Yesterday, President Barack Obama made his first address to the United Nations General Assembly declaring a new era of American engagement. He called on all nations to work together to solve the world’s problems and spoke specifically about the need to pursue peace in Sudan.
Our efforts to promote peace, however, cannot be limited to defeating violent extremists for the most powerful weapon in our arsenal is the hope of human beings, the belief that the future belongs to those who would build and not destroy, the confidence that conflicts can end and a new day can begin.
And that is why we will support — we will strengthen our support for effective peacekeeping while energizing our efforts to prevent conflicts before they take hold. We will pursue a lasting peace in Sudan through support for the people of Darfur and the implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement so that we secure the peace that the Sudanese people deserve.
Save Darfur Coalition president Jerry Fowler said he was encouraged by President Obama’s words, but that concrete actions were necessary to end the crisis in Sudan:
Save Darfur is pleased that President Obama used his UN speech to reiterate his determination to pursue a lasting peace in Sudan. But, now he must turn these words into action by building an international coalition to apply incentives and pressures to push Khartoum to end the conflict in Darfur and fully implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The President should use the opportunity presented by the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh to encourage the world’s richest countries to leverage their economic influence to ensure that Khartoum’s debt is not forgiven until it makes concrete and lasting progress toward ending insecurity and instability in Darfur and throughout Sudan. The Save Darfur Coalition looks forward to the release of the administration’s long-overdue Sudan policy review, which we hope will outline the administration’s specific plan for achieving lasting peace in Sudan.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Save Darfur Coalition.
Tags: Darfur, Peacekeeping, President Obama, Sudan, UNGA
