Daily Darfur: Obama Makes Khartoum Nervous

"I screamed for help, but nobody did anything."

Niemat Ahmadi describes surviving an attack on her home in Darfur.

Change on the Horizon?

Two great articles in the Washington Post this morning:

First, political elites in Khartoum are not among those jumping on Obama's "Yes We Can" bandwagon:

"Compared to the Republicans, the Democrats, I think they are hawks," said Ghazi Suleiman, a human rights lawyer and member of the Southern People's Liberation Movement, which has a fragile power-sharing agreement with the ruling party. "I know Obama's appointees. And I know their policy towards Sudan. Everybody here knows it. The policy is very aggressive and very harsh. I think we really will miss the judgments of George W. Bush."

Obama and his foreign policy team have indicated plans for a major shift in policy towards Sudan--more sticks, less carrots--and Khartoum is paying attention.

Second, exactly which sticks are pulled out of the diplomatic (and military?) arsenal may depend on the recommendations of a report due for release today. The Genocide Prevention Task Force, chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Secretary of Defense William Cohen, will announce its recommendations at a press conference this morning, which will include the creation of a high-level forum on genocide and mass atrocity in the White House.

"Preventing genocide is an achievable goal," the report says. "Genocide is not the inevitable result of 'ancient hatreds' or irrational leaders. It requires planning and is carried out systematically. There are ways to recognize its signs and symptoms, and viable options to prevent it at every turn if we are committed and prepared."

Now that's change I can believe in.

Also of interest...

An op-ed in the Washington Times gives an overview of the current uncertainty regarding Sudan's reaction to an ICC indictment of its president, and the prospects for free and fair elections in Sudan next year, but ends on a rather unsatisfactory note:

"And if Gen. Bashir stays in power by rigging next year's national election, what will the world do then if force is necessary to assure his removal to The Hague?"