[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 23]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 31958-31959]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      TIME IS RUNNING OUT IN SUDAN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 15, 2009

  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker earlier today a news conference was held with 
Congressmen Donald Payne, Chris Smith and myself along with 
representatives from the U.S. Commission on International Religious 
Freedom (USCIRF), to draw attention to the desperate situation in 
Sudan. We heard compelling firsthand accounts of what transpired in 
Khartoum last week. Arrests, detention, tear gas and beatings of 
peaceful Sudanese protestors including several high-ranking Sudan 
People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) officials. These protestors had 
gathered in the streets to press Sudan's President Bashir and his 
National Congress Party (NCP) to demand passage of important laws by 
the National Assembly.
  Khartoum's actions are inexcusable, but why should we be surprised, 
given the head of state is an accused war criminal. We also know from 
widely reported information that the National Congress Party (NCP) is 
obstructing the establishment of conditions for free and fair 
elections. The world also still awaits reform of the national security 
law.
  Against this backdrop of violence and intimidation by Khartoum, the 
NCP and the SPLM entered into intense negotiations over the weekend. 
While reports indicate that a tentative compromise has been reached, 
the outcome is still far from assured. And if the coming weeks don't 
yield the necessary results, the long-suffering people of Sudan will 
watch any real prospect of lasting peace and justice slip away. Will 
the U.S. stand by and allow this to happen?
  For years the U.S. has been a leader on the world stage in advocating 
for the marginalized people of Sudan. This is an issue, unlike many in 
Washington, which has enjoyed broad, bipartisan support. In January 
2005, after two and half years of negotiations, the North and the South 
signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) bringing about an end to 
the 21-year-old civil war during which nearly two million people died, 
most of whom were civilians. I was at the signing of the CPA in Kenya 
along with Congressman Payne. Hopes were high for a new Sudan.
  Sadly those hopes are quickly dimming as President Bashir becomes 
further entrenched and principled U.S. leadership on Sudan wanes. On 
the eve of the five-year anniversary of the signing, the CPA hangs in 
the balance as does Sudan's future.
  President Obama's special envoy to Sudan, General Scott Gration, was 
appointed in March of this year. Many in Congress, myself included, had 
pressed for a special envoy in the hope of elevating the issue of Sudan 
particularly at this critical juncture in the implementation of the CPA 
and with genocide in Darfur still ongoing.
  While there have been times in the months following that I have been 
concerned by the direction that this administration appeared to be 
taking in Sudan, I refrained from any public criticism, not wanting to 
do anything that could jeopardize peace or progress on these critical 
issues. But I can be silent no longer.
  The time has come for Secretary Clinton and President Obama to 
personally and actively engage on Sudan.
  During the campaign, then candidate Obama said, ``Washington must 
respond to the ongoing genocide and the ongoing failure to implement 
the CPA with consistency and strong consequences.'' He went on to say, 
``The Bush administration should be holding Sudan accountable for 
failing to implement significant aspects of the 2005 Comprehensive 
Peace Agreement (CPA), imperiling the prospects for scheduled 
multiparty elections in 2009.''
  I could not agree more. Accountability is imperative. The CPA is not 
up for re-negotiation. But the burden for action, the weight of 
leadership, now rests with this president and this president alone.
  I have consistently received reports from people on the ground that 
this administration's posture toward Sudan has only emboldened Bashir 
and the NCP.
  The December 12 Wall Street Journal editorial page put it this way, 
``As a candidate, Mr. Obama stood with the human rights champions of 
Darfur and pledged tougher sanctions and a possible no-fly zone if a 
Sudanese regime infamous for genocide didn't shape up. His tone has 
changed in office . . . . the preference for diplomacy over pressure 
has encouraged the hard men in Khartoum to stoke the flames in Darfur, 
ignoring an arms embargo and challenging the U.N.-African Union 
peacekeeping force there.''
  Khartoum is savvy in the ways of Washington. This softening in the 
U.S. posture has not gone unnoticed.
  In recent written testimony before the House Foreign Affairs 
Subcommittee on Africa, the top UN investigator said, ``In contrast to 
that leadership of 2004 and 2005, the United States appears to have now 
joined the group of influential states who sit by quietly and do 
nothing to ensure that sanctions protect Darfurians.''
  This administration's engagement with Sudan to date has failed to 
recognize the true nature of Bashir and the NCP.
  Having been to Sudan five times, I've seen the work of their hands 
with my own eyes. In June 2004 I was part of the first congressional 
delegation with Senator Sam Brownback to Darfur, soon after the world 
began hearing about the atrocities being committed against the people 
of that region. I witnessed the nightmare. I saw the scorched villages 
and overflowing camps. I heard the stories of murder, rape and 
displacement. In the summer of 2004, the Congress spoke with one voice 
in calling what was happening in Darfur genocide.
  In addition to the massive human rights abuses perpetrated by the 
Sudanese government against its own people, it is also important to 
note that 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 
1990's. I was troubled by Special Envoy Gration's comments this summer 
at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that ``there is no 
evidence in our intelligence community that supports [Sudan] being on 
the state sponsors of terrorism list . . .'' despite the findings of 
the 2008 State Department Country Reports on Terrorism that ``. . . 
there have been open source reports that arms were purchased in Sudan's 
black market and allegedly smuggled northward to Hamas.''
  Last week marked the anniversary of the adoption of the 1948 Genocide 
Convention. In the aftermath of the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust the 
world pledged ``Never Again.'' But these words ring hollow for the 
woman in the camp in Darfur who has been brutally raped by government-
backed janjaweed so that they might, in their own words, make lighter 
skinned babies. Were these horrors taking place in Europe would the 
world stand by and watch?
  The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which sits just blocks from here, 
bears witness to genocide and related crimes against humanity around 
the world. The museum's warning for Sudan stems from ``(t)he Sudanese 
government's established capacity and willingness to commit genocide 
and related crimes against humanity. This is evidenced by actions the 
government has taken in the western region of Darfur, the Nuba 
Mountains, and the South that include:
  Use of mass starvation and mass forcible displacement as a weapon of 
destruction;
  Pattern of obstructing humanitarian aid;
  Harassment of internally displaced persons;
  Bombing of hospitals, clinics, schools, and other civilian sites;
  Use of rape as a weapon against targeted groups;
  Employing a divide-to-destroy strategy of pitting ethnic groups 
against each other, with enormous loss of civilian life;
  Training and supporting ethnic militias who commit atrocities;
  Destroying indigenous cultures;
  Enslavement of women and children by government-support militias;
  Impeding and failing to fully implement peace agreements.
  These are hardly our partners in peace. And yet, we cannot claim that 
Khartoum has been unpredictable, that we did not know what they were 
capable of. Tragically, they have been utterly consistent for nearly 20 
years. They have consistently brutalized their own people. They have 
consistently failed to live up to agreements. And they have 
consistently responded only to strength and pressure.
  And so I say once again, time is running out. The urgency of the 
situation calls for intervention at the highest levels of the U.S. 
Government--specifically the Secretary of State and the President of 
the United States. The people of Sudan cry out for nothing less.

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