[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 21, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H1434]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         SUDAN: STOP USING FOOD AS A WEAPON OF MASS STARVATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, in about 6 weeks, the rainy season will 
begin in Sudan. Villagers will no longer be able to plant or harvest 
their crops. The roads will become impassible. It is the time of the 
year when people live off their harvests, their orchards, and the land. 
But there is no food in the states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile 
inside Sudan--not because of drought, not because locusts have 
destroyed the crops. No, Madam Speaker. This is a deliberate, man-made 
catastrophe created by Sudanese President Bashir.
  For months, Khartoum has been launching rockets and dropping bombs on 
villages and fields throughout South Kordofan and Blue Nile. The people 
of the Nuba Mountains, primarily of black African descent, cannot work 
their fields for fear of being bombed. They hide in caves as bombers 
and helicopters fly overhead. Rockets bombard their villages. Sudanese 
soldiers march into their villages, killing, raping, setting fire to 
their homes, carrying out a ``scorched earth'' policy.
  The people of South Kordofan and Blue Nile are already suffering from 
malnutrition and a severe shortage of food. Thousands are fleeing 
south, crossing into the newly independent nation of South Sudan, 
setting up refugee camps along the northern borders. Mainly women and 
children, they arrive traumatized, exhausted, and malnourished.
  President Bashir has denied humanitarian access to South Kordofan and 
Blue Nile for the delivery of desperately needed food aid. He wants no 
witnesses to his deliberate use of mass starvation as a weapon against 
his own people. And the clock is ticking, Madam Speaker, because the 
rainy season is coming soon, and then no one will able to get food into 
these areas, but the bombs will continue to fall from the sky.
  Take a look at these photographs. The first one is a remarkable 
satellite image of villages being bombed in South Sudan. You see the 
Antonov bomber flying north, back towards the Sudanese military 
airbase. You see the smoke plumes rising up from civilian villages. You 
see fields and orchards being bombed. These are not military targets, 
Madam Speaker. There's not even a truck or a pickup that might be used 
for military purposes. All you see are villages, huts, orchards, and 
fields. Antonovs don't do precision bombing, Madam Speaker; they just 
open up the back bay of the airplane and roll out barrels of 
explosives.
  This is an image, Madam Speaker, of the indiscriminate bombing of 
civilians. This is a war crime. It took place on March 8. And here, 
Madam Speaker, are the targets of the bombs and rockets: children, 
Madam Speaker, hiding and starving in caves.
  This photo was taken by John Prendergast, of the Enough Project, and 
George Clooney, who were in South Kordofan on March 8. They saw the 
planes and rockets striking villages. The satellite picture is from the 
Satellite Sentinel Project, set up by Mr. Clooney and DigitalGlobe, 
which has donated millions of dollars of imagery from its satellites in 
an effort to provide an early warning system for human security in this 
region of Sudan.
  Last Friday, I stood on the steps of the Sudanese Embassy with George 
Clooney and my House colleagues, Congressman John Olver, Jim Moran, and 
Al Green. We were all arrested protesting the humanitarian crisis in 
Sudan. We were joined by George's father and journalist, Nick Clooney; 
John Prendergast of the Enough Project; our former colleague Tom 
Andrews, now with United to End Genocide; Martin Luther King III; Ben 
Jealous, president of the NAACP; Nicole Lee, president of TransAfrica 
Forum; Faye Williams, chair of the National Congress of Black Women; 
Activist Dick Gregory; Rabbis David Saperstein and Steve Gutow; Fred 
Kramer, with the Jewish World Watch; and Ian Schwab, with American 
Jewish World Service.
  We had a simple message: Let food and humanitarian aid reach the 
suffering people of South Kordofan and Blue Nile. Stop raping, killing, 
bombing, and starving innocent women, children, and men.
  I commend the Obama administration for pressuring Khartoum to let 
food reach these desperate people, but more must be done. I urge the 
President to engage China at the very highest levels to also demand 
unfettered access for humanitarian aid.
  Madam Speaker, the world must increase the pressure on President 
Bashir or watch another crime against humanity take place in Sudan. We 
must not be silent.

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