[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 114 (Friday, August 2, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1234-E1237]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             WHAT IS THIS ADMINISTRATION'S POLICY IN SUDAN?

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, August 2, 2013

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise to submit a letter I sent today to 
President Obama regarding Sudan as well as a copy of my Darfur trip 
report which I issued in July 2004 after having been a part of the 
first Congressional delegation to the region. Just months later then-
Secretary of State Colin Powell described what was happening as 
genocide--a descriptor that President Obama himself used as recently as 
2009.
  And yet, the Sudan Special Envoy position remains vacant after nearly 
five months. Violence, displacement and atrocities continue in Darfur 
and the Nuba Mountains. And Sudanese President Bashir continues to 
travel the globe with virtual impunity.
  What is this administration's policy in Sudan?

                                    Congress of the United States,


                                     House of Representatives,

                                   Washington, DC, August 2, 2013.
     Hon. Barack H. Obama,
     The President, The White House, Washington, DC.
       Dear Mr. President: I have written you on more than one 
     occasion about the persistent vacancy of the Sudan Special 
     Envoy post, which has been unfilled for nearly five months. 
     This is indefensible given the current state of affairs in 
     Sudan.
       I enclose for your reference a recent piece that Sudan 
     expert and advocate Professor Eric Reeves authored for the 
     Washington Post. He paints a grim picture about the situation 
     in Darfur, lamenting that this genocide, which once captured 
     our collective national outrage, now seems to have 
     disappeared from public view leaving us with the 
     misperception that the violence has subsided and the crisis 
     resolved. Nothing could be further from the truth.
       Reeves writes ``. . . the slaughter has continued in 
     Darfur: Some 500,000 people have died in the past 10 years 
     from war-related causes. In 2009, as president, Obama again 
     declared that `genocide' was occurring in Darfur, yet little 
     followed from this.'' He continued, ``But the people of 
     Darfur have been left defenseless largely because of an 
     unforgivable lack of attention and leadership by the United 
     States. The policies of Obama's administration have hardly 
     matched his rhetoric. Indeed, in a bizarre reprise of 
     policies for which Obama had sharply criticized the Bush 
     administration, on Nov. 8, 2010, senior administration 
     officials explicitly `decoupled' Darfur from the largest 
     bilateral issue between Washington and Khartoum: the latter's 
     place on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.''
       While Reeves' focus in the enclosed editorial is on 
     Darfur--that region is far from being the only humanitarian 
     and human rights catastrophe in Sudan. Last year I visited 
     Yida refugee camp in South Sudan. I heard harrowing stories 
     from a growing refugee population that had fled the Nuba 
     Mountains, including indiscriminate aerial bombardments aimed 
     at civilian populations, the use of food as a weapon of war, 
     people driven from their homes and targeted for killing 
     because of the color of their skin. In short I heard echoes 
     of my time spent in Darfur as the first member of the House 
     of Representatives to visit in July 2004.
       Last year I offered an amendment to the State and Foreign 
     Operations Appropriations bill which would have cut non-
     humanitarian foreign assistance to any nation that allowed 
     Sudanese President Omar Bashir, an internationally indicted 
     war criminal, into their country without arresting him. The 
     amendment was adopted with bipartisan support by voice vote.
       The amendment I proposed would have effectively isolated 
     Bashir and made him an international pariah as is befitting a 
     man with blood on his hands. It is noteworthy that the 
     amendment garnered the support of 70 prominent Holocaust and 
     genocide scholars. Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the Wyman 
     Institute, which initiated a letter of support to the 
     administration from these scholars, said: ``Halting aid to 
     those who host Bashir would be the first concrete step the 
     U.S. has taken to isolate the Butcher of Darfur and pave the 
     way for his arrest. If the Obama administration is serious 
     about punishing perpetrators of genocide, it should support 
     the Wolf Amendment.''
       Sadly that support never materialized. In fact your 
     administration actively sought to remove this language from 
     the final bill. Meanwhile, Bashir remains free to travel 
     where he pleases, and the people of Sudan see no end in sight 
     to their suffering and U.S. policy is in tatters.
       The FY 2014 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations 
     bill, which just last week passed out of the full committee, 
     included language consistent with the amendment I offered 
     last year. In seeking to isolate Bashir, our options are 
     limited but far from nonexistent.
       Will your administration support this effort? Will Bashir 
     be made to face some modicum of consequence for his actions? 
     Will the special envoy position be filled before the fall?
       Professor Reeves' piece featured this quote from you: ``We 
     can't say `never again' and then allow it to happen again, 
     and as a president of the United States, I don't intend to 
     abandon people or turn a blind eye to slaughter.'' I wish, 
     and more importantly the suffering people of Sudan wish, we 
     had seen an ounce of that moral clarity and conviction since 
     you took office. Sudan has historically been a bipartisan 
     issue. We may be from different parties but I had thought, 
     based on your campaign rhetoric, that this might be an area 
     of common cause.
       Best wishes.
           Sincerely,
                                                    Frank R. Wolf,
                                               Member of Congress.
                                  ____
                                  

                       [From the Washington Post]

     Civilians in Sudan's Darfur Region Face Wholesale Destruction

                            (By Eric Reeves)

       After years of obscurity and little reliable international 
     reporting, the vast human catastrophe in Sudan's Darfur 
     region is again

[[Page E1235]]

     in the news. It was regularly making headlines before 2008, 
     when the then-five-year-old genocide in Darfur had claimed 
     hundreds of thousands of African lives, but a lack of 
     sustained mainstream attention meant that the surging 
     violence fell off the radar.
       Few could have predicted that this remote and obscure 
     region in western Sudan would galvanize American civil 
     society. Then again, how could the loss of attention have 
     been so rapid?
       The United Nations recently estimated that 300,000 Darfuris 
     had been displaced in the first five months of this year; 
     more than 1 million civilians have been displaced since the 
     fall of 2008. Human Rights Watch recently reported that 
     ``satellite images confirm the wholesale destruction of 
     villages in Central Darfur in an attack in April.'' The 
     attacks were directed by Ali Kushayb, who was indicted in 
     2007 by the International Criminal Court for crimes against 
     humanity.
       Radio Dabanga--an extraordinary news network organized by 
     Darfuris both displaced and still in the region--provides 
     daily, highly detailed accounts of events in Darfur. Although 
     rarely cited by news organizations, which themselves have no 
     access to Darfur, Radio Dabanga has long reported brutal 
     assaults on camps for the displaced, chronic breakdowns in 
     the vast humanitarian effort in Darfur, an epidemic of rape 
     and the appropriation of African lands by Arab militias, 
     which ensures continued instability and displacement.
       The ethnic animus in the assaults remains clear, although 
     in recent years, conflicts among Arab tribes have become 
     increasingly destructive. The regime in Khartoum, which 
     cannot defeat the Darfuri rebels militarily and chooses not 
     to address their legitimate grievances, has resumed its 
     scorched-earth campaign, using Arab and non-Arab militias 
     against anyone thought to be providing support to the rebels. 
     Central Darfur's Jebel Marra region has been the site of a 
     three-year humanitarian blockade and endless aerial 
     bombardment by Russian-built cargo planes that have been 
     crudely retrofitted to drop shrapnel-loaded barrel-bombs. 
     Useless against military targets, these attacks have caused 
     countless civilian casualties while also destroying property 
     and livestock among the region's primarily non-Arab Fur 
     people.
       Although violence has ebbed and flowed over the past 
     decade, it has accelerated sharply in the past year. Yet 
     until recently, news coverage has been paltry and often 
     deeply misleading. In February 2012, the New York Times 
     declared from western Darfur that ``one of the world's most 
     infamous conflicts may have decisively cooled,'' citing 
     ``returns'' by the displaced as evidence. In fact, half a 
     million people had been displaced in the preceding two years 
     and violence was unrelenting. Last August, western North 
     Darfur became another arena of violence during a tribal-based 
     land grab for the Jebel Amir gold mines. The major town of 
     Kutum was overrun by Arab militias that looted humanitarian 
     resources. Nearby Kassab camp was also overrun and emptied of 
     some 30,000 people within a day.
       As a senator in 2004, Barack Obama called the atrocities in 
     Darfur ``genocide.'' He said so again as a presidential 
     candidate in 2007 and chided the Bush administration for its 
     accommodation of Khartoum. Invoking Rwanda and Bosnia as 
     justification for humanitarian intervention in Darfur, Obama 
     said, ``We can't say `never again' and then allow it to 
     happen again, and as a president of the United States, I 
     don't intend to abandon people or turn a blind eye to 
     slaughter.''
       But the slaughter has continued in Darfur: Some 500,000 
     people have died in the past 10 years from war-related 
     causes. In 2009, as president, Obama again declared that 
     ``genocide'' was occurring in Darfur, yet little followed 
     from this. To be sure, much has intervened in the years since 
     Obama was elected, including the Arab Spring, the drawdown 
     from Afghanistan, rising tensions with China and a collapsing 
     world economy. These issues, which impinge more directly on 
     U.S. interests and obligations than does Darfur, have 
     consumed much of the administration's energies.
       But the people of Darfur have been left defenseless largely 
     because of an unforgivable lack of attention and leadership 
     by the United States. The policies of Obama's administration 
     have hardly matched his rhetoric. Indeed, in a bizarre 
     reprise of policies for which Obama had sharply criticized 
     the Bush administration, on Nov. 8, 2010, senior 
     administration officials explicitly ``decoupled'' Darfur from 
     the largest bilateral issue between Washington and Khartoum: 
     the latter's place on the U.S. list of state sponsors of 
     terrorism. That marked a shift in attention to South Sudan 
     and implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, 
     but the signal sent to Khartoum was that the regime could 
     resume genocidal counterinsurgency warfare in Darfur. The 
     campaign has been more chaotic than the early years of the 
     genocide (2003 to 2005) but no less destructive, and with the 
     continuing collapse of humanitarian efforts because of 
     growing insecurity, civilian destruction could be wholesale.
       It's time to ``re-couple'' Darfur to all bilateral issues 
     between Washington and Khartoum.


        Congressman Frank R Wolf Darfur Trip Report (July 2004)

       It was just 10 years ago--in 1994--when the world stood by 
     and watched as more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis were 
     systematically murdered in Rwanda by rival extremist Hutus.
       When the killing finally ended after 100 days--and the 
     horrific images of what had taken place were broadcast around 
     the globe--world leaders acknowledged it was genocide, 
     apologized for failing to intervene, and vowed ``never 
     again.''
       That pledge from the international community is being put 
     to the test today in western Sudan, where an estimated 30,000 
     black African Muslims have been murdered and more than 1 
     million have been driven from their tribal lands and forced 
     to live in one of 129 refugee camps scattered across the 
     western provinces of Darfur. More than 160,000 have fled 
     across the border to Chad.
       The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and 
     Punishment of the Crime of Genocide describes genocide as 
     acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, 
     national, ethnic, racial or religious groups, as such:
       Killing members of the group;
       Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the 
     group;
       Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life 
     calculated to bring about physical destruction in whole or in 
     part;
       Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the 
     group;
       Forcibly transferring children of the group to another 
     group.
       After just returning from spending three days and two 
     nights (June 27-29) in Darfur, we believe what is happening 
     there may very well meet this test.
       During our trip we visited five refugee camps: Abu Shouk; 
     Tawilah; Krinding; Sisi and Morney--all sprawling tent cities 
     jam-packed with thousands of displaced families and fast 
     becoming breading grounds for disease and sickness.
       We drove past dozens of pillaged villages and walked 
     through what was left of four burned to the ground.
       We heard countless stories about rape, murder and plunder.
       We even watched the barbarous men--Arab militiamen called 
     Janjaweed--who are carrying out these attacks sitting astride 
     camels and horses just a short distance from where young and 
     old have sought what they had hoped would be a safe harbor.
       Janjaweed is roughly translated in Arabic as ``wild men on 
     horses with G-3 guns.''
       Ruthless, brutal killers, the Janjaweed have instigated a 
     reign of terror on Darfur--a region about the size of Texas--
     for more than a year. They kill men. They rape women. They 
     abduct children. They torch villages. They dump human corpses 
     and animal carcasses in wells to contaminate the water. Their 
     mandate is essentially doing whatever necessary to force the 
     black African Muslims from their land to never return.
       It is clearly the intent of Janjaweed to purge the region 
     of darker-skinned African Muslims, in particular members of 
     the Fur, Zaghawa, and Massaleit tribes.
       From where does this mandate come? The Government of Sudan 
     disavows supporting the Janjaweed. Some officials in Khartoum 
     even deny the existence of a humanitarian crisis in the 
     region. Yet the facts prove otherwise. We witnessed the 
     destruction. We heard horrific accounts of violence and 
     intimidation. We talked to rape victims. We saw the scars on 
     men who had been shot. We watched mothers cradle their sick 
     and dying babies, hoping against all odds that their children 
     would survive. We saw armed Janjaweed waiting to prey on 
     innocent victims along the perimeter of refugee camps.
       To hear the vivid, heartrending descriptions of the attacks 
     it is clear the Janjaweed have the support--and the 
     approval--of the Government of Sudan to operate with 
     impunity. The same stories were repeated at every camp we 
     visited. The raids would happen early in the morning. First 
     comes the low rumble of a Soviet-made Antonov plane--flown by 
     Sudanese pilots--to bomb the village. Next come helicopter 
     gunships--again, flown by Sudanese pilots--to strafe the 
     village with the huge machine guns mounted on each side. 
     Sometimes the helicopters would land and unload supplies for 
     the Janjaweed. They would then be reloaded with booty 
     confiscated from a village. One man told us he saw cows being 
     loaded onto one helicopter. Moments later, the Janjaweed, 
     some clad in government uniforms, would come galloping in on 
     horseback and camels to finish the job by killing, raping, 
     stealing and plundering.
       Walking through the burned out villages we could tell the 
     people living there had little or no time to react. They left 
     everything they owned--lanterns, cookware, water jugs, 
     pottery, plows--and ran for their lives. There was no time to 
     stop and bury their dead.
       The Janjaweed made certain that there would be nothing left 
     for the villagers to come home to. Huts were torched. 
     Donkeys, goats and cows were stolen, slaughtered or dumped 
     into wells to poison the water. Grain containers destroyed. 
     In one village we saw where the Janjaweed even burned the 
     mosque.
       Only the lucky ones--mostly women and children--made it out 
     alive.


                            ethnic cleansing

       What is happening in Darfur is rooted in ethnic cleansing. 
     Religion has nothing to do with what unfolded over the last 
     year.
       No black African is safe in Darfur. Security is non-
     existent. The Janjaweed are everywhere. Outside the camps. 
     Inside the camps. They walk freely through the marketplace 
     in Geneina, a town in far western Darfur, with guns slung 
     over their shoulders. One shopkeeper, we were told, was 
     shot in

[[Page E1236]]

     the head by a Janjaweed because he wasn't willing to lower 
     the price of a watermelon.
       The Government of Sudan military and security forces also 
     are omnipresent. At each of the places we visited we were 
     either trailed or escorted by a mixture of military regulars, 
     police forces and government ``minders.'' There have been 
     reports that the government has been folding the Janjaweed 
     into its regular forces as a way to disguise and protect 
     them. At two of the camps we visited, we were told the 
     government had inserted spies to report on what was said or 
     to threaten those who talked. We were told the ``minders'' 
     repeatedly scolded refugees and told them in Arabic to shut 
     up. Yet, even with these restrictions, refugees in every camp 
     we visited were eager to tell their stories.
       It should be understood that the Janjaweed are not 
     ``taking'' the land from the black Muslim farmers they are 
     terrorizing. The Janjaweed, whose historical roots are part 
     of the region's roving nomads who have battled with the 
     African farmers for generations, are employing a government-
     supported scorched earth policy to drive them out of the 
     region--and perhaps to extinction. It also was clear that 
     only villages inhabited by black African Muslims were being 
     targeted. Arab villages sitting just next to African ones 
     miles from the nearest towns have been left unscathed.
       On our first day in the region, we met with local 
     Government of Sudan officials in the town of El Fasher, a 
     two-hour plane ride west of Khartoum. They blame the crisis 
     in the region on two black African rebel groups--the Sudan 
     Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement 
     (JEM)--who started an uprising in February 2003 over what 
     they regarded as unjust treatment by the government in their 
     struggle over land and resources with Arab countrymen. The 
     rebel forces actually held El Fasher for a short period last 
     year. A cease-fire was agreed to in April 2004 between the 
     rebel groups and the Government of Sudan, but the Janjaweed 
     have continued to carry out attacks with the support and 
     approval of Khartoum.
       While local government officials in El Fasher were adamant 
     in saying there is no connection between the Government of 
     Sudan and the Janjaweed, whom they called ``armed bandits,'' 
     the militiamen we saw did not look like skilled pilots who 
     could fly planes or helicopters.
       We also were told the Janjaweed are well armed and well 
     supplied. If they are traditional nomads, how are they 
     getting modern automatic weapons, and, more importantly, from 
     whom? They also are said to have satellite phones, an 
     astonishing fact considering most of the people in the far 
     western provinces of Darfur have probably never even seen or 
     walked on a paved road.
       The impunity under which the Janjaweed operate was most 
     telling as we approached the airport in Geneina on our last 
     day in the region for our flight back to Khartoum. In plain 
     sight was an encampment of Janjaweed within shouting distance 
     of a contingent of Government of Sudan regulars. No more than 
     200 yards separated the two groups. Sitting on the tarmac 
     were two helicopter gunships and a Russian-made Antonov 
     plane.


                   WORLD'S WORST HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

       The situation in Darfur is being described as the worst 
     humanitarian crisis in the world today. We agree. But sadly, 
     and with a great sense of urgency, things are only going to 
     worsen. Some say that even under the best of circumstances, 
     as many as 300,000 Darfuris forced from their homes are 
     expected to die from malnutrition and diarrhea or diseases 
     such as malaria and cholera in the coming months. Measles 
     have already spread through Abu Shouck, a large refugee camp 
     outside of El Fasher.
       According to some predictions, the death toll could reach 
     as high as 1 million by next year. The Dafuri farmers have 
     missed another planting season and will now be dependent on 
     grain and other food stuffs provided by the international 
     community for at least another year. The impending rainy 
     season presents its own set of problems, making roads 
     impassable for food deliveries and the likelihood of disease 
     increasing dramatically with the heavy rains.
       The potential for a crisis of catastrophic proportions is 
     very real, especially since none of the villagers we talked 
     to at the refugee camps believed they will be able to go back 
     to their homes anytime soon. Having been brutally terrorized 
     by the Janjaweed and fearing for their lives, they do not 
     believe Government of Sudan officials who say it is safe to 
     return to their villages. We heard stories of some families 
     who went back to their villages only to return to the camps a 
     week later for fear of being attacked again.
       The attacks have traumatized thousands of young children. 
     In an effort to cope with what they have endured, programs 
     have been established in the camps to help the young boys and 
     girls deal with their psychological scars. Part of the 
     program encourages them to draw pictures of what they have 
     seen. The crayon drawings are chilling. Huts on fire, red 
     flames shooting through the roof. Planes and helicopters 
     flying overhead shooting bullets. Dead bodies, depictions, 
     perhaps, of their mother or father.
       We also saw a group of children who had made clay figures 
     of men on camels and horseback attacking villages. There is 
     no way to measure the impact of these atrocities on the 
     thousands of children living in these camps. Their lives are 
     forever scarred.
       The first step in resolving this crisis is disarming the 
     Janjaweed. It must be done swiftly and universally. If not, 
     the Janjaweed will just bury their weapons in the sand, wait 
     for the pressure from the international community to lift, 
     then reinitiate their reign of terror.
       A system of justice overseen by outside monitors must also 
     be implemented. The heinous, murderous acts carried out by 
     the Janjaweed cannot go unpunished. War crimes and crimes 
     against humanity clearly have been--and continue to be--
     committed. Those responsible must be brought to justice.


                      DIFFICULT LIFE IN IDP CAMPS

       Abu Shouk was the first of five IDP (Internally Displaced 
     People) camps we visited. More than 40,000 people live in 
     this sprawling tent city, created in April after El Fasher 
     was overrun with displaced families. Methodically laid out 
     with water stations, a health clinic, a supplemental feeding 
     station and crude latrines, it is being hailed as a ``model'' 
     by humanitarian relief workers in the region.
       However, aid workers at Abu Shouck are deeply concerned. 
     They observe that the malnutrition rate at this ``model'' 
     camp is a staggering eight to nine deaths every day, and fear 
     what is happening at the other camps, especially in the more 
     remote areas of Darfur that have not been reached by 
     humanitarian groups.
       Life in the camps is difficult. Crude shelters made from 
     straw and sticks and covered with plastic sheeting stretch as 
     far as the eye can see. Families arriving at the camps--
     almost all after walking for days in the hot sun from their 
     now abandon villages--are only given a tarp, a water jug, 
     cookware and a small amount of grain.
       The sanitary conditions are wretched. The sandy conditions 
     make building latrines difficult. At Mornay, the largest of 
     the IDP camps in Darfur with more than 70,000 inhabitants, it 
     was hard not to step in either human or animal feces as we 
     walked. In a few weeks, when the heavy rains begin, excrement 
     will flow across the entire camp. Mortality from diarrhea, 
     which we were told represents one-third of the deaths in the 
     camps, will only increase.
       To their credit, all the non-governmental organizations 
     (NGOs) that have been allowed to operate in Darfur have 
     done--and continue to do--a tremendous job under extremely 
     trying circumstances. The Government of Sudan has repeatedly 
     thrown up roadblocks to bringing in aid. It has denied or 
     slowed visa processing for relief workers. It has kept aid 
     vehicles locked up in customs for weeks at a time. It has 
     blocked relief groups from bringing in radios. It has limited 
     access to certain regions of the country. All this has made 
     getting medicine, food and other humanitarian supplies like 
     plastic sheeting and water jugs an uphill battle. While the 
     Government of Sudan plays its games, people are dying as 
     needed aid sits on tarmacs.
       As we approached the Morney camp on the last day of our 
     three-day trip, we were stopped by Government of Sudan 
     soldiers and security officers. They followed us throughout 
     the camp, watching with whom we talked. Amazingly, their 
     presence did not inhibit the refugees from recanting the 
     horrors from which they escaped--and for some, mostly women, 
     continue to endure.
       The men said while they feel somewhat secure inside the 
     confines of the camps, they dare not venture outside for fear 
     of being shot or killed by the Janjaweed. They showed us 
     scars on their arms and legs of the gunshot wounds they 
     received while escaping from their villages. They are 
     despondent over the fact that they are unable to provide food 
     for their families because they cannot farm their fields. 
     They expressed utter sadness and outrage about their wives 
     and daughters who venture outside the borders of the camp to 
     collect firewood and straw, knowing the fate that awaits them 
     at the hands of the Janjaweed. Life and death decisions are 
     made every day: send the men out and risk death or send the 
     women out and risk rape.
       Rape is clearly another weapon being used by the Janjaweed. 
     Rapes, we were told, happen almost daily to the women who 
     venture outside the confines of the camps in search of 
     firewood and straw. They leave very early in the morning, 
     hoping to evade their tormentors before they awake. With the 
     camps swelling in size and nearby resources dwindling, they 
     often walk several miles. The farther the women go from the 
     camp, the greater the risk of being attacked by the 
     Janjaweed. As we approached Mornay, we saw a number of 
     Janjaweed resting with their camels and horses along the 
     perimeter of the camp, easily within walking distance.
       We heard the horrific story of four young girls--two of 
     whom were sisters--who had been raped just days before we 
     arrived. They had left the camp to collect straw to feed the 
     family's donkey when they were attacked. They said their 
     attackers told them they were slaves and that their skin was 
     too dark. As they were being raped, they said the Janjweed 
     told them they were hoping to make more lighter-skinned 
     babies.
       One of the four women assaulted, too shy to tell her story 
     in front of men, privately told a female journalist traveling 
     with us that if anyone were to find out she had been raped, 
     she would never be able to marry.
       We were told that some of the rape victims were being 
     branded on their back and arms by the Janjaweed, permanently 
     labeling the women. We heard the chilling account of the rape 
     of a 9-year-old girl.

[[Page E1237]]

       We also received a letter during our trip from a group of 
     women who were raped. To protect them further attacks, we 
     purposely do not mention where they are from or list their 
     names. The translation is heartbreaking:
       ``Messrs Members of the US. Congress
       ``Peace and the mercy and the blessings of God be upon you.
       ``We thank you for your help and for standing by the weak 
     of the world, wherever they are found. We welcome you to the 
     (. . .) region, which was devastated by the Janjaweed, or 
     what is referred to as the government `horse- and camel-men,' 
     on Friday (. . . 2004), when they caused havoc by killing and 
     burning and committing plunder and rape. This was carried out 
     with the help of the government, which used the (. . .) 
     region as an airport and supplied the Janjaweed with 
     munitions and supplies. So we, the raped woman of the (. . .) 
     region, would like to explain to you what has happened and 
     God is our best witness.
       ``We are forty-four raped women. As a result of that 
     savagery, some of us became pregnant, some have aborted, some 
     took out their wombs and some are still receiving medical 
     treatment. Hereunder, we list the names of the raped women 
     and state that we have high hopes in you and the 
     international community to stand by us and not to forsake us 
     to this tyrannical, brutal and racist regime, which wants to 
     eliminate us racially, bearing in mind that 90 percent of our 
     sisters at (. . . ) are widows.''
       ``(Above) are the names of some of the women raped in the 
     (. . .) region. Some of these individuals are now at (. . .), 
     some are at Tawilah and some are at Abu Shouk camps. 
     Everything we said is the absolute truth. These girls were 
     raped in front of our fathers and husbands.
       ``We hope that you and the international community will 
     continue to preserve the balance of the peoples and nations.
       ``Thank you.
       From: The raped women at (. . .).''
       These rape victims have nowhere to turn. Even if they 
     report the attacks to the police, they know nothing will 
     happen. The police, the military and the Janjaweed all appear 
     to be acting in coordination.


                       DIRE SITUATION IS MAN-MADE

       The situation in Darfur is dire, and from what we could 
     see, it is entirely man-made. These people who had managed to 
     survive even the severest droughts and famines during the 
     course of their long history are now in mortal danger of 
     being wiped out simply because of the darker shade of their 
     skin color.
       Over the course of three days, we saw the worst of man's 
     inhumanity to man, but we also saw the best of what it means 
     to be human: mothers waiting patiently for hours in the hot 
     sun so that they could try to save their babies; NGO aid 
     workers and volunteer doctors feeding and caring for the sick 
     and the dying, and the courage and bravery of men, women and 
     children eager to talk to us so that we would know their 
     story.
       The world made a promise in 1994 to never again allow the 
     systematic destruction of a people or race. ``Never again''--
     words said, too, after the Holocaust. In Darfur, the 
     international community has a chance to stop history from 
     repeating itself. It also has a chance to end this nightmare 
     for those who have found a way to survive. If the 
     international community fails to act, the next cycle of this 
     crisis will begin. The destiny facing the people of Darfur 
     will be death from hunger or disease.
       When will the death of innocent men, women and children who 
     want nothing more in this world than to be left alone to farm 
     their land and provide for their families--be too much for 
     the conscience of the international community to bear?
       We sat with the victims. We heard their mind-numbing 
     stories. We saw their tears. Now the world has seen the 
     pictures and heard the stories. We cannot say we did not know 
     when history judges the year 2004 in Darfur.


                            RECOMMENDATIONS

                        The Government of Sudan

       The Government of Sudan should immediately implement key 
     provisions of the April 8 cease-fire agreement, including: 
     the cessation of attacks against civilians; disarming the 
     Janjaweed; and removing all barriers to the admittance of 
     international aid into Darfur. There should be a strict 
     timetable holding the Government of Sudan accountable for 
     implementing these provisions.
       The Government of Sudan should renew a dialogue with the 
     Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement 
     to discuss the political, economic and social roots of the 
     crisis.


                           The African Union

       Additional cease-fire observers should be deployed and 
     violations of the cease-fire reported immediately. The 
     current number of 270 is inadequate to monitor the activity 
     of an area the size of Texas.


                           The United States

       The United States should publically identify those 
     responsible for the atrocities occurring in Darfur, including 
     officials and other individuals of the Government of Sudan, 
     as well as Janjaweed militia commanders, and impose targeted 
     sanctions that include travel bans and the freezing of 
     assets.
       The President should instruct the U.S. Representative to 
     the United Nations to seek an official investigation and hold 
     accountable officials of the Government of Sudan and 
     government-supported militia groups responsible for the 
     atrocities in Darfur.


                           The United Nations

       The United Nations should pass a strong Security Council 
     Resolution condemning the Government of Sudan. It should call 
     for: an immediate end to the attacks; the immediate disarming 
     of the Janjaweed; the immediate protection of civilians by 
     beginning a review of the security of refugees in Darfur; the 
     determination of the feasibility of sending in UN protection 
     forces; an immediate review of bringing legal action against 
     those responsible for the policies of ethnic cleansing, 
     crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur; and the 
     imposition of targeted sanctions that include travel bans and 
     the freezing of assets.
       The United Nations should immediately deploy human rights 
     monitors to Darfur.
       The protection of civilians and access to humanitarian aid 
     should be a primary concern; the Security Council must be 
     prepared to establish a no fly zone if the cease-fire 
     continues to be violated.
       The United Nations together with other organizations should 
     continue to coordinate a relief strategy for getting aid into 
     those regions of Darfur that have yet to receive humanitarian 
     assistance. Alternative routes and means of delivering aid 
     should be considered if the Government of Sudan continues to 
     impede deliveries.
       The United Nations should take immediate steps to seek the 
     removal of Sudan from the United Nations Commission on Human 
     Rights.
       The United Nations should set a deadline for the Government 
     of Sudan to comply to all obligations under the cease-fire 
     and prepare contingency plans in the event those deadlines 
     are not met.
       We would like to thank everyone involved in organizing, 
     coordinating and implementing our trip. Representatives from 
     the State Department, USAID and the NGOs both in Washington 
     and Sudan deserve special thanks. We would also like to thank 
     Sean Woo, general counsel to Senator Brownback, and Dan 
     Scandling, chief of staff to Rep. Wolf, for accompanying us 
     on the trip. They played a critical role in writing this 
     report and took all the photographs. We would also like to 
     thank Janet Shaffron, legislative director, and Samantha 
     Stockman, foreign affairs legislative assistant, to Rep. 
     Wolf, and Brian Hart, communications director, and Josh 
     Carter, legislative aide, of Senator Sam Brownback, for 
     editing the report. Colin Samples, an intern in Rep. Wolf's 
     office, did the design and layout.
       We also want to extend out thanks to Secretary of State 
     Colin Powell and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for visiting 
     the region. Their personal involvement in working to resolve 
     this crisis is critically important.

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