Sudan advocacy groups target congressional staffers on Facebook

Are you a congressional staffer with a Facebook account? If so, prepare to see a new Sudan advocacy ad on Facebook directed at you!

A coalition of Sudan-related organizations is launching a new ad campaign today targeting all congressional staffers and the constituents of key House and Senate foreign policy leaders as part of the groups’ ongoing criticism of the way the Obama administration is handling Sudan policy.

The ad is one of a package. The others target people living in the districts of Senate Foreign Relations Committee heads John Kerry, D-MA, and Richard Lugar, R-IN, as well as House Foreign Affairs Committee leaders Howard Berman, D-CA, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-FL.

These groups, which include the Enough Project at the Center for American Progress, the San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition, the Genocide Intervention Network (GIN), the Darfur Human Rights Organization, and Stop Genocide Now, ran an ad in the Washington Post in January targeting the top deputies of several executive branch agencies.

Apparently unsatisfied with their drive to influence administration leaders, they are now turning their fire to Capitol Hill, asking lawmakers to press the Obama team to get tougher with the Khartoum regime ahead of the national elections in Sudan, which are approaching fast.

“In 10 days there will be national elections and afterwards everybody will ask the question: Are they legitimate? We feel that this question has already been answered,” said GIN executive director Sam Bell. “This is not a legitimate election and it shouldn’t be recognized as such by the U.S. or any other countries.”

Bell’s contention is bolstered by the fact that Sudan’s main opposition parties this week announced they are boycotting the election. But the advocacy groups’ gripes go farther than that. They are increasingly frustrated by what they see as a disjointed message coming from different parts of the administration, and too soft a line coming from Obama’s special envoy, retired Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration.

“We see starkly different comments from different parts of the administration on a whole range of issues related to Sudan,” said Enough’s John Norris. “Gration has been unnecessarily and unduly warm in his comments about the elections and the peace process when neither of those is called for. … I don’t think by putting a rosy glow on things he does anyone any good.”

The administration said it would base its policies on what officials saw on the ground, not the words coming out of Khartoum. But all the reports from the ground are negative, Norris said.

Also, the administration said it would base its policies on concrete incentives and pressures, but those specific incentives and pressures have never been publicly released, he added.

Gration is in Sudan now, reportedly trying to salvage the election by meeting with both sides.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Støre, and United Kingdom Foreign Secretary David Miliband issued a statement urging the parties to participate while maintaining that no matter what happens, the 2011 referendum on southern independence should go forward.

“We urge all parties in Sudan to work urgently to ensure that elections can proceed peacefully and credibly in April,” they said. “We are deeply concerned by reports of continued administrative and logistical challenges, as well as restrictions on political freedoms.”