U.S. and European media

November 17, 2022

The following op-ed by Jerry Fowler appeared in The Huffington Post: China: Obama's Test.  As President Obama travels to China this week, he unquestionably has a full plate of priorities to discuss with the Chinese government. If President Obama is serious about his administration's dedication to building a multilateral coalition to address the crises in Darfur, he could do no better than by starting in Beijing and convincing his hosts that they need to play a more constructive role in building a stable, peaceful Sudan, instead of continuing to blindly stand by a regime headed by an indicted war criminal. But President Obama has a strong argument to make to President Hu Jintao that even China's narrower self-interests should motivate it to work in concert with the U.S. in Sudan. When the Chinese recognize that peace in Sudan serves their interests, there are ways in which China can begin to demonstrate to the Sudanese and the world that it is serious. The afflicted people of Darfur and other disaffected Sudanese will be watching closely to see if President Obama backs his policy pronouncement with action and passes his test in Beijing.

The following op-ed by John Prendergast appeared in The Huffington Post: To Obama in China: Don't Shy Away From Sudan, Congo.  President Obama has a huge opportunity to advance two of the most important peace and human rights causes on the continent of Africa during his meetings with Chinese officials this week, and particularly in the follow-up to this potentially historic visit.  In both Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the two deadliest wars in the world, China has invested or struck trade deals worth billions of dollars and thus has a vested interest in peace and security in both of those troubled countries. President Obama should make it clear that the United States sees cooperation to resolve issues affecting the conflicts in Sudan and Congo as an important element of U.S.-Sino relations. The bottom line is that President Obama needs to publicly engage in the challenges threatening Sudan and Congo, and not doing so with key player China would be an opportunity missed.

The following editorial appeared in The Washington Post: Welcome, China?  President Obama's central message to the Chinese government and people during his first visit there as president has been a remarkably positive one. China's growing strength means, as Mr. Obama put it in his meeting with students in Shanghai Monday, that "there are very few global challenges that can be solved unless the United States and China agree." China's behavior around the world during the past decade has often departed dramatically from that of the world's democracies. It has unblushingly backed dictators, including Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and the genocidal regime of Sudan; it has crudely sought to lock up sources of natural resources in Africa and Latin America; it has repeatedly threatened Taiwan with war; and it has systematically taken advantage of the West's attempts to pressure rogue regimes -- vastly increasing its trade with Iran, for example. Mr. Obama didn't shrink from discussing democracy and human rights. "My hope is that the United States and China together can help to create international norms that reduce conflict around the world," he said.

The Washington Post: U.S. to attend conference held by war crimes court.  For the first time in nearly eight years, the United States will participate in a conference with members of the International Criminal Court, a decision that signals growing U.S. support for a war crimes tribunal the Bush administration once shunned. Stephen J. Rapp, the U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes, told reporters in Nairobi on Monday that the "United States will return to engagement with the ICC." But he said that the United States has no intention of joining the court in the forseeable future and that it will not allow an international prosecutor to try American personnel. Although U.S. officials have come to support prosecutions of specific cases, such as in Darfur, they have long worried that an international criminal court might seek to constrain U.S. military action around the globe by carrying out politically motivated prosecutions of American soldiers. 
 
AFP: Sudan's White Nile marshes threatened by oil pollution.  Oil production in Sudan's Unity state is contaminating water, spreading disease to humans and cattle and threatening the world's largest inland wetlands, according to a survey released Monday.  In the central Unity state, one of southern Sudan's main oil-producing regions, the German NGO Sign of Hope has led a fact-finding mission which revealed alarming pollution levels.  Pointing to the Thar Jath central processing facility (CPF), the NGO's vice chairman Klaus Stieglitz explained water flowing off the huge installation is a major source of contamination.  "The heavy metal concentrations of these waters will have negative impact on the health situation of the some 300,000 inhabitants of the affected area which covers 4,000 square kilometres (1,500 square miles)," he added.

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