US’s Gration rewards the Genocidal NCP
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
August 4, 2009 –While Barack Obama’s election as US president has generated hopes and significant enthusiasm in the country particularly for the people of Sudan in Darfur, this has now turned into predication on the desire for his administration to break with Bush-era policies and make serious efforts to improve relations with the NCP, hence ignoring the voices of the Darfurian who have been facing adversity with courage six years on. Political analysts assert that the new US administration has yet to realise that the National Congress Party (NCP) fundamentalist regime isn’t ready to accept peace with the Darfurian rebels before the 2010 elections during which it would intensify their aggression towards the people of Sudan in Darfur so that the majority of opponent voters are scared from voting.
At a time when the people of Sudan in Darfur value the position of people of the United States of America for the immense humanitarian support for their noble cause, they are disappointed in the president Obama’s Special presidential envoy to Sudan, the retired General Scott, who has been very vocal, since his arrival, becoming a mouthpiece of the genocidal National Congress Party (NCP) regime in Khartoum. General Gratian continued rewarding this evil establishment for free in blatant disregard to the Darfur crisis, which is worsening the plight of the Sudanese people of the region. This is very clear from Mr. Gration’s latest report he has laid out for the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Observers indicate that the US special envoy to Sudan needs to understand that the elements in the NCP regime such as Nafie Ali Nafie, Salah Abdalla Gosh and others of that ilk are the main impediment to achieving lasting peace in Darfur. They have been sabotaging any glimpse of hope for peace in the horizon through blocking any progress towards it. The new US administration needs to keep the pressure on the National Congress Party (NCP) by using different tactics and actions which that tyrant despotic regime comprehends rather than the softly- softly approach of the new US Special envoy to Sudan, General Gration.
The New Sudan Justice and Equality Movement (New Sudan JEM) pointed out, on 31st July 2009, ten reasons in a statement, that the new US special envoy to Sudan General Scott Gration as ‘not fit for purpose’ of facilitating the resolution of the on-going conflict and chronic suffering of the people of Sudan in Darfur. According to JEM, the defects in the policies adopted by the Special presidential Envoy of the United States of America to Sudan and making him to embark on a path to failure include the following:
– The policies of Mr. Gration are biased against the interests of the marginalised people of Sudan in the South, Kordofan and Darfur by his advocacy campaign for the NCP regime and ignoring the real issues of his job.
– The New Sudan Justice and Equality Movement, (NEW Sudan JEM) advises the U.S. administration to terminate the mandate of Mr. Gration and the appoint a more effective and efficient of an envoy.
– The New Sudan Justice and Equality Movement calling for a hearing before the US Senate and Congress.
– Instead of listening to the parties to the dispute and adopting an integrated approach to resolve the crisis, Mr. Gration has determined to only visit Khartoum and meet with the NCP government while his only way of contacting the New Sudan JEM through telephone giving his orders to attend a conference of civil society in Addis Ababa, where his idea of cease-fire agreement plan was brewing.
– Mr. Gration announced loudly that there is no genocide in Darfur, in contrast to the position of the previous U.S. administration, and contrary to the reality on the ground, and as a matter of total disregard for the victims and against the feelings of millions of people of the Darfur region, and the bereaved survivors in the Sudan and the rest of the world. and he put himself a defender of the Government of National Congress and its ICC indicted fugitive offender President Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir.
– Mr. Gration told the mass media that there have been 100% improvement in security and humanitarian situation for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at a time in which all the international organizations on the ground describing it as dire in terms of deterioration in security and humanitarian situation, especially after the expulsion of the 13 NGOs from Darfur.
• Mr. Gration ignored a large number of refugees livening in refugee camps in eastern Chad and outside the camps in poor conditions
– The Us special Envoy to Sudan, General Gration, put on the top of his priorities ceasefire originally demanded by the NCP government, ignoring to recognise the root causes of the crisis and surpassing the agreed roadmap agreed upon by the parties (JEM & GoS) prior to the commencement of negotiations in Doha that stated explicitly cessation of hostilities to be considered after a political accord on a framework ceasefire agreement.
– Mr. Gration proved his total inability to influence the Sudanese government to implement what was agreed on in Doha (the goodwill), instead he has put pressure on the victims and the oppressed for the interest of the Sudanese government.
– Mr. Scott Gration told the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)in camps in Kass and through them the rest of the camps to return to their villages, from where they were forcibly displaced. Mr. Gration in this respect supporting the NCP government rhetoric of the so-called voluntary return, without taking into account the security situation in these areas. In doing so, Mr. Gration would subject the IDPs to further atrocities of killings and a repetition of displacement.
– The situation of fragmentation and disintegration of the splinter groups defied efforts made by States, organizations and bodies to unify them but finally all the rebel forces that have presence and impact on the ground, more than nineteen factions united under the banner of the New Sudan Justice and Equality Movement (New Sudan JEM). The rest of the individuals and groups who claim of being movements could have joined the New Sudan JEM had it not for the continued modeling of Mr. Gration by meeting with them giving them a false international recognition to those allied to the NCP government who do not wish to solve the problem. By doing so, the US special envoy to Sudan would create a chaotic bazaar at the negotiating table swarmed by the large number of movements.
• Mr. Gration has become part of the problem by interfering in the internal affairs of the owners of the case, by adding new complications to the situation and by dividing the social fabric of Darfurians and his unabated search for illegitimate representatives and his tireless craving to listen to tribal groups, allied to the NCP regime, who emphasise the interpretation of the root causes of the conflict in Darfur along tribal dimension while the people of Sudanese in Darfur, Kordofan and the marginalised majority of the country consider the conflict as national political issue.
– In his recent speech before the US Senate Foreign relations committee, the US President Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration, had installed himself an advocate for the Sudanese government, saying that there was no evidence for Sudan to remain on the list of countries supporting terrorism and he called for an urgent action to ease sanctions on the government of Sudan. Furthermore, Mr. Gration said that the sanctions were politically motivated in the first place. To put an insult on injury, Gration claimed that there is no violence in Darfur! It is very clear from the foregoing that that Mr. Gration has neither experience nor the knowledge of the exact situation in Sudan at best and has no willingness to learn at worst. General Scott Gration seems to be inconsistent with the positions of the US Public and to that of the U.S. administration, which are supportive of the cause of the marginalised. Mr. Gration is acting hastily to reach up to the outcomes for his own political interests at the expense of the victims. We the people of Sudan in Darfur categorically reject any threatening approach based on reparation and coercion, the approach utilized by Robert Zoellick, which has led to the production of the infamous document (DPA) of the failed Abuja. Moreover, we reject the approach in support of the Government of the ICC indicted fugitive Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, who has opted for a military solution for the crisis in Darfur and declared Jihad that has been mobilised by his advisor Dr. Nafie Ali Nafie whilst Mr. Gration was present in Khartoum!
– Accordingly, the New Sudan Justice and Equality Movement (New Sudan JEM) stresses on its own behalf and on behalf of the people of Sudan in Darfur, who have endured atrocities at the hands of NCP government sponsored criminals and executioners of genocide and has produced millions of displaced persons in camps and refugee outside Sudan, we reiterate that continued presence of our people’s dossier in the hands and mercy of Mr. Gration would create a gulf between our people and United States of America, who provided huge humanitarian relief them during their Six-Year plight. We believe it is imperative that the US Administration to appoint a new special envoy who is more efficient and capable to understand the Darfur conflict to replace Mr. Gration.
– We in the New Sudan Justice and Equality Movement (New Sudan JEM) request the US Senate and the U.S. Congress to give us the opportunity of a few minutes hearing for its briefing and the American public on the real situation on the ground in Sudan. Will the age-old American political Establishment respond to such request? That is a “sixty-four-dollar question”!
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is the Deputy Chairman of the General Congress for Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). He can be reached at [email protected]