US Congressmen urge Obama to work for one peace process in Sudan

Washington
November 22, 2011 (Sudan Tribune)

US Congressmen urged the President Barak Obama to adopt a new approach with Sudanese government calling for a comprehensive settlement to the ongoing conflicts in Blue Nile, South Kordofan and Darfur and to promote democracy in the country.

A United States Congressman, Frank Wolf who is one of the four co-chairs of the Congressional Sudan Caucus today released a letter signed by 62 Congressmen asking Obama Administration to change its current policy of "individual mediation processes".

The lawmakers said the "the United States must now adopt a Sudan policy that addresses and confronts the root of the problem: marginalization of the peripheries by Khartoum."

Obama who backedthe South Sudan independence, supports Doha peace process to end the eight year conflict in Darfur and called on rebel groups to join a framework agreement to end the conflict adopted last May.

Princeton Lyman, Omaba’s envoy to Sudan also urged the SPLM-N rebels to negotiate with Khartoum and seek a solution to their dispute in line with the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

However, rebel groups in Blue Nile, Darfur and South Kordofan said they are determined to topple the Sudanese regime and to establish a secular regime based on voluntary unity and democratic principles.

The letter said the conflicts in Blue Nile and South Kordofan and Darfur prove that US "Administration’s policy toward Sudan must be reinvigorated to address the urgent humanitarian and civilian crises facing millions of Sudanese."

The Congressmen disapproved Obama’s policy on Sudan saying it addresses only the "symptoms" of the problems in Sudan. Instead they called on Washington to " refocus its current policy on mediation, democracy promotion, accountability, and civilian protection."

The lawmakers expressed fear that the failure to take a swift action would increase the violence and "the peace that so many Sudanese hoped for will fade into the abyss of instability and war."

White House Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough was yesterday in Juba where he urged Juba to stop its support to the Sudanese rebels. The official was previously in Khartoum where he urged Khartoum to lift the ban on international aid groups in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

Mc Donough further urged the two countries to mark progress in their discussion over the outstanding issues.

The Congressmen urged Washington to bring all the Sudanese parties in a one and comprehensive process for peace and structural democratic reforms instead of "stove-piped peace negotiations".

The letter furthermore called on Washington to marshal the international community to support plans aiming to promote democracy in Sudan, and to provide assistance to civil society group, independent media and anticorruption initiatives.

They called to fight corruption and to promote "accountability in both Sudans", including targeted financial sanctions against those primarily responsible for abuses and the businesses they control.

The members of the Congress also urged to investigate "evidence of ethnic cleansing in the Nuba Mountains and Abyei".

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