By Rachel Oppenheimer
On Sudan and Darfur, President Obama's Africa team has begun a lengthy policy review and a search for a special envoy. But in light of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's arrest on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, can the United States really collaborate with a war criminal in peace processes? Raj Purohit and Howard Salter of the Baltimore Sun propose that the Obama administration leads by example and leverages the pressure of the court's action on the Sudanese leader. If he publicly supports the arrest warrant and makes clear that the United States will not support any Security Council member's attempts to protect Mr. al-Bashir, Obama opens the door to collaboration with global partners to end the genocide and solidify a peace agreement.
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 brought only fragile peace to Sudan's Darfur region. In January, the Enough Project and the Save Darfur Coalition wrote a letter to President Obama recommending the imposition of a no-fly zone over Darfur. Further, an implementation of the peace agreement would likely include a long-term United Nations peace-keeping group in the region, complete demilitarization of the militia groups, governance concessions by the Sudanese central authorities, and transfer of alleged war criminals to the International Criminal Court.
A change in American policy remains to be seen, but three Sudanese people provided BBC with their mixed thoughts on today's internal deal between Darfur's rebel Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) and the Khartoum government. “With elections coming up, it's in the government's interest to keep Darfur volatile,” remarked Ishag Mehki, an Interpreter in London. Gasim Badri, an Academic from Khartoum, said “It's time for Sudan's politicians to shape up or ship out.” But do the people have faith in the approach of the new United States government? Ghazi Suleiman, a human rights lawyer and member of the Southern People's Liberation Movement, doubts Obama's wisdom: “I know Obama's appointees. And I know their policy toward Sudan. Everybody here knows it. The policy is very aggressive, and very harsh. I think we will really miss the judgments of George W. Bush.”
Re: a peace deal, the question is what impact any UN-backed proposal would have? Would it have any teeth? It's all well and good to make deals from now until eternity, but I question how much will change without the firepower to back it up. Just look at the last couple years, when Sudan was at least an issue in the public's mind -- albeit not a huge one -- and the killings and raping and pillaging continued. And getting rid of al-Bashir is all well and good, but then you're faced with the Saddam question: What comes after him? Although it's hard to argue that any regime could be much worse than al-Bashir's.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little confused, though, as to that last comment: How exactly does this guy see Obama's people as being potentially much worse than Bush's people and policy? What has Obama even said on the issue? Has he publicly taken any sort of stand, other than the standard, This must end, whatever it takes? And finally, is there a middle ground? Can Obama step back from supporting the arrest of al-Bashir and still collaborate with other nations to end the genocide? It doesn't seem to me that they're mutally exclusive.
And whichever side he takes as far as UN sanctions, he faces serious difficulty. Aren't the sides that refuse to take a tough stand against Sudan the ones with huge influence and interest in the country, like China? And with the Security Council -- correct me if I'm wrong -- it's hard to do anything without unanimous support.
Just some thoughts.
Hey Jonathan (Rachel here),
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts.
Well, Obama did support the indictment before it turned into an arrest, and that has indicated a strong and tough approach towards Sudan -- which I guess is not so pleasing or agreeable to everyone.
The UN part is interesting -- and I found this (http://www.startribune.com/world/39758532.html?elr=KArks:DCiUBcy7hUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU) which talks about the UN's disapppointment in O's support of al-Bashir prosecution, especially with the efforts towards peace that the Sudanese government has just made in dealings with Jem.
Shameless self-promotion: For those who want more on this issue, take a look at CFR's Emmy Award Winning Crisis Guide:Darfur.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cfr.org/publication/13129/
One point of clarification. An arrest warrant has been issued for al-Bashir, but he was not actually been arrested. He has been indicted.
ReplyDelete