Concern that the European Union (EU) and the United States are taking the demands of the largely black African population of southern Sudan off the agenda is rising among a broad coalition of activists critical of the Arab National Islamic Front (NIF) government in Khartoum. A new peace process is sidelining those who favor tougher sanctions against the Sudan regime and who believe that negotiations to end the 19-year-old civil war must consider the autonomy demands of southerners in Sudan.