Daily Darfur: Lacking Trust in the NCP

by Michelle

category: Daily Darfur

Published April 13, 2009 @ 04:19AM PT

An opposition party in Sudan released a plan calling for a transitional government to "prepare the country for elections," which are scheduled for 2010, expressing doubts that proper elections will be possible under the current regime. Leader of the opposition Popular Congress party, Hassan al-Turabi, said that he will not stand as a candidate against sitting president, and indicted war criminal, Omar al-Bashir and the National Congress Party.

Turabi's party also reached out to political groups in Darfur, calling for a national vice-president to be elected (by consensus, if you can imagine such a thing) from the region.

(Turabi, however, has his own nefarious past, including support of Osama bin Laden during the elusive terrorist's stay in Sudan. I'm not in a position to say whether or not Turabi's olive branch to Darfur is genuine, or simply an attempt to consolidate power and momentum to oppose Bashir....so if someone knows more about internal Sudanese politics, please chime in.)

Meanwhile, the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) may be consolidating its support in Darfur --- or may not, depending on who you talk to. The JEM claims that 22 political and military leaders from a rival rebel faction, the Sudan Liberation Army's Unity faction (SLA-Unity), have defected to join its ranks. The SLA-Unity, of course, denies these claims.

"They have joined JEM because they want to unify the struggling in Darfur, and the Darfurian people cannot achieve their demands when there are many factions and fighting among them," JEM commander Suleiman Sandal said.

Considering life as a rebel yourself? LA Times reporter Edmund Sanders made a risky venture into a rebel basecamp in Darfur, to tell us what it's like.

What Can Obama Do?

John Prendergast and Jim Wallis offer a 3-part strategy for US leadership on Darfur:

1. Demand the return of expelled aid groups to end the "overt use of starvation as a weapon of war."
2. Conduct private diplomacy to convince Bashir's increasingly-frustrated supporters to downgrade relations with Sudan.
3. Forge an international coalition to address the crisis, rather than seeking to act unilaterally.

Other items of note...

Thabo Mbeki is scheduled to meet with Sudan's neighbors to discuss prospects for peace in Darfur.

Jeanette Bateman of Greeley West High School in Colorado won the Holocaust Memorial Observance Essay 2009 Contest, for an essay that not only talks about the Holocaust, but connects the lessons of past genocides with the on-going tragedy in Darfur.

Go, Id-a-ho! A group of Boiseans spent their weekend at a rally for Darfur.

A bit of advice from fellow Change.org-er Alanna: Don't send baby formula to Darfur.

An editorial in the New York Times calls on the Obama administration to break out its full diplomatic toolbox to reform the UN Human Rights Council.

[Photo: Hassan al-Turabi.]