Sitting in Washington, pundits and politicians tend to overestimate U.S. influence on the Sudanese government. These days, provided the Gulf States and China continue to open the checkbook, the biggest threat to the Islamists in Khartoum comes not from Washington, but from inside Sudan itself. Read the rest of the article as it appeared. . […]
Archives for December 2010
Jon Sawyer on Fighting for Darfur
December 31, 2010 by Leave a Comment
“Fighting for Darfur is the story of missed opportunities and unintended consequences. It’s also a timely call for more realistic and more effective approaches – by policy makers and citizen activists alike—as Sudan enters a turbulent transition that threatens the people of Darfur and beyond.”
–Jon Sawyer, Executive Director, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
ICC case cuts to heart of Kenyan political leadership
December 15, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Here’s a brief summary of what was announced by ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo in The Hague this morning. Two bold cases, cutting to the very center of Kenyan political power – no “small fish” here. The Prosecution has requested a summons for these six to appear – with a clear stipulation that if they […]
Women protesters arrested in Khartoum
December 14, 2010 by 2 Comments
Women protesters, part of the “No for Oppressing Women” initiative submitted the following memo to the Sudanese Ministry of Justice this morning. During their protest outside the ministry many women were arrested (Reuters is reporting “dozens“; protest organizers estimate “forty”). As yet, their lawyers have not been granted access to them: In the Name of […]
Sudan Radio Service launches in Juba
December 14, 2010 by 2 Comments
Today in Juba, the USAID-funded Sudan Radio Service (SRS) is formally launching its Sudan-based operation. I’ve been meeting Sudanese journalists from the SRS throughout the year as they’ve been undertaking field reporting, but until now they always had to head back to Nairobi. Moving the SRS base to Juba will make life logistically easier for […]
42 days too long
December 10, 2010 by 1 Comment
Eight hours incommunicado in the custody of Sudan’s security agents was plenty enough to unsettle me earlier this year. And with a foreign passport I could be fairly assured that deportation was the worst outcome on offer. The 14 Darfuri journalists, lawyers and human rights activists arrested by the Sudanese security agency on Oct. 30 […]
ICC action this week
December 9, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Big week for the ICC. A few things to keep an eye on: 1. The Assembly of States Parties is meeting in New York this week. This is the annual meeting of all the states that have signed up to the Rome Statute, plus accredited observers. One of the issues they’re looking at is forming […]
Dealing with Sudan’s debt
December 6, 2010 by Leave a Comment
The Center for Global Development has just put out a hugely useful report laying out the various options for dealing with debt in a post-referendum Sudan. Sudan Debt Dynamics: Status Quo, Southern Secession, Debt Division, and Oil—A Financial Framework for the Future is the best one-stop overview I’ve seen so far for anyone interested in […]
Thomas Weiss on Fighting for Darfur
December 6, 2010 by Leave a Comment
“Is mass revulsion to mass atrocities sufficient to change American foreign policy? Fighting for Darfur tells you why ‘It ain’t that simple’ in a multipolar world with a divided US government. A gripping personal and societal tally of lessons for advocates about how to do better the next time that we face a ‘never-again’ crisis.”
–Thomas G. Weiss, author of What’s Wrong with the United Nations and How To Fix It
Alex de Waal on Fighting for Darfur
December 5, 2010 by Leave a Comment
“ Moving between American college campuses, the halls of the UN and African Union, the policy battles within Washington DC, the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and Darfur itself, Fighting for Darfur is a vivid account of how a vicious conflict in a forgotten part of Africa came to define an international movement to
stop mass atrocity. Herself one of the earliest and most influential of Darfur activists, Rebecca Hamilton’s book poses tough questions for Darfur advocacy movement and the ambition of a global citizens’ movement against genocide, which it has spawned.”
— Alex de Waal, co-author of Darfur: A Short History of a Long War
