US non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are pressing US President Barack Obama to launch a new peace initiative for Darfur, as they express concern about the approach being taken by US envoy Scott Gration.
The administration began a review of US policy towards Sudan in March, but has yet to release the results, despite promising in August that they would be announced shortly.
The situation is complicated by the fact that the issue of Darfur, a region in the west of Sudan, cannot be considered in isolation from a separate conflict between the country’s north and south, which is threatening to flare up again, after several years of peace.
The White House has, however, been far from silent on the subject.
Obama referred to the “genocide in Darfur” in his speech before Ghana’s parliament in July, and early in his term he named Gration, a retired general, as special envoy to Sudan.
Since his appointment, Gration has made multiple trips to the region, seeking to unify the rebel chiefs in Darfur so they will have greater weight in any eventual peace talks.
Sam Bell, the executive director of the Genocide Intervention Network, said he supports the approach.
“It’s very difficult, it hasn’t worked yet, but it’s a key element of peace in Darfur,” he said.
But, more broadly, Bell fears that the US does not “have the right strategy” on Darfur, and he warns that the “status quo plays in favor of the government” of Sudanese President Omar Bashir.
The group wants Obama to take action and renew pressure on the regime by coming up with a peace initiative, which would include countries with sway in the region such as Egypt and China, and could eventually lead to a tentative peace deal.
Since his nomination, Gration has made some risky moves, indicating some openness towards Bashir — who is the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for war crimes — and expressing support for the easing of 12-year-old sanctions against Sudan.
Some US non-governmental groups judge that approach ill advised, pointing out that around 2.7 million Darfur residents are still struggling to survive in dire conditions in refugee camps.
The groups were also concerned by an article that appeared in the Washington Post last week, detailing Gration’s most recent trip to Sudan.
The US emissary is described frequently as naive, too inclined to believe the government in Khartoum and overconfident about the possibility of dialogue with the regime.
Interviewed for the article, he also attributed the refusal of many refugees to leave their camps and return home to “psychological stuff,” prompting outrage from groups involved with Darfur.
“It’s incredibly offensive,” said John Norris, director of the Enough Project, said in a statement. “People aren’t going home because they fear being killed, raped and robbed.”
“If Washington is going to start taking war criminals at their word, despite the long list of Khartoum’s broken commitments, an even larger tragedy will unfold,” Bell said.
Since 2003, the conflict in Darfur has left 300,000 people dead, the UN says. The Sudanese government puts the figure at 10,000.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in