Obama’s promises and pledges for Darfur went unheeded with lifting sanctions
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By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
Barak Obama’s Lifting of Sanctions off the genocidal regime of the
National Congress Party (NCP) in Sudan is based on weak, unconvincing,
pretty flimsy excuses and very thin and insubstantial justifications.
Let us look no further than the background of the Obama’s
Administration of justification for the suspension of US sanctions on
Sudan.
And it focused on the following points:
1. Low level of violence in areas of conflict with evidence that all
the previous years have seen a "summer campaign" against rebel
positions, but this year.
2. Has been a marked increase in access to war-affected rates in all
areas of operations without major incidents.
3. There has been the Sudanese government’s commitment to promoting
peace in southern Sudan and by refraining from supporting opponents of
President Salva Kiir
4. Government of Sudan has allowed the US government to provide
medicine and humanitarian aids to the affected people in conflict
zones.
5. The government has amended the Commission of Humanitarian Affairs
procedures and it became easier to obtain visas and movement permits -
except in the areas of operations - has become easier than ever
before.
6. Increased cooperation in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) file and
allowed the Americans to make sure of the areas that have been
suspected of the presence of the Lord by the army.
7. American wildlife management team has been allowed to follow
wildlife and verify the ivory trade and forest products that were
obtained illegally.
8. Finally, Sudan’s cooperation in the terrorism file without any details
The foregoing are considered by the people of Sudan in Darfur as
flimsy justifications for lifting sanctions off the Génocidaire Omer
Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir’s regime that continued committing atrocious
crimes in Darfur and other regions in Sudan including the use of
Chemical Weapons.
Reference: Omar Gamar Eldin - Sudanjem link: goo.gl/4ajAC5
As the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the
United States getting nearer and will be held on Friday, January 20,
2017, on the West Front of the United States, let us look at the
account inventory – stocktaking - of the legacy of the Us President
Barak Obama for the people of Sudan in Darfur, according to the
promises announced during his campaign for the Presidency of the
United States of America.
The conflict in the region of Darfur in western Sudan began in the
2003, when the Sudanese government led by Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir
hired the notorious Arab militiamen better known as the Janjaweed to
wage a proxy war against the people of the region. The result was
thousands of civilians raped and tortured and more than 300,000 killed
and more than 2.7 million people driven from their homes. The Bush
administration called it genocide, as did U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.
Speaking with SaveDarfur in 2006, then Presidential candidate Barak
Obama made a sweeping promise that “we can’t say never again and allow
it to happen again, and as President of the United States I don’t
intend to abandon people or turn a blind eye to slaughter.” However,
Slaughter went on unabatedly in the sight and hearing of the world and
of course of Obama and his Administration at the US White House, in
Washington DC. Since assuming the Presidency, President Obama’s
expressed dedication to ending the genocide in Darfur and combatting
impunity in the region has fallen off the agenda. Moreover, President
Obama’s remarks before the African Union (AU) (Jul. 28, 2015) mirrored
in part his previous comments on Darfur. He commented, “Leaders in
Sudan must know their nation will never truly thrive so long as they
wage war against their own people- the world will not forget about
Darfur.” Speaking on dictatorships on the continent, Obama remarked
“Africa’s democratic progress is at risk when leaders refuse to step
aside when their terms end.” Beautiful rhetoric and superfluous lip
service, isn’t it?! Sadly, inaction followed. And at worse, kudos and
brownie points offered for free to al-Bashir and his criminal clique
and the corrupt entourage.
The people of Sudan in Darfur and the survivors of the National
Congress Party (NCP) regime genocide say OBAMA’S YES WE CAN HAS LET US
DOWN.
Backing the perpetrators was not thought a character for Obama when he
visited the Darfuri refugees camps in Chad (Oct. 18, 2008) early in
the days he was poised for running for the US Presidency. However,
lifting sanctions off the (NCP) regime was not expected of Obama on
those days. It seems interests have overridden the moralities. This
seems the final in the series of Obama’s betrayal for the
disenfranchised Sudanese people, survivors of genocide in Darfur and
elsewhere in Sudan. At this particular moment, the people of Darfur
who have survived the Holocaust of the NCP might not get saddened by
the departure of Barak Obama after his lean eight years in the White
House at Washington DC.
The cumulative effects of the (NCP) regime crimes resulted into more
than 300,000 deaths of men, women and children in Darfur. More than 3
million Darfuris displaced in recent years. The Genocidal criminal
Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir has admitted that he has only killed Ten
Thousand people and not three hundred thousand people in Darfur.
President Omar al-Bashir is the only sitting head of state wanted for
genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, for the crimes he
has perpetrated against unarmed noncombatant civilian Sudanese
population in Darfur. Furthermore, undeterred by his arrest warrants,
Omer al-Bashir continues his crimes with impunity, expanding his
bombing and attacks against civilians beyond Darfur to those in the
Sudanese states of Ingessana in Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains in
Southern Kordofan. While people of Africa appreciated the work of
President Obama during his African tour on issues of economic
development and human rights, the millions of victims who have been
displaced, tortured, raped, and killed over the course of Bashir’s
terror regime remained on the sidelines. President Obama has assured
that Darfur will not be forgotten early on. However, the horrors in
Sudan kept ongoing and he did nothing to aid in the fight against
impunity. People have attached a lot of hopes on President Obama for
using his remaining months in office to take a harder stance against
the Omer al-Bashir’s regime, and fulfill his promises to the people of
Darfur. But all those hopes faded away and went unheeded. And the
people in Darfur felt that President Barack Obama’s administration has
reneged on promises and betrayed the people of Sudan in Darfur and his
latter decision of lifting the sanctions as a dance with the genocidal
butcher Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir on the skulls of the victims.
The Motto continued since Darfur Genocide as follows:
Don’t Let Bashir Get Away With Genocide. It is time for justice to be
served. 14 YEARS BASHIR HAS EVADED INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE & REMAINED
FUGITIVE. On March 4, 2009 the International Criminal Court (ICC)
issued an arrest warrant against Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir for 7
counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes. On July 12, 2010 the
ICC issued an additional warrant adding 3 counts of genocide for the
ethnic cleansing of the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa tribes.
The first reaction of condemnation for the lifting of sanctions on
Sudan came from the US Member of the United States House of
Representatives, Senator Jim McGovern), a senior House Democrat
representing Massachusetts’s 2nd congressional district and leading
voice on Sudan. Senator McGovern said: “I am angry and deeply
disappointed that the last act by the Obama Administration on Sudan
policy is to ease sanctions against a genocidal regime when there has
been little to no change on-the-ground in the human rights and
humanitarian crises suffered by the Sudanese people”.
http://mcgovern.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/mcgovern-statement-on-new-obama-sanctions-policy-for-sudan
Tom Andrews Published On April 14, 2015 an article titled: Dying in
Darfur: President Obama’s Forgotten Promise-
http://endgenocide.org/dying-in-darfur-president-obamas-forgotten-promise/
Rebecca Tinsley, Journalist and human rights activist wrote an article
titled: Last Chance for Darfur: US Congress presses Obama to act.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-tinsley/last-chance-for-darfur-us_b_9836834.html
The article reported that a group of 120 legislators are calling on
President Obama to use his final months in office to “exercise
leadership” on human rights abuses in Sudan.
And Obama hasn’t used the bully pulpit to personally talk enough about
Darfur. The bitter disappointment of the people of Sudan in Darfur for
the positions taken by the outgoing US President Barack Obama will
remain in the modern history log.
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is an author, columnist and a blogger. His
blog is http://thussudan.wordpress.com/
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