The ABC’s Senior White House correspondent just posted these comments by Administration officials saying that Gration was mischaracterized in today’s Washington Post. The Washington Post says it stands by Stephanie McCrummen’s piece. I can’t say anything about the comments in relation to South Sudan as I was not there for that part of the trip. […]
More background on Gration and the WaPo article
September 29, 2009 by 1 Comment
A few people have asked me questions about Gration’s interactions on his latest Sudan trip, especially with respect to some parts of Stephanie McCrummen’s Washington Post article since I posted on it this morning. I thought it could be useful to share my responses: Stephanie wrote: During a stop in El Fasher, capital of North […]
Gration, the media, and today’s Policy Review
September 29, 2009 by 4 Comments
A principles meeting is taking place today to (belatedly) finalize the outcome of the Sudan Policy Review that the Obama Administration has been undertaking since it came to office. And in a savvy piece of timing from the Washington Post, they have chosen today to run this piece on Sudan Envoy, Scott Gration, by Stephanie […]
More on the ‘war is over’ comments
August 31, 2009 by 1 Comment
So my mate Rob Crilly has written a post I need to respond to regarding my remarks on General Agwai’s comments. Maybe I’m missing something, but I’m not sure we are substantively in quite as much disagreement as Rob would like to think. He agrees with most of my comments, before concluding “But Bec charmingly […]
Marc Gustafon: A Prescription for Darfur activists [Part 2]
August 2, 2009 by Leave a Comment
This is the second of a two-part posting by Marc Gustafon. A Prescription for Darfur activists [Part 2/2] By Marc Gustafon Ignoring the Peace Process Use of the word “genocide” has also caused activists to ignore the peace process. Since most Americans had been convinced that only one side of the Darfur conflict was responsible […]
Marc Gustafon: A Prescription for Darfur activists [Part 1]
August 1, 2009 by 6 Comments
The following is the first of a two-part post by Marc Gustafon, following an earlier series of posts from Tim Nonn, Rob Crilly and Alex Meixner, on the question of “What’s Next?” for Darfur advocacy. I have some comments on the proposal below, but will wait until the end of the second part of this […]
Beyond the “g-word”
July 29, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Following some comments I made in a previous post, David Scheffer, law professor and director of the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University School of Law, and the U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues (1997-2001), writes about the utility of advocates using the “atrocity crimes” terminology in Darfur. Atrocity Crimes in […]
Alex Meixner: Ongoing recalibration
July 17, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Following a series of posts by Tim Nonn and Rob Crilly, today’s contribution comes from Alex Meixner – Senior Director for Policy and Government Relations at Save Darfur. In this quite lengthy post, Meixner deals with the question of how U.S.-based advocates can maintain political strength, as well as the policy question of what that […]
Aid expulsions: Are we missing the real story?
July 15, 2009 by 5 Comments
Fellow bloggers over at Change.org have been running a couple of posts trying to get at the thorny question of just what the impact of the NGO expulsions has been on the provision of aid in Darfur. It’s been a question of intrigue ever since US Special Envoy, Scott Gration, came out with a strange […]
Sexual violence against Darfuri women – as reported from one side of the border
A report, entitled “No Place for Us Here” released by Amnesty International yesterday highlights the continuing problem of both the occurrence of rape and the impunity for it in and around the refugee camps in Chad. Amnesty acknowledges the limitations of their research given the general insecurity in the area and the sensitive nature of […]