Last month, in the wake of the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the Enough Project, Genocide Intervention Network and Save Darfur Coalition partnered in hosting a webcast to address the question of whether the warrant was helping or hindering peace in Darfur.
While there have been many developments since the airing of the webcast, there are a few important take-away points that remain applicable, and we wanted to highlight them now that a recording of the webcast is available for viewing (below).
While the United States is certainly taking positive steps in the direction of helping to establish peace in Sudan, the situation remains extremely fragile. Full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, or CPA, between northern and southern Sudan remains on the rocks. As Omer Ismail and Alex Meixner point out in the webcast, the implementation of the CPA and sustainable peace in Darfur should not be viewed as two separate pursuits; they are complementary and should be key components of a peace process led by the United States that treats them as such.
Newly appointed Special Envoy Scott Gration has a challenging job ahead of him. He must have a full-time staff as well as the ears of President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton in order to ensure that the policy negotiations that happen in Sudan are then backed and implemented in Washington. Additionally, as Omer described in the webcast, the United States should employ a true “sticks and carrots” diplomacy using clear guidelines to which the Sudanese regime must respond in advancing the peace process. It is only with strong, Washington-backed diplomacy using this kind of leverage that renewed U.S. relations in Sudan will be legitimized and effective.
The United States can lead the international community in the pursuit of a credible and strategic approach to peace and justice in Sudan, as we highlighted in our March publication What the Warrant Means.
To hear what else the panelists had to say, read the transcript (PDF) or watch the webcast: