[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6677-6679]
[From the U.S. 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.

[[Page 6678]]

  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 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 President 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 
I 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?

[[Page 6679]]

  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 refuse to be a witness 
to the atrocities?
  News coverage of these events have been sporadic, at best. While most 
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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