Ask the Expert: John Prendergast on the Obama Administration's New Sudan Policy

How do experts and activists view the Obama administrations new policy in the Sudan?

Well, Sudan's the second deadliest war in the world since World War II, so the stakes are enormous, and I think that for the last nine months there's been a vacuum. We've been waiting for President Obama to deliver a policy statement about what the United States will be doing in Sudan, and in that vacuum while we've been waiting, he sent a special envoy out there whose done a lot of things that frankly concern many of us. And the diplomacy that was undertaken often hurt U.S. objectives regarding peace, rather than helped them. But now, this policy has been issued, it's a very very clear, it's a policy of principle engagement. There are pressures and there are incentives. And it depends on what is happening on the ground that will determine whether we use these pressures and incentives. So i think it's on the right track. I think it's not quite what President Obama was saying a year ago as a candidate, but it's getting closer to where we would like him to be going with this administration, and I think it gives us a chance, gives the United States a chance, to help bring peace to Sudan.

What are the important shifts in the new policy?

I'm very very encouraged that the decisions that will be made by the administration going forward on this with respect to Sudan will focus on specific, verifiable changes on the ground in favor of stability, peace, and protection of human life. Secondly, I think we have a new emphasis on accountability. We were all very concerned that after the International Criminal Court issued its indictment for President Bashir, that the administration was not very strong in support of justice in Sudan. There has to to be a consequence for the commission of genocide, for the commission of mass atrocities. if we whitewash these kinds of crimes, they'll just continue. There will be cycles of these crimes against humanity going forward for generations. So the buck has to stop now, accountability needs to be introduced, and the policy makes it front and center as one of the key things that is going to help bring about peace in Sudan.

What are the crucial implementation priorities?

Well, I think that in the first instance, starting today, the administration needs to be seen in the highest echelons of the administration--the president, vice president, secretary of state, ambassador to the UN, all of whom have had extensive experience on Sudan--need to be seen to be pushing this new policy. This is a break from where we've been going, and other countries need to see this is a serious, new position that the United States is staking out. And we need to build the international coalition around that strategy for peace in Sudan. Secondly, I think that the U.S. has to urgently prepare the pressures, the consequences, the costs that would accrue to the government of Sudan, or any other party in Sudan, which undermines peace, or which actively fuels violence in Darfur or in Southern Sudan. This is the great fear, is that we're heading into a very very volatile cycle, and that particularly if the government of Sudan throws matches on that gasoline, we could see the entire country go up in smoke. That's what the United States needs to be wary about, and we need to create a cost if we see the government of Sudan or any other party going down that road.