[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 192 (Wednesday, December 14, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2254-E2255]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUDAN PRESS CONFERENCE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 14, 2011

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I submit remarks I delivered at a Sudan press 
conference today hosted by the U.S. Commission on International 
Religious Freedom.

                        Sudan Press Conference,


                1 p.m., December 14, 2011, Rayburn Foyer

       We are surrounded today by photos which convey a dark but 
     familiar story--Sudanese people, brutalized, marginalized and 
     terrorized by their own government.
       And yet, it seems this same regime has been afforded the 
     privilege of legal representation in Washington by the Obama 
     administration.
       Earlier this week, I was outraged to learn that the 
     genocidal government of Sudan led by Omar Hassan Bashir--an 
     internationally indicted war criminal--now has a lawyer, Mr. 
     Bart Fisher, on retainer in Washington.
       According to a news report in Africa Intelligence, Mr. 
     Fisher was hired with the express purpose of trying ``to lift 
     American sanctions against it.''
       In documentation posted on the Department of Justice Web 
     site, it appears that Mr. Fisher was granted a license by the 
     Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at Treasury to 
     provide this representation and that he plans to engage in 
     political activities, among them, ``Representations 
     (including petitions) . . . to U.S. government agencies 
     regarding sanctions . . .''
       If true, I am appalled that this has been permitted and 
     can't help but wonder if Mr. Fisher's political contributions 
     were a factor. The administration should reverse this 
     approval.
       Martin Luther King famously said, ``In the end, we will 
     remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our 
     friends.''
       I can't help but wonder what the people of Sudan are 
     thinking at this particular juncture when the administration 
     struggles to find its voice on their behalf, while at the 
     same time seemingly empowering the voice of their oppressors.
       Would we even dream of allowing Milosevic, Karadzic or 
     Gaddafi to have representation in the nation's capital?

[[Page E2255]]

       Bashir's crimes are well-known and documented. This is the 
     same man that is accused by the International Criminal Court 
     of five counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, 
     rape, torture, extermination, and two counts of war crimes.
       I've been to Sudan five times, including in July 2004 when 
     Senator Sam Brownback and I were the first congressional 
     delegation to go to Darfur. We spoke with women who had been 
     raped just days earlier.
       The Arab janjaweed militias, armed by Khartoum, told these 
     women that they wanted to make ``lighter skinned babies.''
       In addition to horrific human rights abuses and crimes 
     committed by Bashir and his National Congress Party (NCP), 
     Sudan remains on the State Department's list of state 
     sponsors of terrorism. It is well known that the same people 
     currently in control in Khartoum gave safe haven to Osama bin 
     Laden in the early 1990s. Moreover, Khartoum was a revolving 
     door for Hamas and other designated terrorist groups.
       But Bashir's crimes are not merely at thing of the past as 
     we will hear in greater detail today. At a recent Tom Lantos 
     Human Rights Commission hearing on the crisis in Southern 
     Kordofan and Blue Nile states in Sudan, former Member of 
     Congress and President of United to End Genocide, Tom 
     Andrews, spoke about his experiences while visiting the 
     region.
       He said that there were reports of, ``Sudanese armed forces 
     and their allied militias going door to door targeting people 
     based upon their religion, and based upon the color of their 
     skin.''
       Let me repeat that . . . people were being targeted for 
     killing based upon their religion and the color of their 
     skin.
       According to the USCIRF delegation that recently visited 
     Sudan and met with refugees in Yida camp, all of the pastors 
     with whom they spoke said they fled Southern Kordofan after 
     learning that the Sudanese military was undertaking house 
     searches for Christians and SPLM-N supporters.
       If this were happening in southern France, the world would 
     be outraged. The world would take action. And yet, this story 
     rarely features above the fold.
       We stand just blocks from a museum that cries out ``Never 
     Again.'' Meanwhile, it appears that this administration is 
     complicit in allowing the genocidaire Bashir an advocate in 
     Washington.
       Which begs the question, who lobbies for the people whose 
     faces are represented in this room?
       Yesterday I wrote the president along with the Departments 
     of State Treasury and Justice requesting immediate 
     clarification about this matter and will continue to press 
     them--just as I have done during previous administrations.
       I am submitting this correspondence and relevant 
     information into the Congressional Record for all to see.
       We must not be silent in the face of this injustice.
       If President Obama, Secretary Clinton and Secretary 
     Geithner stand by and allow this to happen, history will be 
     their judge.

                          ____________________