[House Hearing, 112 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
SOUTHERN KORDOFAN: ETHNIC CLEANSING AND HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN SUDAN
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,
AND HUMAN RIGHTS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
AUGUST 4, 2011
__________
Serial No. 112-103
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
DAN BURTON, Indiana GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York
ELTON GALLEGLY, California ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American
DANA ROHRABACHER, California Samoa
DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California BRAD SHERMAN, California
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
RON PAUL, Texas GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
MIKE PENCE, Indiana RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri
JOE WILSON, South Carolina ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
CONNIE MACK, Florida GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas DENNIS CARDOZA, California
TED POE, Texas BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky
GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida BRIAN HIGGINS, New York
JEAN SCHMIDT, Ohio ALLYSON SCHWARTZ, Pennsylvania
BILL JOHNSON, Ohio CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut
DAVID RIVERA, Florida FREDERICA WILSON, Florida
MIKE KELLY, Pennsylvania KAREN BASS, California
TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina
ANN MARIE BUERKLE, New York
RENEE ELLMERS, North Carolina
VACANT
Yleem D.S. Poblete, Staff Director
Richard J. Kessler, Democratic Staff Director
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Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman
JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas KAREN BASS, California
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri
ANN MARIE BUERKLE, New York
C O N T E N T S
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Page
WITNESSES
Rt. Reverend Andudu Adam Elnail, Bishop, Anglican Diocese of
Kadugli, Sudan................................................. 7
Mr. Bradford Phillips, president, Persecution Project............ 14
Luka Biong Deng, Ph.D., executive director, Kush Inc............. 26
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
Rt. Reverend Andudu Adam Elnail: Prepared statement.............. 10
Mr. Bradford Phillips: Prepared statement........................ 19
Luka Biong Deng, Ph.D.: Prepared statement....................... 31
APPENDIX
Hearing notice................................................... 60
Hearing minutes.................................................. 61
The Honorable Russ Carnahan, a Representative in Congress from
the State of Missouri: Prepared statement...................... 62
SOUTHERN KORDOFAN: ETHNIC CLEANSING AND HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN SUDAN
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THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2011
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health,
and Human Rights
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m., in
room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H.
Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Smith. The subcommittee will come to order. And good
morning to everyone. We have called today's emergency hearing
because of the escalating crisis in the Sudanese State of
Southern Kordofan. This crisis first arose in June of this
year, shortly after the military forces of the Republic of
Sudan attacked the Abyei region, apparently as a provocation to
South Sudan's Sudanese People's Liberation Movement, or SPLM.
South Sudan was about to become independent and these attacks
may have been intended to provoke a fight that could derail
their independence.
At the same time, Sudanese attacks on SPLM North members in
the Sudanese State of Southern Kordofan were increasing.
Because of the fighting and the displacement of Sudanese and
foreigners from Southern Kordofan, no one is estimating how
many people are being killed in the area. We do know that more
than 73,000 people have been displaced. Whatever the numbers
involved, we can be sure that the suffering of the people of
Southern Kordofan, especially the Nuba people, has been
catastrophic.
This latest violence is a tragic resumption of a prior war
by the Khartoum government on the Nuba. Beginning in the 1980s,
Islamist elements of the North began an eradication campaign
against the Nuba, pitting northern Arabs against Africans in
the South. Unfortunately for the Nuba, they are not
Southerners, even though they have fought with the Southern
army during the North-South civil war. But neither are they
accepted by the elements ruling the North, even though many of
them are Muslims.
This left the Nuba on their own to suffer the onslaught of
the Khartoum government. The strategy of cultural cleansing
pursued by the government involved harsh attempts to depopulate
vast areas, killing potential combatants as well as many
others, and herding survivors into tightly controlled
government so-called refugee camps.
When jihad was declared by the Government of Sudan in 1992,
even Nuba Muslims were targeted with the rationale that Muslims
in SPLM areas were not true Muslims. Rape of Nuba women has
been a central component of the government's strategy aimed at
destroying the social fabric of Nuba society. Almost every
woman who has been in one of Khartoum's so-called peace camps
reportedly was either raped or threatened with rape. According
to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs, between 30,000 and 40,000 people out of a
population of 60,000 in Southern Kordofan, capital of Kadugli,
have fled the town. Many of the attacks in Southern Kordofan
were indiscriminate, including aerial bombardments and
artillery fire by Sudanese Armed Forces. Bombings have been
reported in five villages south of the state capital of
Kadugli, as well as Talodi, Hebon and Kaudo and other towns.
The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights
told the U.N. Security Council on July 29th that there were
reports as recently as July 27th of aerial bombings, forcing
civilians to flee into the Nuba Mountains.
I would point out that one of our witnesses today, Bradford
Phillips of the Persecution Project, earlier this week, on
Monday, brought with us very, very troubling evidence,
eyewitness evidence that he had gleaned being there for almost
2 weeks. So when we hear about the reports, here is a man who
actually saw it and it is the reason, frankly, it was the
genesis of this hearing today: His sense that we need to do
something to bring focus and scrutiny and hopefully action to
this terrible plight.
Some today are trying to downplay the overwhelming
responsibility of the Sudanese Government for the devastation
taking place in Southern Kordofan by referring to the refusal
of the SPLM North to lay down their arms to negotiate with
Khartoum. But there is no moral equivalence between the SPLM
North actions and those of the Bashir government. SPLM-North
members are not bombing people indiscriminately, not driving
Arabs off their lands and out of their homes, nor going door to
door to identify their perceived enemies in order to execute
them. The Government of Sudan's military forces are. And we
will soon see photographic evidence of these atrocities.
In addition, the recent attacks on Southern Kordofan have
disrupted the planting season and will have a long-term
negative impact on the ability of its people to feed
themselves. In parts of Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya, people
suffer from drought made worse by conflict. In Southern
Kordofan, the national government is creating a similar
humanitarian crisis. The death and destruction to which
Sudanese Africans have been subjected was thought to have ended
with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005
to end the North-South Civil War. However, the genocide in
Darfur diverted the international community's attention away
from the unresolved issues between North and South.
These lingering points of contention threaten to derail
independence for South Sudan just as the independence process
was coming to a conclusion. And now the struggle over Abyei
threatens to stifle the suffering cries and pleas for help that
are arising from the Nuba people as they are dragged into a
resumption of the Northern war against them.
We discussed this war during the subcommittee's June 16th
hearing of South Sudan. At that time, the fighting in Southern
Kordofan was as horrific as any attacks waged by the Khartoum
government. The testimony that will be presented today by
witnesses who have seen the carnage firsthand will reveal the
horrific extent of this situation.
Again, I welcome today's testimony to reveal the depth of
this tragedy and to discuss ways to address the suffering of
this particular region of Sudan.
I would like to now yield to my good friend and colleague,
Mr. Payne, for any opening comments.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much. And let me commend you, Mr.
Chairman, for calling this very important hearing. I just
rushed here from an earlier meeting that was called on the
problem of Somalia and the drought that is going on there. And
so I appreciate the chairman giving the attention to this
region, which, of course, because of our pressing problems here
in the U.S., and we do know that we have a primary obligation
to our Nation to make it strong and to correct some of the
errors that we have made in the past, we still cannot forget
that we have a world that is really being shattered by unshared
bread and that we have a responsibility still, as it says in
the Bible, to be our brother's keeper.
And so I know that it is difficult to focus on areas
outside of our immediate problems, but I do appreciate the
chairman keeping the issues before our Nation, because we do, I
believe, have an obligation.
Less than a month ago, the world witnessed the birth of a
new nation, the Republic of South Sudan. I was among the
delegation present at the ceremony. And I witnessed the joy of
the people of South Sudan that day following many decades of
struggle; struggle before independence, struggle since the
independence in 1956, struggle with the civil war that broke
out in 1989, struggles that continued until the CPA was signed
in 2005, and struggles up until the conclusion of the
referendum on July 9, 2011, when independence was announced and
celebrated. So it has been a struggle for the people of South
Sudan, and the struggle continues.
The Sudanese people accomplished a great deal and their
celebration is well deserved and certainly overdue. The
peaceful nature in which 98.8 percent of South Sudanese voted
for their independence was commendable and should serve as a
witness of what Sudanese people are capable of. As a matter of
fact, voter registration was probably in excess of 90 percent
also. And it is recorded that this turnout even exceeded the
turnout of South Africa when they had their first election,
when Mr. Mandela was a candidate for President of a new South
Africa. So we have to really commend the people of South Sudan
for their determination and their appreciation for democracy.
Unfortunately, though, persistent violence in South
Kordofan and other border areas also remind us that the
important work still remains to be done to ensure peace within
both countries, North and South Sudan, and a peaceful
relationship between the neighboring states.
In June, this subcommittee convened to discuss the
challenges that the pending nation of South Sudan would face.
We are now on the other side of the independence celebration
and are witnessing some of the challenges that Southerners
living in the North are facing.
In today's hearing, we will be focusing on the disputed
region of South Kordofan and the human rights violations that
are occurring at the hands of President Bashir against the
Nubian people. As you know, the map was drawn in 1956, or prior
to that, and when the British gave independence on January the
1st, 1956, the lines were drawn. Had they been drawn today, we
would know that South Kordofan and Abyei and the Nuba Mountains
would indeed be a part of South Sudan. The people in those
areas fought along with the SPLM and feel a part of the South.
However, the lines have been drawn and they find themselves in
the North.
However, there was supposed to be accommodation made so
there could be a discussion on what type of arrangement could
be made in Kordofan, South Kordofan. However, the popular
consultation has not taken place. The referendum in Abyei has
not taken place. The elections in South Kordofan were not fair
and free, and so we have problems that persist today.
In today's hearing, we will be focusing on the disputed
regions of South Kordofan and the human rights violations that
are occurring at the hands of President Bashir against the Nuba
people. In Southern Kordofan, an estimated 1.4 million are
being affected by fighting between the South Armed Forces and
the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement North. Thousands of
innocent civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands
have been displaced. There are disturbing reports of targeted
killing of Nuba people and mass graves that the SAF are
searching homes for SPLM supporters, and then detaining,
torturing and killing them. This is all evidence of ethnic
cleansing.
Unfortunately, the SAF are armed to do the job. They are
using heavy weapons, including artilleries, helicopters, MiG
fighters and Russian-made Antonov bombers to hunt the Nubians
like animals, as it was said. The violence that is occurring is
by no means an isolated or localized incident. Bashir has done
this many, many times before in Darfur and Eastern Sudan and
here in South Kordofan.
Our first visit to Sudan in 1993, in a SPLA-controlled town
near the Ugandan border at that time, was the front line, and I
saw the firsthand suffering of the people in that area. When I
returned, I introduced a resolution saying that the people of
South Sudan had the right of self-determination, and that began
the whole notion of a new nation.
With deep sadness, I remember visiting Abyei in May 2008,
just after the town had been attacked and burned to the ground
by the Bashir forces and pro-government militia. The atrocity
displaced more than 40,000 people. And upon return, I
introduced a resolution to highlight this hideous act of
violence that continues with the war-indicted al-Bashir.
In late May, at the order of Bashir, Sudanese Army Forces
invaded Abyei, killing over 100 and displacing an estimated
100,000. South Sudan's President, Salva Kiir, has shown
considerable restraint thus far because he does not want to
have a war that would interfere with a peaceful resolution of
the crisis. We must remember the human cost of these acts of
aggression.
The people of Abyei, Southern Kordofan, and throughout
Sudan have suffered severely after prolonged civil war. For
many, the violence and oppression continues, with targeted
killings and prolonged displacement.
Let us also not forget the ongoing crisis in Darfur, where
many remain in displaced camps, and malnutrition, without any
way to support their families due to the oppressive government
of the Bashir people and the military tactics.
Along with my fellow Sudanese Caucus co-chair, we are
circulating a letter to President Obama urging him to condemn
the violence in Southern Kordofan. We must use all available
diplomatic and political tools to combat these human rights
abuses, including possible sanctions and other accountable
measures.
It is also important that the United States properly fund
aid programs and peacekeeping missions that are helping to save
countless lives. The proposed foreign aid budget cuts would
greatly hinder our ability to provide relief to these affected
areas and to help bring stability to the region. That is why
during the foreign operations authorization bill markup last
month, I proposed an amendment that would have increased
funding for the U.N. peacekeeping budget, the President's
request of $1.92 billion, and to add 60 million to be set aside
for a contingency fund specifically to address these atrocities
we are now witnessing in Southern Kordofan and the border
regions. I am interested at this hearing and hearing from our
panel on how the budget cuts would affect the work they are
doing.
I am also encouraged to see that today President Obama
announced a new initiative directing a comprehensive review to
strengthen the United States' ability to prevent mass
atrocities. This new initiative will include the creation of
the Atrocities Prevention Board that will have the authority to
develop prevention strategies to aid the U.S. and its allies in
responding to early warning signs and prevent potential
atrocities.
The President has also issued a proclamation barring
persons who organize or participate in war crimes, crimes
against humanity, and serious violations of human rights from
entering the United States of America. I applaud the President
for remaining engaged in combating the mass atrocities that are
occurring in Sudan and around the world.
On July 9th, the world celebrated with the people of South
Sudan, and rightfully so. After all, the United States and
people here like Mr. Wolf and others have played such an
important role in what we see today. And so we are a critical
partner in the Sudan peace process, as we all know. While our
efforts have been fruitful, our work to ensure stability and
prosperity for all Sudanese people is far from complete. We
must remain engaged and commit our support to democracy, rule
of law, justice and peace for the people of Sudan, whichever
side of the border they live. Thank you very much.
Mr. Smith. I want to thank the ranking member for his
statement.
I recognize Ann Marie Buerkle from New York, a member of
the subcommittee.
Ms. Buerkle. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you for
calling this extremely important emergency hearing. Just
reading the testimony for today's hearing is a sobering
reminder that the suffering of the Sudanese people remains
ongoing.
Although it is important that we celebrate the new nation
of South Sudan, we cannot forget their fellow Sudanese across
the border. The South Kordofan area has been beset by slaughter
and disease and heartbreak for decades. It is frankly
unfathomable, but the people who were responsible for the
Darfur genocide are still in positions of authority, still
carrying out their horrific war crimes. And now with the
struggles between the North and South Sudan over Abyei, the
crisis in South Kordofan is escalating and is further
destabilizing an already fragile region. And that
destabilization means the cost of thousands of lives and
presents a serious threat to not only the Nuba Mountains and
contested areas, but also to the newly born South Sudan.
Thank you to our witnesses for being here today to share
what you have learned firsthand. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I
yield back.
Mr. Smith. Ms. Buerkle, thank you very much.
The Chair recognizes Chairman Wolf.
Mr. Wolf. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I will just be
very, very, very brief. One, I want to thank the witnesses.
Two, I want to personally thank both you and Mr. Payne for
having this hearing so fast. I almost have never seen something
turn around, I mean, when the two of you got together. So I
personally want to thank both of you. I think it is incredible,
your interest, and how the two of you work together, and you
both deserve a lot of credit.
Lastly, I would just say to the church in the West, I think
the church in the West has to really do a better job of
advocating for the persecuted church. I see one of the
witnesses, Richard Wurmbrand, who I have read his books over
the years and visited once in Romania. The silence of the
church in the West is actually incredible. And when I think of
what is taking place to believers in that part of the country,
that part of the world and others, and yet I hear total
complete silence, is sort of incredible. If anything, hopefully
this hearing can motivate not only the administration, but also
the church, the leaders of all the denominations to come
together to advocate for this. But we will see what comes out
of this hearing.
I will thank the witnesses. And I want to again thank you
and Mr. Payne for just working together, getting this thing
done right away. I mean, somebody comes up with an idea and 48
hours later we have got a hearing. So thank you very much. I
yield back.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Chairman Wolf.
Let me introduce our very distinguished panel of witnesses
today, beginning with Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail, the Anglican
bishop of Kadugli, Sudan, the capital of the conflict-torn
region of South Kordofan. He chairs the Interfaith Committee
for this conflict-torn region. He has been outspoken and
courageous. In a recent interview with Bishop Andudu, Religion
Dispatchers writes: If Anglican Bishop Andudu had not been in
Denver receiving medical treatment in early June, he might be
in a mass grave now. That is how volatile and how dangerous the
situation is today.
And again, we are deeply indebted that he is here, flew
here and will be providing this subcommittee and hopefully the
entire Congress, and, by extension, the American people, very,
very important insights and will be a rallying cry for action.
We will then hear from Mr. Bradford Phillips, who serves as
President of the Persecution Project Foundation and as a Sudan
country director for the Voice of the Martyrs, two nonprofit
organizations dedicated to serving the persecuted church. And I
would point out parenthetically that in 1980, I read Richard
Wurmbrand's book, ``Tortured for Christ.'' He had suffered
horrifically under the Securitate, Nicolae Ceausescu, the
dictator of Romania, and spent years of being tortured, he and
other believers. And that is what got me involved in religious
freedom issues after reading that book. Mr. Phillips is one of
the leaders of Voice of the Martyrs, the group that continues
that work.
And he also is founder and President of the Persecution
Project. Since 1998, Mr. Phillips has helped document acts of
genocide committed by the Government of Sudan, while also
assisting in a variety of humanitarian efforts in Southern
Kordofan. He recently spent 2 weeks interviewing victims of war
crimes against Nuba. As I said in my opening, the reason why we
are meeting here today was his urgent plea on Monday that this
Congress bring light, scrutiny, and hopefully an action plan,
as well as the President and the State Department, to try to
mitigate this terrible, terrible, worsening situation in South
Kordofan. He is also founder of 100 Wells Campaign, the
humanitarian project that provides clean water to Darfur
refugees.
Then we will hear from Dr. Luka Biong Deng, who is the
executive director of Kush Incorporated. Dr. Biong is an expert
in African affairs, civil wars, and conflict resolution and has
published numerous articles in international journals
addressing these issues. He is also a founding member and
chairperson of the board of directors of the Abyei Community
Action for Development. Dr. Deng serves as Minister of Cabinet
Affairs for the Government of Sudan and is a Minister of
Presidential Affairs for the government of Southern Sudan. He
has also worked for the World Bank and for Southern Sudan
Centers for Census, Statistics and Evaluation.
Again, thank you all for being here on such extraordinarily
short notice. I would like to begin with the Bishop, if I
could. And please proceed as you would like.
STATEMENT OF RT. REVEREND ANDUDU ADAM ELNAIL, BISHOP, ANGLICAN
DIOCESE OF KADUGLI, SUDAN
Bishop Andudu. Thank you, Chairman Smith, for calling this
emergency hearing on the threat of human rights and human
security in my home region of South Kordofan.
I would like also to thank the ranking members for their
leadership support of the endangered Nuba people as well. I am
here to testify about all of my people and my members of my
church and the flock. They just give me all the time is the
news from the ground.
I want to start with what happened in my diocese and in my
town of Kadugli, where the major atrocities are taking place.
My house was shot with the guns, and my chaplain was able to
escape through the window. And also my offices and cyber cafe
was burned down, and cathedral as well. And, really, the
atrocities is taking place not only with the Christians, but
also even the Muslims, and the mosques has been bombed for the
black Muslims. And one of my flocks told me very clearly he has
seen the earth mover in South--the school of Tilo, and and
digging two pits. And in the evening, they brought bodies in
the location, and the SAF and militia PDF and other people
putting on uniforms of the prisons in Kadugli, and also some
people working with Red Crescent. And some of the people was
put in the body bags, white body bags, and they are put in the
pits.
So he has seen this personally and I have spoke to him many
times. And I believe really what he has seen. And also this is
consistent with the image that was taken with the satellite.
And really I appeal for the United States also to deploy its
own satellites so that it can prevent the eyewitness and also
for the government not to tamper with the mass graves that was
found. And also call for an investigation to find out exactly
what is taking place.
And in the Nuba Mountains now, the children are killed, the
women--the bombing is--the civilian is targeted. It is a war of
horror. So, really, creating ethnic cleansing in the Nuba
Mountains.
Every day I have been indebted from different cities in
South Kordofan, and we are experiencing people running in the
mountains. I have given photos last week for the people that
just eat greens. Eat greens and there is no food. And at the
same time, this is very important time for us in Nuba
Mountains. We are cultivating. This is the beginning of the
season. So if you have not died by the bombs, in next October,
the time of harvest, we will not have any food and then also
you will die.
That is why we are calling for the U.N., government, and
other international communities and the African Union. These
are the people that help us to sign the CPA, the peace
agreement in Sudan. And we are very grateful for the decision
of South Sudan. But at the same time, Nuba Mountains is left
struggling, and I want the U.S. Government really to go farther
and to secure our people in Nuba Mountains. The bombs get
dropped every day. Really we need the government and
international community to stop these bombings. They are
killing people. SPLM have no planes, have no bombings. So if
these planes can be stopped to spare the lives of the people.
It is not thrown on the military, but it is thrown on the
civilians, and in places where there is not any near barracks
of the soldiers.
And at the same time, the government is not allowing the
humanitarian access, there is no--any organization is going to
give food. They are forbidden.
I am also calling for the international community and the
U.S. to make any ways for the humanitarian to get access to
give aid of food and also to give the medicines for the injured
people in the Nuba Mountains.
And at the same time, the U.N. troops in South Kordofan,
they are threatened by the government of Bashir. They have been
told now they have to move. They were not allowed to go and
investigate the mass grave. And really, we want the increased
and also effective peacekeepers in the Nuba Mountains. The
people of Nuba, they want peace, but they were forced to fight
to defend their people. And Nuba people are afraid. They don't
know what is going to happen. They feel they are forgotten
because nothing is going there to give them the freedom.
And Bashir and Haroun, these are people wanted by
International Criminal Court. They don't want--the crimes in
Darfur. They are the same people. And the war is running after
them. We create these unsigned peace in another part of the
region, like in Southern Sudan. When the CPA was signed, they
start war in Darfur. And also now when the South Sudanese have
ceased, also they start war in Nuba Mountains.
This is the type of government we have been dealing with
for over 20 years. This is a government that is just killing
people, its own people, and people continue to engage in the
signable peace and it would be broken.
We are not alone calling for the international community to
help us, but all of the people in the world. Like here, we have
the petition. Over half-a-million of the people around the
world, they are striving and they are calling for a stop and
butcher ethnic cleansing in Nuba Mountains. So we are calling
for, really, action in the region of Nuba Mountains and other
marginalized areas. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Bishop, thank you very much for your testimony
and for your urgent appeal to the United States and the world,
the intention of the community, to respond and to do so
immediately.
[The prepared statement of Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail
follows:]
----------
Mr. Smith. Mr. Phillips.
STATEMENT OF MR. BRADFORD PHILLIPS, PRESIDENT, PERSECUTION
PROJECT
Mr. Phillips. Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Payne and
members of the subcommittee, thank you very much for inviting
me to testify at this emergency hearing on the current crisis
of the Nuba Mountains of the Southern Kordofan State in the
Republic of Sudan.
By way of introduction, my name is Brad Phillips, and I am
here on behalf of two organizations that have a relatively long
history of working in Sudan. The first is Persecution Project,
as was mentioned; and the second is the Voice of the Martyrs.
And much of our emphasis has been on Sudan during more than the
last decade.
My very first trip to Sudan brought me to the Nuba
Mountains after reading the reports of the genocide that was
happening there. Alex de Waal, Julie Flint, and many others had
written reports. I had heard about the extermination of more
than half of the Nuba population. And so that was my first
introduction to Sudan. And at that time, as was with my most
recent visit, there were bombings going on every day that were
part of an aerial campaign of terror against civilians.
Mr. Chairman, I realize that you and your colleagues are
only now concluding a very busy time concerning the recent
debate on raising the debt ceiling, so I am extremely grateful
that you have taken time to hear about this very important
issue, which is a nonpartisan issue. It is an issue of
genocide. Genocide is currently being perpetrated in the Nuba
Mountains in the Southern Kordofan State of the Republic of
Sudan.
I know you have had the opportunity several times to
receive testimony on this issue from my learned friend, Roger
Winter, who has acted in many different capacities, including
the former Special Representative on Sudan. And during his last
testimony on the 16th of June, he reported to you on this war
of genocide now being waged in the Nuba. And I am here simply
to say that everything that Mr. Winter presented in his
testimony about Southern Kordofan State is true. I have seen it
with my own eyes.
Less than 3 weeks after Mr. Winter's testimony, I was in
the Nuba Mountains for 12 days. I fully understand that what is
happening right now in the Nuba Mountains requires some context
and some background. And I appreciate very much the long
history that you have had, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member
Payne and Congressman Wolf, and so many others on this
committee on this issue. But for the sake of others, in 1989,
through a coup d'etat, the National Islamic Front came to power
in Sudan. And its leadership consisted of Islamic extremists.
Many of them were founding members of al-Qaeda. They were
birthed by the Muslim Brotherhood. They were identified by our
Government as terrorists or supporters of international
terrorism.
And as soon as the National Islamic Front came to power, it
began an intensive military campaign to Arabize and Islamize
the indigenous African population in Southern Sudan, the Blue
Nile, and the Nuba Mountains region of Southern Kordofan State,
and more recently in Darfur. During the 1990s, up until the
peace agreement was signed in Naivasha in 2005, more than 2
million Southern Sudanese people, most of whom were Christian
or animist, were slaughtered. But in the Nuba Mountains in the
1980s and the 1990s, roughly half the population of an
estimated more than 500,000 people were slaughtered in a
similar genocide. And all of us, I think, are aware of the
genocide that took place in Darfur beginning in 2003 that
claimed an estimated 400,000 lives.
The primary resistance of the National Islamic Front during
the last war came from the SPLM, the Sudanese People's
Liberation Movement, that was led by its charismatic leader,
Dr. John Garang de Mabior. Dr. John was a Christian from South
Sudan, but he desired freedom and self-determination for all of
the Sudanese people and his vision was called the New Sudan.
After more than 20 years of fighting, the SPLM fought the
National Islamic Front to a standstill. And with the help of
international pressure, much of it led by the United States,
the NIF was forced to the negotiating table. And all of that
was consummated in January 2005 with the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement signed in Naivasha, Kenya.
This agreement provided South Sudan with semiautonomy and
eventually a referendum vote on self-determination which we all
know resulted in the welcoming in of the Republic of Sudan as
the world's newest nation most recently on July the 9th. But
while we do celebrate with South Sudan its independence from
this murderous regime, we must not forget that many
marginalized groups in the North were not given the same
guarantees as the South, specifically the Abyei region in
Southern Kordofan State. The Nuba Mountains also in Southern
Kordofan and the Blue Nile State received implicit promises for
self-determination and for--as well as some explicit promises
in this agreement. But as subsequent actions have shown during
the interim period of the CPA, the NIF, now renamed the
National Congress Party, really had no intention of granting
self-determination to these marginalized areas.
Under the CPA, the Nuba were guaranteed a free election. A
gubernatorial election, most recently, was supposed to take
place in May of this year, followed by a popular consultation
whereby elected leaders would interview their constituents and
determine what the people wanted to do with regard to their
political future. This consultation process would hopefully
have paved the way for regime change or some sort of power-
sharing arrangement in Khartoum that would recognize and
respect the rights of all of Sudan's diverse communities in
Southern Kordofan State. As of today, the popular consultation
that was promised by the CPA has not taken place.
Moreover, Sudan's President, Omar al-Bashir, publicly
stated in April of this year, that if the National Congress
Party could not get its way at the ballot box, it would use the
ammo box. He went on to say that he would smoke the Nuba people
out of the mountains using tanks and camels. This was really a
declaration of war on the 27th of April by Omar al-Bashir and
it was a violation, a clear violation of the Comprehensive
Peace Agreement.
Earlier that month of April, as an intimidation tactic and
I believe as an attempt to draw the SPLM into war before the
election, Bashir sent militia forces to an area called el
Fayit, which is the home area of Commander Abdel Aziz Adam al-
Hilu, and 27 members of Commander al-Hilu's family were
murdered in this attack. He didn't take the bait and he went
through with the elections. When the elections finally took
place, the evidence of large-scale vote rigging was reported.
Yet even with the evidence of vote fraud, Bashir jumped a few
steps and sent down his advisor, Nafie ali Nafie, to declare
their candidate, indicted war criminal, Ahmed Haroun, the
winner without any verification process taking place.
The newly elected Governor Haroun then ordered all SPLM
forces out of Southern Kordofan by the 1st of June. This order
was in direct violation of the CPA, which allowed the SPLA to
operate in Southern Kordofan up to 90 days after the close of
the interim period on July 9th. This attempt by the NCP to
cleanse the North of the SPLM/A before the July 9th
independence of South Sudan was also carried out in the
disputed Abyei region. After amassing troops around Abyei, NCP
forces invaded on the 20th of May, forcing most of the
indigenous African population out. Some estimates of the number
of refugees from this area are as high as 100,000. It became
obvious to all watching these events unfold what was happening.
It is no wonder that the SPLM refused to disarm or to leave
Southern Kordofan State.
When the order was not obeyed by the June 1st deadline, the
NCP tried to disarm the SPLM by force, and this was the
beginning of the war on June the 5th. On June the 6th, the NCP
attacked and sacked the capital of Kadugli, murdering
potentially thousands of civilians in the subsequent days.
The NCP also pulled out an old card from their deck, which
is the daily indiscriminate aerial bombardment of civilian
targets. Using Antonov bombers, MiG fighters and helicopter
gunships, the NCP launched a campaign of terror in the skies. I
have included some pictures of these bomb locations, which I
think are playing now on the screen, bombing civilians.
I personally arrived in the Nuba on the 4th of July in one
of the few private charters that was flying to the Nuba, since
all humanitarian flights had ceased. And during my visit I had
the opportunity to spend time with and interview more than a
dozen individuals who had escaped from Kadugli during the first
few days after the ethnic cleansing started, and all of whom
shared the same basic story, the one which the Reverend has
just shared and which you will hear from others.
Sudan Armed Forces went from house to house searching for
any Nuba citizen, anyone who was identified with the church or
anyone who has associated with the SPLM. And anybody fitting
either of these three descriptions was either killed on the
spot or arrested and never seen again. Fortunately, a few
thousand residents obtained shelter at the UNMIS compound, but
the compound after being filled--and I have heard many stories
and accounts of people being killed at the gates of this
compound as a result of the UNMIS allowing the security forces
and the intelligence forces of the SAF to enter the pound and
take Nuba people out of that compound while they stood by and
watched.
I had the opportunity to spend time with one of the
colleagues of Rev. Andudu, Rev. Luka Bolis, who is the chairman
of the Sudan Council of Churches and he is also an Episcopal
priest from the same area. And he escaped from Kadugli within a
few days after it started. And what he said to me--and I have
submitted the video of my interview with him to this
committee--the NCP is targeting the church in this war. Rev.
Luka received a call from some of his friends after first
escaping to an area called Shaiir, and then making his way
outside of Kadugli County. And they basically told him that he
was on the list, which is what the bishop here has told me as
well. Meaning that if they find him, if they catch him, they
are going to kill him. Rev. Luka's testimony corresponded with
so many other Nuba Christians and non-Christians alike who were
persecuted in the last war by the same regime.
I would just mention one story of a man who I met whose
fingernails were pulled out, his genitals were crushed, he was
dragged behind a tank, he was in and out of prison for 8 years.
And what he pointed out to me was this is the very same regime
that did this to him that is now bombing his village, and we
saw the planes passing over three or four times a day. Rev.
Luka said the NCP does not distinguish--in addition, they do
not distinguish between a Christian and a member of the SPLM
political party. They assume that if you are associated with
the church, that in fact you must be SPLM and SPLA. And this
was the testimony that we got from so many pastors that we
interviewed.
When they captured them, the first thing they did was, they
asked them for a list of all the members of their congregation.
Because if you are a part of the church, you are the enemy.
Consequently today, even today, pastors and church leaders are
being specifically targeted as leaders and recruiters of the
SPLM.
Another pastor who I interviewed, who I will refer to as
Kumi for security reasons, was arrested by the NIF, tortured in
some of the most horrific ways and, as mentioned, he was forced
to divulge the names of his church members. During his capture,
which I have already mentioned, they pulled out his fingernails
and his toenails, they hung him by the neck and they crushed
his genitals. They poured gasoline on his hands and they set
them alight. And they did many other cruel acts. This pastor
was imprisoned for a total of 8 years. And although he lives a
several-hour drive from the area where Rev. Luka was from, his
testimony was the same.
Yet another church leader that I met in a completely
different area was stabbed 10 times. His name was Musa. They
stabbed him 10 times. He told me that he was killed along with
7 other elders and pastors in his church. They destroyed his
church, they stabbed him 10 times. They believed he was dead,
but he survived. And each one of the people that they killed,
they cut off their ear as a trophy to go and take back and show
what they had done. And his message to me was again was that
these are the same people that are bombing us today, these are
the same people that are cutting off people's heads and
slaughtering people like animals in Kadugli. And if they have
their way, they are going to exterminate us.
So I heard these stories over and over again during the 12
days that I was in the Nuba Mountains. The only difference in
what I saw in 1998 and what I saw last month is that the SPLM
has clearly taken the initiative and taken the fight, as it
were, to their enemies, led by their leader, Commander Adbel
Aziz Adam al-Hilu. The people of the Nuba Mountains are
fighting back and have won some impressive victories on the
ground. And this has occurred without any significant help from
the international community.
This determined resistance by the SPLM in the Nuba
Mountains is a genuine popular uprising, and the only thing
that has prevented another Rwandan-styled genocide from
happening. But time is running out. The U.N. ended humanitarian
relief efforts early in June and most NGOs operating under the
U.N. umbrella pulled out. All the roads to the North have been
closed and the rainy season in South Sudan has effectively
closed supply routes to the south until the end of the season
in November or December. The daily bombings have terrorized the
local populations to a degree that normal cultivation is not
taking place during this very crucial planting season.
The Nuba Mountains are isolated, cut off and facing a very
severe humanitarian crisis within the next 60 days or less
unless relief flights are allowed to recommence. And this will
not happen while SAF MiGs and Antonov bombers and gunships
continue to patrol the skies. The NCP refuses to allow U.N.
observers into the Nuba Mountains to document what is
happening, which should not surprise anyone.
It is absolutely essential that the international community
bring pressure on the United Nations to immediately declare
humanitarian emergency in the Nuba Mountains and impose a no-
fly zone to stop the bombing campaign and allow humanitarian
access so that relief flights back into the region may resume.
I will conclude by stating there is more than enough
evidence to justify speedy action on the part of the United
States Government and the international community to address
this very dire situation in the Nuba Mountains. The President
of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, is an indicted war criminal. The
current governor of the Nuba Mountains is Ahmed Haroun, also an
indicted war criminal because of his role in the Darfur
genocide. In fact, he was the one carrying out the genocide in
the Nuba Mountains in the 1990s. These men make Libya's Ghadafi
look like a choir boy. There is no justification in my mind for
a bombing in Libya while we do nothing in a place like the Nuba
Mountains.
Many seasoned reporters from the New York Times, Time
Magazine, Aljazeera English, The Independent and others, had
visited the Nuba Mountains. Some of them were with me during my
time there. And they brought back testimonies, pictures and
video that corroborate and prove that the war crimes are being
committed right now against the Nuba people by the National
Congress Party regime.
I have included some copies of some of these articles with
my testimony, and I ask the question: How is it, then, that the
U.S. Government still claims there is not enough evidence to
charge the NIF with war crimes? Why does the U.S. Government
treat--deal with the NCP and the victims of their crime with a
moral equivalency. Based on the history of the NCP and what we
know about what they are doing in Darfur, in Abyei and the Nuba
Mountains, it amazes me how the U.S. and the international
community is able to tolerate these killers for so long, yet
aggressively pursue other villains who have not killed \1/
100\th of the people for which deaths Omar al-Bashir and his
regime are responsible.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Phillips follows:]
----------
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much for that very powerful
testimony.
Dr. Deng.
STATEMENT OF LUKA BIONG DENG, PH.D., EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, KUSH
INC.
Mr. Deng. I thank you for inviting me to testify today.
Good morning, Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Payne, and other
distinguished members of the committee. It is indeed an honor
for me to testify in this opportunity and to focus on a
critical issue. I welcome and honor the opportunity to provide
my thoughts to you today on the issues facing Sudan, Southern
Sudan, and indeed the people of Nuba Mountain.
I am currently serving as executive director of Kush, Inc.
It is a nongovernmental organization trying to promote peace
and stability, both to forge a relationship between Africa and
the U.S., but indeed focusing on Abyei and Southern Sudan.
Mr. Chairman, I am one of the people who participated in
the negotiation of the peace agreement, but even importantly, I
was negotiating the protocol of the two areas. And I want to
echo again what happened during the peace agreement. The people
of Nuba Mountain not only participated in the struggle for the
rights, but indeed even the popular consultation that was given
to them by the CPA, that was not that choice. The choice was to
have the right of self-determination, but they did not get it.
And they are so determined, having the popular consultation as
a step for them to pursue the right of self-determination.
What I want to share with you today also, before I became
the executive director of Kush, I served as a senior minister
of national government, as a Minister of Government Affairs.
Mr. Chairman, I resigned on the 21st of May this year after al-
Bashir and his government invaded Abyei. And when he invaded
Abyei, I saw thousands of people marching out, crying children,
dazed, in order to look for safety. And I saw clearly a
pattern, a clear pattern, of a leadership focusing on
selectively targeting its own people.
It started with Darfur, but coming through to Abyei, what
indeed you are seeing today in Southern Kordofan, a clear case
of ethnic cleansing, a clear case of the African people in that
continent, that country being displaced, and the Arabs being
settled on their land.
So I decided to resign, and I sent him my own resignation
because of what I saw as real atrocities against humanity in
Sudan. And I share this, Mr. Chairman, because I think Numa
Mountain is just an example of the pattern that is happening
along the North/South border, and that is why I felt we should
widen it in order to look at the border between the North and
the South.
Definitely what is happening is unacceptable, and it is
going to continue throughout the border region of the North/
South. But you should remember also there is another region
that is going to face the same soon; that is, the Blue Nile.
I appreciate the opportunity you have provided me today to
discuss the current situation in Southern Kordofan and others,
and the recommendation that this great government and people of
America could do in order to address the alarming situation in
Sudan. But it is very important to look also at the hopeful
picture that is emerging in the South, and that is why I would
like to look at those issues as well.
Mr. Chairman, as echoed and mentioned by Congressman Payne,
I see the people of Southern Sudan, when we talk about the
stability and peace, we should look at the success that the
international community did in that region of Southern Sudan.
And I think, when we talk about the relationship of the North
and the South, Southern Sudan is a reflection of the
marginalized people who suffered to get their independence. But
indeed, what we are seeing in Numa Mountain is echoing again--
what happened to the people of Southern Sudan we are seeing in
Nuba Mountain and Abyei, and definitely in Darfur.
What is most important for you and us to know is after the
secession of the South, I see it becoming critical that the
emerging or the remaining--the continuing leadership in
Northern Sudan are tending now to go to the radical elements,
and the military government or the worst elements are actually
directing that state. From even echoing of the secession of the
South, now they have repurified Sudan, a Sudan that only has
two elements, Muslims and Arabs, this with disregard to the
great African people in Darfur and Southern Kordofan and Blue
Nile. You can see extremists emerging in that country in the
Northern Sudan.
Personally, I feel what is happening in South Kordofan is
not only ethnic cleansing, as you have put, I would say it is
indeed a crime against humanity. And let us put it in that
context because it will help us to focus more rather than on
ethnic cleansing. It is not about Nuba, it is about the people
and about the traditions of their land. That is what we are
seeing. And there is a similar pattern that is also being
committed, as I mentioned earlier.
As a personal witness, I came 10 days ago from Abyei area,
and I saw how such atrocities are affecting the people. Two
months ago, hundreds of thousands of people got displaced, and
when I saw them again, they are in very appalling conditions,
no shelter. But even children are dying at great numbers
because of one action by the leadership in Khartoum.
But I feel also, with those in Northern Sudan and the
remaining Sudan, it is critical for us also to look to the
opportunities in Sudan. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement
Northern Sector, headed by people like Malik Agar, Abdel Aziz,
and Yasir Saeed. This is the only credible political party that
I feel it is a real ally that could really challenge the NCP
democratically in order to transform the system in Khartoum,
because these are the people who fought the war and that
believe truly a commitment to the peace.
But what we are seeing is that these people of SPLM
Northern Sector, because of the thing happening in South
Kordofan, are giving a push for the option of regime change and
for the armed struggle, and that one is going to affect,
eventually, the people of this area.
Mr. Chairman, it is very important for us also to take into
account what is happening and why it is happening now. And I am
negotiating even with the national government, the Sudan
Government, under the auspices of the African Union. And it is
good to take account of what happened in Nuba Mountain in
sequence.
I want to remind the committee that the people of Nuba
Mountain were given this right of popular consultation. That
was their expectation. It took us a bit of a struggle for us to
have legislation for the popular consultation. But you know,
and as echoed by Congressman Payne, the election in Nuba
Mountain was robbed by the NCP with the hope to dilute the
popular consultation of the people of Nuba Mountain.
But it is important also that even in the Blue Nile, they
accepted the process of the popular consultation because the
popular consultation is supposed to be done by the
representatives of the people in the national legislature. But
before that went before the popular consultation, if the Nuba
people and Blue Nile are not satisfied, it should be discussed
at the national level, at the national legislature. What
happened, the NCP unilaterally dismissed the members of the
South in the national legislature, so we would be left with an
assembly that will not reflect and defend the people of Nuba
Mountain, because the members of the SPLM in the national
legislature are supposed to be there after the 9th of July, the
end of the interim period, but they decided prematurely and
before this time.
It is important to know also that NCP unilaterally took a
decision to disarm the SPLM in these two areas. And the
commitment in the security arrangement was for us to have this
good, integrated unit to continue up until the 9th of July,
2011, but they decided to attempt to disarm them before time,
and that is what triggered the conflict we are seeing today,
dishonoring what we had agreed upon.
But it is very important also to know that during the
negotiation in Addis Ababa, an agreement was reached between
the SPLM and the NCP, the leadership of the NCP, for an
arrangement so that the people had entered into dialogue. What
happened after the signing agreement in the disarmament, the
NCP rejected that agreement. And that agreement was talking of
a dialogue between the SPLM and NCP about the forces, but even
a dialogue about the whole reform in Sudan. And for the SPLM,
they rejected that one. The result today is the atrocities you
are seeing in Nuba Mountain.
But in the same pattern, I want also to share with you what
happened in Abyei. We agreed to having a referendum of the
people of Abyei. And in that agreement, the protocol of CPA, we
agreed there would be an Abyei Boundaries Commission formed.
That commission was formed, and we agreed it should have a
final and binding say for the boundaries of Abyei. What
happened, the NCP rejected that one very early of the peace
agreement. They pushed us to deliver that to go to the
Permanent Court of Arbitration. We went to the Permanent Court
of Arbitration for the sake of peace, and the court resolved to
define the area of Abyei. They rejected it, and they said, now
this area belongs to the Misseriyia Arabs.
We agreed with the NCP that we should be able to--they
themselves to appoint the chair of the Southern Sudan
Referendum Commission. And we, the SPLM--I mean, by them before
joining--to nominate the chairperson of Abyei Referendum
Commission. They refused. We accepted the chair for them, for
the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission, and when we came to
form the Abyei Referendum Commission, they refused. And they
invaded.
Because we failed to condemn the actions in Abyei, we asked
the African Union in order to come up with a solution. We were
looking for a decision through the African Union. During the
time we were waiting, they invaded Abyei in May 2011. And we
are seeing again a lot of atrocities being committed in Abyei.
These are leadership dishonoring whatever they agreed with.
And I think with that one in mind about what they have been
doing, I say it is very important to look at the South also,
because these people, the hope for them, whether in Nuba
Mountain, Darfur, or Southern Kordofan or Blue Nile, be the new
nation that is being formed now in Southern Sudan because these
people will take refuge definitely in this country. And it is
very important for the international community to know this
country called Southern Sudan is a pride to all of us, the
international community, a collective plan that we did together
that is the result of what we are seeing in Southern Sudan. How
much people will describe this country--I am seeing in that
country a passion within the global value to build a new
nation.
And as mentioned by Congressman Payne, I think they are
going to face a lot of difficulties. And that is why we are
saying having a viable Southern Sudan is very important. In the
middle of the domestic challenges facing you, I think it is
very important that we should focus on Africa. But Southern
Sudan is a good test for us to make it a viable state. And that
is the only hope for the people of Nuba Mountain, the people of
Blue Nile, and even the people of Abyei.
I want to conclude with some key messages. We are working
as--a vision and how it is very important for the refocusing of
assistance.
Definitely I would especially would like to say that there
is a leadership problem in Sudan. And this leadership in Sudan
is a liability, not just to its own people, but it is a
liability to the continent, it is a liability to the people of
Southern Sudan. And I think it is very important for the world
to focus attention on what is happening in Sudan, because if we
don't do it now, it is going to become a huge crisis in the
region--in the North, but indeed it is going to affect this
region and the continent at large.
Extremists are becoming very obvious in the North, and
their appetite for ethnic cleansing and war is becoming
apparent in the North. What should we do? I think it is very
important that the United Nations play an influential role in
the region--it is a great mission--and it is very important to
take the lead on how to address. It is true that it is an
African problem, but consistently it has become very clear how
much we have been played in order to bring the commitment for
peace, stability and solidarity with the humility. And we
accept that role. Sudan is possible if we can live and if we
collectively work together.
I think it is very important also that Southern Sudan, put
it at the heart of your priorities. It is the only hope that we
have to be able to show to the Sudanese people and to those who
struggle for their own right that you are standing with them.
I think it is very important also your role in the United
Nations. In the Abyei area, you have a United Nations mission
in that region to provide protection to the people, and I think
that is a very big role. You played a very good role in the
United Nations in particular also. Whether the United Nations
can provide protection in that area is critical, but not only a
mandate of protection, but it is critical also how to assist in
the return and the settlement of the people.
Mr. Chairman, also I know during the war it is difficult
the issue of access. We should not expect the Sudan Government
to give access to the people of Nuba Mountain. And the people
would have to use a clandestine operation, so it is hard to see
how the people of Nuba Mountain not having the organization can
look for relief and development. It was through that process
that we managed to give relief assistance to the people of Nuba
Mountain, because they were restricted in the Operation
Lifeline not to be accessed through Operation Lifeline Sudan.
It is critical we look to the indigenous organizations that
will be able to assist the people of Nuba Mountain, but I think
it is important that also we should look for a safe corridor,
and also for the IDPs camp in the South so that these people
can be served easily from the South.
Kush in Abyei area, as an organization that is working for
peace and development, believe we can offer a lot in terms of
helping the people and making the aid effective, using the
indigenous organizations.
And I would like also to echo again our appreciation, this
is what Bishop said, about the role of the NGOs and other
organizations. Avaaz program is one of the programs that
managed to really focus attention to those satellite areas, and
that will actually provide a lot of information that all of us
should be very proud of. These are the efforts that we need to
support.
Again, what Congressman Wolf said, the role of the church
is critical. It is not only about government, it is about the
people. And the people of this great Nation can do a lot if
they focus today on what they are seeing in Sudan.
I want to conclude with what I believe we, in Kush, as a
nongovernmental organization, can do also in the area. Our
immediate efforts are based on the goal of stability and peace,
but we have also a vision of the holistic development effort
that will be needed one day as conflicts and crimes against
humanity are put to rest. So we strongly encourage the United
States to seek ways to support and build a strong network of
nongovernmental organizations, like Kush and others working in
the region, and these will provide a foundation to facilitate
collaborative efforts in the South and the North, and to build
a significant structure required to achieve a lasting peace and
a democratic society that is respectable of the individual
human rights and cultural and religious beliefs.
I would like to thank you indeed for giving me this
opportunity.
Mr. Smith. Dr. Deng, thank you very much for your very
comprehensive testimony and your work.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Deng follows:]
----------
Mr. Smith. Let me just note for the record that we had
invited the U.S. Department of State, and Secretary Johnnie
Carson, or any one of his deputies; and USAID, Sharon Cromer or
any of their Deputies. And admittedly it was very short notice,
2 days ago we asked them. This is an emergency hearing, and I
want the State Department and the USAID to know that this
subcommittee will reconvene at any time in August--hopefully
very soon--to hear specifically what is being done,
contemplated, in response to this catastrophic, explosive
situation that you have brought, our three distinguished
witnesses, to the attention of the subcommittee. So let me make
that very clear: We will reconvene at any time to hear that and
to hopefully be part of a solution.
And, Bishop Andudu, you made a veryimpassioned plea. You
pointed out that the grave situation calls for the United
States and the international community to translate more
outrage into effective action. You talked about how your
cathedral has been ransacked, your chaplain has been beaten.
You make it clear that the Nuba people fear that they will be
forgotten, that the world will stand idly by--these are your
quotes--while mass killings continue without redress. And you
talk about the house-to-house killings that are occurring as we
meet here in committee. You also point out that the United
States should deploy its own satellites to ensure that the
reported mass graves are not tampered with.
I would point out that this subcommittee has long and
aggressively--everywhere in the world on every continent where
this has occurred--emphasized not only stopping the atrocities
and the genocide in the first place, but holding those who
commit those atrocities to account, whether it be Charles
Taylor, who, by early fall, is likely to be sentenced. Just
recently, as we all know, Karadzic from Bosnia, a Bosnian Serb,
was finally found. There is no statute of limitations on crimes
against humanity and genocide. He was hunted down. And I was in
Srebrenica a couple of times, including one for a mass burial
of people who were slaughtered during an infamous couple of
days in July. And the same thing happened in Rwanda, the same
thing happened in DR Congo, and the same thing is happening
obviously in Kordofan. So it is very important that we be very
robust in collecting that evidence while we try to stop it. And
I appreciate you bringing to the committee with exclamation
points how important that is.
Also, you made a number of very serious recommendations--
and I would appreciate any elaboration by you or other
witnesses on that--that the United States cannot begin--this is
your words--"to consider normalizing ties with Sudan, and
should not delist Sudan as a sponsor of terrorism or approve
this outlaw nation's access to international financing and debt
relief'' while these terrible crimes against humanity are
occurring. You also say the U.S. and the international
community, including the African Union, must act.
You also underscore that because of the bombing campaign,
people have not been able to plant or to tend to their crops.
And that means that by October, when the crops should have been
ready to harvest, there will not be enough food to feed tens of
thousands of displaced persons. And you call that a slow-motion
genocide by design, and it is by design by the Khartoum
government.
You also make a very impassioned appeal that effective
peacekeeping forces with a real mandate to actually keep the
peace and not stand by while mass murder occurs house to house
around the clock.
So the question would be to the United States. In your view
or any of the panelists' view, has the United States done
enough? Has the international community done enough? Have the
peacekeepers, who are now obviously redeployed--what should be
done, new deployment? What would be your recommendations there?
And obviously you make a point, Bishop, that there needs to
be bold action by the United Nations Security Council. Say this
is the Security Council. What would you say to them needs to be
done right now?
Bishop Andudu. I think, first of all, the bombings, we need
to stop these bombings for the civilians. And there is many
ways might be the U.S. can be able to stop the bombings or the
killing of the people.
Number two, access of the humanitarian aid is really very
crucial. We don't have medicine in the Nuba Mountains now, we
don't have food. People are running in their cave, they have no
food. And also, I know U.S. is trying, but we need some more
efforts. Because U.S. Government is part of the people who
brought the peace in Sudan, but Nuba Mountain is part of the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement, but they are not finished. So we
need really the government to go ahead and to still continue to
achieve peace and freedom for the people of Nuba.
And at the same time, let us know news coming from the
ground. No media, but I think they can go and see for
themselves because it is very difficult. The Government of
Sudan is prohibiting anybody to go and to see and to report.
They don't want reporters.
So my question I was asking, is the Government of Sudan
greater than the United Nations, African Union, U.S.
Government? Is this greater than preventing all things to be
seen? And how many years people are dealing with this
government, but it is still doing the same. Omar al-Bashir is
wanted, and Haroun is wanted for the International Criminal
Court, but they are still there in Sudan. These men are wanted,
but they are still living together. Why are they allowing this
regime to continue doing their same action?
So these are my questions really, what U.S. is going to do,
if they can intervene and they act. We have been talking, we
have been telling this for many times. But also, now I am happy
that Avaaz, this organization, is now signing a petition of
half a million. I hope the government will be able to hear
these voices for the world's people who are also trying to help
us.
Mr. Phillips. Yes, I would just echo what the Reverend
said. And, of course, this regime in Khartoum has a long
history of dishonoring agreements, as Dr. Luka Biong pointed
out. And I think one of the basic problems coming from
Washington, DC, is that we continue to try to deal with these
people as honest brokers and not look at them as the murderous,
genocidal regime that they are.
Why does our Ambassador Princeton Lyman, when he is
introduced and asked about war crimes taking place--in one of
the interviews that I read that was recent, he said, well, we
hear the allegations, but nobody is on the ground to see it. I
met with one of his representatives this week, and I was
basically told that the position of our Government was one of
moral equivalency between the two sides. And this isn't really
honest, we are not being honest with ourselves.
There is plenty of evidence. There are journalists. I was
there with a team from Aljazeera English. They produced a
fantastic documentary that has been run over and over again,
and you can see it on YouTube, Callum Macrae, which really
exposes what is happening there. There was a team from the New
York Times, from Time Magazine, from the Independent--Julie
Flint has written some excellent articles. There are people
with cameras and VSATS and Internet. You can get more
information now on this genocide than you could in the previous
war.
And the fact that the ICC recognized the leadership of the
National Islamic Front or the National Congress Party as being
responsible for genocide, and specifically recognized Ahmed
Haroun, why doesn't our Government recognize them in that way?
With regard to the U.N. forces, there are all kinds of
stories coming out of the U.N. forces who are from Egypt in
Kadugli standing by watching the slaughter take place, and they
are supposed to be peacekeeping forces, allowing the
intelligence services of the SAF to come in and take people out
of their compound. There was one incidence where six Nuba women
sought shelter in an UNMIS compound, and they were raped by the
UNMIS, by the Egyptian forces. So it seems as if even some of
the forces of UNMIS--and I know it is not true for all of
them--are complicit with Khartoum. There are internal documents
from the U.N. that I am told the U.N. is actually being forced
to release very soon, because even some members of the U.N.
were victims of these atrocities when it happened.
So this should be investigated. These people should be
prosecuted in the U.N. and brought to justice. And our
Government should get off the fence and distinguish between the
victims and the perpetrators of genocide.
Mr. Smith. Very quickly, and then I will yield because I
know Bishop Andudu has to leave shortly, and I want other
members to be able to ask him questions. But let me just note
how disturbing it was that Bashir visited Beijing in late June,
and rather than ensuring that he was apprehended and sent to
The Hague where he ought to be held to account, nothing of the
sort happened. He was treated and feted as a great man.
And secondly, Erdogan in Turkey refused to listen to EU
requests when Bashir visited Ankara. Again, there should have
been an arrest made and this man prosecuted for genocide.
Mr. Phillips. Mr. Chairman, last year Kenya inaugurated its
new Constitution, and the U.S. Government had a lot to do with
bringing that Constitution. And Mr. Bashir was the main story,
his presence in Nairobi, Kenya. So he is showing up all over
the place, and nobody seems to be concerned about his arrest
warrant.
Mr. Smith. Thank you.
Mr. Payne.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much.
And I couldn't agree more that the International Criminal
Court, which I think is a great institution. However, we know
that it is very difficult to have a court without having an
enforcement mechanism, and, of course, that is a very weak part
of the International Criminal Court. At one time it was thought
that Interpol, being an organization of police throughout
Europe anyway, could perhaps serve as an enforcement arm. But
the question is, how do you apprehend the criminal in our
country? Without police, we would have no use for courts.
But I do believe that we should continue to support the
International Criminal Court and try to really work on ways to
strengthen it. At least these criminals are being indicted;
they know that this indictment stands over their head. They
know where they can go, but they know that 90 percent of the
places they cannot go. And I think that time will take care of
Mr. Bashir.
Dr. Deng, with the arrangement that was supposed to be made
on the areas in dispute, I think that, unfortunately, as I
indicated, the 1956 map, when independence came from Britain,
creates the situation, because that map is still being used as
the borders. And as we saw in Kashmir region between India and
Pakistan, once again, the British left an unincorporated area,
left it to be determined in the future. And as we know in
Kashmir, there is still fighting going on between Pakistan and
India over that area.
And so I certainly have a real concern that, of course,
South Kordofan and Blue Nile, under the map and the agreement--
although they were supportive of SPLM and prefer to be a part
of the South, the map has drawn them into the North.
Now, could you tell me what--I have read it, but what type
of an agreement was supposed to be enforced in Blue Nile and
Southern Kordofan to work on a way of having a government?
There was supposed to be an integration of the military also
with the SPLM into the forces in that area. Could you just
explain what the special group that was supposed to handle this
was supposed to do?
Mr. Deng. Thank you, Congressman Payne, for the question.
I think the whole issue of the North/South border is a very
critical issue. And what we have agreed to when I was in
negotiations is for the parties to agree, although we have
defined the 1956 as the border between the North and the South,
a committee was set up. And there was a commitment by the
parties to ensure that but that committee did not move very
well. And what happened, we said we should stick to the
amicable dialogue of finding a peaceful settlement of the
disputed border between the North and the South--not the Nuba
Mountain and the Blue Nile. And if we fail to agree on those
areas, we should resort to arbitration in a very peaceful way.
It should not trigger a war.
For the Nuba Mountain and Southern Blue Nile, it was after
the incident happened an agreement was signed, mediated by the
African Union High Implementation Panel under the auspice of
President Mbeki. And the content of that agreement, first, that
we should have a ceasefire. Second, we should go for the
dialogue and discussing how to decide what should be the status
of the SPLA forces in Nuba Mountain and Southern Blue Nile.
The SBLM was pushing for the argument that there is no way
you can just disarm these people, these are the people who
fought a political war. And they accepted the agreement to
ensure that the popular consultation is conducted. And in lieu
of that, you cannot just disarm them, because you will create
them as another struggle in the greater movement happening in
these two areas. So the parties agree that they should sit and
continue to dialogue what should be the status of the SPLA in
Nuba Mountain and Southern Blue Nile
Secondly, they discussed only the political landscape of
Sudan after the secession. But having the SPLM Northern Sector
as a political party, and to exercise and then to do its
political activities. Because what happened is that the NCP
said, after the secession of the South, the SPLM is going to be
an illegal political party. It was agreed in Addis Ababa that
SPLM Northern Sector will be a legal political party that can
exercise its activities in the North, and by doing so so that
you can have a credible political party that can engage in
democratic reform in Sudan.
The other one is that the whole debate about what is going
to happen, the whole debate about the composition after the
secession of the South. So at least the two parties--SPLM in
the North and the NCP--to discuss how they are going to give
another space an opportunity for reforming Sudan, because they
are now getting into these permanent composition to be
discussed by all the actors.
It was agreed by Nafie himself, who is the Deputy of the
President. And then when he went back, Bashir and other people,
they reject it outright. They were not agreeing to the
agreement that was signed and also witnessed by the African
Union. And that is why, when we say that even for the role of
the United Nations or the African Union, is for them to accept
this very agreement that they signed, because this one is
giving an opportunity for the parties to engage and to dialogue
and to discuss a very fundamental issue about the viability and
the stability of Sudan.
Mr. Payne. Just let me ask a follow-up question. Your new
organization, Kush, how do you see your organization being able
to be of assistance? And do you think that at this time your
newly formed group would be able to assist in attempting to
come up with resolutions in these three disputed areas?
Mr. Deng. At Kush, as I mentioned earlier, we want to forge
a relationship between the people of the United States and
Africa, and we work in Southern Sudan and Abyei. And in
particular we work in Abyei, because Abyei is a flash point,
because the invasion of Bashir into Abyei has tarnished any
chance for building confidence between the North and the South.
And that is an area that is not only on the North/South border,
but it has a lot of challenges, challenges of oil, challenges
of conflict, and challenges of displacement.
And Kush is trying to see how best we can best advocate for
a finer solution for the Abyei issue, helping the people to
advocate. And the options available now are whether Abyei
should return back to the South, because it was part of the
Southern Sudan in 1905 and was transferred to the North, or
have a referendum to be held within a very conducive
environment.
And secondly is the role of the United Nations. Now we have
United Nations peacekeeping forces on the ground. And what the
agreement was saying, actually we should discuss the role of
the United Nations in protection, because although this force
is given Chapter 7 to protect the citizens, we know what
happened in Congo. You may be given a very good mandate, but
then if it is not a word defined properly, then it will be a
problem. So let us engage with the United Nations of what does
it mean, Chapter 7, because you might have heard even these
forces now in Abyei, four of them got killed. And even those
injured, they were not given a chance even to be evacuated for
medical attention by the Sudan Armed Forces in Abyei.
So what we are saying, whether the United Nations' role in
Abyei is only protection, to assist the return of the displaced
people, the number that you mentioned, and Kush could help in
returning these people with the choice of the people. And there
is an element that we are seeing, this opportunity having an
organization on the ground, because sometimes these
international organizations also prove, in most cases, that
they cannot deliver. This is a whole lot of ineffectiveness. It
is critical. And whether we can look for a partner and
indigenous organizations that will have the knowledge in the
content and to assist the return. So these are ones that we are
discussing.
The final one is building the peace at the grassroots
level. And because we believe the relation of Misseriyia and
the Dinka is actually a created situation, the tension created
by the NCP dragging in the Arab nomads against their will into
this war, and they become a victim. What we are saying is, let
us look at whether we can force a peace building among this
community.
These words are echoed very well even to the Nuba Mountain
and the Southern Blue Nile. And that is why I am saying the
role of the United Nations, especially the Security Council, is
first to investigate these atrocities first. And if the
magnitude of the investigation is really great, then it is upon
the United Nations to see a possibility of having a protection
of the people, and then whether we could use the United Nations
forces in Abyei, the Sudan forces, to be extended even to cover
the Nuba Mountain and Blue Nile with a mandate of protection.
Also, I have a feeling that United Nations can help also in
terms of assisting in the conduct of the popular consultation,
because it is an achievement of the people of the Nuba
Mountain, and also in the context of a referendum if we fail in
Abyei, and if we fail to get a political solution of returning
Abyei to the South.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much.
And, Mr. Phillips, I really appreciate your courage and
what you have done, the work that you have done. And I couldn't
agree with you more. I was one that was trying to get a no-fly
zone a decade ago to prevent when Darfur broke out, but we
could not get--as a matter of fact, President Bush agreed at
one point to almost support the no-fly zone, which would have
prevented the bombings that continued in Darfur. But I am just
wondering, in the short time that I have left, what are some
recommendations that you would like to see us do if you had the
authority to do yourself?
Mr. Phillips. Well, thank you very much, Congressman Payne.
And I am so grateful for your leadership on this issue.
First, I would point out that the intentions of--what Dr.
Luka Biong said about how they illegalized the SPLA Party in
the North and the way that relates to the integrity of the
popular consultation just reveals that they never really had
any intention of keeping any of the agreements regarding these
three contested areas.
The Southern Kordofan State is the place where for the last
12 months they have been staging attacks by militias that they
sponsor into South Sudan. As it is the longest border with
South Sudan and borders four states. It is a very strategic
area. It is one that the Republic of South Sudan, I know, is
very concerned about. And it is one that the U.S. Government
should be very concerned about as the caretaker of the CPA. And
I think we haven't done enough really to enforce the CPA.
The attempt to disarm the SPLA and to legalize their party
and so on way ahead of any mandated requirement by the CPA was
a provocation. I was very discouraged when I met with the State
Department and I was told that their position was that the SPLA
had provoked Khartoum into attacking Abyei, that the SPLA
wanted war as much as Khartoum. Even though we do know that
there are war crimes and genocide taking place, we believe
that--this was the position I was given at the State
Department--they believe that both sides want war. So that
really gave me a real sick feeling in the middle of my stomach.
We know where the planes are that are bombing civilians,
that are blowing little girls in half. They are in El Obeid. It
wouldn't take much to solve that problem, and it would cost a
whole lot less than what we have done in a place like Libya. We
ought to--whether or not we are prepared to do that, at a
minimum we should be, in our rhetoric and in our moral stance,
we should be siding with the victims of it. We should be
demanding that the U.N. declare a humanitarian emergency so
that humanitarian access is allowed.
When I made my trip in, it had been about 6 years since I
had been in that situation, because I had enjoyed the interim
relative peace like everybody else, and I wasn't really
prepared, but it is dangerous. And as has been mentioned, there
is a serious humanitarian crisis that is approaching. There are
70,000 to 90,000 people that are probably going to die in the
next month to 2 months because the roads are shut down to the
north, and the flights are not coming in to the Nuba Mountains
right now.
And so the U.S. Government needs to have a loud voice and
build a loud bonfire with the help of advocates and churches
complaining about what is happening, and putting pressure on
the U.N. to take action, putting pressure on the U.N. to start
changing the way they communicate on this as well.
So I think, at a minimum, we need to publicly differentiate
between the victims and the perpetrators of genocide. And there
are many solutions that can come--and the Southern Sudanese
need to know that we don't have a problem with them helping the
Northern Sector of the SPLA and the SPLM because this is a
threat to the integrity of their nation.
Mr. Payne. Thank you. I couldn't agree with you more.
The Government of Sudan always tends to exacerbate a
situation, as they did in Darfur with the little skirmish
between some local people and the garrison there. And they
ended up bombing for weeks thousands of huts to retaliate for
the small incident that should not have occurred, but it did.
And even with the incident of a shot that was fired allegedly
by one soldier of SPLM, possibly; therefore, the Government of
Sudan then comes back with overwhelming force. And Abyei has
stated the SPLM attacked. It was inadvertently something that
happened, a gunshot goes off, and they use that excuse then to
continue to genocide.
Mr. Phillips. Nobody is surprised in Sudan by what Khartoum
is doing. It is consistent behavior. And when I was with
Commander Abdel Aziz, and he was interviewed by Aljazeera, and
he was doing some other interviews, he made the point over and
over again the problem is not with the Nuba people. The Nuba
people are united. The problem is not in Southern Kordofan
State. The problem is not among the people in Abyei, even the
Misseriyia people that originated. The problem is not there.
The problem is in Khartoum. And that is how our Government
needs to look at it. They need to understand that this is not a
tribal internal conflict in Southern Kordofan State or in
Southern Blue Nile State or in Abyei. We have some obligations
as a caretaker of the CPA, as part of the troika, to enforce
it.
Mr. Smith. Ms. Buerkle.
Ms. Buerkle. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Phillips, I would like to follow up on a couple of
things you said both in your testimony and with the ranking
member.
You mentioned that 70,000 to 90,000 people would die within
the next month. Can you elaborate on that? Is that from lack of
food?
Mr. Phillips. Well, I traveled around four countries in
Southern Kordofan State during the 12 days that I there was. It
was a very different trip than the one I made in 1998 where you
had to do everything by footing. A lot of roads have been built
during the last 6 years, so you can really move around.
There are 19 counties in Southern Kordofan State, and most
of the Nuba population--and Dr. Luka can correct me if I have
my facts wrong--but I believe most of the Nuba population are
in about five of those counties, and that is where the aerial
bombing campaign is taking place. We heard bombing and planes
flying over us three or four times every day. In some places
they said, have a good night's sleep; just realize the plane
never gets here before 7 o'clock in the morning, so you should
get up a little bit before then so you can make your way to the
dugout. In other places they said, well, here they are bombing
at nighttime by GPS coordinates at 2, 3, 4 o'clock in the
morning. That is why all those people are living on the
hillside.
There are about 425,000 people spread out over those five
counties of Southern Kordofan State that are displaced from
their homes. When I was in El Baram County, I learned that
there were 600 people in just 1 month that were wounded by the
bombing, and there were more than 150 that had died by the
bombing. I visited a lot of those people in the hospital. But I
saw El Baram. It is completely wiped out. The town is
completely wiped out. Every building is wiped out by a MiG
attack, by Antonov attacks. Most of the killing happened in
Kadugli, in these house-to-house searches.
What is happening now, the SPLA controls most of Southern
Kordofan State, and they have the support of the people. That
is how they can control it. There is fighting going on for
control of Kadugli, where there are 40,000 SAF inside of the
city of Kadugli, but the rest of Southern Kordofan State is
essentially in the control on the ground of the SPLA. So the
bombing is what is displacing 425,000 people. And out of those,
about 25 percent of them are going to face a serious issue
related to food because the roads have been cut off. There used
to be commerce with the North. That has been cut off. The road
to the South is affected by swamp this time of year. So there
is no access on the ground, and there is very little access by
air because no plane wants to get shot out of the sky by a MiG.
And there is no umbrella.
When we went to the Nuba Mountains in the 1990s, there was
Operation Lifeline Sudan. And even though it was a red no-go
area, the existence of the OLS gave a degree of insulation from
attack. And they weren't using MiGs in those days. So now it is
a much more difficult situation, it is a much more dangerous
situation for an NGO, or a charter company, or the NRDO, or the
Diocese of El Obeid to bring a flight in there.
Ms. Buerkle. And so the organizations you just mentioned,
those are the ones that were flying in the humanitarian
flights?
Mr. Phillips. Right now the two groups that have continued
to bring in flights on a very limited basis has been the
Catholic Church Diocese of El-Obeid and the NRDO, which Dr.
Luka mentioned, which is the relief arm, indigenous relief
organization there in the Nuba Mountains.
Ms. Buerkle. And where do those planes fly into? Where are
they able to serve?
Mr. Phillips. Well, it is very difficult, and they have to
change locations all the time. They are running a real risk.
The pilot, for example, that took me in was bombed, and he
said, I am not going to come pick you up. So my 3-day trip
turned into a 12-day trip. And the next plane that was supposed
to come pick me up was diverted to go someplace else, and so we
were stuck until we found somebody who was willing to take a
risk.
That is the reality right now. It is much worse from that
point of view than during the existence of the OLS. So the U.N.
needs to take some action and declare an emergency, at a
minimum.
Ms. Buerkle. Thank you very much, Mr. Phillips.
And I will yield back my time.
Mr. Smith. Chairman Wolf.
Mr. Wolf. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to again thank
you and Mr. Payne for the hearing.
Is there anybody here from our Government at all, AID,
State Department, anybody? Just raise your hand. Anybody here
from the U.N.? Wow. Anybody here from the Sudan Government? The
Embassy?
This is a fundamentally evil government. They are evil. As
Ronald Reagan said with regard to 1983, they are fundamentally
evil. Evil. And until you remove Bashir, this will continue.
This will continue. It will not change. How long will the West
pretend? It will continue.
China welcomed Bashir. They gave him the red carpet. I have
a picture, red carpet. Whenever American businessmen go to
China to meet with Hu Jintao, you are meeting with a guy who
has blood on his hands. The largest Embassy in Khartoum is the
Chinese Embassy. They are all over the place.
President Bush offered them and said there would be
antiaircraft material, and this administration never sent it.
You take one of those Antonovs out of the sky, and it will
change the dynamics, and yet these people are being chewed up
and chewed up and chewed up.
The U.N. has failed. The U.N. failed in Rwanda, the U.N.
failed in Bosnia, the U.N. failed in Darfur. They stood by and
allowed 400,000 people to die. Read Samantha Power's book. Kofi
Annan watched what was taking place in Rwanda. President
Clinton felt so bad about it before he left, he went to Rwanda
to apologize because the State Department was watching. What is
taking place here took place in Rwanda, and Secretary
Christopher allowed it to take place, and nobody did anything.
Read Samantha Power's book.
China is the problem. You have to remove Bashir. You have
to remove Bashir. He has to be removed. Government change,
regime change, there is no other way. It has been going on for
21 years. Two-point-one million people, mainly Christians, but
some Muslims, killed in the North/South battle; 200,000 to
400,000 killed in Darfur. He just said the U.N.--and I heard,
too--were turning people over to be taken away. That sounds
like the Nazis to me. That sounds like something out of a bad
movie.
The U.N. has failed. These are war criminals. They are war
criminals. That is it, it is over. They are war criminals. I
don't think anybody connected to this government ought to be
permitted to visit the United States, period. We should close
their Embassy down and force them out. If you are working--
Libya? Libya is a problem because of Ghadafi. Syria is a
problem because of Bashar, because of President Bashar al-
Assad. This guy is much worse. And to meet with them, it is
incredible. They should be expelled. They should be expelled
from our country.
And Britain, if this was happening in southern France or
southern Germany, this place would be electrified. It would be
wild. But it is happening in a country--and it is racial, too.
I mean, do not deny that it is racial. It is racial, and it is
religious. And the world is standing by and allowing this to
take place.
The U.N. has failed, and they are failing, and I just don't
want my country to fail. This administration better get some
energy. Princeton Lyman should step up or step down. I like
Princeton Lyman, but he should step up or step down. These
people are going to be killed, and for this to take place--and
no one from the Khartoum government should be permitted to go.
If they want to get an operation, let them get it in Khartoum.
If they want to educate their kids, let them educate them in
Khartoum. No one connected to this government should be
permitted to visit the West at all.
And I will do anything--and I appreciate it again, God
bless Mr. Smith and Mr. Payne and Ms. Buerkle for being here,
too.
These are evil people. It is an evil government. I mean, to
sit in a hearing and talk about how maybe the U.N. could have
done something--and I know it didn't exist then--to kind of get
Hitler out. I mean, he was an evil man. This guy is an evil
man, it is an evil government. Regime changes.
But it is time for our Government to do something about it.
We are not talking about troops. We are talking about just give
them the ability. Are there tanks that the Southern Sudanese
Government has tried to bring in? Where are those tanks now?
They are still in Kenya. They haven't even allowed them to come
in to defend themselves.
I want to thank both of the witnesses. I appreciate this
thing. We should send a message to the people of the South, the
people of Kordofan, the people of the Nuba Mountains. You know,
the Nuba Mountains in Kush, the Kingdom of Kush, is mentioned
in the Bible. It goes all the way back to Biblical times.
I just wonder how some people in this administration will
feel when they leave and they know they missed the opportunity,
how Ban Ki-Moon will feel knowing he is sitting here doing
nothing, and how they will feel when someone writes the book
about this.
It is an evil government. The regime change should be
taking place. Bashir should be arrested and taken to The Hague
and tried.
And again I want to thank Mr. Smith and Mr. Payne for
really being the leaders on this, and Ms. Buerkle for getting
out in front and speaking truth, and thank both of the
witnesses for their time.
Mr. Phillips. I just thank you very much, Congressman Wolf.
And I agree 100 percent. These are not statistics, these are
real people. And the only reason why they are being
exterminated is because they are African, they are indigenous
Africans, Black Africans. The only reason why they are being
exterminated is because they don't subscribe to the same stripe
or religion as Khartoum. And we can't sit by and watch it
happen.
The President of the United States ran very strongly on
this issue. He said that he supported a no-fly zone in Darfur.
Mr. President, what are you going to do? You know what is
happening. What are you going to do?
Mr. Deng. First of all, I am very moved and honored seeing
this committee painting a picture about what is happening in
Sudan. And, Congressman Wolf, these are real words of hope to
the people of these areas. But I also want to highlight why we
are focusing on those issues.
I think the fact of the matter is that on the ground now, I
think it is important that what could we do collectively, and
especially this country. We know the difficulties, but it is
important that we should keep an eye on Southern Sudan because
Southern Sudan is going to be a home, a refuge for the
atrocities being committed along the border. And that is why we
say it is a country that we should invest in it. And
importantly consider the recommendations, but I think
fundamental issues, especially the issue of water, education
and agriculture, in the context of the famine that we are
seeing in the region.
But I would like also to echo Congressman Wolf, what we
discussed at a certain point in time when we visited you in
your office. And I think the capacity of the Government of
Southern Sudan is important. And whether we can use the South
Sudanese here in the United States, Americans, to go back home
and then to assist in building this nation. It is a real
problem that we feel that it is important that for the South
Sudanese-Americans that could go and assist the government.
They have some difficulties, especially on the issue of student
loans and the like, but this is going to be an important
support to the Government of Southern Sudan.
I think important also, a whole lot of aid assistance
should increase, because the way they are seeing along the
border, we need to put more focus on humanitarian assistance. I
think we are going to see more people displaced, more
humanitarian needs in that area. We should scale it up, and
then we should be able to assist.
I think a whole lot of indigenous organizations--like Kush,
and I think the world will believe it. Being in the government,
I decided to come out and do something different. We can help
the people on the ground. And I think this is what we are
striving to, and we hope, together with you, that we can make a
difference on the ground.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much.
I will go to Mr. Payne for any concluding remarks, but let
me just point out that back in the mid-1990s, I chaired the
first hearing ever on chattel slavery in Sudan. Most people who
heard the hearing, and even some people who protested that I
was actually holding a hearing, again taking Bashir to task for
the empowerment of chattel slavery, thought it was a hearing in
search of a problem that didn't exist, and we all know that
that is not the case.
But fast forward to just as recently as yesterday. I called
over to one of our consular people advocating on behalf of
another Mr. Deng, who was enslaved, as was his mother. He was
hung upside down, and pepper was rubbed into his eyes, causing
a very significant, near-blindness condition.
Ellen Ratner, a journalist, has taken up his cause and will
pay for a doctor and airfare for him to get a very significant
medical treatment that will, we believe, give him back his
sight. I hope the Embassy or the consular section approves his
visa. We have been trying for months--this is our side now that
has not given him the visa yet. It was supposed to be today. I
understand it has now been postponed until Monday.
But it underscores the viciousness of Bashir and his like-
minded cronies who have committed slavery, continue to do so,
and even then the U.S. Department of State suggested that it
was not as widespread as many of us had concrete information
about. Almost like Mr. Phillips bringing forth fresh,
incriminating information about how this is not both sides
committing things, and somehow we are just going to be the
arbiter, rather than realizing that there is an all-out assault
on the Nuba people that has to be stopped as quickly as
possible, and the U.N. Security Council and the U.S. and the
African Union all need to be on the same page to do so.
President Bashir was quoted in April that he was going to
use force in Southern Kordofan. We know that this man is
pathological. I met with him and I argued with him for well
over an hour, almost 2 hours, about Darfur in the mid-2000s and
was taken by his--he reminded me of Milosevic, who Mr. Wolf and
I met with on previous occasions, and other dictators. There is
something abysmally wrong psychologically with these
individuals, and just because they have the veneer of being in
charge of a state, people somehow convey a legitimacy that is
absolutely undeserving. And we know throughout history
dictators have committed huge and horrific atrocities. They are
going on right now.
This is an emergency hearing. I said it before. We invited
the State Department and USAID. We stand ready to reconvene at
the drop of a hat. Mr. Payne and I, wherever we are, will get
back here to hear from our own administration what their plans
are to combat this horrific situation.
With that said, Mr. Payne.
Mr. Payne. Thank you.
Let me thank you again and Mr. Wolf for his many years of
passionate support. And it is good to have a newcomer to bring
into the team. Ms. Buerkle, I am pleased to have your interest
here.
I would just like to think back of some other persons--
probably the only thing we agreed on between Congressman
Tancredo and myself was Sudan. He went on his first codel with
me to South Sudan, and we stayed in tents with Samaritan's
Purse. I told him that is what a typical codel was like. And he
didn't know since he was new, but he found out later that
codels are a little bit different than the Payne codel staying
in a tent. But he and Senator Brownback, who was so strongly
supportive, and Senator Frist, those who have for many years--
and we have now Senator Coons now from Delaware who has
expressed a very strong interest. So we will continue to push.
There is no respect from the government of Khartoum. Even
when President Carter was visiting Sudan with Operation
Lifeline Sudan, Bashir bombed the area just to let him know
that ``I am in control.'' And so we have seen--Dr. Garang did
say that Bashir and his government are really too deformed to
be reformed was one of his statements, and I couldn't agree
more. It was July 30, 2005, when Dr. Garang's life was taken.
He was a very personal friend of mine. I did attend the
funeral. He fought for 21 years for independence; 4 million
people displaced, 2 million people died, and he was killed 21
days after the signing of the CPA, which I attended when it was
signed.
And so we have to remember the work that he did. He really
wanted a new Sudan. He was really dreaming for a united Sudan.
But the Bashir regime were afraid of--as a matter of fact, when
he went to Khartoum after the CPA was signed, the outpouring of
tens of thousands of people from the North--Muslims, people who
were Islamic supporters came out to support him because they
looked at him as a liberator and probably got the Bashir
government a little concerned that a Southerner could possibly
become the President in a fair election in Sudan.
So we have to keep the pressure on. I would like to
certainly commend Congressman Smith, as I mentioned earlier,
for keeping this issue before us. We will continue to push for
justice. We should have done that no-fly zone. And I agree with
you, you take out a few of those, just let them know, you come
in--keep your pilots out, we don't want to kill anybody. We
could have taken all those planes out and finished them. And so
now we have a difficult situation.
But I agree with you that we have to keep the pressure on.
We have to support President Salva Kiir, who is struggling now
to try to move his new nation forward. But I know with people
that we have support of here, we will continue to be the voice
of the people of Sudan.
Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Any final comments from our distinguished
witnesses?
I thank you very much. We will continue this. And I
appreciate your wisdom, your counsel, and your recommendations
today.
The hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:07 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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