Sudan: The Passion of the Present

Oxfam appeal launched

Oxfam yesterday launched a new appeal for Western Sudan. You can donate online. If you want to check where your money would go, their Sudan page includes a summary of current Oxfam activities in the area.

Calling London

If, like me, you´re living outside the US, the activism tips in the sidebar aren´t much help. So here are some suggestions for Britain. If you have ideas for lobbying in other countries, please do share them in the comments.

In the UK, the best route is to aim for some kind of personal contact with your MP. If you write directly to Tony Blair or Jack Straw, you´ll get a form letter in reply and basically be ignored. A large part of an MP´s job is to pass your concerns up the chain of power, and bug ministers until they do something about it.

You can write to your MP via the excellent faxyourmp, which converts entries in a web form into free lobbying faxes. Or you can call the parliamentary switchboard on 020 7219 3000 and ask to talk to your MP. Since MPs have far less constituents and work than US senators or congress(wo)men, you stand a decent chance of being able to talk to your MP in person. Finally, you can try good old-fashioned post to: [your MP´s name] House of Commons London SW1A 0AA

Then you need to decide what they can do about Sudan. The UK Today suggests asking them to sign Early Day Motions 1051 and 293. These are basically parliamentary petitions, calling for the British government to step up its action on Darfur. Or you could send them a list of government action points (like those from the International Crisis Group), and request that they forward them to Jack Straw with a covering letter of their own. Ministers often give personal attention to letters from MPs, so this is a good way of getting high-level attention.

Kofi Annan at Harvard June 10, Sudan peace rally in planning stage

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, who is a supporter of action to stop the Sudan genocide, is the commencement speaker at Harvard University on Thursday, June 10. Several of us who live in the Boston/Cambridge area have decided to hold a rally on this day, encouraged by television journalist and activist Liz Walker. In addition, we are looking into what manner Harvard students might want to make their concerns known in support of Secretary General Annan.

Kofi Annan photo courtesy Associated Press.

Update: There is a thoughtful op-ed in Saturday's Boston Globe by John Eibner and Joe Madison. Both men are founders of the Sudan Campaign, which works to free slaves in Sudan. Here are some pictures from a recent trip by Joe Madison to help free slaves--personal and graphic.

Nicholas Kristof also has an excellent new op-ed on Sudan in the New York Times.

U.S. Seeks Libyan role in Sudan crisis

In an Associate Press story just out Andrew Natsios, the head of the US Agency for International Development confirms that

"The United States and Libya are discussing possible use of that country as a transit point for delivering humanitarian aid to western Sudan, where fighting has left hundreds of thousands of people at risk of starvation or disease.

"The administration has been undertaking costly airlifts of assistance to Sudan's Darfur province and is seeking land routes as an alternative. Libya has a common border with Sudan, as does Chad, with which U.S. officials also have had discussions.

"If an agreement with Libya can be worked out, U.S. food would be sent to a Libyan port and then transferred to the custody of the World Food Program for delivery to Darfur."

Peter Bell op-ed

The Sudan Tribune reprinted from the Christian Science Monitor (US) an excellent op-ed today by Peter Bell of CARE.."Darfur dims light of Sudan peace."

Peace agreement does not cover Darfur

Yesterday in Kenya the Sudan government and the major southern Sudan rebel organization signed a peace treaty. While this is good news--the 21-year war it appears to end had claimed 2 million lives-- the treaty does not cover the genocidal situation in Darfur. Here is an excerpt of a Reuters report from Kenya about an hour ago:

The accord includes opponents in a 21-year-old war but leaves out a separate conflict raging in the western Darfur area and excludes up to 30 other militia groups, some eyeing Sudan's newly tapped oil wealth, who could still scupper peace hopes.

Wednesday's accords give the Khartoum government 70 percent of executive and legislative seats in the north and the SPLA the same in the south during a six-year transition, an SPLA delegate said. After that the south would vote on secession.

In the disputed Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile regions, which control much of the oil wealth, the government would have 55 percent of power and the SPLA 45 percent, with the governorship switching between the two every 18 months.

Governments, aid agencies and the African Union hailed the deal, but nearly a day after the ceremony the text had still not been published and copies were restricted to a few delegates.

Implementation talks will not begin until June 22, so there is much that remains to be done before even starting to build a real peace, even in the region covered by the agreement.

The United States hailed the deal and has promised to normalize relations with the government of Sudan if the government also stops the genocide in Darfur. The current plan is to bring the president of Sudan to the U.S. White House for a ceremony if and when this is accomplished.

Forgive me for editorializing in the middle of a news report, but promising a White House visit seems an inapropriate reward to offer the Sudan government in order to encourage it to halt is own genocidal actions in Darfur. The prospect of a genocidal government official sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom is inconsistent with my values, certainly--and seems to me a new low for our stature in the world. Has no one noticed that the genocide in Darfur has now become almost irreversible because of how long it has been allowed to go on--and how close Sudan is now to the monsoon season? And that it is still not resolved? Even access by aid workers is still being resisted by the government.

Here is an excerpt from Voice of America presentation of the U.S. position:

In welcoming the signing of the three protocols at ceremonies in Naivasha, Kenya, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States remains willing to celebrate a final north-south peace deal with a White House ceremony and to move to full political relations with Sudan.

However, he made clear that this would require peace in Darfur, where Arab militiamen backed by the Khartoum government are being accused of ethnic-cleansing tactics in trying to put down a local black African revolt.

"We have made clear that we will begin a process of normalizing our bilateral relationship, but in the context of a comprehensive peace agreement and resolution of the situation in Darfur, including ending the violence being perpetrated by the militias, protecting civilians, facilitating unrestricted humanitarian access and cooperation in the deployment of international monitors and creation of conditions for the same return of displaced people," Mr. Boucher said. "So as we approach that point of having comprehensive peace, these issues involving Darfur are still very much prominent on our agenda."

Secretary of State Colin Powell first raised the idea of a White House event on a Sudan peace accord when he visited the north-south talks in Naivasha in October.

Meanwhile, organizations with people on the ground, such as observers for Christian Aid (the aid arm of UK and Ireland churches) continue to point out that the fighting has not actually stopped even in the areas covered by the agreement, and that the situation in Darfur is unchanged.

video from Sudan

Some video footage from BBC reporter Hilary Andersson has been in Darfur with Sudanese Liberation Army Rebels. The accompanying text is here.

Meanwhile, here´s part of a statement by UN official Jan Egeland:
"It is the most dramatic race against the clock that we have anywhere in the world at the moment.

"If we win this race, we will be able to provide food and non-food to all of these internally-displaced refugees.

"If we lose, hundreds of thousands of women and children, mostly, will perish."

According to Egeland, the UN relief agencies have only 20% of the money they need to minimise the impending humanitarian catastrophe.

The Pentagon's New Map by Thomas P. M. Barnett

Obviously the reason to care about the situation in Sudan--and in any genocide--starts with the moral need to protect the people involved.

But there is also a global security reason that the world needs to help in Sudan and similar situations. This argument is creatively made in a new book called The Pentagon's New Map by U.S. Naval War College professor Thomas Barnett. Barnett has been strategist for the Office of Force Transformation for the U.S. military, and involved in the "netwar" ideas that are transforming the military's conception of itself.

The short version of this perspective is that

(1) most threats to the world today come from failed states on the edge of global society--such as Sudan--where terrible things can be perpetrated on local people, and where dangerous things can be bred and unleashed on the broader world;

(2) the role of the U.S. military needs to center on helping such edge states stabilize themselves and become connected to the wider world. The traditional role of the miliary of blowing things up has become easy to do for the U.S. with modern technology, and is still important but is of only marginal and temporary value in dealing with messy situations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan;

(3) the world needs new and more systematic and effective ways to help develop just and viable societies in the regions on the edge--both out of care for the people in these regions, and in order to secure our wider society.

I don't agree with everything in this book, but it is well written, very thought-provoking, likely to be influential in future debates about global security, and provides another reason to be involved in Sudan now.

UN statement on Darfur

The UN Security Council yesterday issued a statement on Darfur:
The Government was expressly called on to “ensure that the Janjaweed militias are neutralized and disarmed.”

The Council called on opposition groups and the Government to facilitate the immediate deployment of monitors in Darfur, and to ensure their free movement throughout the area.
...
While welcoming the Government's announcement that it will take steps to facilitate the relief effort, the Council voiced serious concern about continued logistical impediments “prohibiting a rapid response in the face of a stark and mounting crisis” and called upon Khartoum to cooperate fully with efforts to provide assistance to the imperilled populations of Darfur.

The presidential statement also called on the international community to respond “rapidly and effectively” to the consolidated appeal for Darfur.

Reuters adds some background on the negotiations in New York:

The council statement, drafted by the United States, masked a behind-the-scenes battle over whether the Darfur crisis would be formally added to the council agenda, diplomats said.

Sudan, backed by Arab and African governments and Russia, has lobbied hard to prevent the council from putting it on the agenda, which would put it in a stronger position to delve into its internal affairs.

But private aid groups met privately with council members on Monday to press it to take a higher profile on the crisis.

I´ve not been able to find the full text of the statement, though presumably it is hidden somewhere within the UN´s Byzantine web site.

Update: thanks to Anthony, who not only found the statement (it´s currently at the top of this page) but mirrored it to get round the UN´s restriction on linking directly to documents.

Award-winning television journalist traveling to Sudan

Award-winning television journalist Liz Walker is traveling to southern Sudan in about two weeks. Liz has been active in the anti-slavery movement, and in 2001 traveled to Sudan and shot an influential documentary. She has now founded an NGO, Our Sister's Keeper, and is working with local women to improve life. We look forward to her reports from the field, and wish her well.