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
That it is the sense of the Senate
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)in light of 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, all United Nations member states should immediately cease all
arms sales to the Government of Sudan; and
(4)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 appropriate
expansion of the arms embargo imposed by Security Council Resolutions 1556 and
1591.