Report Urges Trump Administration to Pursue New Policy Focus with Sudan

10:44 PM June, 21 2017

Sudanese Online
SudaneseOnline News-Khartoum Sudan
My Library
Short URL



June 20, 2017 – In a new report published today, the Enough Project lays out a detailed plan for how the U.S. can implement a new track of engagement with Sudan focused on peace and human rights, and backed up by strong financial pressure.

July 12 is the deadline for the Trump administration to make a decision on whether to terminate the longstanding comprehensive sanctions on Sudan, a process that began during the last days of the Obama administration. The report, “The Missing Track: The case for a new policy framework between the United States and Sudan,” presents a new approach to incentivize the regime in Khartoum to alter its corrupt, violent and oppressive governance and support an inclusive peace process.

John Prendergast, Founding Director at the Enough Project, said: “In order to address the fundamental issues producing violence and state dysfunction in Sudan, the Trump administration should immediately design and enact a new track of engagement with Khartoum that is focused on peace and human rights. This new track should be tied to a new set of smart, modernized sanctions that spare the Sudanese public and target those who are most responsible for grand corruption and atrocities, including air strikes on villages, attacks on places of worship, obstruction of humanitarian aid, jailing and torturing opposition figures and civil society leaders, and undermining peace efforts.”

Omer Ismail, Senior Policy Advisor at the Enough Project, said: "The fate of the Sudan sanctions regime currently hinges on five determining tracks that are incomplete in addressing a fundamental issue, that is, how to incentivize the Bashir regime to stop killing and oppressing its people. Three of the five tracks -- counterterrorism, South Sudan, and the LRA -- largely address regional and multilateral issues. The five tracks do not incentivize the opening of political space within Sudan, for example, by freeing political prisoners or halting the practice of shutting down newspapers and civil society organizations. The five tracks do not incentivize an inclusive political process in which Sudanese people from all groups can openly discuss the future of their country. Lack of pressures and incentives to address these issues in Sudan has allowed the Khartoum regime to continue its relentless attacks on free expression, the rights to association and peaceful assembly, and religious freedoms—including demolition of churches and denial of freedom of worship. Meanwhile, the regime has forged ahead with the smokescreen of a national dialogue designed to exclude the opposition and the wider citizenry, with no other purpose than to maintain its grip on power."

Prendergast added: “A modernized U.S.-led strategy of meaningful financial pressure would draw on valuable lessons from other higher profile cases and utilize a combination of network sanctions—meaning the targeting of not just a few individuals for sanctions, but also their business associates, facilitators, and the companies they own or control—with anti-money laundering measures designed to freeze those most responsible for violence and corruption in Sudan out of the international financial system altogether.”

Read the full report: http://eno.ug/2tkXB6Rhttp://eno.ug/2tkXB6R

http://eno.ug/2sIjIX5http://eno.ug/2sIjIX5 : الملخص التنفیذي

Read Enough Project’s Recent Reports on Sudan:

Sudan’s Deep State: How Insiders Violently Privatized Sudan’s Wealth, and How to Respond (by Enough Team) (April 2017)
Border Control from Hell: How the EU’s migration partnership legitimizes Sudan’s “militia state” (by Suliman Baldo) (April 2017)
Khartoum’s Economic Achilles’ Heel: The intersection of war, profit, and greed (by Suliman Baldo) (August 2016)
Recent Congressional Testimonies:

Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission’s hearing on “Sudan: Human Rights and Sanctions”: Testimony of Enough’s Omer Ismail (April 2017)
House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations “The Questionable Case for Easing Sudan Sanctions”: Testimony of Enough’s Brad Brooks-Rubin (April 2017)
Recent Op-eds:

TIME Op-ed: Why Donald Trump Needs to Take Action on Sudan (by John Prendergast) (June 2017)
Foreign Affairs Op-ed: Don’t Let Sudan Off the Hook (by John Prendergast) (January 2017)
For media inquiries or interview requests, please contact: Greg Hittelman, Director of Communications, +1 310 717 0606, [email protected].

About THE ENOUGH PROJECT

The Enough Project supports peace and an end to mass atrocities in Africa’s deadliest conflict zones. Together with its investigative initiative The Sentry, Enough counters armed groups, violent kleptocratic regimes, and their commercial partners that are sustained and enriched by corruption, criminal activity, and the trafficking of natural resources. By helping to create consequences for the major perpetrators and facilitators of atrocities and corruption, Enough seeks to build leverage in support of peace and good governance. Enough conducts research in conflict zones, engages governments and the private sector on potential policy solutions, and mobilizes public campaigns focused on peace, human rights, and breaking the links between war and illicit profit. Learn more – and join us – at www.EnoughProject.org.

Arabic Forum