[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 110 (Wednesday, September 15, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9313-S9315]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CALLING FOR THE SUSPENSION OF SUDAN'S MEMBERSHIP ON THE U.N. COMMISSION
ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in a few minutes, I will be propounding a
number of unanimous consent requests and
[[Page S9314]]
completing business for the day. One of the unanimous consent requests
I will propound shortly has to do with one of the most significant
humanitarian crises of recent years--and most people would say it is
the most dramatic humanitarian global crisis of today--the atrocities
that are occurring in Sudan, in the Darfur region of Sudan, which is a
region in western Sudan which is about the size of France.
Sudan is a huge country, and this whole Darfur region since a year
before last February has been the geographic location where 30,000 to
50,000 people have died, with another 1.4 million and maybe as high as
1.7 million people displaced from their homes--action that we condemned
on the floor of the Senate, and the House did likewise, at the end of
July before our recess, and designating in the most dramatic terms that
this is genocide.
Unfortunately, not a lot has happened on the ground that is
constructive since that point in time. Thirty days passed and a United
Nations determination on what was going on didn't have very much teeth
to it, and the Government in Khartoum of Sudan simply hasn't responded.
Thus these atrocities--the rape, the pillaging, the murder, the total
destruction of the villages--have continued. It is important that the
United Nations continue to act and address this issue. It is also
important, since the United Nations has not really acted, that we in
the United States lead with clarity, boldness, and, I would say, moral
clarity.
The resolution we will be addressing shortly takes that next step for
what we in this legislative body can do. The resolution calls upon the
Secretary of State to take action to push for the immediate suspension
of Sudan's membership on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
A government that is engaged in committing genocide should simply not
have a seat on the Commission on Human Rights.
Since the initial resolution we passed in July designating this as
genocide, I have had the opportunity to go to Sudan once again, which I
do at least once a year as part of the medical mission work I do. But
this time I had the opportunity to go to the country of Chad, which is
just west of the Darfur region of Sudan where we have had thousands and
thousands of people flee to escape the Janjaweed, the militia that is
being funded by the Government of Khartoum.
In these refugee camps--Tulum is one I immediately think of where
15,000 people fled--the stories you hear would be a woman who says:
Last month, I was there with my three little kids, and my husband was
in the fields working, and the Janjaweed military in uniform came and
destroyed our entire village. My two children, I don't know where they
are. I assume they have been killed. Here is one child with me. My
husband is dead, and I have no home and nowhere to go, so I am in the
refugee camp.
That is going on. After 1,200 interviews that have occurred over the
last month, the Secretary of State this past week in a Foreign
Relations hearing said: Yes. Based on our findings independent of what
Congress decided, this is genocide.
What we don't have yet is a determination by the United Nations
because there are countries such as China and Russia and Pakistan and
others that sit on the Security Council. Basically they have not yet
made a determination. Meanwhile people continue to die. The atrocities
continue. Thus, this body today in this resolution will take action to
push for the immediate suspension of Sudan's membership on the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights.
The Senate resolution further states that the United Nations should
immediately move to determine whether genocide has been conducted in
Darfur, and if it has, that the Secretary of State should push for
Sudan's removal from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. A
government, as I said, engaged in genocide should not have a seat on
this Commission. It makes a mockery of the Human Rights Commission.
This is an affront to all responsible countries that embrace and
promote human rights.
The 1948 Genocide Convention calls on state parties to punish
genocide--those are the words it uses--when it occurs. The United
States is party to this 1948 Convention on Genocide and so is Sudan.
The United States has taken a number of actions to provide relief to
the people of Sudan. We have introduced resolutions to the U.N.
condemning Khartoum's actions. We have taken a number of actions. The
United States has already placed comprehensive sanctions on Sudan for
its actions as a state sponsor of terrorism.
What we are doing today is pushing to suspend Sudan from the Human
Rights Commission, which is consistent with our obligations under that
Genocide Convention. It makes sense. It is the right thing to do. I
hope the House of Representatives will take up this resolution quickly
and pass it forthwith. I also hope in the meantime, Secretary Powell
will listen to the will and intent of the Congress and begin taking
appropriate action. If we are going to preserve the credibility of the
United Nations and its separate commissions, if we are going to advance
the causes of human rights, if we are going to protect oppressed
peoples around the globe, and especially in Darfur, then the U.N. must
take more aggressive action.
I turn to the resolution and ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed
to the immediate consideration of S. Con. Res. 137, which was submitted
earlier today by Senators Frist and Daschle.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Chambliss). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
The clerk will report the concurrent resolution by title.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 137) calling for the
suspension of Sudan's membership on the United Nation's
Commission on Human Rights.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the
concurrent resolution.
Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I am pleased to have joined Senator Frist
in the submission of S. Con. Res. 137.
It is a shame, really, that we need to be here on the floor again to
discuss Sudan. Yet we were confronted again this morning with even more
troubling and disconcerting news about the Darfur region of Sudan.
According to this morning's newspapers, the United Nations has
concluded that between 6,000 and 10,000 people are dying from disease
and violence each month in Sudan's Darfur region.
What is worse is that the United Nations--like the United States--has
concluded that each and every one of these deaths is entirely
preventable.
Unfortunately, however, the Sudanese government continues to support
marauding militias that not only murder people whose only offense is to
be of a different ethnicity, but those militias continue to hinder
efforts to respond to one of Africa's worst humanitarian crises.
This resolution also calls attention to a separate tragedy: That
Sudan was granted a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
It won that seat at a time when its tolerance and even support for
militias in Darfur was widely known. Unfortunately, not only did no one
in the Arab world object to Sudan taking this seat, neither did the
administration use its clout at the United Nations to stop this.
This resolution says very clearly that a government that appears to
be tolerating genocide has no business serving on the UN Human Rights
Commission.
I also want to take a minute to discuss an additional effort on Sudan
that Senators Leahy, McConnell, Frist and I were able to work out this
morning.
We all recognize that we will soon face mounting costs to ease the
suffering caused by this humanitarian disaster in Darfur. As such, we
were able to come to a straightforward, common-sense agreement that the
President and Secretary of State should re-direct $150 million in
unused reconstruction money from Iraq to Darfur and for the African
Union forces that are attempting to stabilize the situation there.
Let me be clear: This is not money for our troops in Iraq, but is
unused reconstruction money. This is the right thing to do, and I
commend my colleagues for their efforts to make sure it happens.
Mr. FRIST. I ask that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the
preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table,
and any statements be printed in the Record.
[[Page S9315]]
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 137) was agreed to.
The preamble was agreed to.
The concurrent resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:
S. Con. Res. 137
Whereas, in Darfur, Sudan, more than 30,000 innocent
civilians have been murdered, more than 400 villages have
been destroyed, more than 130,000 men, women, and children
have been forced from their villages into neighboring
countries, and more than 1,000,000 people have been
internally displaced;
Whereas the United States Government has been, and remains
as of September 2004, the largest contributor of assistance
to the people of Darfur, having provided over $200,000,000 in
assistance, which constitutes more than 70 percent of the
total assistance provided to that region;
Whereas the United States has pledged $299,000,000 in
humanitarian aid to Darfur through fiscal year 2005, as well
as $11,800,000 in support of the African Union mission in
that region, and is likely to provide support in excess of
those pledges;
Whereas United States citizens and private organizations,
as well as the United States Government, have admirably
worked, at great risk and through great effort, to ease
suffering in Darfur, Sudan, and in eastern Chad;
Whereas, based on credible reports, Congress determined in
late July 2004 that acts of genocide were occurring in
Darfur, Sudan, and that the Government of Sudan bears direct
responsibility for many of those acts of genocide;
Whereas, expressing its grave concern at the ongoing
humanitarian crisis and widespread human rights violations in
Darfur, including continued attacks on civilians that place
thousands of lives at risk, the United Nations Security
Council on July 30, 2004, unanimously adopted Security
Council Resolution 1556, which called upon the Government of
Sudan to fulfill immediately its obligations to facilitate
humanitarian relief efforts, to take steps to disarm
immediately the Janjaweed militias responsible for attacks on
civilians and bring the perpetrators of such attacks to
justice, and to cooperate with independent United Nations-
sponsored investigations of human rights violations;
Whereas the Government of Sudan has failed to take credible
steps to comply with the demands of the international
community as expressed through the United Nations Security
Council;
Whereas, according to press reports, reports from
nongovernmental organizations, first-hand accounts from
refugees, and other sources, the Janjaweed attacks on the
civilians of Darfur continue unabated as of September 2004;
Whereas there are credible reports from some of these same
sources that the Government of Sudan is providing assistance
to the Janjaweed militias and, in some cases, that Government
of Sudan forces have participated directly in attacks on
civilians;
Whereas the United States Government, after conducting more
than 1,000 interviews with survivors and refugees, has
determined that genocide has occurred in Darfur, that it may
still be occurring, and that both the Janjaweed and the
Government of Sudan bear responsibility for these acts;
Whereas the Secretary of State has determined that the
attacks by the Government of Sudan and the Janjaweed on the
non-Arab people of Darfur and their villages are based on
race, not religion;
Whereas the United States has recently introduced a new
resolution in the United Nations Security Council that calls
for the Government of Sudan to cooperate fully with an
expanded African Union force and for a cessation of Sudanese
military flights over Darfur;
Whereas the introduced resolution also provides for
international overflights of the Darfur region to monitor the
situation on the ground and requires the United Nations
Security Council to review the record of compliance of the
Government of Sudan to determine whether the United Nations
should impose sanctions on Sudan, including sanctions
affecting the petroleum sector in that country;
Whereas the resolution also urges the Government of Sudan
and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement to conclude
negotiations on a comprehensive peace accord and, most
important, calls for a United Nations investigation into all
violations of international humanitarian law and human rights
law that have occurred in Darfur in order to ensure
accountability;
Whereas the United Nations Security Council, in United
Nations Security Council Resolution 1556, emphasized that the
Government of Sudan bears primary responsibility for
respecting human rights and protecting the people of Sudan;
Whereas United Nations Security Council Resolution 1556
calls upon the Government of Sudan to cooperate with the
United Nations;
Whereas the United Nations Human Rights Commission,
established in 1946 and given the responsibility of drafting
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is responsible for
promoting respect for and observance of, human rights and
fundamental freedoms for all;
Whereas the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares
that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and
rights, that everyone is entitled to all the rights and
freedoms set forth in the Declaration regardless of race,
color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion,
or national or social origin, property, birth, or other
status that everyone has the right to life, liberty and
security of person, that no one shall be held in slavery or
servitude, and that no one shall be subjected to torture or
to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment;
Whereas the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
Genocide, done at Paris on December 9, 1948 (hereafter in
this resolution referred to as the ``Genocide Convention''),
delineates the criteria that constitute genocide and requires
parties to prevent and punish genocide;
Whereas Sudan is a state party to the Genocide Convention
and remains a member of the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights;
Whereas the Secretary of State determined that, according
to United States law, the Government of Sudan is a state
sponsor of terrorism and has been since 1993 and therefore
remains ineligible for U.S. foreign assistance;
Whereas, due to the human rights situation in Darfur, it
would be consistent with United States obligations under the
Genocide Convention for the Secretary of State and the United
States Permanent Representative to the United Nations to seek
the immediate suspension of Sudan from the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights and, in the event a formal
investigation results in a determination by the UN that
genocide has occurred in Darfur, the ultimate removal of
Sudan from such Commission; and
Whereas it is a mockery of human rights as a universal
principle, a challenge to the United Nations as an
institution, and an affront to all responsible countries that
embrace and promote human rights that a government under
investigation by the United Nations for committing genocide
against, and violating the human rights of, its own citizens
sits in judgment of others as a member in good standing of
the United Nations Commission on Human Rights: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives
concurring), That Congress--
(1) recognizes and approves of the findings of the
Secretary of State that genocide has occurred and may still
be occurring in Darfur, Sudan, and that the Government of
Sudan bears responsibility for such acts;
(2) supports the Secretary of State's call for a full and
unfettered investigation by the United Nations into all
violations of international humanitarian law and human rights
law that have occurred in Darfur, with a view to ensuring
accountability;
(3) supports the resolution introduced by the United States
Government in the United Nations Security Council on
September 9, 2004, with regard to the situation in Darfur;
(4) calls upon the Secretary of State and the United States
Permanent Representative to the United Nations to take
immediate steps to pursue the establishment of a formal
United Nations investigation, under Article VIII of the
Genocide Convention to determine whether the actions of the
Government of Sudan in Darfur constitute acts of genocide;
(5) calls upon the Secretary of State and the United States
Permanent Representative to the United Nations to take
immediate steps to pursue the immediate suspension of Sudan
from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights;
(6) calls upon the Secretary of State and the United States
Permanent Representative to the United Nations to take
further steps to ensure that the suspension of Sudan from the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights remains in effect
unless and until the Government of Sudan meets all of its
obligations, as determined by the United Nations Security
Council, under United Nations Security Council Resolution
1556 of July 30, 2004, and any subsequent United Nations
Security Council resolutions regarding this matter;
(7) calls upon the Secretary of State and the United States
Permanent Representative to the United Nations to take steps
to ensure that, in the event that the formal investigation of
acts of genocide in Sudan results in a determination by the
UN that genocide has occurred or is occurring in Darfur, the
United States Government takes appropriate actions to ensure
that Sudan is removed from the United Nations Human Rights
Commission;
(8) calls upon the member states of the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights to convene an immediate special
session to consider the urgent and acute human rights
situation in Sudan for the purpose of considering whether
Sudan should be suspended from membership in such Commission;
and
(9) expects the Secretary of State to report to Congress on
progress made toward taking the actions and accomplishing the
objectives outlined in this resolution not later than 60 days
after the date on which Congress agrees to the resolution.
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