Obama Is Still AWOL on Sudan

The country may soon return to war, and the perception of U.S. indifference isn’t helping.

Wall Street Journal Op-ed By JOHN PRENDERGAST

For a second-tier foreign policy issue, Sudan has seen its share of first-tier finger-pointing over the last decade. Congress has blamed the White House, administrations have blamed activists and Congress, and everyone has condemned the Chinese whose multibillion dollar oil investment underwrites the Khartoum regime’s war policies in Darfur and the South.

But if the current U.S. policy gridlock remains, the next round of Sudanese bloodletting could be the worst yet. The country is 128 days away from a contentious referendum to split it in two, and a return to war between the North and the South seems evermore likely.

Beginning in 1983, Southern-based insurgents rebelled in response to racial, religious and resource discrimination perpetrated by the government in Khartoum. The North-South war, which ended in 2005, left over two million Sudanese dead. Since 2003, another 350,000 lives have been lost in the separate genocide and war in Darfur, a region in the country’s west.

If this death and destruction has proven anything, it’s that the regime in Khartoum knows how to maintain power by any means necessary. Its use of ethnic-based militias has been chillingly effective.

In a spasm of effective diplomacy, the Bush administration helped broker the 2005 North-South peace deal. The administration committed a full-time team, led by presidential envoy and former Sen. John Danforth, to support negotiations and unite the international community around the effort.

Much has changed in five years. Perceptions of diminished U.S. influence in the world have not escaped this corner of Africa. Analysts and diplomats contend that the U.S. is no longer affecting the calculations of the jockeying Sudanese parties.

At its moments of greatest influence in Sudan, the U.S. has had clear policy objectives, worked closely with allies to achieve results and effectively leveraged incentives and pressures. The successes have been significant: the removal of Osama bin Laden from Khartoum; the dismantling of al Qaeda’s infrastructure in the mid-1990s; the end of Khartoum’s support of the slave-raiding militias; the end of aerial bombing in southern Sudan early in the previous decade; and, finally, the end of the North-South war.

At one point during the North-South talks in 2004, a Sudanese government official signed a logjam-breaking protocol. At the dinner table that evening, his furious colleagues grilled him about the concessions he made. The official pointed to a table full of American diplomats across the room and told his colleagues, “If we don’t sign, we have to deal with them.”

This all makes the Obama administration’s efforts in Sudan nothing short of head-scratching. Without clear direction from the president, internal policy battles among officials at the State Department, the White House, and the U.S. mission to the U.N. have spilled out into public view, exposing disunity and a lack of top-level direction. Disputes have usually centered around the public comments of President Obama’s Special Envoy, Scott Gration, who has favored a more conciliatory approach towards the regime.

These disagreements have severely undercut diplomatic efforts. When a high-level U.N. and African Union delegation visited the White House and State Department last month, their message was unambiguous: The divided U.S. policy is harming international efforts to achieve peace in Sudan.

It’s true that internecine battles are par for the course in the shaping of foreign policy. The real problem here is that the decider hasn’t decided. The absence of presidential clarity has left allies confused and the Sudanese regime gleeful.

At last, a decision memo is winding its way through the system to President Obama’s desk. The hope is that in the very near future he will make some clear decisions about U.S. policy. The most pressing question is how the U.S. and the international community can convince the various parties in Khartoum, the South and Darfur to abandon violence.

A deft combination of carrots and sticks—backed by unified international support for African-led peace processes on the ground in Sudan—will make the critical difference. But the carrots and sticks have to be big enough to get the attention of the Sudanese.

On the incentives side, benefits for actually making peace—not simply taking incremental steps toward it—could involve full normalization of relations, debt relief, and a coveted one-year suspension of the International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. On the pressures side, consequences for pursuing war could involve the expansion of travel restrictions and asset freezes for key war-mongers, and new efforts to enforce arms embargoes.

With Sudan about to split and Darfur volatile, time is running out. The moment has come for President Obama to lay out a clear policy, ending the conflict inside his administration and potentially preventing a real war in Sudan.

Mr. Prendergast, the co-founder of the Enough Project, is the co-author with Don Cheadle of the forthcoming “The Enough Moment: Fighting to End Africa’s Worst Human Rights Crimes,” (Random House).

This article was posted on September 3, 2010 by the Wall Street Journal.

Building MY HOME

   

Kids Growing Up: Excitement and Fear

My daughter, Noemi, is starting high school. As you might suspect, for me as a dad, this brings some stress, fears, and not necessarily welcomed excitement.

For Noemi, I’m sure it brings a lot of the same emotions, plus many more. She is 14 now! It’s not easy to accept that my little girl is becoming a beautiful young woman.


Mimi, as we call her, has been a big, inextricable part of me becoming an advocate for the people of Sudan. We had long conversations about how and where we could make a true difference, more than the focused impact I was having as a therapist for abused children and their families, way-back-when before I started in the movement. She was only 9, when we decided that we had to do something to help the kids and families that were fleeing their destroyed villages in Darfur.


Now, I talk with her about girls and boys–well, young women and men–living in the refugee camps we visit that are closer to her age. We talk about the challenges they face. Their parents’ fears are, how can I put it, a lot more real and imminent than my fears about Mimi entering high school.

For these kids, a decision about their education can literally be a life-and-death decision.


I think a lot about Ahmat, the young man I met on my very first trip to the camps. He was (and, I truly hope, still is) a bright and charismatic young man. At 16, he had finished all the education offered at his refugee camp, so all he could do was dream about continuing to learn and grow as a person. He actually found another solution, to venture back in to deadly dangerous Darfur and try and make it to one of the larger towns that was still standing, where he might be able to continue with secondary education. It’s been about three years since I last heard anything about Ahmat. He was in Darfur studying. He must now be a man in his twenties, and I’m sure he’s a leader in one way or another.


Many refugee students attempt Ahmat’s same trip in search of learning. Many students die in the process. Our friend Abdulaziz, the headmaster at Obama school, told us that he knew of four young men killed on their journey back in to Darfur.


I cannot imagine having to see Mimi or my son Gabo make that decision, but I could not imagine them having no options or hope either.


I hope to hear about Ahmat again. Now I worry about the other young men and women in the camps. Our more recent friend, Rahma, reminds me so much of Ahmat. He is bright and charismatic, and all he talks about is education. He does not want to feel stuck.


Mimi told me today that she wants to go with me to the camps or hopefully right into Darfur, as soon as it’s safe. How I wish it becomes that safe very, very soon. 

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This is only the beginning of several months of pressure leading to April elections in Sudan. We must speak up for our brothers and sisters!

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We must ACT to END GENOCIDE

 

 DAILY ACTIONS: Check back weekly for updated things you can do!

	MONDAY: Call the White House at 202.456.1111 between 9am and 5pm EST. You will speak to a volunteer operator. Tell them you want President Obama to 1. Lead an effective peace process in Darfur 2. Create consequences for the Khartoum government. 3. Keep promise to stand strong with innocent civilians and lead in bringing peace protection and justice to Sudan.
	TUESDAY: Text “I Stand with Sudan Now” to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton at 90822.
	WEDNESDAY: Educate yourself on the current situation in Darfur and Sudan. Human Rights Watch has recently released a new report The Way Forward: Ending Human Rights Abuses and Repression across Sudan. Read the article or download the full report.
	THURSDAY: URGENT ACTION – President Obama: The TIME FOR DARFUR IS NOW
	FRIDAY: On Twitter? Urge others to follow Darfur and human rights groups (#FF). This week #FF @iact and @hrw
	SATURDAY: Tell five friends about Darfur and ask them to take one simple action from this list. Use your facebook status or twitter update to urge people to be an Upstander not a Bystander for Darfur.
	SUNDAY: Connect with a refugee. Each week we will profile a new refugee here. This week: MansurMansur is an artist. Drawings of Darfur, and the attacks on his people, cover the walls of his mud hut. Watch this video of Mansur describe the horrors of his Darfur memories. Download his profile and share it with your community.

Darfur Fast for Life – beginning April 27th

Mia sent a note to friends and fellow Darfur activists, “I am ready to go on a hunger strike.” Mia has visited the Darfur region eleven times, spending countless hours hearing the horrific stories of survivors. She also spent hours creating community with the proud and courageous men, women and children. They did not know about her celebrity back home. They saw someone standing with them at the most difficult and dangerous times.

When Mia told of her fast, this group of friends decided to support and join her and thus, Darfur Fast for Life. The fast begins April 7th and continues indefinitely. The situation on the ground—more than a million people in imminent danger of dehydration, disease, and starvation—and the long, slow destruction of a society and culture moved Mia to this action. A positive vision of a world in which the human rights of ALL humans is respected is what motivates this group to stand today and tomorrow with the people of Darfur.

Please visit the Darfur Fast for Life site and consider joining, supporting, and telling friends.

Checklist for the Obama Administration

From the ENOUGH Project, here is checklist for the Obama Administration written January 22, 2009 that we as advocates for Darfur can put forth through daily actions:

* Appoint the President’s Special Envoy who will own this issue so that individual can begin working as rapidly as possible, and clearly establish the mandate, role and authority of this envoy within the administration. Providing sufficient authority and support will be vital. (Check: March 17, 2009)

* Identify two senior diplomats experienced in peacemaking to be the deputies to the President’s Special Envoy, one for Darfur and the other for the CPA.

* Engage with key international actors to develop a practical and escalating menu of options for exerting leverage on the government of Sudan and rebel movements to create an environment conducive to credible negotiations.

* Task relevant agencies, including the Pentagon and the U.S. Permanent Mission to the United Nations, to explore direct ways to make ongoing civilian protection efforts more effective, including steps to make UNAMID more robust and capable and to enforce a ban on offensive military flights.

* Identify U.S. Foreign Service officers to staff a diplomatic cell that will be deployed to embassies in the region to work on these issues around the clock in the manner they deserve.

* Work closely with interested parties with leverage in Sudan and the region, especially China, the United Kingdom, France, and key African countries, to coordinate efforts on the peace surge, protection of civilians, and accountability.

By taking these practical steps, President Obama will be well positioned to launch a credible peace surge for Sudan, and work with key countries and the U.N. Security Council to build momentum for the one end-state with which no external country disagrees: peace.

i-ACT soon to depart for Chad/Darfur border – Your Help Needed!

During this volatile time for Darfurians following the ICC indictment of President al-Bashir, i-ACT field team members Yuen-Lin Tan, Gabriel Stauring, and Katie-Jay Scott will depart for the Darfur refugee camps on March 21st – less than two weeks from now. We will be re-uniting with past friends and meeting new ones. Learning, first-hand, about the current situation and sharing the news with you through video web-casts, Darfur testimonies, blog posts and photos.

In order to do this we need your help. We need your help to purchase new tech equipment for the trip so that we can gather the best information in the highest quality. Your contribution will help us to spread the voices of Darfuris further than ever before. Your help will allow us to continue posting videos like Justice in Darfur.

We do realize that everyone is in a tight spot these days financially. Below you will see exactly what we need to purchase for the trip on March 21st. Every bit counts, and we will also accept in-kind donations. If you have unused memory cards that you can offer, we appreciate these too. We will be looking for discount options and deals whenever possible.

Your contribution will help build a global community that is real people and real voices. Thank you for considering contributing to i-ACT: Putting the Faces to the Numbers of Darfur.

2 Canon Powershot SD880 IS Digital Cameras: $598
2 Canon HS11 HiDef Camcorders: $2,400
Zoom Field Recorder: $179
USB 2GB/4GB Memory Cards (for video, photo, and recorder) – $500

Total: $3,677

Donate NOW by paypal or credit card:

Thank you for your time and commitment to Darfur. We will keep you posted on our goal, so check back!

In-Kind Donations and Checks (made to Emerge Arts Projects Inc. with SGN in memo line) can be mailed to:
SGN
1732 Aviation Blvd #138
Redondo Beach, CA 90278

Thank You for your support in 2008!

The entire Stop Genocide Now team thanks you and your community for your generous support in 2008. Your contributions (of money and time) have allowed SGN and UNHCR to expand educational opportunities in Darfur refugee camps. We have traveled to more US communities and connected them with more survivors of the Darfur genocide. Your support with our i-ACT team members when in the refugee camps has been invaluable – you posted comments and spread the word for others to connect through i-ACT.

Check out all the events we participated in - we reached thousands of people and shared with them the voices of Darfuris.

Your support is so important to us, and to the livelihood of the Darfur refugees. We can not thank you enough!

Our Global Community: Humanity

For many refugees 2009 will be their 6th year living in a desperate situation where their tents cannot shield them from the sun, rain, or wind of the harsh desert landscape. It will be filled with months of struggling to make rations last. And long, hard days of waiting to see if the international community does the right thing. Will it be the year that their hope disappears because we have failed?

It doesn’t have to be this way. We can change the way the world responds to genocide. We are all part of the Global Community called Humanity. We are all responsible.

In this new year, SGN will bring you more frequent updates – videos, photos and blog entries – from the refugees and our team members. Check out the first of many i-ACTzine issues in 2009.

Seeking Empathy — A One Month Refugee Diet

For most in the United States, November is a month to give thanks. On Thanksgiving Day, we gather at our homes and enjoy great food and the company of loved ones. Refugees in and from Darfur have been deprived of a home; many of their loved ones have been killed; and they lack enough of the basics, such as food and water. In solidarity with all of the displaced from Darfur, SGN teammates Jeremiah Forest and Eric Angel will participate on a month-long fast, matching their diets to the ones of refugees we have recently visited in the desert. They will write daily journals and regularly upload pictures and video, sharing their experience.

Click here to read more about their experiences here.