[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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