As part of its new National Security Strategy (NSS), the Obama administration has committed the United States to engaging “proactively” with the international community to prevent mass atrocities and genocide.
Omar al-Bashir, who originally came to power in a 1989 military coup, won Sudan's presidency with an official vote count of 68%. The unsurprising outcome was widely criticized by international observers who cited election-related reports of intimidation, gerrymandering, and fraud. In South Sudan, incumbent candidate Salva Kiir won 93% of the vote to remain in office as president of the semiautonomous region, which is expected to vote for succession from Sudan next year. Leaders and parties in the south, however, are hardly united on the region's internal issues. Nine southern opposition parties have decided to challenge Mr. Kiir's victory -- and the count of 93% -- in court.
On Sunday morning, April 11, Sudanese began arriving at the polls to vote in their country’s first multi-party elections in 24 years. In the days leading up to the election, however, the number of candidates vying for office became considerably more limited.
In just a little over one month, Sudan will face its first major elections in 24 years.
In Foreign Policy, Mike Abramowitz, the Director of the Committee on Conscience at the Museum, and Lawrence Woocher, senior program officer at USIP, discuss the significance of intelligence chief Dennis Blair's testimony to the Senate and his emphasis on the risks facing Southern Sudan.
Addressing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence, emphasized -- above all other parallel risks -- the potential for mass killing or genocide in South Sudan. His analysis came as part of the Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Appeals judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have reversed a decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC not to include genocide in the charges against Sudanese President Bashir. The Pre-Trial Chamber will have to reconsider anew the charges, which include three counts of genocide.
On December 10, the Museum hosted a special program with U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN Susan Rice. Michael Abramowitz, Director of the Museum’s Committee on Conscience, interviewed Ambassador Rice, discussing her work at the UN and her experiences working on issues of genocide and mass atrocities.
The year 2009 was the most violent South Sudan has seen since the signing of the 2005 peace agreement, with the death rate higher than in Darfur. In clashes far more serious than simple cattle raids, villages -- rather than cattle camps -- have been attacked and women and children targeted. "Violence is surging," reports Medecins Sans Frontieres. "Plunging people from one disaster to the next." UN officials have noticed an unusual "ease and availability of ammunition" in the region, which suggests an influx of weapons, possibly from northern Sudanese officials interested in breeding chaos in the south.
Last night in a special program at the Museum, Ambassador Susan Rice, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, made clear that the U.S. government has adopted benchmarks by which it will measure whether Sudan is making progress in meeting humanitarian and other obligations -- and they will be assessed quarterly. There has been some ambiguity about whether such benchmarks existed. The benchmarks are very specific and have been agreed on by "the highest officials, including the President of the United States, and by us at the principals level," Rice said. The status quo in Sudan, Rice insisted, was inherently unacceptable. Asked whether there had been consequences for the perpetrators in Darfur, Rice replied, "Not enough."
Find information on historical cases of genocide and other atrocities.