A Trip to Sudan

The last few months have been quite busy for me. On February 8, I left for Sudan and spent a month traveling throughout the country. The trip included over a week spent in Khartoum, a week in Darfur, and a week and a half in South Sudan. With two colleagues from Save Darfur, I met with a cross section of Sudanese society – including leading members of the Sudanese government, opposition parties, human rights community, United Nations and African Union, and communities directly affected by the conflict in Darfur. It was a whirlwind that ironically ended with President Omar Al Bashir staying in the same hotel as me in Juba, South Sudan.

Yesterday, The New Republic published my analysis of the elections in Sudan – that begin tomorrow – based on interviews that I conducted during the trip.  Here is an except:

In February, as part of a delegation from the Save Darfur Coalition, I met Mustafa Ismail in Khartoum. Ismail is the country’s former foreign minister and current presidential adviser to President Omar Al Bashir. He thanked us for our “timely visit,” then proceeded to speak almost uninterrupted for close to an hour about the Sudanese regime’s new commitment to democracy, peace, and development. To that end, he urged the international community to endorse the country’s upcoming nationwide elections and stop “inflaming” the situation in Sudan with false accusations.

Now, with the Sudanese vote set to begin this weekend, the Obama administration seems to be doing exactly what Ismail had wanted. Last month, Scott Gration, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, said that “significant preparations have been made to ensure that the elections will really reflect the will of the people” (although he added that there were “logistical challenges” still to resolve). Then, last weekend—after the presidential candidate of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), the major party that represents southern Sudan, withdrew from the race, citing the prospect of massive fraud and intimidation—Gration said that members of Sudan’s electoral commission had “given [him] confidence that the elections … would be as free and as fair as possible,” adding that they “have gone to great lengths to ensure that the people of Sudan will have access to polling places and that the procedures and processes will ensure transparency.”

Gration’s optimism is baffling. As I learned during my recent four-week trip to Sudan—when I visited Khartoum, the southern part of the country, and Darfur—there is no chance that these elections will be even remotely free or fair. (Read the rest here)

And, here are additional posts that I have written since returning that cover various topics:

Peace in Darfur: still a long way off at Foreign Policy’s Middle East Channel

The Involuntary Return of a Humanitarian Aid Commissioner at Brains Like a Shoe

Darfuri Civil Society: Still Missing from the Table at Huffington Post

What the Islamic Conference got Wrong on Darfur at Foreign Policy’s Middle East Channel

Protection, Trust, and UNAMID in Darfur at Change.org

Election Intimidation and Delusions in Darfur at Huffington Post

The trip was an amazing opportunity to study, in person, issues of human rights, conflict resolution, and governance of which I have focused a good deal of my academic and professional time and energies the last four years. I met with a number of great Sudanese friends and partners and was able to make many new friends and acquaintances. Given the work of many of these individuals, I left Sudan with feelings of hope.

At the same time, I also left Sudan with feelings of foreboding. As I have written, the mentality of the Sudanese regime – despite its rhetoric – has not demonstrably changed. Bashir and his cohorts are still willing to use all tactics and strategies to cling to their tight grip on power. The international community and the Obama administration must not accept, without verification, the claims of a government that still finds it acceptable to pickup a student activist in broad daylight and drop his tortured and bloodied body off the next day in front of his university. To do so would be to turn its back on the courageous Sudanese who each day are working to protect the rights of their fellow citizens and build a durable peace.