[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 100 (Thursday, July 7, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1256-E1257]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   ANOTHER UNFOLDING TRAGEDY IN SUDAN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, July 7, 2011

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I submit an article which recently ran in the 
BBC regarding the unfolding tragedy in Sudan.
  On the eve of the birth of a new nation in South Sudan, Khartoum is 
once again perpetrating acts of violence against its own people--this 
time in Southern Kordofan.
  First-hand accounts emerging from the region are chilling . . . door 
to door executions, reportedly based on ethnicity and political 
affiliation; Antonov bombers leaving a trail of devastation in their 
wake, mass displacement.
  The world says, ``never again,'' and yet in the face of mounting 
atrocities, where is the outrage?

                     [From BBC News, June 23, 2011]

         Sudan's South Kordofan: ``Bombings, Blood and Terror''

       More than 70,000 people are said to have fled violence in 
     Sudan's South Kordofan state, where the government says it is 
     disarming rebels. The region borders South Sudan, a largely 
     Christian and animist region, which is due to gain 
     independence from the mostly Arabic-speaking, Muslim north on 
     9 July.
       There is concern about the humanitarian crisis and the 
     alleged atrocities being committed. The area has effectively 
     been cut off by the military and not much has been heard from 
     people in the area. One aid worker who has just left the 
     region told the BBC's Will Ross about his experiences:
       It is terrifying. The civilians try to hide but generally 
     they run in panic and hence, sadly, there are many casualties 
     who die because of shrapnel. There are bombings and shellings 
     every day in different areas.
       There is a plane called an Antonov which circles high in 
     the sky and keeps coming over. Then there is the whistle of 
     the bombs as they fall. You have a few seconds to run but you 
     do not know if it is going to fall on you or not. The sounds 
     of the explosions are huge and sometimes the craters they 
     leave are five or six metres across.
       Burning hot pieces of jagged metal, the shrapnel, go flying 
     across the air and if you are not below the surface in a hole 
     or a dug-out you are at huge risk.


                            Blood and flies

       Then there are the MiGs [planes] which come in very, very 
     fast and low. These fire

[[Page E1257]]

     rockets and they are terrifying because they are on top of 
     you before you know it. You have no warning.
       They are very loud and so the terror that this incites in 
     people, even if you survive these attacks, is enormous.
       They can continue for hours on end. You can imagine how 
     awful that is for women and children and men, rural farmers 
     who have no military background whatsoever. And when they 
     sense that this is not an enemy from outside that is 
     attacking, this is their own government, they just do not 
     understand why this is happening.
       There are so many poignant, heartbreaking stories.
       A local farmer was lying on the floor of a hospital in 
     enormous pain, with a large piece of shrapnel that had gone 
     through his leg, with blood and flies over him. Again and 
     again he was asking the same desperate questions: ``Why is 
     our president doing this to us? Why is he bombing us?''
       He kept saying: ``This is wrong''.
       Then there was a young man who had fled a village that was 
     attacked and when the SAF [northern] troops withdrew, he 
     found to his horror that his wife and children had been 
     abducted by the army.
       With anguish in his voice he said he would rather have been 
     killed than his wife and child taken.
       ``I don't know what they will do to them, I don't think I 
     will see them again,'' he said.
       No less than 75,000 people have been displaced, and because 
     the bombing and shelling is continuing, that number is 
     probably going up every day.
       This is not a war of north versus south--this is about a 
     people within north Sudan who want a peaceful existence in 
     the north just with social and economic opportunities and 
     access to justice.
       The Nuba, a large percentage of whom are Muslims, feel 
     their future is with north Sudan.
       The people of South Kordofan, both the Nuba and people from 
     the nomadic Arab tribes, feel marginalised by Khartoum. They 
     feel they are not granted basic human rights.


                       House-to-house executions

       The area offers a remarkable alternative vision of how 
     Christian and Muslims and animists can live together. I have 
     witnessed after Eid, the Christians bringing breakfast for 
     their Muslim brothers and sisters, and at Christmas and 
     Easter all the people from the mosque coming to say 
     ``congratulations''.
       But people there feel the government in the last few weeks 
     has revealed it has no interest in allowing a political 
     solution that gives rights to an alternative voice in the 
     north, where there is religious tolerance and Christians and 
     Muslims living together.
       There is so much anguish. People say they don't want war 
     but they say until the policies of Khartoum change, they see 
     no alternative.
       They are asking for help from all northern Sudanese to come 
     back from this madness and have a look at how to build a 
     peaceful, tolerant society in the north.
       We are getting very strong reports that house-to-house 
     executions are going on by internal security forces where 
     summary executions are taking place based on ethnicity, 
     political affiliation and even how black you are. These are 
     civilians, intellectuals, teachers, community leaders, 
     Muslims and Christians, and often they are killed by their 
     throats being slit.
       This may be only the beginning and it could well continue 
     for many months and intensify. There is a complete lack of 
     access--we learnt that the only airstrip that was left had 
     been bombed and we have heard the government of Sudan will 
     shoot down UN flights operating in South Kordofan so 
     humanitarian flights are no longer an option.
       We know that there is no access from the north by road so 
     we are looking at a population that is now effectively 
     besieged--without access to services or humanitarian aid and 
     who are under fire.
       I fear the government has started these military operations 
     to try to ensure that opposition voice is completely squashed 
     before the 9 July, so that no thought of help of any sort 
     could come from the south, knowing that the emerging republic 
     of South Sudan would be very unwilling to get involved as it 
     would endanger their independence.
       The great majority of Nuba people that I have spoken to are 
     very worried the Egyptian forces that make up a large 
     percentage of the UN peacekeepers are not seen as 
     sufficiently neutral. Their cultural and religious background 
     and their behaviour and attitude towards black Nuba people 
     are unhelpful.

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