Amir Osman testifying before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission

Updated: Earlier today, the Save Darfur Coalition’s Co-Senior Director of Policy and Government Relations, Amir Osman, testified before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission at the U.S. House of Representatives. Amir joined the Save Darfur Coalition in July of 2006 and is responsible for designing and implementing the Coalition’s international policy, advocacy and outreach to foreign governments, regional and international institutes, media and non-governmental organizations. You can read his opening statement after the jump.

Good afternoon. Chairman McGovern, Chairman Wolf, thank you very much for inviting me to testify today on this very important issue before this very important commission. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about the critical issues currently facing my home country of Sudan.

It was a difficult decision for me to flee Sudan in 2003. I left because my work on human rights had put my life at risk. As a refugee living in Egypt, I continued to advocate for peace, justice, and democracy in Sudan at the American University in Cairo and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies. I specifically focused on the genocide in Darfur during those years.

After being resettled to the United States in 2006 through the UNHCR, I moved here to Washington and joined the Save Darfur Coalition to aid its international advocacy efforts. As co-senior director of policy and government relations, I help design and implement the coalition’s international policy, advocacy and outreach to foreign governments, and international partner organizations in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. I also focus on the human rights situation in Sudan and the peace processes in Darfur and South Sudan.

During the past decade, President Omar al-Bashir and his inner circle have transitioned from an ideologically driven regime to one whose primary aim is self-preservation. The regime now makes human rights compromises when it feels compelled to do so. The regime’s continued abuses have been well-documented by human rights organizations. Regular warnings have been issued about illegal detentions, unfair trials, press censorship, and the routine harassment of journalists. In addition, current laws do little to protect victims of gender-based crimes.

The most urgent human rights challenge in Sudan today, however, continues to be the crisis in Darfur. Three million displaced civilians continue to suffer as a result of the genocide that began in 2003. While the systematic destruction of villages has largely ended, the people of Darfur continue to live in a lawless, dangerous environment, where rape continues to be a daily terror.

On March 4th, the Sudanese government demonstrated its ability to cut off humanitarian aid at any moment from the 4.7 million Darfuris who depend on it. The mass violence committed by the Sudanese government several years ago has been replaced with the harassment, detention, torture, and murder of Sudanese civil society leaders. This violence led a significant number of the Sudanese human rights defenders to flee the country shortly after March 4th. Such abuses must be stopped.

The suffering in Darfur resembles in many ways the war in Southern Sudan. Both Darfuris and Southern Sudanese have experienced the bombing of villages and mass civilian displacement. The Sudanese government’s use of humanitarian aid as a weapon of war and its divide and rule tactics amongst Southern rebels have also been repeated in Darfur.

At the same time the Sudanese government was launching its genocidal campaign in Darfur, it was negotiating with the SPLM an end to the conflict in the south. Bashir made the calculation that the international community would turn a blind eye to Darfur in the effort to get the CPA signed. His calculation turned out to be largely correct.

Bashir’s favorite tactic is to delay true reforms by creating crises that distract the international community, allowing Bashir to never actually fulfill any of his promises. The international community enables Bashir by focusing on the crisis of the moment rather than a comprehensive solution. . The NCP is using cooperation on the implementation of the CPA as leverage to resist international pressure on Darfur. And it is working.

The United States and the international community have failed to develop policies suited for dealing with a regime which lacks a fundamental willingness to transform into the democratic state envisioned by the CPA. Sudan issues will not be resolved satisfactorily between just the NCP and SPLM or the NCP and the Darfuri rebels. All of Sudanese civil society must be empowered to participate in these processes.

The United States must understand that Sudan’s crises cannot be managed forever or resolved individually. Only when the international community demands serious judicial and democratic reforms will there ever be a chance to resolve South Sudan and Darfur and move towards lasting peace. Policymakers have too often focused on the South to the detriment of Darfur, or Darfur to the detriment of the South. But Darfur and South Sudan are not separate problems; they are the result of a single problem: the undemocratic, centralized, and abusive nature of the ruling regime. Only when this problem is addressed will peace be forthcoming.

There is an urgent need for a coherent and comprehensive strategy to guide Sudan to a more democratic and peaceful future. Such a strategy requires that important and difficult choices be presented to the NCP. The Sudanese government must be forced to choose between cooperation and confrontation.

If they cooperate by ending the violence in Darfur, ensuring accountability through cooperation with the ICC, and fully implement the CPA, they may be allowed to reap the benefits of becoming a responsible member of the international community. If they continue to delay implementation of the CPA and continue to attempt to divert and distract the international community by using one conflict as leverage against the other, they must face real consequences.

While we here in Washington sit and debate policy, the people of Sudan continue to suffer. This policy debate should not be complicated. The United States and its allies must force Sudan’s hand and then commit to seeing this through. We have played Bashir’s game too long to be fooled any longer. Thank you.

The opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Save Darfur Coalition.

Tags: Darfur, Save Darfur, Sudan, Sudan Policy Review

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Congress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.