[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 109 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 109

Relating to the activities of the National Islamic Front government in 
                                 Sudan.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 27, 1999

Mr. Brownback (for himself, Mr. Frist, Mr. Hutchinson, Mr. Lautenberg, 
Mr. Mack, and Mr. Lieberman) submitted the following resolution; which 
           was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Relating to the activities of the National Islamic Front government in 
                                 Sudan.

Whereas according to the United States Committee for Refugees (USCR), 
        approximately 1,900,000 people have died in Sudan over the past decade 
        due to war and war-related causes and famine, and millions more people 
        in Sudan have been displaced from their homes and separated from their 
        families, making this the deadliest war in the last decade in terms of 
        mortality rates;
Whereas the war policy of the National Islamic Front government in southern 
        Sudan and the Nuba Mountains has brought untold suffering on innocent 
        civilians and threatens the very survival of a whole generation of 
        southern Sudanese;
Whereas the people of the Nuba Mountains are at particular risk from this policy 
        because they have been the specific target of a deliberate prohibition 
        on international food aid, which has helped induce a man-made famine, 
        and have been subject to the routine bombing of their civilian centers, 
        including religious facilities, schools, and hospitals;
Whereas the National Islamic Front government is deliberately and systematically 
        committing crimes against humanity in southern Sudan and the Nuba 
        Mountains;
Whereas the National Islamic Front government has systematically and repeatedly 
        obstructed the peace efforts of the Inter-governmental Authority for 
        Development (IGAD) in Sudan over the past several years;
Whereas the Declaration of Principles put forth by Inter-governmental Authority 
        for Development mediators provides the most fruitful negotiating 
        framework for resolving problems in Sudan and bringing lasting peace to 
        Sudan;
Whereas humanitarian conditions in southern Sudan, especially in Bahr al-Ghazal, 
        deteriorated in 1998 largely because of the decision of the National 
        Islamic Front government to ban United Nations relief flights in those 
        areas from February through April 1998;
Whereas the National Islamic Front government continues to deny access by United 
        Nations relief flights to certain locations in Sudan, including a 
        blanket prohibition on flights to the Nuba Mountains, resulting in 
        deterioration of humanitarian conditions;
Whereas approximately 2,600,000 Sudanese were at risk of starvation in Sudan in 
        late 1998, and the World Food Program currently estimates that 4,000,000 
        people are in need of emergency assistance in that area;
Whereas the relief effort in Sudan coordinated by the United Nations, Operation 
        Lifeline Sudan (OLS), failed to respond in a timely fashion to the 
        humanitarian crisis in Sudan at the height of that crisis in 1998 and 
        has allowed the National Islamic Front government to manipulate and 
        obstruct relief efforts in Sudan;
Whereas relief efforts in Sudan are further complicated by repeated airborne 
        attacks by the National Islamic Front government on feeding centers, 
        clinics, and other civilian targets in certain areas of Sudan;
Whereas such relief efforts are further complicated by the looting and killing 
        of innocent civilians by militias sponsored by the National Islamic 
        Front government;
Whereas these militias have carried out violent raids in Aweil East and West, 
        Twic, and Gogrial counties in the Bahr al-Ghazal/Lakes Region, killing 
        and displacing thousands of civilians, which reflects a deliberate ethic 
        cleansing policy in these counties and in the Nuba Mountains;
Whereas the National Islamic Front government has perpetrated a prolonged 
        campaign of human rights abuses and discrimination throughout Sudan;
Whereas the militias associated with the National Islamic Front government have 
        engaged in the enslavement of innocent civilians, including children, 
        women, and elderly;
Whereas slave raids are commonly undertaken by the militias of the Popular 
        Defense Force of the National Islamic Front as part of a self-declared 
        jihad, or holy war, against the predominately Christian and traditional 
        believers of southern Sudan;
Whereas the Department of State in its report on Human Rights Practices for 1997 
        affirmed with respect to Sudan 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 Department of State in its report on Human Rights Practices for 1998 
        states with respect to Sudan that ``[c]redible reports persist of 
        practices such as the sale and purchase of children, some in alleged 
        slave markets'';
Whereas the enslavement of people is considered a crime against humanity under 
        international law;
Whereas it is estimated that tens of thousands of Sudanese have been enslaved by 
        militias sponsored by the National Islamic Front government;
Whereas the former United Nations Special Rapporteur for Sudan, Gaspar Biro, and 
        the present Special Rapporteur, Leonardo Franco, have reported on a 
        number of occasions the routine practice of slavery in Sudan and the 
        complicity of the National Islamic Front government in that practice;
Whereas the National Islamic Front government abuses and tortures political 
        opponents and innocent civilians in northern Sudan, and many people in 
        northern Sudan have been killed by that government over the years;
Whereas the vast majority of Muslims in Sudan do not prescribe to policies of 
        National Islamic Front extremists, including the politicized practice of 
        Islam, and moderate Muslims in Sudan have been specifically targeted by 
        the National Islamic Front government;
Whereas the National Islamic Front government is considered by much of the world 
        community as 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 New York City in 1993;
Whereas the National Islamic Front government has permitted Sudan to be used by 
        well known terrorist organizations as a refuge and training center;
Whereas Osama bin-Laden, the Saudi-born financier of extremist groups and 
        mastermind of the bombings of the United States embassies in Nairobi, 
        Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 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 those bombings;
Whereas relations between the United States and Sudan continue to deteriorate 
        because of human rights violations, the war policy of the National 
        Islamic Front government in southern Sudan, and that government's 
        support for international terrorism;
Whereas in 1993 the United States Government placed Sudan 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 to the 
        National Islamic Front government, is a just struggle for freedom and 
        democracy against that government: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) strongly condemns the National Islamic Front government 
        in Sudan for its support for terrorism and its continued human 
        rights violations;
            (2) strongly deplores the slave raids in southern Sudan and 
        calls on the National Islamic Front government to end 
        immediately the practice of slavery in Sudan;
            (3) calls on the United Nations Security Council--
                    (A) to condemn such slave raids and bring to 
                justice those responsible for the crimes against 
                humanity which such slave raids entail;
                    (B) to implement the existing air embargo, and 
                impose an arms embargo, on the National Islamic Front 
                government;
                    (C) to swiftly implement reforms of Operation 
                Lifeline Sudan in order to enhance the independence of 
                that operation from the National Islamic Front 
                government; and
                    (D) to determine whether or not the war policy of 
                the National Islamic Front government in southern Sudan 
                and the Nuba Mountains constitutes genocide; and
                    (E) to implement the recommendations of the United 
                Nations Special Rapporteur for Sudan, Leonardo Franco, 
                who has called for the posting of human rights monitors 
                throughout Sudan; and
            (4) calls on the President to take leadership on policies--
                    (A) to increase support for relief organizations 
                working outside the umbrella of Operation Lifeline 
                Sudan, including, in particular, the dedication of 
                programs to and an increase in resources of 
                organizations serving the Nuba Mountains;
                    (B) to instruct the Agency for International 
                Development (AID) and other appropriate agencies to--
                            (i) provide additional support to and 
                        coordinate activities with nongovernmental 
                        organizations involved in relief work in Sudan 
                        that work outside the umbrella of organizations 
                        supported by Operation Lifeline Sudan, 
                        including the Nuba Mountains; and
                            (ii) enhance the independence of Operation 
                        Lifeline Sudan from the National Islamic Front 
                        government, including by removing that 
                        government's power of automatic veto over its 
                        operation;
                    (C) to double the funds that are made available 
                through the so-called STAR Program for the promotion of 
                the rule of law to advance democracy, civil 
                administration, and the judiciary, and the enhancement 
                of infrastructure, in areas in Sudan that are 
                controlled by the opposition to the National Islamic 
                Front government;
                    (D) to instruct the Agency for International 
                Development to provide humanitarian assistance, 
                including food, directly to indigenous service groups 
                in southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains;
                    (E) to intensify and expand United States 
                diplomatic and economic pressure on the National 
                Islamic Front government in conjunction with and urging 
                other countries to impose sanctions regimes on that 
                government that are similar to sanction regime imposed 
                on that government by the United States;
                    (F) to continue to enhance the peace process in 
                Sudan supported by the Inter-governmental Authority for 
                Development; and
                    (G) to report to Congress not later than three 
                months after the adoption of this resolution regarding 
                the efforts or plans of the President to promote the 
                end of slavery in Sudan.
                                 <all>