Darfur displaced: ‘Trump sanctions decision a step in the right direction’

The displaced people in Darfur camps describe US President Donald Trump's decision to postpone lifting economic sanctions imposed on Sudan as a step in the right direction and a moral support for the genocide victims in Darfur, Nuba Mountains, and Blue Nile.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga, El Shafee Abdallah, coordinator of the Central Darfur camps, appealed to the Trump administration “not to follow the course of former President Obama, who has spent eight years in power without implementing any of the resolutions issued against the regime in Khartoum by the International Criminal Court.”

He said "as victims of war in the region, we demand that sanctions should be kept and not lifted until justice is achieved and the perpetrators of genocide are brought to justice, headed by Al Bashir who is wanted for trial in The Hague.”

ICC justice

Abdallah said the lifting of sanctions without bringing to justice of those wanted will make the regime in Khartoum continue to commit its crimes against civilians in Darfur and other areas of Sudan.

In Washington, Omar Ismael, policy coordinator at the American Enough Organisation considered the decision of postponement of the sanctions a victory for Enough and other organisations.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga yesterday, Ismael said that the Enough project believes that lifting the sanctions in the form presented by the US administration is not appropriate. He called for lifting the general sanctions in a way that contributes to relieving the suffering of the people and limiting Sudan's dealings with the world and banks.

In the interview, Ismael, called on the US administration to “replace the current sanctions with smart ones against individuals and institutions involved in corruption and violence that push the government toward military solutions in the conflict zones, instability and human trafficking”.

Ismael explained the determination of the US administration to finalise the sanctions on Sudan, pointing out that the decision issued yesterday canceled the previous paragraph of the decision of the Obama administration for the annual review.

Difficult to predict

Ismael said it is difficult to predict the upcoming US administration's decision on the sanctions on Sudan after the next three months because of possible changes in the performance of the Sudanese government or the US administration.

He said the sanctions now under consideration by the US administration did not include sanctions on the Darfur Peace Act and Sudan's status as a state sponsor of terrorism but related to trade sanctions, investment, aid and loans.

Ismael pointed out that the government has an opportunity to prove good faith in stopping violence and arrests and to make a just, comprehensive and open dialogue, not like the National Dialogue and the necessity of establishing peace and transparency.

He stressed the need for government agencies such as security and the judiciary to act according to the constitution without favouritism in implementing the law.

Ismael said that the government has taken serious steps to stop the aerial bombardment of civilians, but called for stopping the flights that caused the spread of terror among civilians and hoped that the next three month -period will be genuine testing and monitoring of the performance of the government by all members of the Sudanese people, its governmental and civil institutions.

He called on the Parliament to hold the government accountable for the real reasons for postponing the lifting of sanctions.

National Umma Party

Mohamed El Mahdi Hassan, the head of the Political Bureau of the National Umma Party (NUP) attributed the US decision to postpone the decision on the sanctions on Sudan for the lack of real progress of the government in the files of human rights, freedoms, cessation of war and peace.

He pointed out that the government has continued to detain journalists a day before the American decision.

Hassan said in an interview with Radio Dabanga that the purpose of the postponement is to blackmail the government to make more concessions and expected the US administration to renew postponement of the decision after the end of the current period to ensure getting the most gains.

He said that the US decision to postpone the decision on sanctions was expected.

He pointed out that the Sudanese government has made a series of statements before the decision.

Communist Party

Mohamed Mukhtar El Khateeb, the Political Secretary of the Communist Party said that the states and the capitalist countries do not care about democracy and human rights in the developing countries.

He explained that they take them as a pretext to intervene in the affairs of others.

Yesterday El Khateeb explained in an interview with Radio Dabanga that the Obama administration spoke in its previous decision about the progress in human rights files in Sudan at the time when the war was raging in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile amid continuing human rights violations and arrests of activists and students.

He reiterated the Communist Party’s rejection of the US’ imposition of any unilateral sanctions on countries and peoples to serve its objectives and interests in the region.

He renewed and declared the party's clear position to hold the regime fully responsible for the deterioration of the situation in the country and calling for the need to topple and dismantle it.

He said that America is resorting to the method of sanctions to pass its plans and pointed out that the Sudanese Government has been taking sanctions as a pretext for the deterioration of the situation in the country.

Sudanese Congress Party

The Sudanese Congress Party considered the United States’ linking lifting sanctions with five tracks that have nothing to do with the priorities of the Sudanese people and pointed out to the right of Washington to take care of the interests of its people and prioritise them.

On Wednesday it said in a statement that Washington should know that the priorities of the Sudanese people are the issues of achieving a just and comprehensive peace, addressing the root causes of the crisis in the country, a full democratic transition in which human rights are respected and a law that does not discriminate against one another.

It added that "Therefore, the establishment of a strategic relationship between the two countries cannot be achieved by agreements with a regime whose legitimacy is not derived from the people and imposed by force and measures of oppression, but should be through a partnership based on the interests of the people."

Lacking people’s interests

It stressed that the process of normalisation now underway between the United States and the Sudanese Government is lacking people’s interests.

It said that the regime promotes that the sanctions are the source of impoverishment of the people of Sudan and the deterioration of economic conditions which is a false claim.

The statement stressed that the source of poverty experienced by the country is the regime’s wars against its citizens, the destruction of the structure of production in the country and putting an economic model with structural defects.

It added that "Sanctions come last in the root causes of the economic crisis and the promotion of the assumption that the lifting of sanctions will bring economic recovery to all the citizens of the country is a promotion of a misleading hypothesis as the biggest beneficiary is the regime that seeks to tighten its grip on power and wealth.”