President-elect Barack Obama needs to honor his Darfur pledge.

“I will make ending the genocide in Darfur a priority from day one,” he promised on the campaign trail in April.

But what does this promise mean?

George Bush, after all, has said a lot about his commitment to the people of Darfur, yet tragedy continues on his watch. His recognition that the violence there constituted genocide came in September 2004, a year and a half after atrocities began and hundreds of thousands had already died.

Invoking the hallowed “G” word hardly led to a change in U.S. policy.

Darfur has spiraled into what Human Rights Watch aptly described as “chaos by design.” U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Richard Williamson has called it “genocide in slow motion.”

The United Nations estimates 40,000 people were displaced in the past two months and 210,000 in 2008 as a whole.

The Bush administration undermined its diplomatic pressure on the Sudanese government by pursuing a parallel track of counterterrorism intelligence. U.S. pressure has little credible effect when Sudanese officials know that despite whatever State Department officials say, U.S. intelligence agencies will continue to coddle them.

As president, Obama should end this hypocrisy and make human rights, not the so-called war on terror, the unambiguous top priority in U.S.-Sudan relations.

And rather than treating each of Sudan’s conflicts in isolation, the U.S. must pursue an all-Sudan strategy. This means focusing on both Darfur and the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended the civil war in southern Sudan but which is now fraying.

Obama should appoint a full-time U.S. presidential envoy, equipped with a large team of dedicated junior and senior staff, including personnel based in Sudan.

Obama should support the efforts of the African Union-UN Lead Mediator Djibril Bassole, as well as the 26,000-person peacekeeping mission there.

And Obama should also demand the inclusion of women’s voices and others in Darfur’s civil society in the process of political negotiations.

The Obama administration’s diplomacy also needs to be better coordinated with the international community, including European allies, Arab and African states and other countries that hold key leverage over Sudan — such as China.

Obama is well educated on Sudan. During the campaign trail, he pledged over and over to concerned activists that he would diligently and urgently pursue peace and justice for Sudan.

The question remaining is one of political will. For the 2.7 million people still living in camps in Darfur and neighboring countries, grandiose rhetoric is little comfort — whether it comes from a President Obama or a President Bush.

Gerald LeMelle is executive director of Africa Action, based in Washington, D.C., which works to change U.S. Africa relations to promote political, economic and social justice in Africa. He can be reached at pmproj [at] progressive [dot] org.