CONTENTS Page The Honorable Walter Kansteiner, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, U.S. Department of State Roger P. Winter, Assistant Administrator, Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, U.S. Agency for International Development Michael K. Young, Chairman, U.S. Commission on International Religious Francis Deng, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies, The Brookings Institu- John Prendergast, Co-Director, Africa Program, International Crisis Group Ken Isaacs, International Director of Projects, Samaritan's Purse Questions for the record submitted to the Honorable Walter Kansteiner by the Honorable Joseph Crowley, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York and responses FOLLOWING THE DANFORTH REPORT: DEFINING THE NEXT STEP ON THE PATH TO PEACE IN SUDAN WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2002 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:57 a.m. in Room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Henry Hyde (Chairman of the Committee) presiding. Chairman HYDE. The Committee will come to order. As a result of the bloodiest war on the African continent somewhere in that land of misery today a child will die, a mother will lose a limb, and a young woman will be enslaved. This is the reality in Sudan, a country at war, a terrible war. You have heard the numbers-2 million dead, and more than 5 million displaced. Despite these frightening numbers very little is being done to end the suffering of the helpless and the innocent. Today's hearing is another effort, one of many in the past decade, to help push the quest for peace in Sudan. We cannot turn a blind eye to the suffering of the weak and the helpless civilians in southern Sudan, and we cannot pretend we do not know. We witness the suffering every day. It is incumbent upon us to do something, to do the right thing. For almost 4 decades the East African country with a population of 35 million people has been the scene of intermittent conflict. The Sudanese conflict, Africa's longest running civil war, shows no sign of ending. The National Islamic Front Regime, which came to power by ousting a democratically elected government in 1989, continues to mount a brutal military campaign against its powerless masses in the south. Unfortunately, a new generation of southern Sudanese are growing up in the midst of war and hopelessness; children are being killed and maimed by a government determined to exterminate its own people. In February, government helicopter gunships mowed down scores of civilians who were waiting in line for food at a United Nations feeding center. Seventeen people were killed and scores wounded. This Committee processed the Sudan Peace Act. The House passed the bill by 422 to two in June 2001, and appointed conferees several months later. The act is an effort to address some of the problems facing Sudan and to provide assistance to those fighting for democracy and freedom, and to punish those who trade in blood oil. Unfortunately, our colleagues in the Senate have yet to appoint conferees in order to reconcile the two versions of the bill. The Bush Administration had demonstrated its keen interest in bringing about an end to the conflict. On September 6, 2001, President Bush appointed Former Senator John Danforth as Special Envoy for Peace in the Sudan. During a White House ceremony the President stated that, "For nearly 2 decades the government of Sudan has waged a brutal and shameful war against its own people, and this is not right, and this must stop." We welcome the President's asserted engagement in Sudan. Senator Danforth was given the mandate to ascertain if there is a role for the United States to play in the peace process. As part of his mandate, he first sought to test the parties to the conflict to determine if they were serious about a negotiated settlement. He proposed four confidence-building measures. These included: (1) a cease-fire in the Nuba Mountains region to facilitate relief assistance; (2) the creation of "days of tranquility" to administer immunizations and provide humanitarian relief assistance; (3) an end to aerial bombardment of civilian targets; and (4) the creation of an Eminent Persons Group on slavery in Sudan. In April 2002, Senator Danforth submitted his report to President Bush, recommending continued U.S. engagement in the peace process. The release of the Danforth Report provides an opportunity for Congress to assess the direction of U.S. engagement in the peace process. While I am encouraged by the Administration's high level commitment, I am disheartened to learn conditions on the ground have not changed. However, the witnesses today will lend us greater insight into the problems involved in the peace process and the impact which implementation of the recommendation contained in the Danforth Report might have on easing the conflict in Sudan. I now turn to the Ranking Member, Mr. Lantos, for his opening remarks. Mr. LANTOS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and before offering my opening remarks I want to commend you for your opening statement which I had the privilege of reading, and I want to explain to you that I was on the Floor making a statement on the most recent suicide bombing in Israel, which I think needed to be commented on. Sixteen Israelis were massacred this morning in a suicide bombing of a bus, with 50 Israelis being injured, many of them critically. With a population 50 times that of the State of Israel, this is the equivalent of 800 Americans having been blown to bits and some 2500 Americans injured, many of them critically. If in the morning paper we would be reading that 800 of our citizens were killed in suicide attacks, we would understand the climate that permeates our friend and ally, Israel, this morning. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for convening this very important hearing on Sudan, a country where an 18-year civil war has claimed more than 2 million lives and has required the delivery of more than $1.2 billion in U.S. humanitarian assistance since 1988, when our Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance became involved in Sudan. I would also like to congratulate my friend, Senator Danforth, on his mission and commend him on his efforts to move the Sudanese government and the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement toward accommodation and peace. It is important to note that Senator Danforth's report on Sudan and indeed this hearing, are both taking place in the context of an ongoing campaign of terror perpetrated by the Sudanese government against innocent civilians in the south. From January to April this year, the government destroyed 42 villages in the upper Nile region and routinely denied humanitarian flights. These are not signs of a government ready to engage honestly in a serious and substantive peace process. Last June, Mr. Chairman, the House recognized that as long as financial capital was available for oil companies to invest in exploiting the 4 billion barrels of oil primarily in southern Sudan, the Sudanese government would continue its war of destruction. By a vote of 422 to two we voted to include capital market sanctions in H.R. 2052, the Sudan Peace Act. Now I am deeply troubled by the lack of movement in the Senate toward a conference between our respective measures. Unfortunately, in the Senate our Republican colleagues oppose capital market sanctions. They have used Senate rules to block the appointment of conferees on this critically important piece of legislation. In fact, Senate Majority Leader Daschle has tried three times to appoint conferees, including as recently as May 7, and three times a key Republican Senator has used Senate rules to anonymously block the appointment of conferees. Mr. Chairman, out of deference to Senate rules, I will not name the Senator publicly today, but I would urge Members of the House who care about the Sudan to speak to their colleagues in the Senate as I have, to learn who is stopping the progress on this bill, and to get this hold removed. Mr. Chairman, while the Senate minority stalled these deliberations, Khartoum is playing the game of peace while conducting a vicious war of annihilation. I am deeply concerned that its leaders will logically interpret this obstruction as an indication that movement toward peace is not a prerequisite for normal relations with the United States Government. Of the four Danforth confidence building measures upon which a peace process will be built, only the Nuba cease-fire has been implemented. Government attacks on civilians in the upper Nile region have escalated. Civilian abductions continue unabated. And according to Senator Danforth himself, there has been, and I quote, . . a great deal of confusion over the days of tranquility for humanitarian programs." 66 Mr. Chairman, oil and access to capital to exploit the reserves are at the heart of the conflict in Sudan. According to Senator Danforth, oil has reshaped Sudan's civil war. More than just the war of self-determination, the government of Sudan has made absolute control of the oil region a major goal. It is pursuing a military course that spares no school, no clinic, indeed no civilian life that |