Compromising with Evil: An archival history of greater Sudan, 2007

“What distinguishes the writings of Professor Eric Reeves is not only consistency but also the creative marriage of high intellectual research with strict, unshakeable moral commitment to democracy and human values.”

Alhag Ali Warrag, editor-in-chief of al-Hurriyat (Khartoum/Kampala) and 2012 recipient of the Oxfam/PEN Award, given to writers and journalists defending freedom of expression.

“No one has written about the recent history of the Sudan with greater moral force, intellectual integrity, empirical knowledge, and political insight than Eric Reeves. This is an eBook that should be available on every political website.”

Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, New Jersey), editor of Dissent Magazine and author of Just and Unjust Wars.

“Professor Eric Reeves has managed in this book to provide one of the most outstanding and meticulous archival accounts of this critical period in the history of the Greater Sudan.”

Luka Biong Deng Kuol, co-chair of the Abyei Oversight Committee and former Minister for Presidential Affairs in the Government of South Sudan.

“Many of those who have claimed to steadfastly stand by the victims of mass atrocities in Sudan have compromised their position and, perhaps out of fatigue, ignorance, or bewilderment, walked away. Eric Reeves is the exception. He has resisted the fickle throes of the day and maintained an intense and unparalleled focus on the greater tragedy: the deliberate and unremitting strategy of mass murder and starvation perpetuated by the Khartoum regime against the inhabitants of the greater Sudan. This work is a testament to this effort.

“It provides an uncompromising and powerful resource detailing the last five torturous years in Sudan, from the failure of the international community in Darfur, and the border regions of Abyei and South Kordofan, to the impending war with the newly independent state of South Sudan. The contents of this work provide the empirical basis for renewed and increasing efforts to stop the atrocities in Sudan, or at very least a historical record to guard against claims that we simply did not know what was happening.”

Lt.-General the Hon. Roméo A. Dallaire (retired), Member of Canadian Senate. Commander, UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR); his book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, was awarded the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction (Canada) in 2004.

“Eric Reeves has been writing about contemporary Sudanese issues for over a decade, documenting on a regular basis that country’s slide into deeper violence and the successive failures of its peace processes. A professor of English Language and Literature at a well-known American liberal arts college, he was an unlikely candidate to become what some now call ‘a one-man lobbying machine.’ He has built up an impressive network of contacts, informants and partners in reporting the tragedy that has become Sudan, the evaporation of any realistic prospect for a democratic transformation in that country, and the inadequacies of the international community’s diplomatic interventions. This sequel to his 2007 archival account, A Long Day’s Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide, is a timely reminder of how extensive his coverage has been not only of the Darfur crisis, but of the un- raveling of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement and renewed fighting within Sudan’s ‘New South’: the Sudan/South Sudan frontier. It makes for very uncomfortable reading, and we are fortunate that, rather than give up in despair, Eric Reeves has persevered.”

Douglas H. Johnson, Oxford University, author of The Root Causes of Sudan’s Civil Wars: Peace or Truce (revised ed. 2011); former member of the Abyei Boundaries Commission and author of “The Road Back from Abyei” (Rift Valley Institute).

“For nearly 14 years, Eric Reeves has been by far the most consistent analyst of what is now two Sudans. Published in some of the more accessible outlets, on his blog and distributed through his email list or presented in testimonies in the United States Congress, his accounts of the humanitarian situation in Darfur, the genocide in the Nuba Mountains, the flagrant violations of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement by Khartoum, and the ongoing crises on the border between Sudan and South Sudan, have all been made more relevant to decisions made by the international community on Sudan than any other material that I am aware of. That this eBook brings most of these analyses together, with appendices and clear references, makes Reeves’s work more application-oriented than ever. The human rights activist, the humanitarian aid worker who needs to understand the context, the peace activist and the mediator between the two Sudans, should all have Compromising with Evil as a guide book.”

Jok Madut Jok, Professor of History at Loyola Marymount (Los Angeles) and author of War and Slavery in Sudan. He is founder and executive director of the Marol School (Warrap State, South Sudan) and Undersecretary for the Ministry of Culture, Government of South Sudan.

“Eric Reeves has made an invaluable contribution to international advocacy on Sudan. He brings the rigour of an academic to the conversation, but he writes with the passion of his heart. He has a deep sense of what is right and just, and this drives him to document and analyse the wrong he sees in Sudan. His contribution to the struggle for justice and freedom in both Sudan and South Sudan has been (and still is) invaluable, and is much appreciated by the people of both nations.”

John Ashworth, former advisor to the Sudan Ecumenical Forum who has worked for thirty years in the cause of a just peace for South Sudan.

“Eric Reeves is the Government of Sudan’s most engaged and informed critic. Other analysts falter in the face of the grim complexity of events in Darfur and Kordofan and South Sudan. But Reeves’s unrelenting attention has produced a devastating catalogue of the Government’s continuing abuse of its citizens—and the inadequate response of the UN and the world powers. The rulers of Sudan have presided over an enormity of suffering; this book presents the case they have to answer.”

John Ryle, Legrand Ramsey Professor of Anthropology Bard College and author, Warriors of the White Nile.

“A must read. Eric Reeves writes about the hopelessness, the betrayal, the neglect, and the suffering of the Sudanese people. This is an important reminder of our failure to help end the suffering of the people of Sudan. In describing the Khartoum regime, our friend the late John Garang once said, ‘They are too deformed to be reformed.’ Eric brilliantly proves the case.”

Ted Dagne, Former Congressional aide and senior Africa researcher at the Congressional Research Service, Washington, DC.

“Eric Reeves is a ‘one hundred percent’ kind of guy when it comes to working to protect all the diverse victim populations of Omer Bashir and his National Islamic Front cabal in Khartoum. Eric, in good health and even when his life has been at risk, consistently has given his all on behalf of the folks Bashir has targeted for extinction for 23 years. Eric’s weapons are words, facts and principles. He does all he can to tell the victims’ and would-be victims’ stories and to document the criminal actions of the Bashir forces and strip them morally naked. This publication is another tool to do just that.”

Roger Winter, former Executive Director of the US Committee for Refugees, and former U.S. Special Representative on Sudan.

“Eric Reeves is the unparalleled voice of conscience and substance on the genocidal dimensions of the conflict in Darfur and Sudan. His cumulative knowledge and informed advocacy is ceaseless, and unsurpassed. This remarkable book is a key to understanding how change can happen in this unconscionably neglected part of the world.”

John Hagan, MacArthur Professor of Law and Sociology, Northwestern University and co-author of Darfur and the Crime of Genocide.

“No one has fought for justice in the Sudans like Eric Reeves. Don’t be deterred by the polemic: his sources are impeccable and his analyses spot on. This compendium by Professor Reeves will be indispensable to those needing a reference book for a vast and complex subject.”

Gillian Lusk, writer on Sudan and South Sudan for thirty years

“This book is a testament to the gravity of the human rights abuses in Sudan and the failure of the world to deal properly with the crisis. Eric Reeves has, painstakingly, put together the most comprehensive account to date of the despicable atrocities of the Bashir regime against the people of Sudan. If one man can do this, we can only imagine what we would have done, collectively, to save our souls.”

Omer Ismail, Darfuri activist, co-founder of the Darfur Peace and Development Organization, senior analyst on Sudan for the Enough Project

“For the past few years, while the world has been stunningly silent, Eric Reeves has continued to write about the atrocities and immensely destructive policies of the Sudan government. His 2007 book, A Long Day’s Dying, brought many of the atrocity crimes in Darfur to international attention. While some skeptics or deniers, such as Mahmood Mamdani, dismissed his writings, activists in Darfur and elsewhere continue to be sustained in their commitment by virtue of the research of A Long Day’s Dying.

“His new and lengthy eBook, representing much of his writing from 2007 to the present, makes a great deal more key information available concerning the evolving crises in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile, and the border region between North and South Sudan. In recent years the international community has chosen to turn a blind eye to what is happening in Darfur and Sudan. For his part, Eric Reeves has continued relentlessly to expose the failure of the international community in bringing about peace to Sudan, whether through implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 or the UNAMID mission in Darfur.

“Reeves’s new eBook contains 14 annexes, each dealing with a specific topic of controversy that demands to be read. I strongly that urge those concerned about Sudan to read this new publication, which offers a sobering view of the deteriorating situation in both North and South Sudan.”

Mohammed Ahmed Eisa, Darfuri activist and the former director of the Amal Center for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture (Nyala, South Darfur); Robert F. Kennedy human rights award laureate for 2007.