[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 113 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 113

    Regarding human rights violations and oil development in Sudan.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 26, 2001

  Mr. Payne submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
 referred to the Committee on International Relations, and in addition 
to the Committee on Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
    Regarding human rights violations and oil development in Sudan.

Whereas in 1999 Sudan began to export oil; the National Islamic Front (NIF) 
        government earns an estimated $500,000,000 each year from oil revenues 
        or ``blood oil'';
Whereas this regime is using these revenues to expand its purchase of deadly 
        weapons, including helicopter gunships, tanks, and heavy artillery, with 
        the goal of realizing its military objectives in south Sudan;
Whereas military expenditures by the NIF government have doubled in the last two 
        years; as a consequence, this regime is building an arms industry to 
        bolster its military strength in order to defeat the Sudan People's 
        Liberation Army (SPLA);
Whereas the increase in aerial bombardment and deployment of deadly new 
        helicopter gunships in south Sudan is directly linked to oil revenues; 
        according to the United States Committee for Refugees (USCR), the NIF 
        government bombed 152 civilian targets in 2000 and the bombings continue 
        in 2001;
Whereas oil development and extraction has displaced countless civilians from 
        their homes and villages; according to a report by Christian Aid, 55,000 
        civilians have been displaced and 48 villages have been burned in the 
        12-month period ending in March, 2001;
Whereas the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Corporation (Talisman Energy, China 
        National Petroleum Corporation, and Petronas of Malaysia) has extended 
        its operations westward into Concession Block 4, Lundin Oil is now 
        operating, along with passive investor OMV of Austria, in Concession 
        Block 5a, south of Bentiu, and TotalFinaElf of France appears poised to 
        enter its immense concession areas south and east of Bentiu;
Whereas increased investment by Western and Asian companies in Sudan's oil 
        sector will further diminish NIF's willingness to negotiate a just 
        peace, and increased oil revenues will also make possible the larger 
        destructiveness of the regime's war effort;
Whereas the United States Government cannot ignore or look with indifference on 
        the destructive role of oil development in Sudan; presently Talisman 
        Energy of Canada, PetroChina of China (a subsidiary virtually wholly 
        owned and fully governed by China National Petroleum Corporation), 
        Lundin Oil of Sweden, and TotalFinaElf of France all have listings on 
        United States stock exchanges;
Whereas it is not the intent of Congress to impose sanctions affecting capital 
        markets in the United States casually or without the greatest concern 
        for the integrity of those markets; and
Whereas the United States Congress cannot remain passive in the face of a 
        catastrophe defined by the destruction and displacement of millions of 
        human beings, especially when the complicity of corporate oil 
        development activities in this catastrophe is unequivocally clear: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That the Congress--
            (1) strongly urges the President to deny oil companies 
        operating in Sudan the ability to raise capital or trade 
        equities in the United States capital markets, including the 
        New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, and the 
        NASDAQ;
            (2) strongly urges the President to expand Executive Order 
        13067 (economic and trade sanctions on Sudan) by denying 
        capital market opportunities to all publicly traded equities of 
        all oil companies operating in Sudan;
            (3) calls urgently upon all oil companies operating in 
        Sudan to freeze oil production in Sudan, and cease exports of 
        oil from Sudan, until a just peace agreement in Sudan is 
        reached, until the aerial bombardment of civilian targets in 
        Sudan is halted, until the slave raids in Sudan are halted and 
        a family reunification program is put in place, until all 
        political prisoners in Sudan are released, and the emergency 
        decrees, which were imposed in December 1999 by the NIF 
        government, are suspended;
            (4) calls on the international community to boycott oil 
        from Sudan and the foreign companies involved in the production 
        of oil in, and the export of oil from, Sudan;
            (5) strongly urges companies contemplating an entrance into 
        Sudan's oil sector not to do so until a just peace in Sudan is 
        secured;
            (6) urges United States companies and individuals in the 
        United States who may have indirectly invested in companies 
        involved in oil development in Sudan to divest their holdings; 
        and
            (7) calls on the President to investigate possible 
        violations of Executive Order 13067 by PetroChina in its 
        Initial Public Offering on the New York Stock Exchange in April 
        2000.
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