Waging Peace Director, Louise Roland-Gosselin responds to Simon Tidstall's article about elections and democracy in Sudan published in the Guardian on 17 March 2010:
Simon Tisdall is right to point out that a remarkable thing is happening in Sudan, which has been "largely overlooked" by the western world (World briefing: Outbreak of peace and pragmatism as Sudan prepares to go to polls, 17 March).
For the first time since 1986, Sudan is holding its first multiparty elections. However, having just returned from southern Sudan, where I was interviewing election monitors, politicians and local community leaders, I am intrigued to know what criteria Tisdall is applying when he says he believes the process is "going reasonably well".
According to him, the recent peace treaty between the government and the Justice and Equality Movement, Darfur's largest armed group, indicates that things are "proceeding smoothly". The fact that, days after the signing, the Sudanese army launched a major offensive in Jebel Marra, reportedly killing hundreds of civilians and "displacing tens of thousands", is dismissed as serving only as a "reminder of how fragile the situation there remains". With NGOs and the UN/African Union operation being denied access to the troubled areas, this cannot be dismissed as a case of "differences remaining", but represents a severe political and humanitarian crisis.
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