FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 25, 2009
Contact: Dismas Nkunda (IRRI)
+256.753.310404
Kimberley MacKenzie (Nobel Women’s Initiative)
613.569.8400 x 114

ADDIS ABABA – African civil society leaders, Nobel Laureates, and justice experts from across the continent are uniting ahead of the African Union summit to call for action on the crisis in Sudan. In particular, the leaders are supporting the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and calling for humanitarian access.

The statement, signed by Nobel Laureates Wangari Maathai (Peace, 2004), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Peace, 1984), and Wole Soyinka (Literature, 1986), as well as 39 other prominent African experts, emphasizes that the ICC plays a critical role in achieving the objectives of “justice and accountability for the peoples of Sudan.”

“The people of Darfur deserve more than negotiating warlords forgiving each other for the violence – including brutal sexual violence – they have perpetrated primarily against women, children and other non-combatants.”

The signatories call for accountability and urge African political leaders to dramatically step up efforts to negotiate an end to the violence in Darfur and ensure that all parties to the conflict, including the government, armed groups, and especially women who have been building the path to peace, are at the peace table.

The statement comes on the heels of an Opinion Editorial piece penned by Maathai, Soyinka, and Archbishop Tutu, which was published in Jeune Afrique and other African media.

The complete statements and the list of signatories is included below.

African Civic Leaders Statement on the situation in Sudan

We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned by the ongoing violence, displacement and repression in Sudan. We seek to urge the international community–including Sudan’s neighbors and friends and, in particular, the leaders and peoples of Africa–to support the search for credible justice and accountability in Sudan and the International Criminal Court’s role in promoting these.

We view the need for justice and accountability for the peoples of Sudan, in addition to adequate humanitarian assistance and physical protection, as vital to any durable peace, and support the role of the ICC in achieving these objectives. We are hopeful that this work will help break the cycles of violence and the culture of silence in the Darfur region and throughout Sudan.

We are convinced that the ICC can be one effective vehicle, alongside national and regional mechanisms, for achieving justice for the gross violations committed by all sides in the conflict in Darfur. The people of Darfur deserve more than negotiating warlords forgiving each other for the violence–including brutal sexual violence–they have perpetrated primarily against women, children and other non-combatants. There can be no real peace without justice and security.

The people of Darfur have clearly vocalized a desire for justice and accountability. The ICC has the potential to help break the cycle of death and devastation caused by years of violent conflict and abuses of power.

We are deeply disheartened by the response of the government of Sudan to the ICC’s decision on March 4, 2009 to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar Al-Bashir. By expelling and restricting humanitarian NGOs and relief workers in the desperate Darfur region, the government of Sudan further endangers the estimated 4.7 million people in the region who rely on food, medical and water aid. The expelled organizations were responsible for some 50 percent of this aid. The Sudanese government has an obligation to ensure that the needs of its people are met and to that end must either allow these organizations back into the region, or ensure that alternative and equally capable delivery mechanisms are promptly deployed without further delay.

We are also disturbed by reports that Sudanese human rights defenders, their families and local staff of international organizations expelled from Sudan are increasingly subject to harassment, interrogation, detention, banishment, exile, torture and unfounded criminal charges in a campaign which appears to be aimed at dismantling Sudan’s independent human rights movement with long term implications for Sudan’s democratic transition. Three of the leading indigenous civil society human rights and development organizations have had their operations suspended. These organizations had provided legal aid, psycho-social services and humanitarian and development assistance and supported networks of local human rights monitors.

In the long-term, the international community must come together to find a way forward and to help Darfuris and all Sudanese find justice and peace.

We believe that progress in the peace talks must happen in tandem with the ICC’s work for justice and cooperation by all in restoring the capabilities of Sudan’s institutions to ensure accountability for crimes. We call on leaders to dramatically step up efforts to negotiate an end to the violence in Darfur, actively involving the armed groups and the Sudanese government. The Sudanese women who have been building the path to peace through their dialogue and consultation efforts must be at the peace table.

We call on the friends of Sudan to join in supporting the independence of the ICC and the ICC’s work for justice and peace in Sudan.

Prof. Wangari Maathai
Nobel Peace Laureate

Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Nobel Peace Laureate

Wole Soyinka
Nobel Laureate, Literature

Adeeb Yousif
Chairperson, Darfur Reconciliation and Development Organization (DRDO)

Dr Mahoud Braima
Darfuri Leaders Network in the United States

Mohammadain Eshak
President, Darfur Organization for Peace and Cultural Heritage

Abdelbagi Jibril
Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre (DRDC) – Geneva

Dr. Ali Dinar
President of Darfur Alert Coalition, Descendant of last independent ruler of Darfur

Daniel Selala
South African HR Commission

Mr. Haggag Nayel
Arab Program for HR Activists – Secretary General

Marie Edith Douzima-Lawson
Lawyer, Central African Republic

Eva Mappy Morgan
Deputy Minister of Justice for Public Safety and Administration, Liberia

Igeny Shone
Coalition for Social Justice, Capetown, South Africa

Nixon Mao Nyikadzino
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, South Africa

Clever Bere
Zimbabwe National Students Union – Zimbabwe

Madock Chivasa
National Constitutional Assembly, Zimbabwe

Fatima M. Haroun
President, Board of Darfur Rehabilitation Project

Maetre Fatimata MBAYE
Pr?sidente de l’Association Mauritanienne des droits de l’Homme(AMDH), vice presidente de la FIDH,Mauritanie

Aminetou mint El Mokhtar
Pr?sidente de l’Association des femmes chefs de famille (AFC)

Aissata satigui Sy
Coordinatrice de L’IPCD, Mauritanie

L. Muthoni Wanyeki
Executive Director, Kenya Human Rights Commission
(KHRC)

Mabassa Fall
Centre africain pour la d?mocratie et les etudes des droits de l’Homme
Professor Kwesi Kwaa Prah
Executive Director, Centre for the Advanced Studies of African Society – South Africa

Issa Tahar Abderaman
President, Association of Darfuri Communities in France

Professor Kwame Karikari
Executive Director, Media Foundation for West Africa- Ghana

Alioune Tine
Rencontre Africaine Pour la Defense des Droits de l’Homme (RADDHO), Senegal

Mercy Ohene
Director of Ghana Judicial Training Institute

Hauwa Ibrahim
Lawyer, Nigeria

Safia Fahasi
Algerian Coordination Org for the Families of the Missing

Beatrice Bernice Boateng
MP, Ghana

Elinor Sisulu
Author, Civic leader, South Africa

Dr. Susan Nagele
Maryknoll Lay Missioner – Kenya

Peter Muzambwe
Amandla Centre, Zimbabwe

Adonio Mutero
Zimbabwe Labor Centre

Ken Thesing, M.M
Maryknoll Missioner, Kenya

Sidiki Kaba
Lawyer, Senegal

Boubacar Messaoud
President de Sos-esclaves Mauritanie

Sarr Mamadou
Secretaire executif du Forum des organisations nationales de defense des droits de l’Homme, Mauritanie

Norah Matovu Winyi
Executive Director, Africa Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET)

Adetokunbo Mumuni
Executive Director, Socio-Economic Rights & Accountability Project, Lagos, Nigeria

M. Dismas Kitenge
President du Groupe LOTUS (DRC)

Dismas Nkunda
Co-Director of International Refugee Rights Initiative

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During the campaign, when asked about the genocide in Darfur, Candidate Obama said, “We can’t say ‘never again’ and then allow it to happen again. And, as President of the United States, I don’t intend to abandon people or turn a blind eye to slaughter.” The candidate also spoke of “ratcheting up sanctions” and “organizing the European Union to be a part of those sanctions.” His campaign’s policy paper, titled the “Obama-Biden Plan,” stated, “As president, Obama will take immediate steps to end the genocide in Darfur by increasing pressure on the Sudanese and pressure the government to halt the killing and stop impeding the deployment of a robust international force.”

Fast forward to June 2009. Thus far, President Obama and his Administration have displayed no “immediate” response to the Darfur crisis or any willingness to “pressure” the Sudanese government. Instead we have seen stalls, delays and a very worrisome conciliatory tone in the U.S. response to the ongoing genocide in Darfur. According to a recent article in the Washington Post, Obama’s Special Envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, has advocated easing some American sanctions and upgrading U.S. diplomatic relations with Sudan’s government to induce cooperation.

To read complete article on Huffington Post, click here.

Darfur activists across the country are asking concerned citizens to join with them in calling upon the President to 1) replace General Scott Gration as Special Envoy to Sudan and 2) to follow through on his campaign promise to take IMMEDIATE action to PRESSURE Sudan to end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. (Please take the suggested actions at the bottom of this post.)

According to leading Darfur activists, yesterday’s press conference with General Scott Gration confirmed their worst fears that he is the wrong person for the job. “I fear we are going from bad to worse with Envoy Gration,” said Eric Cohen, Chairperson of the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur.

Cohen was responding to the very concerning article in the Washington Post which reports that Gration has advocated easing some American sanctions and upgrading U.S. diplomatic relations with Sudan’s government to induce cooperation. According to the Post, Gration’s conciliatory approach has stalled high-level talks within the Obama administration to finalize a comprehensive policy plan to be presented to Cabinet members and later to the president.

In Gration’s first press conference, he contradicted US policy by downplaying the genocide (referring to “remnants of genocide” only) and declaring over the humanitarian crisis that was brought on by GoS expelling 16 NGO (“we’ve closed the gap.”)

Having come to the Special Envoy role with no experience with Sudan nor diplomacy, one has to wonder what lessons Gration has learned from President Omer al-Bashir’s catastrophic 20-year reign of terror in Sudan.

Activists understandably feel betrayed by the Administration. Tough talk regarding Darfur helped get Obama elected. Then after a long delay, Obama finally selected Special Envoy Gration. Gration then travels to Sudan with “no preconceptions” and visits model IDP camps under the supervision of the GoS and proclaims, in essence, “it’s not so bad.” Gration has had no tough reactions nor suggested any consequences for the expulsion of 16 NGOs, the ongoing bombings, the executions of Darfuris without due process and other ongoing atrocities comitted by the Government of Sudan.

According to Darfuri sources here in the United States, the NCP leadership is doing cartwheels of delight following this press conference. Khartoum seems to have the man they want in Washington — Scott Gration.

Please contact the White House in any of the following ways immediately and call for the replacement of Envoy Gration with someone ready to take IMMEDIATE action to PRESSURE Sudan, as Obama promised during the campaign:

1) Call the White House at 202-456-1111. Lines are often busy. Keep trying.
2) Fax the White House at 202-456-2461
3) Email the White House at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
4) Become a fan of the WH Facebook page and post a comment at http://www.facebook.com/WhiteHouse
5) Send a message via Twitter to @whitehouse. Follow at http://twitter.com/whitehouse