dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Obama's upsetting decision to lift sanctions on Sudan

BY MIKE BRAND — 01/13/17

In a surprising move, President Obama, with only a week left in his presidency, has made the decision to lift sanctions and open up trade with Sudan; a regime that has and continues to commit genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity against its own people. The announcement is due to be made public today.

Since 1997, the United States has imposed economic, trade, and financial sanctions against Sudan due to its support of terrorism, and since 2003 due to the gross human rights violations in Darfur. Sudan’s President, Omar al-Bashir—an indicted war criminal and génocidaire—has led Sudan’s armed forces and militias to rape, pillage, and kill the non-Arab populations of Darfur, South Kordofan, and Blue Nile. Never wavering from his steadfast extermination strategy, Bashir has been able to consistently evade justice and strong international pressure to end the assault on civilian populations.

Warming relations and lifting sanctions with a genocidal regime in the final days of President Obama’s term in office is not only deeply upsetting to rights advocates, it is a slap in the face to all those who suffer under Bashir’s reign of terror, the hundreds of thousands who have been killed, and the millions who have been displaced.

Obama’s plan to normalize relations with Sudan is not new, but is a far departure from his pre-Presidency rhetoric.

As a senator, Barack Obama was a staunch advocate for bringing an end to the genocide in Darfur. In 2006, Sen. Obama spoke at the Save Darfur Rally to Stop Genocide. He said, “Today we know what is right and what is wrong. The slaughter of innocents is wrong. Two million people driven from their homes is wrong. Women gang raped while gathering firewood is wrong. Silence, acquiescence, paralysis in the face of genocide is wrong.” Mr. President, lifting sanctions and opening up trade with a genocidal regime is wrong.

Two years later, when Sen. Obama was campaigning for President he said, “We can’t say ‘never again’ and then allow it to happen again. And as President of the United States, I don’t intend to abandon the people, or turn a blind eye to slaughter.” Unfortunately, that’s exactly what he has done.

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https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/314191-obamas-upsetting-decision-to-lift-sanctions-on-sudan