You can follow today’s hearing, “Toward A Comprehensive Strategy For Sudan” by:
Watching the hearing live
(requires flashplayer)
OR
Following Save Darfur on Twitter
Update: Special Envoy Scott Gration’s opening statement has been posted on the committee’s website
Update II: The hearing has concluded. You can see all our tweets from the first panel after the jump.
Live-tweets from the hearing (most recent to oldest):
- The first half of the hearing is over. Gen. Gration and Earl Gast (USAID) have been replaced by the second panel.
- Gen. Gration: we cannot fail. We cannot sit back and do nothing in #darfur.
- Gen. Gration said that he thinks there is still genocide in #darfur but that people are dying and it doesn’t matter what you call it.
- Sen. Isakson warns that if we don’t respond in #darfur, we will have another rwanda.
- Sen. Gration: we need to restore the women’s safety and dignity in #darfur.
- Sen. Corker: the UNAMID mandate needs to be stronger so they can respond quickly.
- Sen. Corker is concerned about the security and violence against women in the IDP camps. Gen. Gration agrees that the violence needs to stop.
- Sen. Feingold wants gen. Gration to brief him on the punative steps the u.s. is taking with khartoum and their actions in #darfur.
- Gen. Gration: we are building a relationship with khartoum to try to save lives. We have a balanced approach that has sticks and carrots.
- Gen. Gration: oil is significant to sudan and china gets 6% of its oil from sudan.
- Gen. Gration: we need to have unity in the intl. Community in working with #darfur and sudan.
- … And the millions of people in the idp camps in #darfur are under attack from so many weapons!
- gen. Gration: the violence is not as great in #darfur as it was in 2003. But sds coalition knows that genocide does not just have 1 weapon
- Gen. Gration: it is clear that at the beginning the janjaweed was a gov. run militia.
- Sen. Kerry: what are you seeing on the ground in #darfur? Gen. Gration: help unamid, cross-border problems.
- Testimonies completed. Questions; first from sen. Kerry, and it is to gen. Gration on #darfur.
- Testimony on behalf of usaid: if we don’t work on sudan and #darfur, it could be a failed state.
- Gen. Gration: obama adm. Needs to focus on sudan re: counter-terrorism.
- Gen. Gration: the obama’s adm. Strategic approach first focuses on #darfur and having a sustainable peace.
- Gen. Gration’s testimony: we want an endurable peace in #darfur.
- Sen. Lugar: wants to know about the obama administration’s plan for sudan and #darfur. We do too! As he said, time is not on our side.
- Sen. Lugar: re: #darfur- time is not on our side. Millions of refugees are at risk. The rainy season is straining aid workers’ capacity.
- Kerry: in 2005 colin powell testified about the need for troops in #darfur— the needed troops are still not fully deployed.
- Sen kerry: I called the situation in #darfur a genocide back in 2004.
- Hearing has started. Chairman john kerry is introducing the situation and cited our ststement for the record on #darfur.
- 1 hour before the general’s testimony, and the hallway to the hearing room is packed!
- Reminder: gen. Gration will be testifying at 10am EST at the senate foreign relations cmt. He will hopefully talk about strat for #darfur
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The opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Save Darfur Coalition.
Tags: Bob Corker, Congress, John Kerry, Live-Tweet, Richard Lugar, Russ Feingold, Scott Gration, Sudan, Sudan Policy Review, USAID
