LONDON (AlertNet) - Sudan could return to full-scale war unless Washington pushes harder for a timely and credible referendum on the south's status and there is progress on other key issues, a group of eight U.S.-based advocacy and anti-genocide groups said.
Unveiling the new U.S. policy on Sudan last October, President Barack Obama called for a "definitive end" to the conflict in the western Darfur region and implementation of a peace deal
that ended more than two decades of a north-south civil war.
The strategy promised incentives if Khartoum worked toward peace and increased pressure if it failed to act.
In a
href="http://www.enoughproject.org/files/publications/Sudan%20Benchmark%202%20Report.pdf" target="new">report, the group -
which includes the Enough Project and Save Darfur Coalition - accused the Obama administration of failing to implement its stated strategy and urged Obama and Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton "to own Sudan policy far more directly".
It highlighted "deep divisions in perspective" between U.S. special envoy Scott Gration, the leadership of the State Department and the U.S. mission to the United Nations. Many activists believe Gration has taken far too soft a line with Khartoum.
The report says the Obama administration has yet to make public the indicators it is meant to be using to measure progress in Sudan. Instead the document assesses developments in relation to
a set of benchmarks published by the group itself in January.
These include freedom for media and civil society, the peace process in Darfur, the holding of free and fair national elections, humanitarian access, the controversial demarcation of the border between north and south, and movement towards the referendum on southern independence due in January 2011 - which is guaranteed under the 2005 peace deal.
In most of these areas, the reports suggests there has been no significant progress, and in many cases it points to backsliding.
"A clear assessment of the situation on the ground in Sudan reveals a number of disturbing trends and the continued potential for much broader, renewed violence," Enough Project
executive director John Norris said in statement.
"However, we have yet to see a firm response from the U.S. administration despite its promise to bring a new approach to Sudan policy based on deeds, not rhetoric."
REFERENDUM IS A 'RED LINE'
The group of NGOs is critical of Washington's lack of concrete action over irregularities in the recent elections, won by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.
"Despite overwhelming evidence that the environment surrounding elections was neither free nor fair, and a widespread opposition
boycott, the Obama administration seemed reluctant to offer an honest assessment of the numerous obstacles to a free election
in the run up to voting," the report says.
It adds that Washington had indicated it was prepared to accept "practically any process at the ballot box" in order to move forward smoothly towards the even-bigger test of the referendum
on the future of the south.
Most analysts say southerners, embittered by the war, want independence, while Bashir says he will try to persuade the oil-producing south to stay united with the north.
The "Grading the Benchmarks" report warns that the way a national census and the recent elections were conducted augurs badly for next year's referendum, demonstrating that "delays,
distractions, and technical difficulties are the norm for Sudanese political processes".
"While substantial delays in the census and elections were tolerated, the referendum is a 'redline' for the SPLM (the south's main political group) and the South; any delay in the
holding of the referendum could immediately spark a return to war," it says.
If a referendum commission is set up by May, as agreed, it will have only a few months to prepare for the vote. The advocacy coalition calls on the Obama administration to ensure ample preparation for the referendum, including the appointment of a commission that is up to the job.
It warns that mismanagement at administrative and procedural levels could cast doubts over the results of the ballot, which would leave south Sudan and the international community "in a
very difficult position".
The report also says peace talks between Khartoum and Darfur rebels have been undermined by continued military action by the government in the conflict-torn western region, and are unlikely to achieve an inclusive and sustainable peace agreement.
On the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, where some 2.7 million people remain uprooted by violence, the group of NGOs says U.N. peacekeepers and aid agencies continue to have little or no access to vulnerable areas because of high insecurity.
And following the expulsion of 13 international agencies from Darfur and the north last year, the services available to survivors of sexual violence "have massively declined" even though abuse is still widespread, the report notes.
"It's time for the (U.S.) administration to back its words with deeds and increase the pressure on all parties in Sudan to end the conflict in Darfur, ensure a peaceful referendum for the
South, and advance democracy and human rights throughout Sudan," Mark Lotwis, acting president of the Save Darfur Coalition, said in a statement.
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