** UPDATE **
Video from the event is available above and on the Cato Institute’s website.
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Sean Brooks, Save Darfur’s Senior Policy Analyst, will be speaking at a Cato Institute policy forum tomorrow afternoon to discuss Sudan in the post-election period. You can register to attend the event (at Cato’s headquarters in Washington, DC) or watch it live on their website.
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Cross posted from Change.org’s Human Rights blog.
A new military offensive in Darfur, the arrest of political leaders, and the shutting down of newspapers in Khartoum: election season must be over in Sudan. Emboldened by electoral “success,” Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir and his National Congress Party (NCP) are sending troubling signals about their philosophy that will guide post-election governance.
The push last Friday by the Sudanese Armed Forces to regain control over a stronghold of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in West Darfur kicked off seven days of violence and repression. The army reported that it killed 108 JEM fighters in the assault. Elsewhere in Darfur, JEM allegedly attacked a tanker truck killing 20 Sudanese police officers. Continued clashes between nomadic tribes and the kidnapping of humanitarian aid workers – including an American – have only heightened tensions throughout Darfur.
Commenting yesterday on these recent developments before the United Nations Security Council, the Joint Special Representative for the United Nations/African Union peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) stated that continued fighting in Darfur has “caused substantial civilian casualties, the displacement of communities, and hampered the delivery of humanitarian assistance.” The U.S. State Department earlier in the week also condemned the “recent offensive actions in Darfur” and “urged both the Government of Sudan and the Darfur rebel movements to refrain from any further actions that would undermine the Darfur peace process or endanger civilians.”
Yet, blithely ignoring the deteriorating conditions in Darfur, an NCP leader told Darfuri students this week that his party was seeking to deepen peace and foster a culture of national unity (article in Arabic). Most people in Darfur instead fear that the faltering peace process, government offensive, and continuing crisis in Jebel Marra proffer a new post-election reality.
The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies just sent out the following release condemning the Sudanese Government’s recent crackdown on political opposition and the press:
Sudanese Authorities Renew Use of Pre-Print Censorship to Suppress Political Opinion Contact: Osman Hummaida, Executive Director
Phone: +44 7956095738
E-mail: osman@acjps.org(20 May 2010) In the evening of Wednesday, 19 May, three National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) officers visited the offices of the newspaper Ajras Alhurria, which is perceived as aligned with the SPLM. The officers demanded to see the following day’s edition.
The officers ordered that six out of 12 of the pages of the newspaper be deleted. This material included regular columns, general news, and opinion pieces. Ajras Alhurria could not publish a newspaper on Thursday as so much content had been removed. After their tour of Ajras Alhurria’s offices, they similarly censored Alsahafa and Al Sudani newspapers prior to the publication of Thursday’s edition. At Alsahafa, NISS agents demanded to see editorial material and opinion columns. Its editor, Al-Nur Ahmed Al-Nur, stated that the censorship constituted “a step backwards in the democratic transformation of the country”.
Today President Obama signed into law the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act. The law, strongly supported by the president, is designed to “reinforce the nation’s commitment to ensure freedom of the press, including bloggers, around the world.”
Does this include the journalists of Sudan, Mr President? Just yesterday the Government of Sudan shut down a newspaper and arrested three journalists after the paper reported an unverified claim that Iran had a weapons-producing plant operating in Sudan.
The above story is just one example of many abuses committed against journalists by the Bashir Regime in recent times — especially during the recent fraudulent elections.
Today you commented:
All around the world there are enormously courageous journalists and bloggers who, at great risk to themselves, are trying to shine a light on the critical issues that the people of their country face; who are the frontlines against tyranny and oppression.
Sounds like Sudan.
Additionally, you said:
What this act does is it sends a strong message from the United States government and from the State Department that we are paying attention to how other governments are operating when it comes to the press.
Will you?
Mr. President, I have to ask, will your Special Envoy, Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, heed your call and protect journalists and condemn those that seek to silence and stymie a free press?
On 15 May, national security forces in three armed cars arrested Dr. Hassan Al Turabi, the leader of the opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP), from his home in the Manshya area of Khartoum at 11:30 PM. His family indicated that they were unaware of the reason for his arrest, but his son Sidiq speculated that it might have been sparked by an interview with Akhbar Alyoum newspaper in which Turabi accused the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of rigging the elections and corruption, and threatened to publish information proving these allegations.
Turabi’s PCP was one of the few opposition parties taking part in all levels of the April polls. Turabi had, nonetheless, been critical of the lack of elections preparations and the ruling party’s monopoly of the media. Turabi rejected the election results in a press conference on 17 April, saying that his party would refuse to recognise the results even if they were shown to win in some constituencies. He accused the National Elections Commission (NEC) of poorly managing the polls and refused the NCP’s offer of participation in the new government.
Turabi remains in detention as of early 17 May. He was reportedly transferred to Kober prison after being taken to an unknown location. The same NISS agents that arrested Turabi later invaded and occupied the premises of Rai Alshaab newspaper, seen as aligned with the Popular Congress Party.
The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) has released a report entitled “Sifting Through Shattered Hopes“, which provides an assessment of Sudan’s electoral process. ACJPS reported regularly during the polls.
The report is based on the Sudanese electoral proces and the elections themselves, held from 11 – 15 April. The electoral period was marred by violations and irregularities, and was accompanied by rights abuses occurring concurrently throughout the country. Patterns began to emerge that document the extent to which the closely-linked National Elections Commission and the National Congress Party undermined opposing voices, and held fundamentally flawed elections with high levels of technical irregularities, intimidation, manipulation, harassment, and arrest. The report has been framed by monitoring conducted by the African Centre during elections and in the months prior, and includes analysis on the census, the NEC’s creation and contradictions in the legal framework, the electoral procedure envisioned by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the National Elections Act, delimitation of constituencies, voter registration, and finally the campaigning period and elections.
Former South African President and AUPD Chairman Thabo Mbeki (Getty Images)
When former South African president Thabo Mbeki was appointed to lead the African Union’s High Level Implementation Panel on Darfur (AUPD), many Western governments and rights groups feared his work would undermine efforts to secure a peace agreement that could deliver justice to the people of Darfur and help Sudan on its way toward national reconciliation.
Instead, far from letting Sudan’s government and its indicted leader Omar al-Bashir off the hook for atrocities committed in the country’s war-torn region, the panel’s highly anticipated report—made public last fall—challenged the Sudanese government to take responsibility for war crimes prosecutions, and included a nuanced appeal to address the ongoing political and economic marginalisation of Darfur, cited as the conflict’s key causative factors.
Neither justice nor peace, it makes clear, can be realized without the Sudanese government’s full participation in promoting accountability for atrocities committed in Darfur and in reforming the country’s hitherto centrifugal and divisive political system, including the inequitable distribution of power and wealth in Sudan.
Mbeki in Darfur (SSRC: Making Sense of Sudan)
Mbeki’s report stated clearly that a peace agreement followed by Darfur’s full participation in free and fair national elections should be part of this solution.
But Sudan’s historic nationwide polls have closed. Bashir has declared overwhelming victory as a new chapter in the country’s troubled narrative begins—one that will ultimately determine the nation’s continued existence. Amidst the declarations of triumph and denunciations of a stolen vote, it seems the election process has done little to address the root causes of Darfur’s troubles.
Just the opposite, in fact.
Elections in Sudan concluded last month with indicted war criminal Omar Al-Bashir taking 68% of the vote. With his leading competitors deciding to boycott the elections, Bashir’s victory was never in doubt and, for many reasons, the international community could do nothing but assent implicitly or explicitly to the outcome. The man responsible for the heinous crimes in Darfur is critical to implementing the final stages of the North/South peace agreement, signed in 2005, that provides Southern Sudanese the opportunity to secede from Bashir’s rule in 2011. As troubled an experience as it has been for the marginalized communities of the South, no such silver lining as the referendum exists for those mired in the chaos that remains Darfur.
As such, it is important intellectually and morally for all interested parties to be clear that these elections were a disaster for efforts to achieve lasting peace, protection and justice in Darfur. How else can you interpret not only Bashir’s victory but that of notorious janjaweed leader Musa Hilal? This poster-child for atrocities in Darfur won a parliamentary seat and, presumably, the constitutional immunities that come with it. So much for Hilal, Bashir, or any other perpetrators being held accountable anytime soon.
Yet, some observers noted a minor success in the fact that there were no major outbreaks of violence in Darfur during the elections. However, this analysis ignores the Sudanese government’s ongoing military offensive in the Jebel Marra region of Darfur, home to an estimated one million people, and for which conveniently not one parliamentary seat was allocated. United Nations/African Union peacekeepers have been denied access to most of the conflict afflicted communities – where gender-based crimes and significant humanitarian gaps have been reported.
Furthermore, the UN Secretary General last month stated that tribal clashes in March alone accounted for at least 182 fatalities – the highest number of casualties in a single month during the UN/AU peacekeeping mission’s presence. In addition to this fighting, rebel commanders in West Darfur reported government aerial bombardments beginning a week after the election process had concluded. So it seems that the seven-year old conflict between the Sudanese government and rebels, with its many facets including the weaponization of most tribes, continues unabated – and prevents millions of displaced people from returning home. (more…)
On Friday April 30th Sudanese activist, civil society and community representatives from all over the United States representing all regions of Sudan including Darfur, South Sudan, Nuba Mountain, Nubian from far North, Eastern Sudan, Butana region, the center and the capital Khartoum along with support of many American activists came out to urge the United States government to not legitimize the victory of the indicted war criminal al-bashir. We came out to speak loudly in solidarity with our families back home in Sudan. We have all said in one voice; no to Sudan’s sham elections’ results, we reject the so-called victory of al-bashir because its only means reinforcement of oppression, increase in human rights abuses and increased impunity in our country -Sudan.
Many notable speakers have repeatedly noted and agreed that al-bashir is a notoriously well known dictator with a history of committing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity upon the people of Sudan. No one believes by any means that if the Sudanese elections were set to be free and fair he will come out victorious. He came to power by force, and he is using that same power to legitimize his presidency.
This left the overwhelming majority of the Sudanese people lost and without hope. They have been and continue to remain oppressed, while freedom remains non existent yet rewarded to al-Bashir- an indicted war criminal. Therefore, we were all calling on the international community to help resolve the crises in Sudan by arresting and surrendering al-bashir to The Hague to face justice rather than rewarding him by keeping silent.
My fellow Sudanese Diaspora said “we are saddened by the fact that despite the reports of independent election observatory bodies and reports from observers on the ground stating that the election was rigged and unfair, the international community is very willing and ready to accept the victory of al-Bashir”.
“As stated by some European and the US government despite the election’s irregularities we will deal with the victor to undertake the referendum for the South Sudan” The Sudanese people believe that this the government has mistakenly understood that a man with a track record in his lack of commitment and violation of almost all of the agreements he has made. Al-Bashir will finally commit to his words and fulfill his promises of violence and tyranny. The protesters also noted in their letter that “addressing the urgent situation in Darfur and the implementation of the CPA simultaneously is critical for the future of the entire country”. The international community must recognize the urgency and hold the government of Sudan accountable for its actions in both regions.
It’s clear that the government of Sudan is fully responsible for perpetrating crimes in both the South and Darfur therefore, Al-bashir’s commitment to the referenda should not be deemed trustworthy. Al-bashir is yet to fulfill his commitment toward all of the outstanding issues of the Abyie, Nuba Mountain, Blue Nile and lasting solution to Darfur.
If not, the international community has to know that from our experience as Sudanese that the victory of al-bashir jeopardizes the referenda more than ensuring its success if he is still has the authority to impose the same election’s irregularities. Therefore, the Sudanese Diaspora “urges the United State government to stand with the people of Sudan and make it clear to al-bashir that his place is in The Hague and his fake victory will not permit him to escape with impunity.
“They shouted “say no to Sudan’s election results” said the members of the Sudanese Diaspora urging the United States Government and its allies ” please do not legitimize the ruling of the indicted war criminal”.
Among the protesters was Mohamed Alhassan Alsofi- an ex presidential candidate who just returned from Sudan. Mohamed Alhassan Alsofi said “ I was in Sudan and I have seen and witnessed how our people have been oppressed, intimidated and threatened as I myself have gone though it, its is beyond ones imagination. I was running for presidency as a candidate from the National Reform Party. My name was taken out from the list without justification. I filed a case against the electoral commission to the constitutional court where I was shown a presidential degree with al-bashir’s signature in it issuing an order to dismiss my case. This is only one case, there are millions of cases in which al-bashir used his authority to manipulate and steal victory. That is why I came here today from Texas to speak for those with no voice in Sudan”.
Activists at the White House
While marching from the White House to the U.S. State Department, the protesters carried signs stating “Freedom for Darfur,” stop genocide in Darfur “Stand with People of Sudan,” “Justice and Human Rights for Darfur,” and “Peace Begins with Justice in Sudan.” They chanted “Al-Bashir to the ICC,” “We Reject Rigged Elections’ results,” and “Justice, Justice for Darfur,” as they marched to the U.S. State Department headquarters.
The demonstration continued for half an hour in front of the White House and about an hour in front of the US Department of the State. At the end a statement signed by a wide range of Sudanese Diaspora in the United States, Canada, and Europe was delivered to the US secretary of the State, Secretary Clinton. We the Sudanese Diaspora and our supporters from America, advocates and human rights activists renewed our commitment to continue to speak for the people of Sudan until lasting peace, justice and real democracy is realized all over Sudan and dignity is returned to its people.
Download a PDF of the letter to Secretary Clinton.
Sudanese Civil Society Leaders Urge African Union and Special Envoys to Confront the Failure and Implications of Recent Elections in Sudan
Call for key reforms ahead of the 2011 referendum
Khartoum, Juba, and Kampala – Three leading Sudanese civil society organizations today issued a public letter to the African Union Peace and Security Council, League of Arab States and special envoys for Sudan from the E6 (China, European Union, France, Russia, United States, United Kingdom) ahead of their important consultations on Sudan in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia this week.
Highlighting a multitude of problems in the recent elections, the organizations called for the international community to “confront this failure” and “address these deficiencies in the process openly and frankly.” It also asks for the international guarantors of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement to push the National Congress Party and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement to “implement a broad range of legislative and policy changes aimed at ensuring that future elections are held in improved conditions.”
The full text below: (more…)
