Today at Talk Radio News

Pentagon Correspondent Dawn Casey will attend a briefing by Army Col. Dominic Caraccilo, Commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), live from Iraq in the Pentagon Briefing Room. UN Correspondent Tala Dowlatshahi will attend a briefing by the Russian Federation. The Washington Bureau will also attend a conference held by Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies on "Unearthing Iraq: Trajectories of Disintegration and Transformation," a discussion by the Center for Strategic and International Studies on "Past and Present Challenges for Global Health and AIDS," the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom and the Institute on Religion and Democracy's discussion on "Promoting Religious Freedom in Sudan," and a discussion on "The Election and Post-Racial Politics" by the Institute for Policy Studies.

Murder, Mayhem, and Chaos: Sudan's conflict continues

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) held a hearing on Sudan’s unravelling peace and the challenge that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) is facing as Sudan’s election draws closer. The CPA is an agreement between the People’s Liberation Movement and the government of Sudan. It was meant to end the second Sudanese Civil War, develop democratic governance countrywide, and share oil revenues. USCIRF is concerned that the CPA is in jeopardy and that Sudan could easily slip into its third North-South civil war since independence in 1956. “The CPA is the key to Sudan’s success and peace. If it fails so will Sudan,” said USCIRF chairwoman Felice Gaer.

Elections in Sudan are set to be completed no later than July of 2009 and a referendum be done sometime in 2011. Ambassador Richard Williamson said that the election can bring new identity to the south and the south will have the opportunity to have a self-identification. Williamson said that without the elections the referendum cannot happen, and it will hinder the peace between the south and north. “The referendum is the final and most important plank of the CPA. Without it Sudan will fall back into war,” Williamson said during the hearing.

Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for Africa (USAID) Earl Gast insisted that without a credible and loyal government in Sudan the elections will fail. “Despite of U.S. investments, preparations for Sudan’s elections are at an impasse and we are nearing a crossroads,” said Gast. Gast also said that at this point in time Sudan’s government is too deformed to be reformed and that Sudan and the U.S. need to come to a resolution before the 2009 elections.

Williamson said that the U.S. needs to call on its allies for support. Since the CPA was signed in 2005, five billion dollars have been distributed to Sudan’s relief fund. “The bulk of the five billion dollars has been spent on keeping people alive day to day. We have not been able to spend the money on helping the two million people that are still displaced, still after three years since the CPA was signed. With the help of U.S. allies, Sudan’s relief fund could help those that have been displaced, ” said Williamson during the hearing. The USCIRF is hoping that the elections will bring Sudan closer to a resolution and allow the Sudanese to live freely in their country.

Human rights is not a boutique issue

At the national conference of the Campus Progress organization of the Center for American Progress, hundreds of young college student gathered together to hear a discussion about the “forgotten factor” in foreign policy: human rights. Nancy Rubin, former U.S.ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights urged young adults to take action on human rights.

Rubin said that human rights is in all of our hands and is based on the inherent dignity of people. International human rights laws were created after World War II and we still need it, however the United States has not ratified many of the newer human rights conventions such as the Kyoto Protocol. Rubin said that human rights are fundamental to how we do business around the world.

The United States was a strong, bold, strategic leader in the fight for human rights, but lately “we have fallen behind on ratifications,” Rubin said. The U.S. is a leader in many other things and has a huge potential to create change if youth and others band together and fight for human rights.

Mallika Dutt, founder and executive director of Breakthrough, said that human rights is a complex, complicated issue that covers a myriad of issues from deportation, to immigration, HIV/AIDS, counterterrorism and national security. Dutt also called the youth to action to petition the government and the government of offending nations to respect human rights.

Emotional Upheaval: Making the Sudan video

I developed great sadness while making the video about the Christian Solidarity International/Talkers Magazine Trip to Southern Sudan video, and have written an extended post about it on my personal website.

Click here to visit my personal website and read my thoughts on this video.

Sudan is like “Mount Vesuvius,” ready to blow

The American Islamic Congress held a discussion of “Violence in Sudan: Muslim and Arab Responses.” Deng Deng Nhial of the Mission of the Government of Southern Sudan to the U.S. said that the Sudanese government is using a strategy of Islamization to manipulate the Sudanese people. He warned that the country is like Mount Vesuvius and will disintegrate like the former Soviet Union if nothing is done.

Nhial said that out of 49 years of independence, 39 have been years of war and that a unilateral effort of the U.S. will be ineffective in changing the behavior of the Sudanese government. He doubts any support of Europe will help. Instead, he said that Muslim Americans must work to get Arab countries to join the effort to end the Sudanese government’s violence. Suliman Giddo, the President of Darfur Peace and Development, said that the silence of the Muslim community must end in order for peaceful coexistence in Sudan to occur.