[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 75 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 75


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 16, 1999

      Received and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         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

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:

                                                 JEFF TRANDAHL,

                                                                 Clerk.