US activists urging Obama to escalate pressure on Sudan

By Daniel Van Oudenaren

January 22, 2009 (WASHINGTON) – Activist groups in the United States are lobbying to get President Obama to increase pressure on the Sudanese government, which they say is responsible for committing genocide in Sudan’s westernmost region of Darfur.

Three leaders of the activist movement sent a joint letter to the president Thursday, pressing him to use force to ban offensive military flights in Darfur, facilitate deployment of the UNAMID peacekeeping operation, expand the arms embargo against Sudan, enhance “multilateral, non-military coercion” and continue supporting the International Criminal Court investigation.

The letter was sponsored by ENOUGH, Genocide Intervention Network and Save Darfur. In an attempted demonstration of grassroots strength, ENOUGH delivered a petition Wednesday to Obama containing 39,900 signatures asking for immediate action to halt widespread sexual violence against women and girls in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. ENOUGH focuses on conflict zones in Sudan, eastern DR Congo, Chad, northern Uganda, Somalia and Zimbabwe.

In their letter on Sudan, one of a series, the activists urged Obama to be alert to what the Sudanese regime could do in response to the anticipated International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment of Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir, which some have said could bring added chaos or reprisals in the Sudan. “President Obama’s response must be firm in addressing this immediate threat, but should not lose sight of the larger strategic goals that ought to be at the center of a new administration’s policy: an unyielding focus on brokering a peace deal for Darfur and the implementation of the existing Comprehensive Peace Agreement, or CPA, the 2005 agreement to end the 22-year war between northern and southern Sudan,” said authors John Prendergast, John Norris, and Jerry Fowler, who are leaders in the activist groups,

Another U.S. group, the New York-based American Jewish World Service (AJWS), made a statement Thursday urging Obama to “take steps to ensure security in Darfur” if the regime responds violently to the ICC indictment. Ruth Messinger, president of the group, said “Violence against civilians or cutting off the aid they need to survive could lead to disastrous consequences and an even more acute humanitarian crisis. Based on his track record, Bashir’s veiled threats are to be taken seriously. AJWS urges the Obama administration to immediately lead the international community to ensure all necessary contingency planning is developed and implemented to protect the people of Darfur and international aid workers.”

Overall the Washington-based activists stressed the need for achieving a peace agreement in Darfur, a somewhat broader goal than its other area of focus, which was facilitating deployment of the UNAMID peacekeeping operation in Darfur. “Certainly, protecting civilians is an important goal that will require significant energy and resources for the foreseeable future. But it is not sufficient. Protection efforts must be buttressed by a broader approach to end Sudan’s multiple conflicts.”

“President Obama must lead a concerted international peace surge for Sudan, and diplomacy must be backed by well-conceived and consistently escalating pressure on Khartoum and other combatants to create the proper conditions for a lasting peace,” said the joint letter of ENOUGH, Save Darfur and Genocide Intervention Network.

During a call with the press last week, ENOUGH analyst John Prendergast emphasized the need for certain structural changes in the State Department in order to deal differently with some of Africa’s most intractable conflicts. The activist movements are expecting to see Obama meet some key benchmarks toward this end, including the appointment a special presidential envoy to Sudan whose views match their own and identifying senior diplomats to act as deputies to the president’s envoy. Today Obama appointed two such special envoys for other regions of the world.

The Darfur activists also urge the newly inaugurated president to “task relevant agencies, including the Pentagon and the U.S. Permanent Mission to the United Nations, to explore direct ways to make ongo¬ing civilian protection efforts more effective, including steps to make UNAMID more robust and capable and to enforce a ban on offensive military flights.”

But despite the advocacy for military planning and intervention, the activists say that the Obama team should “identify U.S. Foreign Service officers to staff a diplomatic cell that will be deployed to embassies in the region to work on these issues around the clock in the manner they deserve.”

The Washington-based activist groups draw on a nationwide network of supporters to educate people about Darfur and sometimes other conflicts and to push their agenda with US policy-makers. They claim to have gotten more than a million supporters to contact US officials about the Darfur conflict.

“The government of Sudan has tried to frame the options for the international community as either full military engagement (an option it knows is unrealistic), or limited humanitarian efforts,” said their letter, arguing, “In fact, there is a world of opportunity in between as long as there is the necessary political will to see an end to the killing in Sudan.”

President Obama is known for his strong criticism of the Khartoum government and his early involvement with the Darfur activist groups. The president has suggested he will provide support to the peacekeeping operation in Darfur with equipment and transportation, but senior aides voiced willingness to consider more radical options, including imposing a no-flight zone over Darfur in order to prevent any Sudanese military operations carried out from the air.

Vice President Joseph Biden has made even more forceful remarks on Sudan. “I would use American force now,” he said in the Senate in April 2007.

(ST)