Reprinted from Front Page Magazine

Posted By Faith J. H. McDonnell On August 26, 2011 @ 12:25 am

As undefined “rebels” unleash their power in Libya, thanks to U.S. and NATO intervention, the besieged Nuba people of central Sudan remain without any similar support. The architects of the “Arab Spring,” which may prove to be seven times more wicked than the regimes it supplants in Egypt and Libya, have been supported by both the bully pulpit of President Obama and the firepower of the West. But there seems to be no similar responsibility to protect Sudan’s black African Nuba people from their genocidal government, or from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops that reportedly have now joined in the attack on this marginalized people group.

Neither the U.S. nor NATO has offered the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-Northern Sector (SPLA-North) the support which they offered Egypt and Libya’s protestors. The SPLA-North is Nuba people’s only defense against Khartoum’s National Congress Party (NCP) Islamist regime that has been waging war on civilians since June 5, 2011. Instead, the White House told the SPLA-North on June 22, that, along with the NCP, they must “end the current violence and allow immediate humanitarian access to desperate people who have been driven from their homes and are now cut off from outside help.”

The problem with moral equivalency is that those who are deemed morally equivalent don’t behave as if they are. It’s useless, not to say absurd, to tell the SPLA-North to end the violence and allow humanitarian access, when the violence originates in Khartoum. Khartoum’s daily sorties bomb the Nuba Mountains, its armed forces (SAF) and Arab Janjaweed militia called the Popular Defense Force (PDF) slaughter people in their homes, and it deliberately blocks aid to complete the starvation of the Nuba that it began in the 1990’s during the North/South war.

The Obama Administration insists that there is “not enough information” about Southern Kordofan (the Arab name for the region) to consider action. But although Khartoum has tried to shut off access to the region, it cannot succeed the way it did in last war, in which some 50 percent of all the Nuba died of war-related causes. In the current campaign of extermination, activists are on the case and passions are running high. There is a great deal of information available from the experience of eye-witnesses, comprehensive media reports, and testimony from an August 4, 2011 congressional hearing.

All information confirms the desperate situation in the region of central Sudan that falls just outside the borders of the new Promised Land of the Republic of South Sudan. Although Nuba fought alongside Southerners in the North/South war, now while their Southern brothers and sisters celebrate freedom from Islamization and Arabization in Africa’s 54^th nation, the Nuba are the targets of an extermination campaign that has already left hundreds of thousands displaced and untold thousands killed (although the identification by the Satellite Sentinel Project of mass graves is beginning to tell the tale of the number of the slaughtered).

Under the leadership of Commander Abdelaziz Adam Alhilu the SPLA-North has been surprisingly successful, since the Sudanese government has air power and the SPLA-North has none. The SPLA-North, sometimes assisted by other marginalized people group forces such as the Darfurians, has caused the NCP humiliating military ground defeats. In such battles, SAF troops have fled the area, abandoning tanks, land cruisers, and weapons to the SPLA.  In other cases, SAF troops have actually defected to the SPLA. Khartoum has publicly threatened that if the SPLA does not return the tanks, vehicles, and weapons they will use chemical weapons on the people of the Nuba Mountains.

Since even with superior weapons, the NCP has been unable to defeat the SPLA-North, it appear that they have called in reinforcements. SPLA-North intelligence sources reported on Wednesday, July 27, the arrival of 200 Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers, accompanied by 10 advanced tanks at the Kassala airport in Eastern Sudan. Kassala was also the location of the arrival of Al Shabaab Somali jihadists heading to South Kordofan/Nuba Mountains two weeks before. Eastern Sudan’s indigenous Beja people have often warned that the NCP uses Eastern Sudan as a launching area for terrorist operations.

On August 11, 2011, the SPLA-North intelligence services reported that four Iranian jet fighters, listed as STAR 33, STAR 66, 55 NC, and 49 NSTAR, and “loaded with poison gas,” had arrived at El Obeid airport in North Kordofan. The Iranians were joining the SAF to attack the towns of Salara, Krongo, Fama, Tais, Hagar Almak, Chat Dammam, and Chat Alsifia, and to target Commander Abdelaziz Adam Alhilu. The report also said that Khartoum planned to force the recruitment of Nuba living in Khartoum as militias to fight against their own people in the Nuba Mountains, disseminate false information about the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM)/Northern Sector, and initiate ceasefires to delay any action against them and weaken the resolve of the international community.

Sure enough, just as it began to look as if fellow tyrant Muammar Gaddafi’s days are numbered, Khartoum began its usual tactics of delay and deception. The Washington Post on August 20 reported that Sudan’s U.N. Ambassador, Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, had announced that ” it will allow six U.N. agencies to take part in a government-organized mission to South Kordofan, where the U.N. human rights office has called for a probe into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.” Osman said that the Khartoum-led ‘investigation’ would refute the findings of a U.N. report released on August 15 alleging that Sudanese security forces had committed mass atrocities in the region. Khartoum has denied committing atrocities and has called the U.N. report “biased” and “unfounded.”

It remains to be seen if the world community will be snookered by Khartoum or not. The Obama administration seems as unable or unwilling to see the regime’s evil nature as they are to see that supporting Sudan’s marginalized people in their efforts to transform the country (far less effort than we provided to nebulous Libyan rebels) would be a great strike against jihad terrorism and would help the cause of freedom all over the world.

Because the Nuba and Sudan’s other marginalized and oppressed people groups, as well as many brave young Arab Sudanese around the capital, truly desire freedom and secular democracy, regime change in Sudan might actually bring about a better situation for all Sudanese. Most of Sudan’s “rebels” have more in common with America and Israel than they do Egypt and Libya. They are men like Commander Abdelaziz Adam Alhilu and Commander Yasir Arman, who says of his dream of a new Sudan, “Not the Sudan of today, a Sudan of misery and wars and human rights violations,” but one “which respects human rights, in which every citizen feels he belongs to that country.” And unlike the rebels of Libya, these freedom fighters would ensure that the constitution of a new Sudan is Shariah-free.

Faith J. H. McDonnell directs The Institute on Religion and Democracy’s Religious Liberty Program and Church Alliance for a New Sudan, and is the author of Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda’s Children (Chosen Books, 2007).

On Tuesday, August 2, 2011, Director of the Church Alliance for a New Sudan and the IRD’s Religious Liberty Program, Faith McDonnell, was interviewed by Roland Lettner of KFUO Radio in St. Louis. You will find the interview at approximately the halfway point of this link.

Hearing the news today of the delivery of a “Framework Agreement” for political partnership and security arrangements in the now-under-siege Nuba Mountains and the threatened Blue Nile State  signed by the National Congress Party (NCP) regime in Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement- North (SPLM-N), I was immediately reminded of this Monty Python sketch.                                

In addition to being as useless as any other agreement signed by Khartoum, this one is actually very detrimental to the people of Blue Nile State and the Nuba Mountains (called South Kordofan by the Arabs). It abrogates (hmm, the principle of abrogation at work outside of the Koran!) the provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that assured that Blue Nile and South Kordofan States would be given the right to a Popular Consultation by their leadership after a free and fair election and that the Popular Consultation would give them the opportunity to become autonomous regions, or to remain with the Northern government. These people, in the words of Ambassador Roger Winter, “have been sold down the river.”

The full text of the agreement is here.

On June 28, 2011, women and children refugees from the horror of extermination of central Sudan’s Nuba Mountains black, African people by the racist Islamist government demonstrated outside the UN Mission in Sudan compound and refugee camp in Kauda, Nuba Mountains. They are asking for the removal of the Egyptian UN “peacekeepers” who are collaborating with the Sudanese government against the SPLA and the people of Nuba Mountains. They delivered the following statement to the Head of Mission for the UN in Kauda:

Statement by Nuba Mountains/South Kordofan Women and Children on the current Humanitarian crises

The Nuba Mountains / South Kordofan State is one of the three contested areas in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that was signed between the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement / Army (SPLM/A) in 2005.

The National Congress Party (NCP) started the serious violation of CPA by delaying the result of South Kordofan population census for one year in anticipation of rigging the electoral constituencies and final result of the election which reflect the (NCP) ill intention to practice the ethnic cleansing, genocide and depopulation of the Nuba inhabitants and replacing them by Arabs and other ethnicities loyal to NCP.

During the election process the (NCP) reinforced its troops on the ground and threatened either to win the election or fire ammunitions.

Against the above mentioned background the (NCP) sparked the war on 5^th June, 2011 to disarm SPLA by force violating the security arrangement protocol leading to great humanitarian crises in the state.

United Nations Mission in Sudan represented in (Egyptian Mission) as peacekeeping forces who are mandated to protect civilian has failed to provide protection to civilian in South Kordofan. These forces are not neutral as they have been indirectly cooperating with the security, SAF and militia forces of the NCP.

The collaboration and connive of Egyptian Forces with NCP has started before the war by:

• Submitting inaccurate and misleading reports to the international community about SAF movement
• Movement and deployments of SAF forces under their cover

And during the war:

1. UNMIS-Egyptian Forces have availed its support in form of:

• Transporting of Central Reserve Forces and  allied militia using their armored personnel carriers to Al Hamra (South East Kadugli)on 15^th June 2011
• Egyptian and SAF Joint attack against JIU(SPLA)  at Tafari Complex
• Allowing Central Reserve Forces in using UNMIS- Egyptian Forces Facilities in El Shaeer (North Kadugli)
• Allowing Central Reserve Forces, Security and militia to enter UNMIS Camp arresting and executing the civilian from Nuba and SPLM supporters.
• Conniving with Air Forces in bombing villages, civilians and institutions that are providing humanitarian aid e.g Kauda Air Strip and Krongo, Chat, Buram, Umdorain, Umsirdiba, Jau, Julud, Salara, Dilling, Um Barambita, Talodi, Dalami and Tongoli villages and many other which led to the death of 560 civilians 280 children, 213 women and 67 men and leading to the displacement of 425,933 civilians in sixteen localities creating terror and horror among women and children.
• Collaborating with security organs of NCP in detaining the following UN staff from Nuba at Kaduglii airport the presense of UNMIS-Egyptian Forces and they are: 1. Nasir Ibrahim Kuku  2. Khidir Abdul Aziz Kuku  3. Fadul Jibril Sulieman 4. Aymen Fadul Lalu 5. Daleel Sulieman Kodi  6. Haseeb Ahmed Ramadan.
• Preventing the landing of UN flights for delivering Humanitarian aid and using the airport for military purposes and the UNMIS- Egyptian Forces remained silent.
• UNMIS-Egyptian Forces have been repeating to Brigadier / Mohana Basheer who is under protection of UNMIS to be transported to either Kauda or Juba, raising worries and concern towards his safety.
• The government took over WFP food stores and denied its staff access and UNMIS-Egyptian Forces failed to take action against them which deprive the IDP from accessing food.

1. Failure of UNMIS-Egyptian Forces to provide basic services such as water, food, healthcare and shelter to its personnel and IDPs who took a refuge at the compound.
2. Sexual harassments and raping of females by UNMIS-Egyptian Forces, militia and other security agents of NCP in the presence of UN Personnel

All these violations of UNMIS-Egyptian Forces exposed civilians’ lives who fled their homes due to war to ethnic cleansing and execution either by direct shooting, aerial bombardment, starvation, thirst or lack of health service and Trauma specially women and Children. This clearly shows that the UNMIS-Egyptian Forces has failed to meet its obligations and mandate as stipulated in chapter VI in the United Nation Convention for providing peace and security to civilians.

We the children and women of South Kordofan /Nuba Mountains have realized the UNMIS-Egyptian Forces supporting the NCP polices in execution of its plans and shows lack of neutrality against its mandate. Therefore, we appeal to the international community to take the following:

• Immediate termination of UNMIS-Egyptian forces mission in South Kordofan / Nuba Mountains to be replaced by trusted western forces.
• Restrict movement of UNMIS-Egyptian Forces outside their compound for their safety
• UNMIS must handover the detained UN personnel from Nuba mentioned above including the Brigadier / Mahana Bashheer to Kauda or Juba, otherwise the UNMIS-Egyptian Forces should bear the consequences that might be caused.
• UNMIS-Egyptian Forces must handover Brigadier / Mahana Basheer to Kauda or Juba before their departure.
• We request the UN Secretary General to send an investigation team to the ground to verify the above mentioned facts.

Failure of the international community to arrest Omer Al Basheer and Ahmed Haroon whom have been indicted by the ICC on committing War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and Genocide encourage them to replicate the crimes in Nuba Mountains. Therefore, we urge the Security Council and the international community to:

1. Accelerate the ICC warrant of arresting Al Basheer and Haroon to stop them from killing more civilians
2. Replace the UNMIS mandate from chapter VI to VII for civilian protection and aid workers.
3. UN and international community must interfere to stop NCP aerial Bombardment and introduce no fly zone.
4. Place South Kordofan State/Nuba Mountains under international custody to protect civilian.
5. Provide and allow unlimited access for humanitarian aid to reach civilians in all areas in South Kordofan / Nuba Mountains and open safe corridors.

From the above mentioned it has become obvious that the UNMIS-Egyptian Forces contributed to the failure of protecting the civilians due to the lack of will and neutrality and their indirect support to NCP against Nuba People and SPLM supporters, we the women and children of Nuba Mountains urge the international community and the permanent members of UN Security Council to consider our appeal and response positively to protect the civilians of South Kordofan / Nuba Mountains who indigenous people in Sudan.

Women and Children of Nuba Mountains / South Kordofan – Sudan

28 /06/2011

To:

H.E Secretary General of the United Nation

Security Council

South Sudan President

African Union

European Union

USA President

France President

IGAD

Thabo Mbeki

Italia Prime Minister

Norway Prime Minister

United Kingdom Prime Minster

This petition was delivered to the United Nations by the Nuba Mountains Advocacy Group on June 27, 2011.

New York, June 27, 2011

The people of the Nuba Mountains and Sudanese Diaspora in the United States are grateful for your enduring commitment to justice and peace in Sudan.  As you know, our country has been victimized from its independence in 1956 until today because of consecutive regimes comprised of small, racist elite. These elite have ruled the nation on the basis of racial and religious marginalization, disenfranchisement and coercion for more than five decades. Over 2.5 million of Sudanese lost their lives and millions more were displaced by the genocidal war and ethnic cleansing waged by Khartoum against the indigenous people of Sudan. This regime has also been host to Osama bin Laden and has supported and participated in the global network of terrorists.

Most of the world is unaware that Khartoum’s war against the South also included the Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile, and Eastern Sudan. Khartoum’s atrocities against these regions have not been fully acknowledged among Sudan’s human rights violations. But these regions experienced the same vicious and war crimes at the hands of Khartoum, on the same scale as our brothers and sisters in the South. And these regions were the actual battle grounds for most of the fights between North and South.

U.S. and global advocacy for Sudan culminated in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed by the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in 2005 in Kenya. A key step to the CPA was a Nuba Mountains ceasefire, brokered by Special Envoy John Danforth. The CPA resulted in relative peace and potential development in South Sudan, Nuba Mountains, and Blue Nile States. People dared to hope for a better future for themselves and for their children. But remaining tensions due to the NCP’s continuous violations of the CPA and its failure to implement all of the CPA provisions were exacerbated by the U.S. government and world community’s failure to hold Khartoum responsible for these violations in any meaningful way.

Eyewitnesses, Concordis International, Small Armed Survey, and International Crisis Group have all reported a heavy build-up of Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and Popular Defense Forces (PDF) in Nuba Mountains/South Kordofan State. More than 50,000 SAF are deployed in the state and along the 1956 North/South border line. Furthermore, reports show that the government has armed more than 20,000 PDF militias, to fight as Northern proxies. On April 19, 2011, The Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP) “confirmed that at least 356 structures in the town of el-Feid, located in the Nuba Mountains region of South Kordofan State, Sudan, have been razed.” More than 20 people, including two elderly women and a child, were burned to death in some of homes set ablaze by Khartoum’s PDF. And the city of Abyei was also burned to the ground and looted by Khartoum’s troops and militias.

The Nuba people in the Diaspora were keeping alert the International Community since October 2010 till June 3^rd, 2011, that SAF has violated the CPA and security arrangements in the region and intending to destroy the Nuba Mountains/South Kordfan protocol before the end of the interim period by July 8^th, 2011.

On May 24^th, 2011 the Khartoum government declared war against the SPLA in northern Sudan by June 1, 2011. The war broke out on June 5^th, when the government of Khartoum rigged the elections and imposed Ahmed Haroun the war criminal who indicted and wanted by the ICC as governor for South Kordofan State, beside Haroun attempts to disarm the SPLA joint integrated units in Um Dorien, in a clear violation to the CPA.

On June 6, 2011, heavy fighting broke out when SAF attacks the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in Kadugli, the state capital of South Kordofan, as well as in some outlying towns and villages.  Since then the area has seen a worrying escalation of violence where the civilian population are currently subjected to a systematic campaign of aerial bombardment, artillery shelling, extra-judicial executions, arbitrary detention and forcible expulsion from their homeland.  The Sudan Government is openly planning, implementing and sustaining this campaign, resulting in immense human suffering, culture cleansing, genocide, wide displacement, large-scale looting and the destruction of lives and material properties.  On June 11, 2011, Southern Kordofan Conflict and Displaced Persons Map showed that 40,000 people were estimated to have fled Kadugli, 6,000 were internally displaced in and near Kadugli, 3,000 in Dalami, 2,500 in Abu Kershola, 10,000 in Abu Jibaiha, 3,000 in Kurchi and 5,000 in Talodi. Recently about 500,000 been displaced and hundreds killed.

The population of Um Dorein, Dilling town and a number of villages in areas surrounding Kadugli has also fled their homes.  Many people are forced to leave their homes so rapidly that they have little in the way of food, shelter or basic provisions.  Access to food, water and medical treatment even for those injured in the clashes is impossible.  The internally displaced persons who have taken shelter at the UN compound in the vicinity of Kadugli Airport are not safe either.  Some of them have been snatched by security personnel and killed.  The UN should not be able to protect all the civilians and provide engough humanitarian support.  The same security forces are spreading rumors that some of the displaced may be carrying weapons.  Under such a pretext, the security forces in Darfur launched an attack against Kalma refugee camp in August 2010, killing innocent civilians and wreaking havoc on survivors.

Eric Reeves mentioned, “the ethnically targeted human destruction in South kordofan in sudan, directed overwhelmingly at the African people of the Nuba Mountains, continues to spread and intensify” Reeves adds” which demands that we ask the two-fold question: what should the international community namely the U.s. be doing to stop violence…and is it doing it? Unfortunately, the answer to the second half of question to be “no.” “this is going to spread like wildfire, “an Amrican official told the New York Times earlier this week adding that, without mediation, you are going to have massive destruction and death in central Sudan, and no one seems able to do anything about it.”

We perceive that the way out of this crisis is achievable through the following nine points:

(1) There is an urgent need to salvage the humanitarian situation by forcing the Sudan Government to halt all military operations, including aerial bombardment, artillery shelling, combat missions and the reinforcement of troops in the area by imposing immediate cession of hostilities.

(2) Immediate imposition of a No Fly Zone and demobilization of NCP forces in Nuba Mountains/South Kordofan States.

(3) Immediate demand disarmament of the dangerous PDF in Nuba Mountains/South Kordofan in accordance with Article 7 (a) and subsection 11.3 of the CPA.

(4) The Sudan Government should grant an unhindered access into the region to both local and international NGOs to deliver relief supplies to the needy, and the UN should seek all other means possible to elevate the suffering of the people in the region.  This should run concurrently with efforts to provide the people of the region with international protection by promoting the UN mandate from chapter VI to chapter VII, as the only realistic means of bringing to an end these recurring episodes of extermination, disappearances and deliberate displacement.

(5) Reject the shameful rigging of the latest elections in South Kordofan in favor of Harun the international criminal for crimes he committed in Darfur and demand his extradite to face justice.

(6) The UN should call for an investigation into the killings, usage of the chemical weapons, disappearances and other forms of gross violations of human rights in this ongoing war in the Nuba Mountains by upholding international law and the pursuance of justice as demanded by the international community. Access to human rights organizations and international media should be allowed.

(7)  The two areas i.e. the Nuba Mountains/South Kordofan and Blue Nile requires new political and security arrangement, as a concerted effort should be pursued to reach a durable, political solution to this renewed conflict through looking into the post-secession future of Sudan whereby new modalities for the co-existence of all marginalized people of Sudan could participate fully and equally in power- and wealth-sharing.  By so doing, the indigenous population can have access to power and financial resources – that is, the prerequisites for political, economic and cultural development, and environmental protection.

(8) Failing to reach a new constitutional arrangement that is bases on citizenship, real democracy, recognition of the diversity and restructuring of the centre in the interest of a balance relations between the center and the different regions and state of Sudan, the international community has to recognize the right of self-determination to the people of the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile.

(9) If Khartoum regime rejects these options for new security and political arrangement including the right of self-determination, the UN and the international community should apply tough actions to protect the civilians and stop the genocidal acts in the region.

Please read and seriously consider our attached petitions, not just for the sake of the marginalized and oppressed people of Sudan, but for the sake of global security. A free and democratic Sudan would be a tremendous asset to the world. Once again, we thank you for your support and your commitment to bringing peace, justice, and freedom to all Sudanese.

                               Nuba Mountains Advocacy Group-USA

Amin Ismail: amindabo@hotmail.com; 513-732-1395

Gafar Kangam: gafar24@yahoo.com ; 571-331-2834

Bishop Asks Churches to Pray, Fast June 26                                                                For People of Nuba Mountains Undergoing Horrific Persecution
June 23, 2011
Contact: Jeff Walton 202-682-4131,202-413-5639 cell

Washington, DC—IRD’s Church Alliance for a New Sudan is urging churches to answer the call of an Anglican bishop for a day of prayer and fasting for Sudan Sunday, June 26.

The request comes from the Rt. Rev. Andudu Adam Elnail, Bishop of Kadugli and Nuba Mountains. Since June 5, the people of Nuba Mountains (also called South Kordofan) have continuously been attacked by Sudanese Armed Forces and Arab militia. Subjected to daily aerial bombardment, the black, African Nuba face a campaign to eradicate them from the region. Recent reports tell of chemical weapons dropped from bombers on villages near the city of Kadugli.

In the 1990s hundreds of thousands of Nuba were among the 2.5 million who died during Sudan’s war to create the first Arab/Islamic state in sub-Saharan Africa. The National Islamic Front regime declared Nuba Mountains Muslims as “apostate” for joining Christians to fight for secular democracy.

Bishop Andudu commented:

“Once again we are facing the nightmare of genocide of our people in a final attempt to erase our culture and society from the face of the earth. It is not a war between armies that is being fought in our land, but the utter destruction of our way of life and our history, as demonstrated by the genocide of our neighbors and relatives in Darfur.

“This is a war of domination and eradication, at its core it is a war of terror by the government of Sudan against their people.”

IRD Church Alliance for a New Sudan Director Faith J.H. McDonnell commented:

“This horrific attack on the Nuba is nothing less than another ethnic cleansing leading to genocide.

“It is erroneous for the U.S. government to cast as morally equivalent the government of Sudan, conducting a racially-motivated extermination of this black, African people group, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, defending the Nuba people.

“If Khartoum’s campaign is allowed to continue, it could mean the actual end of the Nuba. This is the orchestrated extinction of an ancient civilization.

“This shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is spiritual warfare, and those who believe in the power of a Sovereign God need to treat it as such, fasting and praying for the Nuba this weekend.”

The Institute on Religion & Democracy works to reaffirm the church’s biblical and historical teachings, strengthen and reform its role in public life, protect religious freedom, and renew democracy at home and abroad.

www.TheIRD.org

Wherever you find it. Especially the White House!

Esther Sprague, a tireless Sudan advocate, has provided the following information. Please act on it and, like Eric Cohen, get in touch with Karen Richardson at the White House. And make sure to read the totally unsatisfactory statement from the White House below Eric’s note to Karen Richardson.

Esther writes: 

“How many mass graves must we know about (after the fact), before we act…”

 Please join Eric in contacting the White House to demand urgent protection for Sudanese. 

 Karen E. Richardson Karen_E._Richardson@who.eop.gov

Subject:  Statement from the President on Sudan                                                             Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:25:01 -0400                                                                           From: Eric Cohen                                                                                                                         To: Karen Richardson Karen_E._Richardson@who.eop.gov

Karen – Glad to see the statement below condemning the violence in South Kordofan and threatening that “the roadmap for better relations with the Government of Sudan cannot be carried forward.”

My question is, what is the US doing NOW to help protect the civilians being attacked in Sudan?  There are now many credible reports of government-led and government-sanctioned murders of the Nuba people in South Kordofan.  General concern for the “peace process” and words condemning violence are simply not enough. 

 How many mass graves must we know about (after the fact), before we act to help the Nuba?  We are watching as Omar al-Bashir proceeds with his fourth genocide in Sudan.  Isn’t it time we acted forcefully?  Please help protect the people of Sudan from their government.  Please help the Nuba defend themselves, now.  Please help the Government of South Sudan be ready to defend its people.

It’s time to take clear sides.

 Eric Cohen, Chairperson, Investors Against Genocide

 ——– Original Message ——–

 Subject: Statement from the President on Sudan                                                               Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:03:05 -0400                                                                          From: Richardson, Karen E. Karen_E._Richardson@who.eop.gov

THE WHITE HOUSE                                                                                                                 Office of the Press Secretary                                                                                                       FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 22, 2011

Statement from the President on Sudan

On Monday, the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed an agreement in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to reduce tensions in Abyei and allow UN peacekeepers from Ethiopia into the region.   I commend the parties for taking this step forward toward peace, and I urge them now to build on that progress and agree to an immediate cease fire in Southern Kordofan.  Under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, both parties committed to resolve their differences peacefully, and both parties have a responsibility to end the current violence and allow immediate humanitarian access to desperate people who have been driven from their homes and are now cut off from outside help.

The situation in Southern Kordofan is dire, with deeply disturbing reports of attacks based on ethnicity.  The United States condemns all acts of violence, in particular the Sudanese Armed Forces aerial bombardment  of civilians and harassment and intimidation of UN peacekeepers.  With a ceasefire in Southern Kordofan, alongside the agreement to deploy peacekeepers to Abyei, we can get the peace process back on track.  But without these actions, the roadmap for better relations with the Government of Sudan cannot be carried forward, which will only deepen Sudan’s isolation in the international community. Without a cease-fire and political negotiations, the people of Southern Kordofan cannot enjoy the right to have their political grievances addressed. The negotiations now under way in Addis Ababa demand the urgent commitment from both sides to peace and to the agreement for immediate help to those civilians caught up in this conflict.

—