This is the first in a new series of posts. We’re going to be highlighting the past public statements of different key players in the Obama administration, in an effort to shed light on the current gap between Sudan-related rhetoric and policy.
First up: United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice.
On July 20, 2009, Ambassador Rice gave some encouraging testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the state of UN peacekeeping operations around the world. Her statement included this important expression of on-paper policy:
“The Government of Sudan has repeatedly failed to cooperate with international peacekeepers and humanitarian workers, denying them freedom of movement and access, refusing entry visas for desperately needed personnel, blocking the delivery of critical logistics support, and even, on March 4, expelling 13 international non-governmental organizations and revoking the registrations of three Sudanese aid agencies that were doing lifesaving work to feed, shelter, and heal those huddled in Darfur’s refugee camps.”
“…[T]he U.S. can afford no illusions. Some of the actors involved [in human rights rights abuses in Sudan and elsewhere] have long histories of lofty pledges and paltry results. We will not take merely the word of those who have committed genocide and crimes against humanity. We will insist on verifiable, significant and lasting action before we offer meaningful rewards.”
Here’s the key question: How will the Obama administration insist on “verifiable, significant and lasting” improvements in Darfur as well as the status of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement? If insistence occurs through earnest economic and military pressure — including the imposition of targeted multilateral sanctions against the Sudanese government’s top leaders — then we’re getting somewhere. But if insistence merely means the tired, old game of verbal condemnation and diplomatic bluster (absent any real sticks), then the U.S. might as well close up shop. Such an approach is in no way different than anything we’ve seen in the last six years of Sudan policymaking.
