While the Islamic regime ruling Sudan from the northern capital of Khartoum continues its jihad against Christians and animists in the country’s south – a bloody campaign that has already killed some 2 million – President George W. Bush has decided, without explanation, not to enact new sanctions on Sudan, says a scholar and activist.
The Sudan Peace Act, passed by Congress last fall, required the president to certify by April 21 that Khartoum is negotiating in good faith with southern rebels in Machakos, Kenya, to end the 20-year civil war. A cease-fire was signed last October, but the northern regime has hit civilian targets since then, and a military buildup is under way, according to independent monitors.
 President Bush with Sudanese guests at October signing of Sudan Peace Act. |
“While the president cited ‘significant progress’ in peace negotiations; unsurprisingly, no specifics are provided,” said Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College in Massachusetts.
Bush said Monday he informed Congress “the government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement are negotiating in good faith and that negotiations should continue. Both sides have made significant progress negotiating a just and comprehensive peace for the people of Sudan. There is still much work remaining.”
The congressional measure gave the president authority to block oil revenues and loans through international financial institutions or downgrade diplomatic ties if he determined the government was not acting in good faith.
“The president is conspicuously silent in both his certification and his statement on the issue of whether Khartoum’s National Islamic Front Regime has ‘unreasonably interfered with humanitarian efforts’ despite the explicit language of Section 6(b)(1)(B) of the Sudan Peace Act,” Reeves said.
Bush’s report describes military activities as “sporadic,” Reeves notes, “despite the various reports from the U.S.-led Civilian Protection Monitoring Team that suggest a very different picture.”
In a letter last week to Secretary of State Colin Powell, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom noted the civilian team, established by the peace process, has been grounded by Khartoum since March 7.
The team issued a report in February stating the government has continued to attack, kill and maim civilians despite signing a cease-fire accord with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.
The United Nations special rapporteur on Sudan said in his 2003 report “in spite of the commitments made, the overall human-rights situation has not improved.”
Sudan’s cleric-backed National Islamic Front regime in the Arab and Muslim north declared a jihad on the south in 1989. Since 1983, an estimated 2 million people have died from war and related famine. About 5 million have become refugees.
In the president’s report, Reeves, said, “no mention is made of massive offensive military redeployments by Khartoum’s forces, despite clear and compelling evidence of such.”
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom had urged the Bush administration in the report required by the Sudan Peace Act to “frankly address the violations of [Sudan’s] cease-fire commitments and clearly state consequences for non-compliance that will result from any violations that might occur in the future.”
The USCIRF letter to Powell said the Civilian Protection Monitoring Team reports indicate the Islamic government “may be using this period during the cease-fire to rearm and build-up garrison towns in the south from which it could launch devastating offensives should the peace talks end in failure.”
Sudan welcomes decision
Yesterday, Khartoum welcomed Bush’s decision, calling it “balanced” and containing “a positive assessment of the peace process.”
Sudanese charge d’affaires Khidir Haroun told the state-run SUNA news agency Bush’s view was the one needed from the outset because “it is based on objectivity and neutrality and constitutes a significant contribution to the process of reaching a lasting and just peace in Sudan.”
The decision, he said, “offers evidence of American sincerity toward peace in Sudan and encourages serious negotiation by both parties for ending the suffering of the Sudanese, both in the north and south, irrespective of religious or ethnic considerations.”
Bush said in his statement “there is still much work remaining. It is now time to move the peace process to a new level where the actions of both parties replace promises as the measure of their commitment to peace.”
‘Diplomatic dithering’
The president’s decision was not unexpected, said Nina Shea, a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and director of the Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House in Washington, D.C.
“Very few people are willing to concede that negotiations have failed, and people want to give it more time,” she told WorldNetDaily, noting the Sudan Peace Act was “designed to end the diplomatic dithering that has gone on for years now.”
The cease-fire agreement signed in Machakos last October provides for a six-year period of autonomy for the south ahead of a referendum on the region’s political future.
“I think there is a sense that they really have to make some breakthroughs in the next period or the game will be up,” she said.
Over the next six months she expects the process to reveal whether there will be a peace deal or a return to war.
“I’m troubled that there has been no progress at the same time Khartoum is in a military buildup,” said Shea. “That’s a clue they may not be negotiating in good faith.”
Last week, the Libya-chaired U.N. Human Rights Commission rejected a resolution that would have kept the Khartoum regime under another year of scrutiny by the special rapporteur.
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