Sudanese Liberation Army rebels in South Darfur State: Four rebel factions have united to prepare for talks with the Sudanese government. (Photo Courtesy Derk Segaar/IRIN)

The Obama Administration has almost completed its policy review on Sudan. There is, however, a major problem with the administration’s emerging policy, notes an open letter to President Obama from a group of Sudan advocacy organizations. While an internal U.S. government agreement on tactical pressures and incentives has been reached, the broader diplomatic strategy through which these pressures and incentives will be enforced is fundamentally flawed, the letter notes.

The full text of the letter can be found here.

Signatories to the letter included members of the Sudan Now campaign – the Enough Project at the Center for American Progress, Investors Against Genocide, Stop Genocide Now, and Humanity United – along with the Genocide Intervention Network.

The letter, titled “Avoiding Total War in Sudan: The Urgent Need for a Different U.S. Strategy,” notes that the ruling National Congress Party, or NCP, is eager to undermine the guarantee of a self-determination referendum as spelled out in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, or CPA, which ended the devastating North-South civil war. Left unchecked, the NCP’s behavior will trigger a war in the South and make it all the more difficult to resolve the still-simmering crisis in Darfur.

Regarding the South, the current U.S. diplomatic strategy is making peace more difficult by opening the door to a renegotiation of key aspects of the CPA’s implementation through the current tripartite talks. The U.S. diplomatic strategy should instead refocus on strict adherence to the CPA, particularly the provisions associated with preparations for the referendum for southern self-determination, and ensure that there will be consequences for any actions by the parties that undermine the CPA—either through non-implementation or by the arming of ethnic-based militias.

Regarding Darfur, the current U.S. approach is inadvertently leading to further divisions among rebel factions in Darfur and lacks an endgame focused on specific proposals that will result in a lasting peace. Instead, the U.S. must adopt a diplomatic strategy that puts the horse before the cart in Darfur by developing a draft peace plan that is backed by the diplomatic structure and leverage necessary for success.

“To avert a plunge to full-scale national war in Sudan, the Obama administration must alter its diplomatic strategy in both the South and in Darfur,” said John Prendergast, Co-founder of the Enough Project.“ In the South, the U.S. should work to develop costs for the ruling National Congress Party’s provision of support to ethnic-based militias and deliberate obstruction of the implementation of the CPA. In Darfur, the U.S. should lay down a peace proposal that addresses the core issues of displaced and refugee Darfuri populations, and work to get the parties on board. Only when the diplomatic strategy is right will the new Obama policy framework have any chance for success.”

The full text of the letter can be found here.