[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 75 Engrossed in House (EH)]
1st Session
H. CON. RES. 75
_______________________________________________________________________
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Condemning the National Islamic Front (NIF) government for its
genocidal war in southern Sudan, support for terrorism, and continued
human rights violations, and for other purposes.
106th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. CON. RES. 75
_______________________________________________________________________
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Whereas according to the United States Committee for Refugees (USCR) an
estimated 1,900,000 people have died over the past decade due to war and
war-related causes and famine, while millions have been displaced from
their homes and separated from their families;
Whereas the National Islamic Front (NIF) government's war policy in southern
Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, and the Ingessena Hills has brought untold
suffering to innocent civilians and is threatening the very survival of
a whole generation of southern Sudanese;
Whereas the people of the Nuba Mountains and the Ingessena Hills are at
particular risk, having been specifically targeted through a deliberate
prohibition of international food aid, inducing manmade famine, and by
routinely bombing civilian centers, including religious services,
schools, and hospitals;
Whereas the National Islamic Front government is deliberately and systematically
committing genocide in southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, and the
Ingessena Hills;
Whereas the Convention for the Prevention and the Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948,
defines ``genocide'' as official acts committed by a government with the
intent to destroy a national, ethnic, or religious group, and this
definition also includes ``deliberately inflicting on the group
conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction,
in whole or in part'';
Whereas the National Islamic Front government systematically and repeatedly
obstructed peace efforts of the Intergovernmental Authority for
Development (IGAD) over the past several years;
Whereas the Declaration of Principles (DOP) put forth by the Intergovernmental
Authority for Development mediators is the most viable negotiating
framework to resolve the problems in Sudan and to bring lasting peace;
Whereas humanitarian conditions in southern Sudan, especially in Bahr al-Ghazal
and the Nuba Mountains, deteriorated in 1998, largely due to the
National Islamic Front government's decision to ban United Nation's
relief flights from February through the end of April in 1998 and the
government continues to deny access in certain locations;
Whereas an estimated 2,600,000 southern Sudanese were at risk of starvation late
last year in southern Sudan and the World Food Program currently
estimates that 4,000,000 people are in need of emergency assistance;
Whereas the United Nations-coordinated relief effort, Operation Lifeline Sudan
(OLS), failed to respond in time at the height of the humanitarian
crisis last year and has allowed the National Islamic Front government
to manipulate and obstruct the relief efforts;
Whereas the relief work in the affected areas is further complicated by the
National Islamic Front's repeated aerial attacks on feeding centers,
clinics, and other civilian targets;
Whereas relief efforts are further exacerbated by looting, bombing, and killing
of innocent civilians and relief workers by government-sponsored
militias in the affected areas;
Whereas these government-sponsored militias have carried out violent raids in
Aweil West, Twic, and Gogrial counties in Bahr el Ghazal/Lakes Region,
killing hundreds of civilians and displacing thousands;
Whereas the National Islamic Front government has perpetrated a prolonged
campaign of human rights abuses and discrimination throughout the
country;
Whereas the National Islamic Front government-sponsored militias have been
engaged in the enslavement of innocent civilians, including children,
women, and the elderly;
Whereas the now common slave raids being carried out by the government's Popular
Defense Force (PDF) militias are undertaken as part of the government's
self-declared jihad (holy war) against the predominantly traditional and
Christian south;
Whereas, according to the American Anti-Slavery Group of Boston, there are tens
of thousands of women and children now living as chattel slaves in
Sudan;
Whereas these women and children were captured in slave raids taking place over
a decade by militia armed and controlled by the National Islamic Front
regime in Khartoum--they are bought, sold, branded, and bred;
Whereas the Department of State, in its report on Human Rights Practices for
1997, affirmed that ``reports and information from a variety of sources
after February 1994 indicate that the number of cases of slavery,
servitude, slave trade, and forced labor have increased alarmingly'';
Whereas the enslavement of people is considered in international law as ``crime
against humanity'';
Whereas observers estimate the number of people enslaved by government-sponsored
militias to be in the tens of thousands;
Whereas former United Nations Special Rapporteur for Sudan, Gaspar Biro, and his
successor, Leonardo Franco, reported on a number of occasions the
routine practice of slavery and the complicity of the Government of
Sudan;
Whereas the National Islamic Front government abuses and tortures political
opponents and innocent civilians in the North and that many northerners
have been killed by this regime over the years;
Whereas the vast majority of Muslims in Sudan do not subscribe to the National
Islamic Front's extremist and politicized practice of Islam and moderate
Muslims have been specifically targeted by the regime;
Whereas the National Islamic Front government is considered by much of the world
community to be a rogue state because of its support for international
terrorism and its campaign of terrorism against its own people;
Whereas according to the Department of State's Patterns of Global Terrorism
Report, ``Sudan's support to terrorist organizations has included
paramilitary training, indoctrination, money, travel documentation, safe
passage, and refuge in Sudan'';
Whereas the National Islamic Front government has been implicated in the
assassination attempt of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia in
1995 and the World Trade Center bombing in 1993;
Whereas the National Islamic Front government has permitted Sudan to be used by
well-known terrorist organizations as a refuge and training hub over the
years;
Whereas the Saudi-born financier of extremist groups and the mastermind of the
United States embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, Osama bin-Laden,
used Sudan as a base of operations for several years and continues to
maintain economic interests there;
Whereas on August 20, 1998, United States Naval forces struck a suspected
chemical weapons facility in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, in
retaliation for the United States embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es
Salaam;
Whereas relations between the United States and Sudan continue to deteriorate
because of human rights violations, the government's war policy in
southern Sudan, and the National Islamic Front's support for
international terrorism;
Whereas the United States Government placed Sudan in 1993 on the list of seven
states in the world that sponsor terrorism and imposed comprehensive
sanctions on the National Islamic Front government in November 1997; and
Whereas the struggle by the people of Sudan and opposition forces is a just
struggle for freedom and democracy against the extremist regime in
Khartoum: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),
That the Congress--
(1) strongly condemns the National Islamic Front government
for its genocidal war in southern Sudan, support for terrorism,
and continued human rights violations;
(2) strongly deplores the government-sponsored and
tolerated slave raids in southern Sudan and calls on the
government to immediately end the practice of slavery;
(3) calls on the United Nations Security Council to condemn
the slave raids and bring to justice those responsible for
these crimes against humanity;
(4) calls on the President--
(A) to increase support for relief organizations
that are working outside the United Nations-coordinated
relief effort, Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), in
opposition-controlled areas;
(B) to instruct the Administrator of the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID) and
the heads of other relevant agencies to significantly
increase and better coordinate with nongovernmental
organizations outside the Operation Lifeline Sudan
system involved in relief work in Sudan;
(C) to instruct the Administrator of USAID and the
Secretary of State to work to strengthen the
independence of Operation Lifeline Sudan from the
National Islamic Front government;
(D) to substantially increase development funds for
capacity building, democracy promotion, civil
administration, judiciary, and infrastructure support
in opposition-controlled areas, and to report on a
quarterly basis to the Congress on the progress made
under this subparagraph;
(E) to instruct appropriate agencies to provide
humanitarian assistance directly, including food, to
the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), its NDA
allies, and other indigenous groups in southern Sudan
and the Nuba Mountains;
(F) to intensify and expand United States
diplomatic and economic pressures on the National
Islamic Front government by maintaining the current
unilateral sanctions regime and by increasing efforts
for multilateral sanctions;
(G) to provide the Sudan People's Liberation Army
(SPLA) and its National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
allies with political and material support;
(H) to take the lead to strengthen the
Intergovernmental Authority for Development's (IGAD)
peace process; and
(I) not later than 3 months after the adoption of
this resolution, to report to the Congress about the
administration's efforts or plans to end slavery in
Sudan;
(5) calls on the United Nations Security Council--
(A) to impose an arms embargo on the Government of
Sudan;
(B) to condemn the enslavement of innocent
civilians and take appropriate measures against the
perpetrators of this crime;
(C) to swiftly implement reforms within the
Operation Lifeline Sudan to enhance independence from
the National Islamic Front regime;
(D) to implement United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1070 relating to an air embargo;
(E) to make a determination that the National
Islamic Front's war policy in southern Sudan and the
Nuba Mountains constitutes genocide or ethnic
cleansing; and
(F) to protect innocent civilians from aerial
bombardment by the National Islamic Front's air force;
(6) urges the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development
(IGAD) partners under the leadership of President Daniel Arap
Moi to call on the Government of Sudan to immediately stop the
indiscriminate bombings in southern Sudan;
(7) strongly condemns any government that financially
supports the Government of Sudan;
(8) calls on the President to transmit to the Congress not
later than 90 days after the date of the adoption of this
concurrent resolution, and not later than every 90 days
thereafter, a report regarding flight suspensions for
humanitarian purposes concerning Operation Lifeline Sudan; and
(9) urges the President to increase by 100 percent the
allocation of funds that are made available through the
Sudanese Transition Assistance for Rehabilitation Program
(commonly referred to as the ``STAR Program'') for the
promotion of the rule of law to advance democracy, civil
administration and judiciary, and the enhancement of
infrastructure, in the areas in Sudan that are controlled by
the opposition to the National Islamic Front government.
Passed the House of Representatives June 15, 1999.
Attest:
Clerk.