U.S. Shifts Sudan Policy Towards Engagement

The new plan places a greater emphasis on incentives to encourage cooperation than the previous Bush administration policy, but President Barack Obama was quick to stress that there will be severe punishments if the government does not comply.

“If the government of Sudan acts to improve the situation on the ground and to advance peace, there will be incentives; if it does not, then there will be increased pressure imposed by the United States and the international community,” Obama said in a statement.

“As the United States and our international partners meet our responsibility to act, the government of Sudan must meet its responsibilities to take concrete steps in a new direction.”

Bashir: President and War Criminal

	Al-Bashir came to power in a 1989 military coup.

The U.S. has maintained a non-engagement policy with Sudan because of the actions of its government, led by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

In March, Bashir was charged with five counts of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. This was the first time the court had indicted any sitting head of state.

Ever defiant, President Bashir maintains his innocence and has accused the court of trying to advance pro-western biases. He ordered 13 aid organizations serving millions of people in Darfur to suspend their operations, charging them with providing false evidence to the court.

The ICC indictments mean that the 108 nations in the world that have signed on to the court have an obligation to arrest Bashir should he arrive in their country. But he has already attended summits and meetings in seven African and Arab states over the past few months.

Bashir remains free

	Former President George W. Bush took a tough stance towards Sudan, calling the atrocities in Darfur a "genocide."

"I have not felt [any] restrictions of movement," Bashir said in August.

"A President has his deputies, assistants and his specialized ministers, so it's not necessary for [him] to travel to every country. But I have traveled all necessary travels."

Bashir refuses to recognize that the deaths in Darfur constitute genocide, a word used by both former President George W. Bush and President Obama.

"The ICC is a tool to terrorize countries that the West thinks are disobedient. The African position today, by consensus, is not to cooperate with this court," Bashir told the NewsHour.

"And it has reached a conclusion that this court is directed against the countries of the Third World and a tool of neocolonialism."

While President Bashir is disliked by the international community, there is real concern that forcibly removing him from power could threaten a landmark peace treaty between the Sudanese government and other rebels in the southern part of the country.

Aims of the new deal

	Sudan is the largest country in Africa.

The Obama administration said this new strategy will work towards ending gross human rights abuses, including genocide, in Darfur and ensure that Sudan will not serve as a haven for terrorists.

Sudan was once home to al-Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden, and President Clinton launched a military operation there in 1998 following attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa.

Darfur five years on

	Much of Darfur's displaced population live in makeshift camps where water and food are scarce.

Darfur came to international attention in 2003 when government-sponsored militias, known locally as Janjaweed, began fighting anti-government African insurgents in the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA).

Whole villages were burned and many mass graves have been unearthed. The United Nations estimates that as many as 300,000 people died and more than two million people were driven from their homes.

The United States categorizes the conflict in Darfur as a genocide, but the U.N. maintains that "genocidal intent appears to be missing."