From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Tue Sep 29 2009 - 10:00:37 EDT
US prepares to unveil its new Sudan policy
Tuesday 29 September 2009 07:12.
September 28, 2009 (WASHINGTON) — Senior US administration officials are
scheduled to meet tomorrow to put the final touches on the long awaited
policy review of dealings with Sudan, the Washington Post reported
today.
The Obama presidential campaign team has promised to release the policy
early in the administration term but divisions within the government
agencies has slowed down the process.
The US special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration appointed last March by
Obama has been pushing for a softer approach with Sudan’s ruling party,
the National Congress Party (NCP).
Gration has called for unwinding some of the sanctions on Sudan and
lifting the East African country from the list of states that sponsor
terrorism calling it a “political” decision.
The public position of the retired air general while lauded by Khartoum,
put him at odds with advocacy groups in Washington, Darfur rebels, South
Sudan and even some US officials namely Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton and US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice.
Even though Gration later appeared to back down from his earlier
asserting he was misunderstood he still believes that engagement and
carrots are the way forward.
“We’ve got to think about giving out cookies,” said Gration. “Kids,
countries — they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes,
agreements, talk, engagement,” he told the Washington Post.
Gration said that in his view, the ruling party deserves credit lately
for allowing some foreign aid groups to return after Bashir expelled
others following his March indictment by the International Criminal
Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes in Darfur.
Even though Khartoum said it will allow new aid groups to come and
replace the evicted ones, there has been no announcement of any new
relief organization actually starting work in Darfur.
Furthermore, aid workers still in the region told Gration that Khartoum
was still delaying their permits and access to the camps. He said he was
surprised that these problems are still occurring saying there maybe a
“disconnect” between Khartoum and low-level bureaucrats.
The Sudanese presidential adviser Ghazi Salah Al-Deen in his speech
before the UN General Assembly today hailed the new tone in Washington
toward his country.
“We welcome the declaration made by the American President, Barack
Obama, before the UN General Assembly on his country’s readiness to help
find solution to the question of Darfur. Noting the positive tone in the
statements voiced by the American President vis-à-vis the developing
countries in general,” Salah Al-Deen was quoted by state media.
“We hope that his words will be translated into actions in order to
correct the misguided policies of the previous American administration
which compromised bilateral relations and aggravated the region’s
problems. This requires first and foremost lifting the unilateral
sanctions and removing the name of the Sudan from the American list of
terrorism” he added.
But on the other side Gration is growing widely unpopular among Darfuris
and those opposed to NCP’s rule.
In southern Sudan’s capital of Juba, the region’s president, Salva Kiir
Mayardit, told Gration he is concerned that the envoy’s approach is
emboldening the ruling party to dictate unfavorable terms for the
south’s secession vote, such as demanding 75 percent turnout.
Southerners have repeatedly accused the government of arming militias to
create chaos ahead of the vote, and tribal violence has killed 2,000
people in the south this year.
But in his meeting with Kiir, Gration backed the ruling party’s
argument, saying it had legitimate concerns about the referendum.
Gration urged southerners to trust the government that waged a brutal
war against them for 20 years.
“It is the other side that can build trust,” Kiir countered during a
news conference. “How will you trust that person that was killing you
yesterday?”
Darfur IDP’s bluntly told Gration that they have concerns that “he will
go to Bashir and ask him what to do”.
Gration told the IDP’s that he cannot change the past but he can try and
make life better for their children.
He also said that despite the advices he received on the stalling and
delaying tactics deployed by Khartoum “he is willing to take the risk
that he may be betrayed”.
“And if that trust is violated, then I believe pressure should come” he
said.
But Sudan activists issued a statement reacting to Gration’s interview
describing what they see as a “devastating portrait” of the special
envoy.
“The quotes from Special Envoy Gration are deeply troubling. The time is
well past for the President, Vice President and Secretary of State to
exert much-needed leadership over U.S. diplomatic efforts with Sudan or
face the prospect that Sudan will descend into much broader violence”
The Enough Project, Save Darfur Coalition, and Genocide Intervention
Network said in a press release.
John Norris, Executive Director of the Enough Project, noted, “It is
incredibly offensive for the Special Envoy to argue that ’psychological
stuff’ is the main impediment keeping Darfuri refugees and the displaced
from going home. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed,
government-backed Janjaweed militias still roam freely in Darfur, and
U.N. peacekeepers can’t even protect themselves. The Special Envoy seems
to lack even a rudimentary understanding of humanitarian principles or
the real situation on the ground. People aren’t going home because they
fear being killed, raped and robbed”.
Jerry Fowler of the Save Darfur Coalition added, “It’s jarring to hear
talk of ’gold stars’ and ’smiley faces’ for a regime headed by an
indicted war criminal. We have always insisted that the best way to deal
with Khartoum is a sensible balance of pressures and incentives. The
pressures part of that calculation seems to be missing in General
Gration’s comments. The Sudanese government is primarily responsible for
creating the political instability in Sudan and bears the brunt of the
responsibility for ending it. And blaming the victims for not being more
open minded towards their oppressors defies logic”.
This week the Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Chief Khalil
Ibrahim blasted Gration saying that he has “no strategy or program for a
solution”.
Washington has also been grappling with how to deal with Khartoum over
violence in Darfur, where UN estimates say up to 300,000 people have
died and 2.7 million have fled their homes amid violence the United
States has labeled genocide
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article32613
<http://www.sudantribune.com/IMG/jpg/gration_hi-res2-3.jpg>
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