[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 22 (Thursday, March 2, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1151-S1152]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 SUDAN

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, after going to the southern Sudan as a 
medical missionary and a surgeon 2 years ago, I came home with a 
realization that the unparalleled human disaster I went there to 
address was really, to my own surprise, inextricably linked to my role 
as a Senator. Yesterday, that realization was brought home again to me 
in the most horrific and despicable way.
  As background, the Government of Sudan has, for over 16 years, 
carried out a war of unrivaled barbarity against its own people. Over 2 
million people, mostly civilians, have died in bombings, intentional 
mass starvation, raids by militias on horseback, and what we call more 
conventional war. Slavery there today is common, so common that the 
raiding parties the Government of Sudan in Khartoum sponsors accept 
captive humans as their pay.
  Yesterday, the regime in Khartoum struck once again, this time with 
old Soviet cargo planes that have been crudely outfitted as bombers of 
a sort, where large antipersonnel bombs are simply pushed through large 
cargo doors.
  The accuracy is poor. Yet the intent could not be clearer. I received 
a phone call yesterday morning around 10 o'clock. It was at 6:25 a.m. 
yesterday morning, minutes before the first wave of relief flights were 
to leave the United Nations relief operations in Lokichokio, Kenya, 
they received a phone call from Khartoum instructing them that no 
relief flights would be allowed into Sudan the entire day.
  The Government of Sudan then proceeded with a full day of bombing 
raids on nine sites in areas of rebel control.
  What were the strongholds the Government of Sudan hit in those raids 
yesterday? What decisive blow did they deliver to those rebels?
  Well, there is one location that I know for sure was a civilian 
hospital. They bombed and destroyed a tuberculosis clinic and one of 
the only x-ray machines in the entire country. They hit the local 
marketplace. They hit a feeding center for the starving and displaced.
  In three passes over the small bush town, they dropped five 
antipersonnel bombs. They killed or maimed civilians, many of them 
patients in the hospital, others in the marketplace, others in a 
feeding center for the starving.
  All of these were known civilian centers and all were intentionally 
targeted. The Government of Sudan knows exactly what is in that town 
and in those hospitals, and they targeted them anyway.
  Why do I mention this? How do I know this was a civilian target? It 
is because it was approximately 2 years ago that in this very hospital 
I was operating in southern Sudan in a small village called Lui. The TB 
clinic is adjacent to a small schoolhouse that was converted to a 
hospital. It is in a small outpost, and there is a little airstrip town 
there just north of the border approximately 100 or 110 miles. The 
press release I received today describing the incident in this hospital 
where I worked says:

       Armed aircraft from Sudan's Islamic government dropped 12 
     bombs on the Samaritans First Hospital in Lui, the only 
     hospital within a 100-mile radius. Eleven of the 12 bombs 
     exploded at or near the hospital killing a number of people, 
     critically wounding dozens, and damaging the hospital's 
     children's and tuberculosis wards. More than 100 patients 
     were being treated or housed at the hospital at the time of 
     the bombing, where four American doctors are stationed. The 
     bombing prompted many patients to flee, interrupting critical 
     tuberculosis treatments needed to save their lives.

  This release came to my office this afternoon.
  Again, these senseless acts are militarily insignificant, I believe. 
The only purpose is to terrify and kill civilians and the doctors and 
the relief personnel who dare to provide life and comfort to them.
  The most outrageous aspect of all of this is not that I have been 
there, that I know this hospital well, that I was one of the very few 
physicians and early surgeons to come to that hospital, and it is not 
that this could have just as easily happened when I was there; it is 
that this is not an uncommon practice. It is a chosen tactic in the war 
that lurks on the edge of the world's consciousness.
  Just 2 weeks ago, the same government dropped bombs on a town in the 
Nuba Mountains area, killing 21.
  What was the critical rebel target that day? It was a group of 
schoolchildren under a tree--not child soldiers, but children trying to 
learn to read.
  These are just two in a long and sickening history of intentionally 
bombing civilians by the Government of Sudan.
  How long does the world intend to tolerate these outrages? How long 
will the regime in Khartoum benefit from their prowess in public 
relations in the capitals of Europe and the Middle East --and on Wall 
Street? If indiscriminately bombing children and the infirm doesn't 
serve as a call to action, then what will it take?
  I am realistic about what the world is willing to do. Rage and 
indignation are expected. But it is about 16 years past due for the 
``international community'' that responds so generously and decisively 
in many other places to act forcefully and with clear purpose in Sudan.
  The world should be ashamed that it has gone on so long. I am ashamed 
the United States has not made this a greater priority. For a country 
that is willing to act decisively in Bosnia and Kosovo, we should be 
ashamed of the anemic level of action to stop this war in Sudan. As a 
country that is willing to invade another country--Haiti--to stop 
violence and injustice, we should be ashamed by the fact that we are 
willing to do so little in Sudan.
  I am not suggesting that the United States or anybody else become 
militarily involved in Sudan. Even if that were politically popular 
here, it would not be something I would recommend. But the world should 
be ashamed that we have failed to use all reasonable tools at our 
disposal. Some of our closest allies in Europe and the Middle East 
would be especially ashamed for their receptivity toward the regime in 
Khartoum.
  Yes, I am outraged and disgusted by the bombings of yesterday. I am 
outraged by the bombings of 2 weeks ago. I am outraged and disgusted by 
the past 16 years of brutality. I believe the administration and the 
world should share that outrage, and in some cases they do.

  But outrage alone gets us no closer to bringing the war to a 
conclusion. It requires a credible, coherent, and forceful policy from 
the United States and from the world.
  Our policy is only selectively forceful and, as a consequence, lacks 
coherence and credibility--both in Khartoum and in the capitals of the 
countries we

[[Page S1152]]

must have on board to end the war. Correcting those problems cannot 
happen overnight, but I propose a few steps we can now take.
  First, the House of Representatives should act now to take up and 
pass the Sudan Peace Act. This bipartisan legislation was written 
primarily to address the deficiencies in the way our vast amounts of 
food aid are delivered, and to compel the administration and our allies 
to bring as much pressure to bear on the Government of Sudan--and the 
rebels--to get serious in the limping peace talks. This is a sensible 
and helpful step Congress can take right now.
  Second, the United Nations should deploy monitors to areas of 
conflict in the Sudan now. The Government of Sudan has escaped the 
condemnation they deserve in large part because the eyes of the world 
are so far from this remote and enormous land. Human rights monitors 
can bring this to light and give the world the information they need to 
push for resolution of the war. Most importantly, they can force the 
turned eyes of the world to confront the manmade disaster in front of 
them.
  Third, we must overhaul our humanitarian operations in Sudan now. 
They are in complete disarray. The Government of Sudan has the right--
and routinely exercises it--to block any food shipments anywhere in 
Sudan with the stroke of a pen. It is an outrage that we allow them to 
manipulate our food aid as a weapon of war. They do it, and they do it 
with devastating effect. The United States and United Nations must make 
ending that veto power a top priority. I also call on the humanitarian 
organizations and the rebels to end their squabbling over the rules of 
operating and in rebel-held areas and get back to work now. In an 
argument that can only be described as petty and childish compared to 
the catastrophe at hand, some of the groups most important to an 
effective relief operation are pulling out.
  Fourth, the administration and our European, Middle Eastern, and 
African allies must get the floundering peace process moving on. They 
need to stop letting the Government of Sudan manipulate the process and 
stop promising cease-fires and cooperation while continuing to carry on 
the war. In fact, a cease-fire is in effect now, if you can believe it. 
Our allies must be convinced to stop offering ``alternative'' peace 
negotiations to distract from what is really at issue in the talks in 
Nairobi. They must now set aside legalistic excuses and put the 
necessary pressure on the combatants to get to the table and get 
serious about ending the war.
  Fifth, we must push our allies to stop responding to what is called 
Khartoum's ``Charm Offensive.'' This PR campaign paints a picture where 
Khartoum is simply ``misunderstood'' and unfairly vilified by the 
United States. They offer the cruise missile attack against the 
pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum as convincing evidence. They deny the 
ethnic cleansing in the south as just another arm of the American 
propaganda machine. The lies have been alarmingly effective and little 
has been done to disabuse the world of the ridiculous notions.

  No. 6, the access to weapons and capital the regime in Khartoum 
enjoys must be addressed now. The oil being exploited in contested 
areas of Sudan is fueling the war and allowing Khartoum to plow more 
money back into weapons purchases. Much of that money has been raised 
in the United States. Ironically, capital is raised on Wall Street, 
just blocks from the World Trade Center Towers, which were bombed by 
terrorist who operated with support from Sudan. I realize that 
controlling private and legal funds is tricky business, but the United 
States' continued ambiguity on this point gives the distinct impression 
that there is a price on the lives of the people of Sudan, and that the 
price has been determined. We cannot afford that ambiguity. We must 
begin an internationally coordinated effort to limit access to the 
weapons and capital that allows Khartoum to continue their war, just as 
the world did against the apartheid government of South Africa. Even 
now, a grassroots effort to push large investors in the United States 
and Canada to divest of the stocks of the companies operating in Sudan 
is gaining considerable momentum and having an effect on share prices. 
Their successes are drawn purely on the power of shame. Surely this 
tells us that economic pressures can work if coordinated and if 
supported with good information. Governments will respond to the same 
shame that investors respond to. It's a powerful tool in a coordinated 
diplomatic and economic push, and we would be remiss to not use it.
  These recommendations are not unreasonable or particularly difficult 
tasks. These are things we can do right now beginning today.
  It will not require a great deal of money. In fact, it may cost less 
than we spend now. What it will require, though, is effort, some 
discomfort and a significant amount of diplomatic and political 
capital.
  What it requires most is leadership. We in Congress can press these 
issues, but we cannot unilaterally form our foreign policy. That is the 
Constitutional prerogative and responsibility of the President of the 
U.S.
  The President should immediately become personally involved in 
seeking resolution and pressing these peaceful goals in Sudan. To date, 
he has not.
  Just a little more than a month ago we observed ``the month of 
Africa'' at the United Nations. There, the war in the Congo was the 
focus. That war is compelling and the implications it has for the 
future of Africa are very real. It too deserves the focus and attention 
of the United Nations.
  Yet the festering--and much more deadly--war in Sudan went without 
any serious consideration at the United Nations during ``the month of 
Africa.'' Not only is that shameful in itself, it was a lost 
opportunity.
  We can afford no more lost opportunities when it comes to Sudan. This 
war has continued long enough and has cost enough lives. It has hovered 
on the edge of obscurity for too long. It is time to get the world to 
forcefully and directly address it.
  Only the United States can provide that kind of leadership. And only 
the President can direct the United States' effort with any hope of 
ever being truly effective and bring the necessary diplomatic and 
economic forces to bear.
  The President has a bipartisan group of Senators and Representatives 
in Congress willing and waiting to help in that effort. As Chairman of 
the Africa Subcommittee, I pledge my commitment to such an effort.
  It is unusual that we see such opportunities for immediate, 
bipartisan action in Congress, especially in an election year. It is an 
opportunity we cannot afford to pass up. To many lives have been lost. 
Too many lives are still at stake. The time to act is now.

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