[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 93 (Friday, June 29, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1267]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 CALL FOR HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO THE PEOPLE OF THE NUBA REGION IN 
                                 SUDAN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 28, 2001

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise before you today to bring your 
attention to the grave situation in Sudan and specifically to the 
people of the Nuba region. I urgently call on President Bush and 
Secretary of State Colin Powell to work for an immediate lifting of the 
cruel siege of the Nuba region of Sudan.
  For over ten years, the Government of Sudan has denied all 
humanitarian relief aid to the people of the Nuba, despite the terrible 
plight of tens of thousands of innocent civilians. Very recent reports 
indicate that the cumulative effect of this brutal siege has been to 
push 85,000 human beings to the very brink of starvation. Without 
immediate humanitarian intervention, thousands of people will begin to 
die--and they will continue to die until humanitarian aid is permitted 
into the region. Countless mothers will suffer the agonizing fate of 
watching helplessly as their children die for lack of food, and then 
succumbing themselves.
  This is intolerable and utterly indefensible. Nowhere in the world is 
the denial of food aid used as a more vicious weapon of war than in the 
Nuba region of Sudan. Further, Government of Sudan offensives have 
recently burned thousands and thousands of people out of their homes, 
making them even more vulnerable in these precarious circumstances.
  There is in Lokichokio in northern Kenya, the center of relief 
operations for southern Sudan, humanitarian aid ready and able to 
assist the people of the Nuba tomorrow. What is required is access. It 
is imperative that the United States take the international lead in 
demanding, in the strongest possible terms, that the Government of 
Sudan lift this brutal siege immediately.
  We must continue to work together as a nation to stop slavery, aerial 
bombardments of innocent civilians, religious persecution and induced 
famine in the Sudan. The recent passage of the Sudan Peace Act of 2001 
with an overwhelming vote of 422 to 2 shows the tremendous support of 
the U.S. House of Representatives in applying all necessary means to 
bring an end to the 18-year civil war and its related atrocities. We 
must continue this momentum in the Senate, and show unified U.S. 
support with unanimous passage of the Sudan Peace Act when it comes to 
the Senate floor.

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