ilovemylife: ITS TIME TO TURN THE COURSE AROUND - SUPPORT JUSTICE

Press Conference Calling For Change Of Course In Sudan

Tuesday May 04, 2010

Contact: Dan Scandling
(202) 225-5136

MEDIA ADVISORY MEDIA ADVISORY MEDIA ADVISORY

PRESS CONFERENCE CALLING
FOR CHANGE OF COURSE IN SUDAN

10:30 a.m.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
HVC 114, Studio A
(Press enter through HVC 117)

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) will call for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to retake the lead on implementing U.S. policy on Sudan. In addition, he will make several other recommendations, including that the U.S. not recognize the outcome of the recent presidential elections in Sudan.

Wolf, the co-chairman of the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, is widely recognized for his leadership on issues involving Sudan over the last 20 years.

wolf.house.gov

Representative Wolf's Media Advisory announced at

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Darfur In the News

VOA: Darfur JEM Rebel Group Risks Losing Dominance. Darfur's main rebel group may risk losing its dominance in the region, as Chad ends support and rival rebel coalition gains strength. Monday, JEM - the Justice and Equality Movement - officially suspended peace talks with the government, following months of stalled negotiations. JEM has also accused the government of attacking its positions in western Darfur. The coalition of four rebel groups challenging JEM for dominance in Darfur is the Sudan Liberation and Justice Movement. "If in fact they are able to keep themselves unified, they present a fairly significant force, especially in light of the fact that Chad and Khartoum entered into agreement in which they agreed not to support each other's rebel groups. And for Chad that meant principally JEM," Hogendoorn says.

Reuters: Defeated Sudan candidate says armed, makes demands. A renegade army general in South Sudan said on Monday he had taken command of a body of soldiers and demanded the removal of the man who beat him in recent elections. South Sudan's army accused George Athor of masterminding an attack on one of its bases on Friday and plotting further assaults after he lost in the race to become governor of the oil-producing south's Jonglei state last week. The confirmation that Athor set up his own military force days after the contested vote will stoke tensions in the region already hit by tribal violence and decades of civil war.

The following editorial was published in The New York Times: Sudan's Other Crisis. One year after the International Criminal Court accused Sudan's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, of war crimes for the genocidal rampage in Darfur, he was re-elected in a blatantly manipulated election.

Mr. Bashir has no legitimacy and he must stand trial for his crimes. But those facts must not divert the world's attention from another potential crisis: the very real danger of renewed civil war between Arab Muslim northern Sudan and the south, which is largely Christian and animist. The last conflict -- from 1983 to 2005 -- left about two million people dead.

Under a United States-backed peace agreement, the semi-autonomous southern region will hold a referendum in January to decide its future. Voters are expected to choose independence. Leaders in both the north and the south pledged to respect the results. But there is so much oil involved that they can't be depended on to keep their word -- without strong encouragement from the United States and other major players. Read More.