الدارفوريون و الدارفوريات بأمريكا الشمالية يسجلون موقفا قويا في يوم تنصيب السفاح البشير رئيسا

Statement from Darfuris in Diaspora, North America
Regarding the latest events in Darfur
May 26, 2010

We, the undersigned Darfuris in Diaspora in North America, would like to express our gravest concern regarding the suffering of our people back home in Darfur. There are numerous indicators that lead us to believe that the international community is no longer diligently seeking a just political solution to the conflict in Darfur.

Today we see the representatives of the institutions of the international community respond to the demands of the regime in Khartoum while Darfuris bleed to death in Darfur. Over a year after General Martin Agwai, the ex- head of UNAMID, said that war in Darfur is over, the Government of Khartoum continues more fierce campaigns of aerial bombings targeting civilians and water wells. Today, following elections described by the U.S. State Department as neither free nor fair, we see delegations from the United Nations, African Union, and Arab League turn a blind eye to the killings in Darfur that were inflicted recently by the Khartoum regime while they flock to Khartoum to celebrate the inauguration of the killer as president of Sudan.

We would like to summarize here in three points the danger of such indifference by the leading players of the international community:

1) The United Nations announced that it will send the two highest ranking of its officials in Sudan to represent at AlBashir’s inaugural ceremonies in Khartoum on the 27th of May. The two top U.N. officials, Haile Menkerios, head of the U.N. Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), and Ibrahim Gambari, joint head of the African Union/U.N. Mission in Darfur (UNAMID, will celebrate with the killer in Khartoum while the blood of our relatives is spilled in Jebel Marrah and Jebel Moon. We, the sons and daughters of those whose blood is spilled there in Darfur, believe that the soft policy of the American Administration towards Sudan sent the wrong signal to the United Nation, African Union, Arab League, and other international bodies.

2) We believe that the first criterion of the international mediators in the Darfur conflict is to be honest brokers. The world witnessed and followed last week the unfolding events of the 19 hours standoff at the N’djamena’s airport in Chad. The leader of the Justice and Equality Movement, Dr. Khalil Ibrahim, was denied entry to the country, yet what was learned later was that the international mediators were pulling strings from Doha, capital of Qatar, to force the head of JEM to sit down for negotiation with the Government of Sudan. The government of Sudan has a great interest in signing meaningless agreements with Darfuri factions. We believe that the mediators are serving, knowingly or not, as tools to the Government of Sudan to suppress the Darfuri cause. In the last seven years we have seen the international mediators press the Darfuri factions to compromise and give up in return for nothing except seeing the suffering of their own people prolonged. Instead, the international mediators should be exerting pressure on the government of Sudan, the root cause of the problem in Darfur. The N’djamena standoff was part of a tactic to force all Darfuri leaders into capitulation. We condemn such acts of those mediators who, through such acts will only make matters worse in Darfur.

3) Albashir is an indicted war criminal. In the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing on May 12th, U.S. Special Envoy Gration testified that the Obama Administration is pursuing "locally owned accountability and reconciliation mechanisms in light of the recommendations made by the African Union's high-level panel on Darfur." In Darfur we have millions of our people who have lost everything, including loved ones, to the genocide. The victims hope for nothing in this life but justice. Darfuris have no trust left in Gration since he uttered the words “remnants of genocide” in his early days on the job. Now we believe that this AU panel on Darfur is nothing more than an effort to let AlBashir off the hook. We will not, as Darfuris, accept any substitute to the ICC as a venue for justice for Darfur crimes.