of Sudanese, have never changed their behavior absent concerted pressure from the U.S. and its allies.
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 by Nikki Serapio -0-
We’ll be posting a longer comment about it here soon, but for now please read Bec Hamilton’s article in The New Republic about the collapse of aid for Darfuri rape survivors. An important, important article.
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