[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 59 (Monday, April 26, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E651-E652]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       OBAMA BACKS DOWN ON SUDAN

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                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, April 26, 2010

  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I submit for the Record an op-ed today by 
respected New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof regarding the Obama 
administration's abysmal record on Sudan. He paints a bleak picture 
about the potentially dire implications of the administration's failure 
to confront Khartoum. I echo Kristof's warning that ``if President 
Obama is ever going to find his voice on Sudan, it had better be 
soon.''

               [From the New York Times, April 22, 2010]

                       Obama Backs Down on Sudan

                        (By Nicholas D. Kristof)

       Juba, Sudan.--Until he reached the White House, Barack 
     Obama repeatedly insisted that the United States apply more 
     pressure on Sudan so as to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe 
     in Darfur and elsewhere. Yet, as president, Mr. Obama and his 
     aides have caved, leaving Sudan gloating at American 
     weakness. Western monitors, Sudanese journalists and local 
     civil society groups have all found this month's Sudanese 
     elections to be deeply flawed--yet Mr. Obama's special envoy 
     for Sudan, Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, pre-emptively defended 
     the elections, saying they would be ``as free and as fair as 
     possible.'' The White House showed only a hint more backbone 
     with a hurried reference this week to ``an essential step'' 
     with ``serious irregularities.''
       President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan--the man wanted by 
     the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity 
     in Darfur--has been celebrating. His regime calls itself the 
     National Congress Party, or N.C.P., and he was quoted in 
     Sudan as telling a rally in the Blue Nile region: ``Even 
     America is becoming an N.C.P. member. No one is against our 
     will.'' Memo to Mr. Obama: When a man who has been charged 
     with crimes against humanity tells the world that America is 
     in his pocket, it's time to review your policy.
       Perhaps the Obama administration caved because it considers 
     a flawed election better than no election. That's a 
     reasonable view, one I share. It's conceivable that Mr. 
     Bashir could have won a quasi-fair election--oil revenues 
     have manifestly raised the standard of living in parts of 
     Sudan--and the campaigning did create space for sharp 
     criticism of the government.
       It's also true that Sudan has been behaving better in some 
     respects. The death toll in Darfur is hugely reduced, and the 
     government is negotiating with rebel groups there. The 
     Sudanese government gave me a visa and travel permits to 
     Darfur, allowing me to travel legally and freely. The real 
     game isn't, in fact, Darfur or the elections but the 
     maneuvering for a possible new civil war. The last north-
     south civil war in Sudan ended with a fragile peace in 2005, 
     after some two million deaths. The peace agreement provided 
     for a referendum, scheduled to take place in January, in 
     which southern Sudanese will decide whether to secede. They 
     are expected to vote overwhelmingly to form a separate 
     country.
       Then the question becomes: will the north allow South Sudan 
     to separate? The south holds the great majority of the 
     country's oil, and it's difficult to see President Bashir 
     allowing oil fields to walk away.
       ``If the result of the referendum is independence, there is 
     going to be war--complete

[[Page E652]]

     war,'' predicts Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, one of Sudan's most 
     outspoken human rights advocates. He cautions that America's 
     willingness to turn a blind eye to election-rigging here 
     increases the risk that Mr. Bashir will feel that he can get 
     away with war.
       ``They're very naive in Washington,'' Mr. Mudawi said. 
     ``They don't understand what is going on.''
       On the other hand, a senior Sudanese government official, 
     Ghazi Salahuddin, told me unequivocally in Khartoum, the 
     nation's capital, that Sudan will honor the referendum 
     results. And it's certainly plausible that north and south 
     will muddle through and avoid war, for both sides are 
     exhausted by years of fighting.
       Here in Juba, the South Sudan capital, I met Winnie Wol, 
     26, who fled the civil war in 1994 after a militia from the 
     north attacked her village to kill, loot, rape and burn. Her 
     father and many relatives were killed, but she escaped and 
     made her way to Kenya--and eventually resettled as a refugee 
     in California. She now lives in Olathe, Kan., and she had 
     returned for the first time to Sudan to visit a mother and 
     sisters she had last seen when she was a little girl.
       Ms. Wol, every bit the well-dressed American, let me tag 
     along for her journey back to her village of Nyamlell, 400 
     miles northwest of Juba. The trip ended by a thatch-roof hut 
     that belonged to her mother, who didn't know she was coming--
     so no one was home. Ms. Wol was crushed.
       Then there was a scream and a woman came running. It was 
     Ms. Wol's mother, somehow recognizing her, and they flew into 
     each other's arms. To me, It felt like a peace dividend.
       Yet that peace is fragile, and Ms. Wol knows that the 
     northern forces may come back to pillage again. ``I don't 
     want war,'' she said, ``but I don't think they will allow us 
     to separate.''
       My own hunch is that the north hasn't entirely decided what 
     to do, and that strong international pressure can reduce the 
     risk of another savage war. If President Obama is ever going 
     to find his voice on Sudan, it had better be soon.

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