In January, the Sudanese Minister of Finance, Awad al-Jaz, will visit D.C. to try to convince the United States to help Sudan secure a debt-relief package.  That's right, the dictatorial government of Sudan, widely acknowledged as responsible for genocide and mass killings in Darfur and South Sudan, is asking the Obama administration for a favor.  As the Save Darfur Coalition's Sean Brooks writes in Foreign Policy, Sudan's debt provides a prime opportunity for the U.S. government to put serious pressure on Sudan to peacefully resolve its festering conflicts.

For the last decade, the government in Khartoum has made a pretty penny off the country's oil reserves, and has been cavalier about racking up debt.  The government's oil wealth has also made it difficult for the international community to put economic pressure on Khartoum to resolve the conflict in Darfur and implement the peace agreement in the South.  Now, with the global recession and decline in world oil prices, the Sudanese government is facing significantly lower revenues and difficulty obtaining foreign capital.

According to Brooks, the Sudanese government has responded to its situation in the following way:

The crash subsequently led the Sudanese government to return to the international community with an urgent appeal for debt relief. This summer, it asked the IMF to push forward a debt-relief package provided to other countries in similar financial circumstances and even convinced Japan to write off a small portion of its debt. Securing a debt relief package was at the top of the Sudanese delegation's agenda at the recent IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Turkey, and now -- for the first time publicly -- it has raised the issue with Obama's envoy to Sudan. The Sudanese newspaper Al-Sahafa reported last Tuesday that Sudanese Finance Minister Awad al-Jaz will travel to Washington in January to speak again with Gration.

Brooks argues that this is a key opening for the United States to pressure Sudan:

The Obama administration should lead an international coalition of Sudan's creditors to condition any consideration of debt relief on concrete and lasting progress toward peace in Darfur; the full implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which brought an end to the 22-year-long civil war between North and South Sudan; credible elections in April 2010; and significant political and judicial reforms that fundamentally change the repressive systems in Sudan.

This is a good policy suggestion.  For too long, the Obama administration has taken a conciliatory approach to Sudan that has gone no where.  On December 14th, the ruling political party in Sudan had the gall to violently suppress peaceful opposition protesters while the Sudanese minister of finance met with the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration to discuss debt-relief.  It is time that the Obama administration got serious about Sudan - and it has a perfect opening now.

Photo: Burning communities in Darfur / Brian Steidle