Good Cop, Bad Cop with Sudan?

by Michelle . · 2009-11-30 16:07:00 UTC
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Is the Obama administration's foreign policy team playing a "good cop, bad cop" routine with Sudan, or is the U.S. Ambassador to the UN stepping on the toes of the Special Envoy to Sudan?

UN Ambassador Susan Rice, who is known for her tough stance against Sudan, publicly criticized the government of Sudan for threatening and impeding the work of UNAMID peacekeepers in Darfur. Rice's public condemnation took a very different tone than the excessively-conciliatory and Khartoum-friendly approach of Special Envoy Scott Gration, and comes after months of the administration's relative silence on a litany of reports on human rights and other abuses committed by the Sudanese government.

So is Rice playing bad cop to Gration's good cop, given that he has to build a relationship with hardliners in Khartoum, or is she breaking ranks from the envoy's lead, which has on many occasions seemed hopelessly naïve?

Either way, it's about time someone in the administration called Khartoum out on its dirty deeds.

[Photo of Susan Rice from Wikimedia Commons.]

Michelle . has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns.
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