1 3 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 2 concurring), That Congress— 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 (1) strongly condemns the Government of the Republic of the Sudan for its attacks against innocent civilians in the impoverished Darfur region of western Sudan and demands that the Government of Sudan immediately cease these attacks; (2) calls on the international community to strongly condemn the Government of Sudan for these attacks and to demand that they cease; (3) urges the Government of Sudan to allow the delivery of humanitarian assistance for the people in the Darfur region; and (4) urges the President to direct the United States representative to the United Nations to seek an official investigation by the United Nations to determine if crimes against humanity have been committed by the Government of Sudan in the Darfur region. Mr. ROYCE. Without objection, the resolution will be considered as read and open for amendment at any point. If I could just make an opening statement here, I think it is most appropriate that we are marking this up now based upon what we have just heard about the inattention to killing and the parallels between Rwanda 10 years ago and Sudan today. This resolution condemns the Government of Sudan for its attacks against the innocent civilians of the Darfur region of western Sudan. The resolution states that the Sudanese Government is using rape as a weapon of war, destroying food and water sources and systematically manipulating and denying humanitarian aid to the people of Darfur. More than one million Sudanese have been displaced. The Sudanese Government has once again used allied militia to carry out a scorched earth policy as it did in southern Sudan previously. We are now stalled in peace negotiations between the Government of Sudan and the SPLM, negotiations that have been underway for more than a year. As I said in my opening statement to this hearing, peace negotiations cannot lead us to discount the atrocities being committed in Darfur. The Sudanese Government must cease its attacks against civilians and allow the unfettered delivery of humanitarian aid. This resolution urges the President to direct the United States representative to the U.N. to seek an investigation to determine if the Sudanese Government is committing crimes against humanity in Darfur. Lastly, I would like to note that tomorrow, on the final day of the sixtieth session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, the United States delegation will sponsor an Item 9 resolution on the situation of human rights in Sudan. This was referenced earlier by our Ranking Member, Mr. Payne. This is going to have particular emphasis on the atrocities in Darfur. I would like to commend the Administration for doing this and urge all 53 member countries at the Commission to support this resolution condemning the atrocities taking place in Sudan. Mr. Payne, would you like to make an opening statement at this time? Mr. PAYNE. Let me just commend you for this resolution. I support it. I have been in touch with Secretary Craner, the Assistant Secretary for Human Rights, and we talked about the resolution. We are hoping that some of the countries that are reluctant to support this position will support a resolution which will have some meaning to it. Currently we are disturbed at the human rights debate that is going on, and so I hope that this resolution will be heard and will have an impact on the outcome. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. ROYCE. Thank you. We will go to Mr. Tancredo. Mr. TANCREDO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would just say that although I have only been in this Congress for a relatively short time, 5 years now, I believe that this is an unprecedented step we are taking here to actually adopt a resolution of this nature at a time in which there could have been and I am sure in the past we have heard the excuse that we should not do something like this because of an ongoing peace process. So I just want to commend you, Mr. Chairman, for having the courage to advance this resolution and to show the world, as a matter of fact, that the Congress of the United States, anyway, will not ignore what is happening in Darfur in the hope that we will get some sort of elusive peace process in the future. As was stated so eloquently, I think, by one of the witnesses, we will not have peace in Sudan regardless of what papers are signed if we do not settle this issue with Darfur. Mr. ROYCE. Right. I concur, and I want you to know and Mr. Payne to know that I did call the acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Charlie Snyder, as he was getting on a plane to go to Khartoum to tell him to threaten the Sudanese Government to pull off the government supported militia groups, to pull them off of the people of Darfur and issue the order for them to cease and desist because it is clear that there had been government support for that activity. We are now at the point where we are going to have to mark up a resolution and move forward with what pressure we can bring to bear, especially before the vote tomorrow. I have an amendment in the nature of a substitute at the desk, which without objection will be considered as read. [The amendment of Mr. Royce follows:] H.L.C. AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE TO H. CON. RES. 403 OFFERED BY MR. ROYCE Strike the preamble and insert the following: Whereas since early 2003 a conflict between forces of the Government of the Republic of the Sudan and rebel forces in the impoverished Darfur region of western Sudan has resulted in attacks by Sudanese Government ground and air forces against innocent civilians and undefended villages in the region; Whereas Sudanese Government forces and government supported militia groups have also engaged in the use of rape as a weapon of war, the abduction of children, the destruction of food and water sources, and the deliberate and systematic manipulation and denial of humanitarian assistance for the people of the Darfur region; Whereas United Nations officials and nongovernmental organizations have indicated that the humanitarian situation in the Darfur region is extremely urgent, particularly in light of restrictions by the Government of Sudan on the delivery of humanitarian assistance for the people of the region; Whereas on December 18, 2003, United Nations Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland, declared that the Darfur region was probably "the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe"; Whereas on February 17, 2004, Amnesty International reported that the organization "continues to receive 2 H.L.C. 1 2 3 4 5 details of horrifying attacks against civilians in villages by government warplanes, soldiers and pro-government militia"; Whereas on February 18, 2004, United Nations Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, Tom Eric Vraalsen, declared following a trip to the Darfur region that "aid workers are unable to reach the vast majority [of the displaced]"; Whereas Doctors Without Borders, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning medical humanitarian relief organization and one of the few aid groups on the ground in the Darfur region, reported that the region is the scene of "catastrophic mortality rates"; and Whereas nearly 3,000,000 people affected by the conflict in the Darfur region have remained beyond the reach of aid agencies trying to provide essential humanitarian assistance and United Nations aid agencies estimate that they have been able to reach only 15 percent of people in need and that more than 700,000 people have been internally displaced in the past year: Now, therefore, be it Strike all after the resolving clause and insert the following: That Congress (1) strongly condemns the Government of the Republic of the Sudan and government supported militia groups for attacks against innocent civilians in the impoverished Darfur region of western Sudan |