الى متى يستمر هذا الظلم الأمريكي البائن؟ يا ناس ما ضاع حق وراءه مطالب، هيا الى العمل

US congressional hearings about Sudan usually follow the same, stale format: a raft of under-informed
testimonies focused solely on condemning loudly the behaviour of the Sudanese government in Darfur
(and, earlier, the north-south civil war), and demanding the ratcheting up of US sanctions to force
the "right" response by Khartoum. The US's presidential envoy to Sudan, General J Scott
Gration, never a man content to kow-tow to public opinion, has just embarked on what his predecessors
knew was the correct course, but were too weary to travel on: swallow hard (very hard), face down the
fierce headwinds in US government and civil society and make an impassioned plea for Congress to
remove US economic sanctions from Sudan. Gration must have had his full m e t a l jacket on – and reinforced – for
the testimony. He also broke the mould by calling for Sudan's removal from the US state department's
state sponsor of terrorism list, which comes with a thicket of US economic sanctions below the iceberg. The
general noted that there was "no evidence" for Sudan's inclusion on the list, which he
called a "political" (rather than a national security-related) decision; the CIA has referred to
Sudan's strong record on counterterrorism co-operation as having "saved American lives". Popular
in the US he certainly won't be, but stark raving mad or naive he is definitely not: Gration simply
realises that US sanctions make steering Sudan on to the right track tougher, not easier, and have
actually damaged US interests by inflicting harm on, the very Sudanese people the US seeks
to support. Take just one example of the Medusa-like micro impact of US sanctions. Millions of
ordinary Sudanese families and individuals from the north, south, east and west cannot receive
directly the lifeline of foreign exchange remittance inflows from family members working abroad in
the US, wreaking havoc on the planning and budgets of millions of households for basics
like school fees and medical bills. Remittances sent from the US can only get to Sudan in
two expensive – and delay-ridden – ways: 1) remittances are routed to the recipient via
regional money exchange bureaux; and 2) remittances are paid directly to the recipient by a local
middleman, once the sender deposits the sum in the US bank account of the middleman.
Both options incur costly "processing fees" and amount to a regressive income tax imposed by
sanctions on remittances destined for ordinary Sudanese. Humanitarian items imported
from the US are currently exempted from sanctions. But even here, the lengthy, morale-sapping
bureaucratic process in getting approval to import spare parts for hospital machinery has led to
numerous needless deaths of ordinary men, women, and infants. The actions of the Sudanese
government during much of the early phase of the Darfur conflict (and in the previous
and much longer north-south civil war) were undeniably reprehensible – as Sudan's own
official investigation into the conflict, published in 2005, readily acknowledged. Nobody, least
of all Gration, is asking Washington to reinvent the wheel, however. Abolishing US sanctions
would not mean becoming mute suddenly on Darfur, CPA implementation, human rights
or other matters of concern; the US can walk and chew gum at the same time
with Sudan. Rather, Washington could air those concerns privately to Khartoum and use
its normal global diplomatic communications modus operandi: dialogue to resolve various
snafus and reach key benchmarks for normalisation set by the American government, rather
than just tub-thumping with one eye on making tomorrow's US news headlines. Fortunately, the
situation in Darfur on the ground has ameliorated distinctly over the last few months, giving
Gration headroom to make the call to lift US sanctions the centrepiece of his congressional
testimony. Internally displaced Darfuris are returning home in greater numbers. The
humanitarian situation in Darfur also remains stable, with acting USAid head Earl Gast
noting in his testimony that the "gaps have been addressed" following Khartoum's expulsion
of 13 international aid organisations in March 2009; in short, nobody is dying of starvation in
Darfur's tragic and undignified shelters for the displaced. Similarly, conflict-related killings in
Darfur fell to just three in June, according to the latest data from the international peacekeeping force.
Yes, Khartoum can – and must – still do more to give Gration the maximum political space he needs
to push through with advocating the lifting of sanctions. For starters, it can speed up the return
of USAid-funded assets that were confiscated from its expelled partner NGOs and generally
get out of the way of the international humanitarian effort in Darfur. Khartoum must also
expedite the stack of outstanding visas for the international peacekeeping force in Darfur.
Yet lifting sanctions should not be about punishing or rewarding the government of President
Omar al-Bashir; collective economic punishment is never a smart way to win hearts and minds
. Sudan is not apartheid South Africa – sanctions have no support among the local population,
Darfur included. So, help change Sudan into the country its citizens want it to become, and Americans
wish it was. Lift US sanctions from Sudan, Congress – Gration is right, the innocent of Darfur, and all
other ordinary Sudanese, are victims of them, too. [email protected]