Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON, Oct 19 (IPS) - Activist groups that have long urged a tougher U.S. policy toward Khartoum praised the new "comprehensive approach" toward Sudan announced here Monday by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, even as they expressed concern that it will not be fully implemented.

"The ideals spelled out in the Obama administration's new paper on U.S. policy to Sudan are worthy of considerable support," said John Prendergast, director of The Enough Project, a key group in a coalition of organisations that has expressed growing frustration with the administration's policy of engagement with the government of President Omar al-Bashir, and especially with Obama's Special Envoy on Sudan, Gen. Scott Gration (ret.)

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WASHINGTON, Jul 31 (IPS) - With the need for a comprehensive approach toward Sudan growing more urgent every day, U.S. policy remains a topic of disagreement amongst top Washington officials and even within the Barack Obama administration itself.

Testifying at a Thursday Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Michael Gration stated that the Obama administration will unveil a new comprehensive policy stance toward Sudan in the coming weeks. 

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WASHINGTON, Jun 23 (IPS) - The United States Tuesday urged the government of Sudan and former rebels in the south to re-invigorate their 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), as 30 Sudanese political leaders met with 170 observers from 32 countries and international organisations here to discuss the faltering CPA, which expires in 2011.

"We are facing some very important milestones in the near future ... they will set the foundation, for better or for worse, of the very future of Sudan," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg said in welcoming the delegates assembled at the Park Hyatt Hotel.

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WASHINGTON, May15 (IPS) - In an effort to stem the flow of money from mineral mines fueling the brutal civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the U.S. Senate is pushing ahead with new bipartisan legislation that would force U.S. companies to track and disclose the country of origin of minerals used in common electronic products.

"Without knowing it, tens of millions of people in the United States may be putting money in the pockets of some of the worst human rights violators in the world," said Richard Durbin, the Senate Majority Whip, "simply by using a cell phone or laptop computer." 

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WASHINGTON, May 1 (IPS) - Washington's recent move to "normalise" relations with Sudan is being called a "capitulation" by critics.

The Sudan Times reported that "The United States of America is positioning itself to become ‘friends’ with the Government of Sudan, seeing this approach as the best way to improve the situation in Darfur and reach a political settlement," according to a closed briefing given by Special Envoy Scott Gration at the U.S. State Department on Apr. 20.

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