[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 114 (Thursday, August 5, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10354-S10355]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       CHEMICAL WARFARE IN SUDAN

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I stated my support for my 
distinguished colleague from Virginia who chairs the Armed Services 
Committee. He did a wonderful job with that. This is such an important 
topic, even though we tend to think of the world as a stable place 
where we don't have to worry about it. I am glad he is worried about it 
and is so focused on it.
  That is what I would like to draw the body's attention to right now, 
a situation that was reported this week in the reporting organizations 
of Reuters, the Associated Press, and the New York Times. This is a 
very troubling situation. It is in a part of the world that has 
experienced a great deal of trouble, but nonetheless, I want to point 
it out to this body.
  On July 23, 22 bombs were reported dropped on two villages in Sudan--
Lainya and Kaaya--resulting in internal hemorrhaging, miscarriages, 
animals dying among the villages. Several days later, after the bombs 
had fallen on this one village, United Nations relief workers with 
World Food Programme visited the town of Lainya and

[[Page S10355]]

immediately fell ill with strange symptoms. They were consequently 
evacuated to Kampala, Uganda, for testing even as they continued to 
physically suffer.
  This, in turn, precipitated the beginning of a United Nations 
investigation into the use of chemical weapons, as reported this week 
by those three news organizations, chemical weapons that the chairman 
of the Armed Services Committee was just noting, that the biggest 
threat we are facing in the future is weapons of mass destruction. We 
are seeing here this week, reported in the newspaper, what has taken 
place in the Sudan, the symptoms of chemical weapons being reported.

  We can't at this time jump to conclusions that they were actually 
used, but the evidence points clearly to the use of chemical weapons by 
the organization, by the government in Khartoum against its own 
civilian population in the southern part of that country.
  This is also a government in Khartoum that is sponsoring terrorists 
around the world, where Osama bin Laden stayed and was hosted by them 
up until 1997 in Khartoum. They are trying to expand in three adjacent 
countries, saying we want to take our view of how the world should be 
organized into these countries and we are willing to do it by any 
means. We are even willing to use any means against our own people, 
against our own people.
  They have killed in their own country 2 million people. They have 
pushed out and dislocated an additional 4 million people. Last year 
alone, they forced into starvation 100,000 people by denying our food 
aid to go where these people were located. They said: You cannot fly 
your relief planes to feed these poor people. Now they continue to bomb 
their civilian population, even with, if the evidence this week is 
proved true, chemical weapons.
  I think this is so horrifying. I wanted to draw the attention of the 
Senate to what has been reported by these three news organizations this 
week and to call on the nation of Sudan to stop bombing its own 
civilian population, to refuse to do that, to call upon the U.N. to, 
with as much speed and haste as possible, conduct a full investigation 
of what has been reported this week as having happened to the civilian 
population, and call on U.S. authorities to investigate this as fully 
as we can to see what actually took place. If true, this is truly 
horrifying, that weapons of mass destruction such as these chemical 
weapons would be used against their own civilian population. I think it 
is just absolutely unconscionable, virtually unbelievable.
  This is also a government that continues to allow slavery to be 
conducted on in its country. There have actually been thousands of 
people purchased back from their slave masters. As we approach the new 
millennium, one would think that at least the institution of slavery 
would be gone from the world. It is not. One would think the use of 
chemical weapons would be gone from the world today, but it is not.
  These things must be investigated to the fullest extent, and if 
chemical weapons were, indeed, used, the Government of Sudan must be 
brought in front of the international bodies, the international court 
of shame, and put in that pariah nation category. They currently, of 
course, are one of the seven terrorist nations in the entire world that 
the U.S. Government lists as a terrorist nation. But the possible use 
of chemical weapons, as reported this week, takes this to an 
unbelievable level against its own population. That is why, even though 
this is a late hour, I draw this to the attention of this body.
  Mr. President, with that, I yield the floor and suggest the absence 
of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sessions). The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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