[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 101 (Friday, July 24, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1438-E1439]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                            FAMINE IN SUDAN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. TONY P. HALL

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 24, 1998

  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to let our colleagues 
know about the people in

[[Page E1439]]

southern Sudan, who are dying of starvation by the tens of thousands. 
The prospects are especially dim for the million Sudanese who are 
facing deaths in the next three months.
  I was in Sudan a few weeks ago, visiting people in the famine-
stricken region and meeting with aid workers and government officials. 
Since then, one of the feeding centers I went to has been bombed, and a 
village--where I watched the United Nations' biggest humanitarian 
airlift in history in operation--has been attacked. The small amount of 
food captured was turned into a funeral pyre for the people who were 
too weak to run from the raiders. It was a small village, and I'm sure 
that some of the people I met were among those who either died or fled.
  As all of us know who visit people in such situations, their faces 
stay with you long after their bodies surely have failed. The faces of 
Ethiopians I saw during that country's great famine inspired the 
humanitarian work that I am privileged to do. Since then I have seen 
others suffer similar fates. Many other Africans, Koreans, 
Bangladeshis, too many other countries' citizens. Many of them elderly 
people; many more of them children.
  But for me, nothing had rivaled Ethiopia in the depth of its famine, 
until I saw the people of southern Sudan a few weeks ago. It was not my 
first trip to that country, so I know what is happening is 
extraordinary.
  The feeling of slowly starving is unimaginable for most of us. 
Thankfully, so is the agony of watching our own children slide into the 
nightmare of famine. But the wrenching images of their fate confront us 
more and more in our media, and we all are diminished by the fact that 
this tragedy was not prevented.
  The problems that have brought famine to 2.6 million Sudanese people 
are complex. Sudan's civil war has not merely split the nation into two 
groups; it has splintered it into many factions. The hatreds are racial 
and religious, and atrocities committed on all sides have deepened the 
divisions.
  Some observers blame Sudan's problems on the National Islamic Front, 
which controls its government; but all parties to this conflict have 
blood on their hands. But blame won't save the people of southern 
Sudan--and time spent trying to parcel it out threatens to distract us. 
The only endeavor that can ease these innocent people's suffering is 
whatever can get relief to them immediately. Beyond that, our time 
would be best spent in pressing for a political settlement, so that 
this famine does not spill into next year.
  The United States has led the international community in humanitarian 
aid to Sudan this year, I am proud to report. European nations, except 
for Great Britain, have lagged shamefully. And nations such as Japan 
and those in the Middle East--who have ample resources to share, and 
whose own security is threatened by turmoil in Sudan--have been 
downright niggardly. Our allies and others should do far more to 
respond to this crisis, and America's generosity gives us the moral 
authority to press them harder. We have contributed nearly half of the 
total raised so far by the United Nations, and an even greater share of 
the assistance delivered by Christian and other charities.
  Of course, the percentages that well-fed nations use to track 
progress toward filling United Nations appeals mean little to people 
who are starving. In the end, what it means--that half of the appeal 
remains unmet, that the United Nations is struggling to get food to 
those in need--is that ``stick people'' who have walked for days to 
reach feeding centers are being turned away every day.
  Two more facts are equally clear. First, a million more people are 
likely to die--as many as in Ethiopia's two-year famine. Second, our 
nation and our citizens can do far more. We have given generously, but 
the amount of food still needed is well within our capacity to provide.
  The grain-purchase initiative that President Clinton announced last 
week may help some American farmers significantly, but it will be the 
difference between life and death for hundreds of thousands of people 
facing starvation and malnutrition. In Sudan, our donation will be 
welcome relief, because war has prevented planting throughout much 
of this fertile region and so food shortages will continue even after 
the fall harvest. But it will not save those facing starvation, because 
it will arrive too late.

  The only aid that will make a difference to these people is food that 
can be purchased in the region, and the urgent immediate loan of 
additional cargo planes to Operation Lifeline Sudan, so that the United 
Nations can get the food to those in need. Our law permits such action, 
and the urgency of this crisis certainly warrants it.
  In addition to aid, though, the people of Sudan sorely need peace. 
This is the second catastrophic famine to strike the same area this 
decade. We cannot let ``donor fatigue'' dampen our response to the 
plight of so many people, but neither can we ignore what observers have 
been saying for years: that humanitarian aid cannot be a substitute for 
a political solution to Sudan's war. We have a moral obligation to 
respond generously to the immediate needs, but we have an equal 
obligation to step up our efforts to help end the war that has caused--
and sustained--this famine and the last one.
  Frank Wolf and I, along with other Members who share our concern, 
have called on President Clinton to make peace in Sudan a higher 
priority. When the need for peace in Northern Ireland became acute, 
President Clinton sent one of our nation's leading negotiators. Former 
Senator George Mitchell traveled to that country 100 times to secure an 
agreement. In Bosnia, and again in Kosovo, Richard Holbrooke was 
dispatched. Former Secretary of State James Baker III is making superb 
progress in western Sahara's dispute.
  But when it comes to black Africa, our ``A Team'' has remained on the 
bench. Those Americans who are involved are dedicated, but they do not 
move in the high-level circles where decisions are made that can make a 
difference in Sudan. Our allies in Kenya and Britain (the regional 
leader and the former colonial power, respectively) are doing their 
best to press for peace. But they lack the high-level American 
counterpart that could lend momentum to their work.
  A few days ago, Sudan's government and rebels agreed to a cease-fire. 
This might help aid workers do their jobs--if they can get the food and 
medical supplies they need. But this first cease-fire in four years 
also dangles the possibility that this three-month truce could be 
extended into a lasting one, or allow confidence-building measures on 
which to base peace talks.
  Next month, Sudan and its neighbors will return to peace 
negotiations. It is an opportunity we should not squander. Naming a 
well respected special envoy--someone with stature who can work with 
our allies toward peace, and who can inform policy making in our 
country--would let us seize that opportunity.
  It would show that Sudan is on the priority track that the situation 
warrants. And it would uphold the commitment that President Clinton 
made on his historic trip to Africa earlier this year. He promised then 
that the United States would never again let atrocities like we saw in 
Rwanda go unanswered. Yet the slavery and butchery that happens every 
day in Sudan rival Rwanda's violence. And the number of people who 
already have died is three times the number of Rwandan dead.
  Mr. Speaker, a peaceful Sudan could feed its own people--and much of 
Africa. It almost certainly would stop undermining the fragile progress 
of its many neighbors. Peace would allow Sudan to flourish without 
relying on terrorists and their client states for support. Most 
importantly, peace would cap Sudan's rising death toll, which already 
has passed the two million mark.
  Mr. Speaker, it is in America's national interest to help provide 
such hope to Africa's largest nation, and especially to the 2.5 million 
people there who face starvation this year. We cannot afford to see 
Khartoum continue to be the ``viper's nest of terrorists'' that 
Secretary of State Albright has described. We should not consign 
ourselves to merely continuing to support Sudan's neighbors in their 
battles against it--until we exhaust the opportunities for peace. And 
we certainly cannot afford to feed Sudan and vast areas of Africa that 
Sudan's people could feed without U.S. aid if they were left in peace.
  In have found that when Americans learn about what is happening in 
Sudan, they agree that helping to ease suffering there is in keeping 
with their own values. Christians in particular hear this call to help, 
because it was our missionaries brought our faith to the people of 
Sudan. We cannot turn our back on their suffering now, because it is in 
part inflicted on them because their religion differs from their 
fundamental Islamic enemies.
  I have appreciated the kind offers of help that have been extended by 
our colleagues, Mr. Speaker, as well as the many concerned Americans 
who have contacted me. There are strong, responsible humanitarian 
organizations working to relieve suffering in Sudan, and some of the 
most heroic and dedicated aid workers I have ever met are on the job 
every day there.
  I would like to close by listing these organizations, along with ways 
for people who share my concern can contact them to learn more about 
their good work: Adventist Development and Relief Agency; CARE; 
Catholic Relief Services; Christian Reformed World Relief Committee; 
Church World Service; Doctors Without Borders; Friends of the World 
Food Program; International Rescue Committee; Islamic African Relief 
Agency; Jesuit Refugee Services; Lutheran World Relief; Mercy Corps 
International; Norwegian People's Aid (c/o U.S. Committee for 
Refugees); Oxfam International; Oxfam U.S.A.; World Concern Development 
Organization; World Vision U.S.; U.S. Committee for UNICEF.
  For additional information, those interested also can contact 
Interaction, the American Council for Voluntary International Action, 
at 202/667-8277.




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