[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 64 (Thursday, May 1, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H3398-H3400]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SUDAN TRAGEDY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, this month marks the 20th anniversary of the
Rwandan genocide in which nearly a million perished in a horrific 100-
day span while the world idly stood by.
As has been documented in print and film, including Samantha Powers'
riveting book, ``A Problem From Hell: American and the Age of
Genocide,'' cables were sent, reports of the violence and the targeting
of innocents received, and yet the American foreign policy apparatus
was largely consumed not with stemming the bloodshed, but rather with
avoiding use of the word ``genocide'' less it necessitate a response.
And so many people died.
Of course, there is the now notorious negligence of the United
Nations in this regard, which culminated in a catastrophic moral
failure on the part of the international community.
Kofi Annan, then head of U.N. peacekeeping, was receiving on-the-
ground intelligence from General Dallaire, who was a Canadian general,
about the impending tragedy, and yet he repeatedly refused to authorize
General Dallaire to seize known weapons caches
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until it was too late. What horrors might have been prevented had Annan
chosen otherwise?
Fast-forward several years.
President Clinton traveled to the Kigali Airport in Rwanda and issued
what has come to be known as the ``Clinton apology'' for failing to do
more to stop the violence.
Later, President George W. Bush famously wrote ``not on my watch'' in
the margin of a report on the Rwandan genocide.
No President, Republican or Democrat, wants atrocities to occur on
their watch. I venture this much is true of President Obama. And yet
every indication points to the fact that the crisis currently unfolding
in South Sudan is headed the way of Rwanda.
In fact, yesterday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi
Pillay, characterized South Sudan as ``on the verge of catastrophe.''
But with the stakes as high as they are, the situation is simply not
being met with the urgency it demands.
It is time for bold action.
President Obama, who so far has failed on this issue, should
immediately dispatch former Presidents George W. Bush, who has a great
reputation in Africa, and former President Bill Clinton, who also has a
good reputation in Africa, to the region to help negotiate a lasting
peace and to convey in no uncertain terms that the fate of South Sudan
is a U.S. foreign policy priority.
Both of these men, President Bush and President Clinton, have done a
great deal on this issue and have remained invested in Africa beyond
their Presidencies.
This pair of statesmen, hailing from two different political parties,
would send a powerful message to the warring factions, and especially
as it relates to President Kiir, with whom President Bush and his team
forged a lasting relationship during intensive negotiations involved
with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and would open immediate lines
of communication at a pivotal time.
I first visited Sudan in 1989, years before Darfur became a household
word, and I have prayed for the day when the people of that long-
suffering land would enjoy peace and representative government. I have
been five subsequent times, most recently in 2012.
For more than two decades, a steady stream of Sudanese activists,
Lost Boys and Girls who resettled in the United States, humanitarian
groups operating in the region, and others have visited my office.
Whether it was the seemingly intractable war between the North and
the South, the genocide in Darfur, or, in recent years, the violence in
the Nuba Mountains set against the backdrop of the birth of a new
nation, I have followed events closely in that part of the world,
urging U.S. administrations of every stripe to engage vigorously in
pursuit of lasting peace, justice, and rule of law.
I asked President Bush to appoint a special envoy. He appointed
former Senator John Danforth, who did an incredible job with then-
Secretary of State Powell.
While I did not support Obama's candidacy, I was heartened and
encouraged by his rhetoric on Sudan during the 2008 campaign. I took
further encouragement from some of the individuals who joined his
foreign policy team--senior advisers with strong human rights
credentials and a stated desire to see the United States lead in the
prevention of crimes against humanity and other atrocities.
Sadly, those words have not translated into action.
As I noted earlier, Samantha Power, who rose to prominence for her
reporting on genocide prevention, now represents the U.S. at the United
Nations in New York. I wish her voice was stronger within this
administration on this issue. I urge everyone to read her book. It was
a profound book. I urge her to take the message of the book and be a
spokesman in this administration.
Today, I stand before you as concerned as I ever have been about the
state of affairs in South Sudan and the potential for the recent
violence to spiral into genocide--a genocide that could defy even the
horrors of Rwanda, given that oil reserves are in play.
On Monday, I received deeply troubling reports from individuals on
the ground about recent atrocities in South Sudan and the lack of an
effective U.S. or international response. I heard of civilians,
including women and children, indiscriminately targeted and killed. I
learned of houses of worship turned from places of sanctuary to mass
graves. I was told of ethnic divisions that now run so deep, it could
take generations to heal.
These reports, coupled with a smattering of news stories from the
last several months, belie what can only be characterized as an
emergency situation in urgent need of high-level intervention.
Consider the following excerpts from media accounts.
Voice of America, April 21:
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan on Monday accused
opposition forces in Bentiu of carrying out targeted
killings, including of children, and inciting ``vengeful
sexual violence'' against women after they captured the town
last week from government troops . . . UNMISS also said that
individuals associated with the opposition have been using an
FM station in Bentiu to broadcast hate speech.
It sort of reminds you of exactly what took place in Rwanda.
Will we ever learn?
The Washington Post, April 22:
Gunmen in South Sudan who targeted civilians, including
children and the elderly, left ``piles and piles'' of bodies,
many of them in a mosque and a hospital, the United Nations'
top official in the country said Tuesday.
CNN, April 23:
South Sudanese rebels seized a strategic oil town last
week, separating terrified residents by ethnicity before
killing hundreds . . . Residents sought shelter in churches,
mosques, and hospitals when the rebels raided Bentiu town.
Fox News, April 3:
As rebel forces entered Bentiu last week, residents were
led to believe that by entering the mosque, they would be
safe . . . But once inside they were robbed of money and
mobile phones and a short while later gunmen began killing,
both inside the mosque and inside the city hospital . . . If
you were not Nuer, nothing could save you. The gunmen killed
wantonly, including children and the elderly.
The Economist, April 26:
Even in a civil war that has been rife with atrocities, the
scale of the massacre of civilians in South Sudan's oil hub
of Bentiu on April 15-16 plumbed a new depth of hell. The
rebel White Army, so-called after the ash its fighters
sometimes smear on themselves, killed anyone they suspected
of supporting the government, including--it is reported--200
people in a single mosque and others in churches and aid-
agency compounds.
{time} 1330
Local radio broadcasts helped to stir up ethnic hatred to
direct the violence at perceived enemies of Riek Machar. No
side is winning. Hopes of building a new country from scratch
are drowning in blood.
I have a photo here--and many others--a graphic visual image of what
you have just heard described. It is from the most recent massacre in
Bentiu this month.
We see pictured the piles of bodies described in the news accounts,
and just yesterday morning, I received reports from someone on the
ground that another attack in that town could be imminent.
Where is the urgency from the Obama administration? Where is the
outrage?
I read with great interest the recent statements by Kenya's
president, in which he said: ``During the 20th commemoration of the
1994 genocide in Rwanda''--the 20th anniversary is this month--``I
expressed our region's disappointment at having done little to nothing
at the time to end the slaughter of a million innocent victims, human
beings in Rwanda, by a bloodthirsty cabal.''
He went on--and I commend the president of Kenya for saying this: ``I
also pledged,'' he said, ``in the name of Kenya and the region that we
would never again allow a similar genocide to happen within our
shores.''
``I return,'' he said, ``to the pledge today because of what is
happening in parts of Sudan. We are outraged and gravely concerned at
seeing the killings of hundreds of innocent civilians caught up in the
internal conflict of the South Sudan Liberation Movement.''
``We refuse,'' he said, ``to be witnesses to such atrocities and to
remain helpless and hopeless in their wake.''
President Obama, Vice President Biden, this is happening on your
watch. Will you allow it to continue? Will you to refuse to be a
witness to the atrocities?
News coverage of these events have been sporadic, at best. While most
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Americans are likely unaware of the horrors being perpetrated in South
Sudan, people who are in a position to help know what is happening.
Yesterday, I had a press conference with Congressman Pitts and
Congressman Smith. Two members of the press--two members, only two
members of the press even came. The room was empty. Nobody's covering
this story hardly.
Will it be like Rwanda, when they all had all the stories, and you
remember the movies that they did on Rwanda, looking back? Will the
press then cover it, looking back? Will they then say whose fault it
was that they didn't act?
Where is the media today? Where are the networks? Where is the Obama
administration?
Cables are now being sent to Washington. Talking points are being
drafted at the National Security Council and the State Department.
These events are not happening in a vacuum.
Will we see the contents of the reports only after it is too late,
when enterprising filmmakers and authors dredge up the documents and
wonder why no one mustered the will to act?
A joint op-ed piece yesterday by long-term South Sudan expert Eric
Reeves and John Prendergast, who has been on the scene, who has done so
much to bring the attention to these issues, opened with the following
line--they say: ``No civilians in the world are in greater danger than
those in South Sudan.''
Again, here is what they said: ``No civilians in the world are in
greater danger than those in South Sudan.''
You see how powerful--where they say even more than in Ukraine, more
than in Syria?
The pair continue:
Unlike the asymmetric warfare to which we have been
accustomed to hearing about in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and in
Darfur, symmetric warfare ensures heavy casualties in
military confrontations, but victories and defeats now have
more ominous consequences; for in South Sudan, the victors
see a military victory as justifying civilian slaughter of
the predominant ethnic group of the opposing forces, and with
a terrifying momentum, ethnic slaughter leads yet to greater
ethnic slaughter.
In short, crimes have been committed by both sides. There are no
angels in this conflict. There must be accountability for anyone
implicated in these atrocities. We have the technology, the capacity,
the eyewitness accounts to know who is involved and who is actively
violating the ceasefire.
Reeves and Prendergast further warn of looming famine, given that the
planting season has already been disrupted with more than a million
forced out of their homes, and ominously, they predicted that as many
as 7 million--7 million--could face starvation this fall.
The atrocities must stop. The suffering must cease. What is the end
game?
America helped give birth to South Sudan. We have a moral obligation
to do something and something bold. So I say this: President Obama, you
must not allow this to continue on your watch. I call on your
predecessors, President Bush and President Clinton, to immediately
engage in this crisis before more innocent blood is shed.
President Bush would go. President Clinton would go. Can you imagine
the image of both President Bush and President Clinton there together?
So I close with this last thought: President Obama, Vice President
Biden, failure to act--and this will be in the Congressional Record for
future generations to see--failure to act will be a stain on your
administration and a blot on your conscience.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaMalfa). Members are reminded to
address their remarks to the Chair and not to others in the second
person.
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