NEWSBYMOHAMED E. SULEIMAN

Obama's administration finally, on Monday, October 19, unveiled its new Sudan policy As a policy, on paper, it sounded like there is something for everybody.

Many dictators in Africa had a good sleep that night. They never had such relaxing sleep since they saw on television some years back, one of their own fellows handcuffed and shipped to The Hague to stand trial on war crimes and crimes against humanity. Yes, every one of them saw his nightmare come true in seeing Charles Taylor, the ex-dictator of Liberia, hunted down, handcuffed, and taken to the International Criminal Court prison in the Netherlands waiting to be tried on crimes he had committed against his own people. A dictator in handcuffs was strong message to the rest of the dictators that, finally, accountability is on the way.

Omer Hassan Al Bashir, the dictator of Sudan, is a fugitive and wanted by international justice. The International Criminal Court has indicted him for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

October 13, 2009

The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500

cc: Vice President Joseph Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ambassador Susan Rice, Senator John S. Kerry, Senator Richard G. Lugar

Dear President Obama,

We, Darfuris in the United States of America, write to you with grave alarm and concern about the latest news coming from our native land, Darfur.  The Government of Sudan is brutally taking advantage of the fact that the world is turning numb to the news of atrocities occurring in Darfur and is now wreaking havoc in North and West Darfur.

At the end of last month, the Government of Sudan mounted fresh attacks on our people in the areas of Korma, Ain Siero, Jabal Marra, and Miliet. The news we get from our people is that the Government used the now familiar tactics: Antonov aerial bombings, Janjaweed attacks on civilians, burning, looting, raping, and savage killings. The news is chillingly so familiar that it escaped the attention of the news media and the international community. This familiar method of executing genocide in Darfur in a fresh wave of violence is an evil, clever way for the Government of Sudan to hide its crimes in the open.

The US Special Envoy to Sudan, Major General Scott Gration, wants to test a new approach to the Government of Sudan (GoS) hoping to resolve the problems of Sudan, and Darfur in particular.

The new approach, since his appointment in March of this year, hinges on offering carrots with less or no sticks, i.e. rewards in advance hoping Government of Sudan will do the right thing, but with no actions in case GoS does not deliver on its promises. This approach, incentives-only, could be fruitful with any other government on the planet other than the government in Khartoum.

Nafi Ali Nafi, a powerful man of the regime, had stated clearly last month in AlGadaref (a city in eastern province in Sudan), that his party came to power "by force and will stay in power by force."

Democracy is the key solution to the chronic problems of Sudan. A fair and free election is the process that the people of Sudan have dreamt of since the colonial powers left the Country in 1956. Yet Sudan is marred since then with civil wars, military coups, genocide, corruption, uneven distribution of wealth, and monopoly of power by the few.

The ruling party, National Congress Party (NCP), managed to stay in power for twenty years now and intends to stay in power for the next twenty years. The driving force of the NCP is a team made up of players who have perfected the skills of seizing power (not necessarily by force) since they were students in high schools and universities.

Most of the prominent players were members of student unions of University of Khartoum in the 1970s and 1980s. The student unions during those periods were formed through free elections. The National Islamic Front (NIF) was the most organized political group in the high schools and universities that succeeded to manipulate and exploit well-intentioned democratic process and turn it selfishly into their favor.

Tougher weeks are yet to come.

I wonder what did Major General Scott Gration expect from women of Darfur in the camps in reacting to his description of the situation in Darfur as "remnants of genocide?"

Magbula may be to the Special Envoy a "remnants of genocide." There are hundreds of thousands women like Magbola in the IDP camps of Kassab, Hasahisa, KarYari, Habila, and in similar camps across Darfur and in Eastern Chad. They want justice before peace.

I believe that, with all the nice words and the good intentions expressed, General Gration is not ready to handle the Darfur problem. It is either you have it or you don't. Al Bashir has underestimated the Darfuri people in this conflict. Today he is a fugitive. In a different take, the Special Envoy might have underestimated the resolve and resilience of the Darfuri people who are confined to crowded camps.

The Chief of the sheikhs (leaders) Omdah Omer Adam Ishag was killed last Sunday with his wife in their home in AbuShouk camp for internally displaced persons (IDP). Last year Omdah Ahmed Hagar Karam Eldin was murdered in the same camp. Similar killings of Omdas (tribal leaders) have occurred in IDP camps of Zalengie, Kassab, and El Geneina area in western Darfur, in addition to other camps in the past few years.Last year in August, Government troops attacked Kalma camp and killed 86 people.

These violence incidents are not random. They are designed to break the will of the Darfuri people so that the rulers in Khartoum can have their way in Darfur.

The regime of Khartoum is so cunning that it resorts to devious ways in carrying out its plans to further destroy the people of Darfur. You will hear innocent denials coming out from Khartoum. In the outset Khartoum looks far removed from these assassinations, violence incidents, kidnappings of humanitarian aids, lootings and terrorizing of the camps by armed militias, and banditry operations. Yet this chaotic security environment in Darfur is the creation of the regime in Khartoum. The Government of Sudan controls and manipulates the insecurity level in Darfur effectively, since it is the sole beneficial of such situation in Darfur.

On Thursday July 23^rd 2009, I watched the film "The Reckoning." I was among other activists and justice-conscientious individuals in San Francisco.  In the film, Louis Moreno Ocampo, the Chief Prosecutor in the International Criminal Court (ICC), was very impressive in his relentless pursue of justice. One sentence stuck with me while driving back home and kept ringing in my ears was when he said: "I can wait, al Bashir can wait, the international community can wait, but the victims of Darfur can not afford to wait."

A week later, Thursday 30^th 2009, I tuned in to the website of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee to watch the Special Envoy to Sudan, General Gration, testifying. The issue of genocide and "remnants of genocide" were raised by many Senators in the committee. The response of the Special Envoy I could sum it in, "Let us not dwell on the definitions of genocide but on what we could do to help the suffering people of Darfur, and I have plans for that."

Ask any Darfuris anywhere, what would like to see in Darfur now? The answer whether from a refugee in Kalma or a Darfuri in Diaspora in New York will be:    1) Justice. 2) Security. 3) Just and lasting Peace.

From The Hague, on Wednesday July 22^nd, the Permanent Court of Arbitration  (PCA) has announced its ruling on the disputed area of Abyei.

The two parties, the Southern Sudanese Government represented by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), and the Northern Sudanese Government, represented by National Congress Party (NCP), declared their acceptance of the ruling. The NCP went further and hailed the ruling as just and in the interest of peace in Sudan. The regime in Khartoum praised the ruling simply because the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) has awarded North Sudan most of the oilfields in Abyei area.

Another court in The Hague, the International Criminal Court (ICC), on March 4^th of this year has issued a warrant of arrest of the President of Sudan (Omer Hassan Al-Bashir) for  war crimes and crimes against humanity. The ruling party of Khartoum (NCP) rejected the ICC warrant of arrest. Al-Bashir said the ICC is a tool in the hands of the Western Countries to destabilize Sudan, therefore he will not acknowledge the existence of such institution.

There were prior two warrants of arrest issued by ICC against two Sudanese individuals. One of them Ahmed Haroun (was a Minister in the cabinet during Darfur conflict), the other one is a Janjaweed leader Ali Kushaib. The regime defied the ICC by declaring publicly that it will not hand over the two individuals to the ICC to stand trial in The Hague.

The International Community should not allow a fugitive dictator to choose and pick justice at his convenience.

Since Al-Bashir has accepted happily the ruling of one international judicial institution, then the world must make him accept all decisions taken by all other international judicial institutions. Otherwise, Al-Bashir would be considered by his victims in Darfur as a dictator who is above the law.

That would be a devastating blow to the credibility of the International Community.