Letter to President-Elect Barack Obama: A Peace Surge for Sudan

By John Prendergast, John Norris, Jerry Fowler

This is the first in a series of letters to the next president spelling out a practical roadmap to end the crisis in Sudan.

The message of Sudan activists all over The United States is clear:

Don’t try to contain the damage from the war in Darfur—end the war.
Don’t just declare that genocide is taking place—end the genocide.
Don’t just manage the consequences of crisis after crisis in Sudan—end these crises.
In short, President-Elect Obama must lead a concerted international peace surge for Sudan, and diplomacy must be backed by well-conceived and consistently escalating pressure on Khartoum and other combatants to create the proper conditions for a lasting peace. More effective protection of civilians and continued steps toward accountability for crimes against humanity, which are vital in their own right, will help advance this peace surge.

Five-and-a-half years into Darfur’s crisis, and three-and-a-half years after the signing of a peace deal for southern Sudan (the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, or CPA), there is no prospect of a peace deal for Darfur and no coherent effort to ensure that the CPA gets implemented. This is a damning indictment of U.S. and international efforts in Sudan to date. Despite an abundance of rhetoric, it is clear to all parties, including the Sudanese government, that the United States government and its international partners are content simply to manage the consequences of the crisis in Sudan, rather than resolve the situation. Read more >>>>>>>>