[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1462 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1462

 Condemning ongoing sales of arms to belligerents in Sudan, including 
the Government of Sudan, and calling for both a cessation of such sales 
 and an expansion of the United Nations embargo on arms sales to Sudan.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 18, 2008

Mr. McGovern (for himself, Mr. Garrett of New Jersey, and Mr. Miller of 
North Carolina) submitted the following resolution; which was referred 
                  to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Condemning ongoing sales of arms to belligerents in Sudan, including 
the Government of Sudan, and calling for both a cessation of such sales 
 and an expansion of the United Nations embargo on arms sales to Sudan.

Whereas, since 2003, the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan has killed at 
        least 300,000 people and displaced more than 2,500,000, according to the 
        United Nations;
Whereas, on July 22, 2004, the Senate declared, ``the atrocities unfolding in 
        Darfur, Sudan, are genocide'', and on September 9, 2004, then-Secretary 
        of State Colin Powell testified before the Committee on Foreign 
        Relations of the Senate that ``genocide has occurred and may still be 
        occurring in Darfur'' and ``the Government of Sudan and the Janjaweed 
        bear responsibility'';
Whereas, on July 30, 2004, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 
        1556, imposing an arms embargo on non-governmental belligerents in 
        Darfur, requiring ``all states [to] take the necessary measures to 
        prevent the sale or supply . . . of arms and related materiel of all 
        types, including weapons and ammunition, military vehicles and 
        equipment, paramilitary equipment, and spare parts for the 
        aforementioned'' to those belligerents;
Whereas, on March 29, 2005, the United Nations Security Council passed 
        Resolution 1591, extending the embargo imposed by Security Council 
        Resolution 1556 to apply to the Government of Sudan, establishing a 
        sanctions committee to monitor the arms embargo, and prohibiting the 
        Government of Sudan from moving arms into Darfur except with the advance 
        approval of that committee;
Whereas Security Council Resolutions 1556 and 1591 together impose on all United 
        Nations member states the obligation not to sell or supply arms to any 
        belligerent operating in Darfur, including the Sudanese military, and 
        obligate the Government of Sudan not to transfer any arms to Darfur 
        without the approval of the sanctions committee;
Whereas, in September 2006, the Panel of Experts on the Sudan, established 
        pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1591, reported to the United 
        Nations Security Council that a senior official of the Government of 
        Sudan told the Panel that ``the Government had a sovereign right to 
        transfer weapons and additional military personnel into Darfur without 
        obtaining the specific permission of the Security Council'';
Whereas the Panel of Experts on the Sudan also concluded that ``the Government 
        of the Sudan continues to violate the arms embargo by transferring 
        equipment and related weapons into Darfur'' and that ``[t]he Government 
        of the Sudan remains adamant that it has the right to transfer troops 
        and equipment into Darfur without reference to the sanctions Committee'' 
        established pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1591;
Whereas, in October 2007, the Panel of Experts on the Sudan reported numerous 
        instances in which the Government of Sudan had transferred arms to 
        Darfur without seeking the approval of the sanctions committee;
Whereas, according to a May 2007 report by Amnesty International, weapons 
        transferred to Sudan from China and Russia are used extensively in 
        Darfur;
Whereas, according to a July 2008 report by the British Broadcasting 
        Corporation, weapons have been transferred to Darfur from China since 
        the arms embargo imposed by Security Council Resolution 1591 became 
        effective;
Whereas, at the insistence of the Governments of China and Russia, arms sales to 
        the Government of Sudan were excluded from the arms embargo imposed by 
        Security Council Resolution 1556, though not from Security Council 
        Resolution 1591, passed 8 months later; and
Whereas, according to data provided by the Government of Sudan to the United 
        Nations, arms sales from China to the Government of Sudan have increased 
        dramatically since the late 1990s, and from 2004 through 2006, China 
        supplied approximately 90 percent of small arms imported into Sudan: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives 
that--
            (1) the United States should seek a peaceful resolution to 
        the conflict in Darfur and should continue to pursue a 
        political solution as well as the immediate and unfettered 
        deployment of the peacekeeping forces of the United Nations-
        African Union Mission in Darfur, without regard to the country 
        of origin of those forces;
            (2) the United States supports United Nations Security 
        Council Resolutions 1556 (2004) and 1591 (2005), imposing an 
        arms embargo on all belligerents in Darfur, and supports 
        consistent enforcement of the embargo;
            (3) taken together, the obligation imposed by the United 
        Nations on all member states to ``take the necessary measures 
        to prevent the sale or supply'' of arms to belligerents 
        operating in Darfur, the well-documented existence of arms in 
        Darfur that were transferred from China and Russia, and the 
        insistence of the Government of Sudan that it will not abide by 
        the embargo, lead to the conclusion that continued sale of arms 
        to Sudan under these circumstances violates the United Nations 
        arms embargo imposed by Security Council Resolutions 1556 and 
        1591;
            (4) all United Nations member states should immediately 
        cease all arms sales to the Government of Sudan, until the 
        conflict in Darfur, and the armed conflict related to the 
        Comprehensive Peace Agreement, have been peacefully resolved; 
        and
            (5) the United States Permanent Representative to the 
        United Nations should use the voice and vote of the United 
        States in the United Nations Security Council to seek an 
        expansion of the arms embargo imposed by Security Council 
        Resolutions 1556 and 1591 to cover all of Sudan, with an 
        appropriate exception for non-lethal assistance to the 
        Government of Southern Sudan.
                                 <all>