Will Obama Act to End Darfur Tragedy?

by: Raj Purohit

Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 09:33

I wanted to take a couple of minutes to share an op-ed that I co-aurthored with my friend Howard Salter.
It ran in the Baltimore Sun today (link here) and suggests that the Obama administration use the pending ICC arrest warrant of Omar al-Bashir to push for international action to end the killing in Darfur.

We note that:

The expected warrant also opens a door for Mr. Obama and his talented foreign policy team. They can leverage the arrest warrant to work with influential partners across the globe to stop the killing and solidify a concrete peace agreement. By doing so, Mr. Obama would address a serious human rights crisis at the dawn of his presidency while also sending a clear signal that the U.S. is ready to once again lead by example.

and remind readers of the failure of the last administration:

Raj Purohit :: Will Obama Act to End Darfur Tragedy?

Bold leadership and action would mark a significant break from the position of President Obama's predecessor. While President George W. Bush called the killings in Darfur "genocide," his administration failed to take action to stop the violence. Human rights activists and the millions of Americans who have risen up to demand an end to the killing in Darfur have high hopes that the Obama administration will act differently.

Of course the right wing is on the attack already - the Washington Times has an inaccurate and fear driven editorial out today urging the President to shun the Court.

If you have a moment take a look at the whole op-ed and let me know what you think. I'll pop back to answer questions later

Tags: Darfur, ICC, international criminal court, Obama, bush failure, (All Tags)

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Will Obama Act to End Darfur Tragedy? | 1 comments

But we can hope can't we? (0.00 / 0)

Obama may first need to mend our relationship with the United Nations. And I do hope that he intends to do so, moving away from the Republican focus of the past eight years. As a matter of fact, it would a natural and easy transformation, given the intent to turn us back to diplomacy rather than militantism toward the rest of the world. That is not to say that it may not require military intervention to deal with Sudan. But it should not be done unilaterally.

by: shergald @ Fri Feb 06, 2009 at 13:14:28 PM CST