The Darfur Consortium

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Darfur in the News

U.S. and European media


November 13, 2022

The following op-ed by Kayla Kitts appeared in the Tennessee Journalist: 'Never again' just words of the past.  The Save Darfur Coalition reported in September that Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has expelled rumors that the Sudanese government has covered up mass graves to destroy evidence and killed and imprisoned witnesses of the conflict. Just last month, President Barack Obama revealed a new Darfur policy, providing strategies to end the violence in Darfur. Darfur activists are happy to see the new Sudan policy put into place, but we all know it takes time for policies to take action. Now what?  One of the most important things you can do is hold your political representatives accountable. Write them letters, call them, e-mail them, schedule appointments and do whatever you can to stress the importance of this crisis to your officials.  Sign up for e-mail updates from organizations such as the Save Darfur Coalition. The weekly e-mails will keep you informed of the conflict and let you know how you can get involved from wherever you are.  Join a local advocacy group. STAND, the student-led division of the Genocide Intervention Network, has a chapter right here at UT. Join with other UT students to fight genocide!

The following op-ed by Michael Gerson appeared in The Washington Post: Losing the fight for Darfur.  The Obama administration's lengthy review of U.S. Sudan policy culminated in October with more of a whimper than a bang. The administration presented Sudan with a choice between two roads: one path of cooperation, engagement and incentives; the other of defiance, isolation and disincentives. But neither carrots nor sticks were specified. And the administration seems divided on how the engagement of Sudan -- lifting sanctions, moving toward more normal relations -- should proceed. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice wants such benefits to follow major concessions by Sudan's government. Scott Gration, the special envoy to Sudan, would distribute carrots liberally and preemptively.  The Sudanese regime receives small threats with insolence. It views minor American concessions as signs of weakness.  Yet boldness -- much larger carrots and much larger sticks -- is needed. Only a president and his secretary of state can insist on boldness.  Absent that insistence, America's Sudan policy is in a holding pattern, waiting for the next crisis to refocus global attention.  And at some point, impunity becomes permission.

The following blog by Ann-Louise Colgan appeared in the Huffington Post: Due Diligence in Darfur.  Perpetrators of atrocities in Darfur--like anywhere else--are dependent on at least indirect support from other countries. These third parties are an under-used lever for responding to the crisis in Darfur, and their actions should be the focus of new efforts by U.S. and international policymakers who seek to interrupt the violence in that region.  China's behind-the-scenes role in Darfur has attracted attention for a number of years, both as the leading supplier of arms to the Sudanese government and the major recipient of Sudan's oil. Serious pressure on Beijing by U.S. officials--specifically on the point of halting weapons transfers to a country where grave crimes are taking place--is long overdue. U.S. policymakers should also seek opportunities to apply such standards to states and individuals that provide the means to perpetrate and sustain crimes against humanity. By tackling these practical connections, the U.S. will find new levers to stem the violence against civilians in Darfur and beyond.

Reuters: Tribal attack kills 11 in south Sudan-officials. Tribal revenge attacks have killed 11 people in south Sudan, halting registration in the area for the first multi-party election in 24 years, officials said on Thursday.  Sudanese began to register for the April 2010 vote on November 1 but the process has been laboured especially in the south, where the United Nations estimates a spike in tit-for-tat ethnic attacks has killed at least 1,200 this year.  "More than 10,000 will be affected ... The registration will not be going on because of this insecurity," said Santino Riak Athiam, commissioner of the area. In the north registration made a slow start and has been tainted by accusations of vote buying and fraud by all sides.

The National: Voter registration at centre of Sudan dispute.  Political tensions in Sudan are threatening to boil over just months before multi-party elections that could change the way the African country has been ruled for two decades.  The vote in April next year is not only crucial to the future of President Omar al Bashir's rule but to the survival of the country in its current form.  The election has already been postponed twice due to disagreements between the NCP and SPLM, and recently the parties have also traded loaded remarks over a scheduled 2011 referendum that could split the nation in half. The SPLM has also threatened to boycott the elections unless the NCP passes laws ensuring democratic reforms. The United Nations mission in Sudan is helping the government send registration material to remote corners of the country where more than half of its 39 million population resides. The election commission also faces the daunting task of registering an estimated 2.7 million Darfuri refugees spread out among squalid camps.


The Darfur Daily News is a service of the Save Darfur Coalition. To subscribe to the Daily News, please email [email protected]. For media inquiries, please contact Ashley Roberts at (202) 478-6181, or [email protected].

 

 

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