Mantis and all, here's some encouraging info; "Bell said his trip, which ended last week, gave him the impression that
people on both sides are ready to talk. What they need is someone to work to secure peace in a systematic, step-by-step manner, he said".
Full Story:
CARE seeks political fix in Sudan
Don Melvin - Staff
THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Thursday, October 7, 1999
For decades, CARE, the international relief agency founded in the aftermath of World War II, assiduously avoided any involvement in politics or policy.
The job of relief workers, after all, was to feed the hungry and house the homeless. Not for them the labyrinthine ways of lobbying or the perils of politics.
Now all that has changed.
CARE officials have come to the conclusion that the horrendous suffering in the African nation of Sudan --- where cycles of civil war and famine
have killed about 2 million people over the past 16 years and displaced 4 million --- can never end without a political solution. And so they have taken a deep breath and plunged headlong into the unfamiliar waters of advocacy.
"Our advocacy strategy came out of our experience with the famine," said Peter Bell, the president of CARE USA, who returned last week from a lobbying trip to Sudan, where the current cease fire is to expire Oct. 15. "The only way we could really provide support for these cycles of famine
and humanitarian emergencies was if we worked on the root cause of these crises, which is the war."
The lobbying campaign, which began evolving a year ago, has risen to a new pitch in recent weeks. In mid-September, Bell and leaders of 10 other nongovernmental relief organizations met with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and other U.S. government officials, including the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Susan Rice; Harry Johnston,
President Clinton's newly appointed envoy for Sudanese affairs; and several members of Congress.
Bell, himself a former deputy undersecretary of health, education and welfare, acted as spokesman for the coalition of relief officials, urging Albright to fashion a new U.S. policy toward Sudan that is more neutral and less antagonistic to the Sudanese government.
According to talking points Bell took to the meeting: "The U.S. government seems to look at Sudan primarily through an anti-terrorist lens. We and our constituents," Bell said, speaking of the relief agencies, "want the U.S. to look at Sudan through a humanitarian lens as well, making the
achievement of a just peace its primary objective in dealing with Sudan."
Bell urged that the U.S. government be prepared to help pay for a peacekeeping force to monitor a comprehensive cease-fire, as a step toward achieving a permanent peace. And he asked that "President Clinton personally and publicly indicate the high priority his administration attaches to ending the Sudan conflict" by announcing the new policy
himself.
For better or worse, the U.S. government's current policy in Sudan, which is based on fighting terrorism, is not perceived by those in the region as neutral.
In August of last year, U.S. warplanes bombed the Al Shiffa pharmaceutical plant in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, claiming it was a chemical weapons facility operated by terrorist Osama bin Laden. Bell said the U.S. government's antipathy toward the government of Sudan makes it impossible
for America to help mediate a solution to the civil war.
Former President Carter supports that view.
"If the United States would be reasonably objective in Sudan," Carter said in an interview, "I think that we at the Carter Center and the Africans who live in that area could bring peace in Sudan. But the United States government has a policy of trying to overthrow the government in Sudan. So
whenever there's a peace initiative, unfortunately our government puts up whatever obstruction it can."
And this week, the president of Sudan, Omar el-Bashir, said Sudanese relations with the United States are "still tense and negative" due to the "unjust measures" taken by the Clinton administration.
The war in Sudan is fueled in part by issues of race and religion. The government and the northern part of the country --- the largest in Africa --- are primarily Arab and Islamic. The southern part of the country, where the rebels control vast areas, is mostly black and its residents
practice Christianity or native religions.
The war has been waged for 16 years. Bell said it cannot be won by either side and must be mediated to end the cycle of violence and famine.
>From his meeting in Washington, Bell traveled to Kenya, where he talked with representatives of the Sudanese rebel movement. He flew also to
Khartoum, where he met representatives of the Sudanese government.
Rebels and government leaders alike expressed a keen interest in Bell's meeting with Secretary of State Albright. Bell said he could tell them only that "I came away with the impression that she was going to seriously consider our arguments."
But Bell was not in Africa just to report on his effort to lobby Albright. He also was there to lobby representatives of the warring factions. At every stop, he pressed for humanitarian agencies to be granted greater access to all areas of the country; for a "broadening and deepening of the
current cease-fire," set to expire Oct. 15; and, perhaps most importantly, for all factions to work to achieve a just and lasting peace in Sudan.
"I stressed in every meeting that this was not a moment just for nice statements, but for taking concrete actions," he said.
Aid agencies have sometimes been criticized for their tendency to respond to humanitarian crises while ignoring their political causes. In an interview last year, Michael Maren, who has written a book critical of such agencies, said humanitarian organizations such as CARE, which has
been involved in Sudan for 20 years, may have inadvertently prolonged the suffering.
Maren said some of the food aid they deliver is siphoned off by the rival armies and that food has helped fuel the long conflict. "It's possible that this war would not still be going on if it had not been for all this aid going in over the years," he said.
Aid officials argue that, when people are starving, there is no ethical choice other than to feed them. But, at CARE, officials have concluded that food alone is not enough. If the suffering is to be eased, advocacy for change is needed, too.
Bell said his trip, which ended last week, gave him the impression that people on both sides are ready to talk. What they need is someone to work to secure peace in a systematic, step-by-step manner, he said.
"I heard from everyone that people in Sudan are tired of war, that they ache for peace," he said.
eom Ed |
