Darfur // Current TV

America's Obama and Sudan's Bashir: Let's Make a Deal

Barack Obama and Omar al-Bashir seem unlikely bedfellows. At least I thought so when I voted for Obama in November 2008. As we all know, Obama is the President of the United States of America and the leader of the free world. Bashir is the President of Sudan and an indicted war criminal responsible for 300,000 deaths and the displacement of three million more in Darfur, and for the earlier deaths of two million people in South Sudan.

Obama's words on the campaign trail led me to believe that he would take firm and decisive action once elected to pressure Bashir and the Sudanese government to end the killing in Sudan and make reparations to the millions of people they had victimized. I, along with many voters, believed that the United States, under the leadership of Barack Obama and supported by Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, would work assiduously to ensure that both peace and justice would come to Sudan. All three leaders, as candidates, emphasized that the U.S. has a moral obligation to do what it can to end genocide and other mass atrocities.

However, since taking office, Obama's Sudan strategy appears to be based on appeasing Bashir rather than pressuring him to stop ongoing human rights violations or, better yet, bringing him to The Hague to face justice. While in other arenas Obama seems to carefully study history and seek the counsel of a wide range of experts, on Sudan he seems blind to the lessons of the past or unwilling to accept their implications.

Sudan experts like John Prendergast, Eric Reeves and Roger Winter all agree that using clear pressures to ensure strict accountability to established benchmarks is the only approach that has induced desirable behavior by Bashir in the past. However, the U.S. heralds every new agreement signed by this dishonorable actor as a show of progress. It remains a mystery whether this reflects official U.S. Sudan policy since the Administration has not disclosed clear benchmarks to measure progress in Sudan nor the pressures and incentives it will use to help influence positive change.

I was puzzled when Obama hand-picked Retired General Scott Gration as his special envoy to manage the Sudan portfolio since Gration had neither diplomatic experience nor knowledge about Sudan. My puzzlement soon turned to dismay as the General's personal diplomacy philosophy became clear. Gration believes that "cookies and gold stars" are the best approach to influence a war criminal and has repeatedly put talk of sanctions relief on the table even in the midst of ongoing killings in Darfur.

Gration's performance as envoy has understandably raised the ire of many who care about the future of Sudan and the fate of millions of displaced Darfuris. The New Republic has labeled him "an embarrassment." Roger Winter calls him "the Agent of this tragedy." A group of 38 US and Darfuri human rights groups have strenuously asked Obama to relieve Gration of his duties, following a highly questionable "off the record" meeting he had with Darfuri expatiates in which he reportedly told them that the government of Sudan had not intended to kill Darfuri civilians during the genocide.Barack Obama and Omar al-Bashir seem unlikely bedfellows. At least I thought so when I... more

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Justice Delayed Is Not Justice Denied

Recognizing that a declaration alone could not guarantee these rights, we created the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals, then the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone, and finally the International Criminal Court (ICC) in TheHague. Never again, we declared, would world leaders commit mass murder with impunity.

And then there is Darfur--where, since 2003, government-supported militia have left 300,000 dead and 2.7 million people internally displaced. The situation was so dire that in April 2007, Susan Rice, now the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, wrote, "The U.S. should press for a Chapter VII U.N. resolution that issues Sudan an ultimatum: accept unconditional deployment of the U.N. force within one week, or face military consequences . . . If the U.S. fails to gain U.N. support, we should act without it as [we] did in 1999 in Kosovo." The International Criminal Court then issued arrest warrants for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the first for a sitting head of state, and other Sudanese leaders implicated in the atrocities in Darfur.

Through all of this, we have been waiting and wondering what the outcome would be to save the people of Sudan and help break the cycle of impunity.

The Obama administration recently unveiled its new policy of engagement with Sudan, aimed first at securing the full implementation of the treaty that ended the north-south Sudanese civil war. While the administration maintained it will not deal with al-Bashir or any other official charged with arrest, it has not yet announced any serious moves to enforce the decision of the ICC and execute its warrants.

There will be pressure on the United States and its partners to bring stability to Sudan, even at the expense of criminal accountability. Regardless of the rationale, the end would be the same: victims left without justice while perpetrators walk away.

Even if justice is delayed, it must never be denied. The Declaration of Human Rights did not promise freedom or justice or peace.Recognizing that a declaration alone could not guarantee these rights, we created the... more

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Obama pursues middle ground with Sudan

A nod to human rights with renewed sanctions and condemnation of “genocide,” another to the regime with incentives for cooperation—the new Sudan policy is classic Obama. Eliza Griswold on whether the middle line will work.

After months of contentious deliberation over U.S. policy in Sudan, President Obama has announced his administration’s long-awaited position on the largest country in Africa. In a statement released on Monday, Obama said…well, not very much, really. Carefully calibrated not to further enrage the Khartoum regime or the human rights activists irate over the softening approach the Obama administration has appeared to be taking on Sudan, the president’s missive offered a nod to both.

The Obama administration calls Darfur a “genocide” while offering to engage with the regime that perpetrated it. Middle ground or no, that’s a difficult line for anyone—even Obama—to pursue.

In one breath, Obama called Darfur an unqualified “genocide” and announced the U.S. would renew the sanctions, called the “national emergency,” now in place against Sudan. In the next, he talked about engaging Khartoum and even mentioned “incentives” if the Sudanese government cooperates with the U.S. (In an interview with The Washington Post last month, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, retired Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, called such incentives “cookies” and “gold stars,” much to the chagrin of advocates who oppose such engagement.)

Beneath the din of these sound bites, however, the administration’s new policy does offer something more substantive and promising: a renewed commitment to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which north and south Sudan both signed. Lest we forget, before 300,000 people were killed in Darfur beginning in 2003, at least 2 million lost their lives in decades of civil war between north and south Sudan.

And without U.S. pressure, the north would never have signed the 2005 peace deal, which, for all its flaws, did indeed bring an end to much of the fighting between north and south—for the time being, at least. Over the past four years, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement has largely been forgotten as the U.S. has turned its attention to the conflagration in Darfur. Now it’s time to return our attention to the whole of Sudan as the Khartoum-based cabal continues to wage attacks against its margins—west, east, south, and even north, in order to hold onto power.

The Darfur conflict began in February 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in Khartoum, claiming discrimination and neglect. U.N. officials say the war has claimed at least 300,000 lives from violence, disease and displacement.

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Obama Issues New Plan For Darfur
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