The Washington Times

The new U.S. strategy continues to accuse Sudan of "genocide" in Darfur.

Ghazi Salaheedin, an adviser to Sudanese President Omar Bashir called the genocide accusations unfortunate. Sudan puts the civilian death toll at 10,000.

But Mr. Salaheedin characterized Mr. Obama's overall effort in upbeat terms.

"Compared to previous policies, there are positive points. We don't see the extreme ideas and suggestions, which we used to see in the past," Mr. Salaheedin told reporters in Khartoum, according to Agence France-Presse.

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The Democratic Republic of the Congo holds a treasure trove of valuable minerals that are at once the country's greatest blessing and most enduring curse.

Second only to South Africa in mineral wealth, Congo has attracted rapacious exploiters from 19th-century Belgian colonialists to foreign-backed rebel groups. 

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The Obama administration has signaled its concern for the Democratic Republic of Congo by sending Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton there last month, but restoring stability will require a long-term commitment of money, education, military training and enough political will to force Central African governments to hammer out a sustainable peace.

Mrs. Clinton promised $17 million in additional U.S. aid and met with victims of rape in eastern Congo, which has been ravaged by competing militaries and rebel groups.

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A dispute over policy toward Sudan has exposed a significant rift between two of President Obama's closest advisers.

The clash - one of the first to become public in the new administration - came into the open Thursday when the president's special envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, told Congress that he did not think there was any evidence to support the continued designation of Sudan as a sponsor of terrorism.

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When I opened The Washington Times on Tuesday and saw an Op-Ed column by Dr. Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani, a key adviser to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, under the headline "Give peace a chance," I could only assume that April Fools' Day had arrived very late this year. Dr. Ghazi conveniently omitted a few key points that your readers should appreciate. His boss, Mr. Bashir, is wanted on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes, with a possible charge of genocide soon to follow.

The National Congress Party, of which Mr. Ghazi is a senior leader, directly engineered the brutal violence in Darfur that has left hundreds of thousands dead and millions without homes. The Sudanese government recently expelled 13 aid groups that were delivering lifesaving assistance in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan. We all would like to see a lasting peace in Sudan, but Dr. Ghazi's self-serving fictions will not move us any closer in that direction.

- Enough's Executive Director, John Norris, writing to the Washington Times.

Mahmood Mamdani, a Uganda-born professor of anthropology and political science at Columbia University, has created a raging controversy over whether the Sudanese government's response to a six-year rebellion in Darfur constitutes a genocide.

In a new book, "Saviors and Survivors," the Columbia professor weaves history, statistics on deaths and displacements, and 156 pages of footnotes to support his view that no genocide occurred in the country's vast westernmost province.

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By issuing the warrant related to the violence in Darfur, judges on the International Criminal Court (ICC) have effectively limited Gen. al-Bashir's ability to travel outside Sudan. 

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A suicide attack on African Union peacekeepers punctuated last week's withdrawal. And Islamist rebels Monday took control of the airport and parliament building in Baidoa, the last stronghold of a U.N.-backed government.

But several Africa specialists say that the absence of Ethiopian forces, which drove rebels from the Somali capital in 2006, could help bring about greater stability in the long-term by depriving Somali extremist groups of a substantial recruiting tool.
 

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