Washington, DC — All three remaining United States presidential candidates have demanded that the "genocide and violence in Darfur be brought to an end" in an advertisement in Wednesday's New York Times.
Senators Hillary Clinton (Democrat-New York), John McCain (Republican-Arizona), and Barack Obama (Democrat-Illinois) said in a longer statement also released on Wednesday that "after more than five years of genocide, the Sudanese government and its proxies continue to commit atrocities against the civilians in Darfur… This is unacceptable to the American people and to the world community."
They added that there was "no divide between us" on what they called "this moral issue of tremendous significance."
The statement is meant to signal the government in Khartoum that regardless of who is in the White House next year, the United States will continue to make ending the violence in Darfur an important part of the next administration's Africa policy.
"It would be a huge mistake for the Khartoum regime to think that it will benefit by running out the clock on the Bush administration," the three candidates added.
"If peace and security for the people of Sudan are not in place when one of us is inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009, we pledge that the next administration will pursue these goals with unstinting resolve."
The statement made no calls for action against the Sudanese government. Nor did it call on the United States to use its presidency of the United Nations Security Council during June to pressure Sudan. Last week, protesters marched on UN headquarters in New York to call for the United States to make Darfur the focus of its month-long term.
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Nevertheless, campaigners on Darfur hailed the statement as a major bipartisan accomplishment in a competitive election season. "With this unequivocal joint statement, these candidates have elected to transcend their differences in party and policies and unite for the peace and protection of the people in Sudan," said Gloria White-Hammond, the chair of the board of the Save Darfur Coalition, the organization that sponsored the advertisement.
In recent weeks, the situation in Darfur has threatened to deteriorate even further. On May 10, a Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), attacked the city of Omdurman, opposite Khartoum on the west bank of the Nile. Since the attack, human rights groups have accused the Sudanese government of widespread abuses, including arbitrary arrests and extra-judicial killings. Analysts fear that government might also crack down in Darfur. The United Nations has estimated that as many as 300,000 people have died in Darfur since 2003.
