Extended resources for Blogging and Bloggers

We've prepared some background information to help you blog about the crisis in Sudan, or to forward a story pitch to your favorite blogger. Please send any blog posts to Enough Said for possible cross posting.

The Obama administration has completed its Sudan policy review and released its approach for addressing the multiple crises in Sudan, namely a deteriorating North-South peace agreement (Comprehensive Peace Agreement) and an unresolved conflict in Darfur. With the internal policy review ongoing since March, the public face of the administration’s position has been the president’s special envoy Scott Gration, who in public appearances and private meetings has indicated that the administration intends to soften its line with the ruling National Congress Party in Khartoum. Given the stakes – a national election slated for next year that could dissolve in violence and a referendum in 2011 that will give the South the chance to vote to become an independent country – it’s critically important that the Obama administration strike the right tone in this policy. The U.S. has the chance to lead a tough-nosed diplomatic effort to compel Khartoum to live up to the commitments its made in past peace agreements, or it risks watching the country to slide back into a hot war within the next 18 months.

Some trends we are seeing:

    * President Obama's policy toward Sudan is headed in the wrong direction on both Darfur and the North-South peace agreement (Comprehensive Peace Agreement). Changes must be made urgently because the stakes are enormous.

    * In Darfur, nearly three million people remain in camps, unable to go home because of government-supported militia violence and land occupation that remains targeted on the basis of ethnic identity. The displaced and refugee populations face the constant threat of systematic rape by these government-sponsored militias as well as disruptions of lifesaving aid by the Khartoum regime and by rebel attacks on aid convoys.

    * Rebel divisions promoted by Khartoum stoke banditry and promote anarchic conditions. In the South, the threat of a return to full-scale war is gathering. The Khartoum regime is arming ethnic-based militias and the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army to destabilize the region and is refusing to implement crucial elements of the 2005 peace deal.

Enough urges the administration to include the following in its policy planning for Sudan:

NORTH-SOUTH: The Obama administration should be creating a cost for failure to implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement:. The Obama administration 's approach to the North-South crisis is dangerously misguided. Instead of creating clear consequences for those who obstruct and undermine peace in Sudan, the administration is instead renegotiating the terms of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The United States must urgently work to forge an international coalition that constructs a set of genuine consequences for failing to implement what has already been negotiated. These consequences must include tougher economic sanctions targeted at senior regime officials and affiliated businesses, increased diplomatic isolation, and an expanded arms embargo. Since it has not faced any real costs for its actions to date, Khartoum is again arming proxy militias and working to create conditions that are already destabilizing the South. This will derail southern Sudan’s 2011 self-determination referendum if left unchecked.

DARFUR:   The Obama administration's approach to Darfur is wrong. The existing process lacks leverage in the form of multilateral sticks and carrots, and has not culminated in the development of a comprehensive proposal that addresses the root causes and which the people of Darfur can support. The United States must urgently lead a group of concerned nations—including Egypt and China—to offer sustained, high-level support and leverage to peace talks that focus on developing a draft peace proposal that addresses the core issues of the conflict and empowers the head mediator, backed by U.S. diplomatic support, to reach a political settlement. From day one of this new peace process, the United States must ensure that Darfuri civil society groups are directly engaged and that displaced camp residents are involved in all negotiations.

Press Coverage of the Sudan Now campaign

U.S. Keeps Sudan Sanctions But Offers Dialogue - Reuters

Barack Obama Opts for Softer Approach to Darfur Crisis in Sudan - The Guardian

Sudan's Critics Relieved that Obama Chose a Middle Course - The New York Times

Coverage from our blog, Enough Said

Sudan Policy: The Urgency of Implementation - John Prendergast

Sudan's State-Sponsored Pyromania - John Prendergast

Clinton, Rice to Unveil US-Sudan Policy this Morning - Laura Heaton