issue where this tragedy occurred and so we would like to express our condolences to the victims and their family members the transitional federal government  held without cause and we have been working with the president of point land to try to get their release and this morning the president will announce that they will he will commute their sentences and he will release them and so i'd like to thank the president point latin and our hearing this morning soledad a review of the ministrations new policy in a situation update let me also express my deep appreciation to the witnesses who are certainly among the most knowledgeable people on some data over the years we have held so many hearings and briefings on sudan and people here are tremendously interested in trying to bring attention to the suffering of innocent civilians and in the hope of promoting a just peace for all many believe and hope that the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement and or the door for peace agreement would bring about the much desired peace and stability in sudan unfortunately and the multiple efforts of millions of sudanese continue to suffer i sometimes wonder if we will ever get a just some of us saw firsthand the aftermath of the burning of abbey a by government and pro government militia in may two thousand and eight more than fifty thousand people were displaced from their homes as a senator president  for years a government of sudan has the will of the united states and the international community and offended the standards of our common humanity before we prove our relations with the government of sudan conditions must improve what the sud people we cannot stand down we must continue to stand up for peace and human rights i fully agree with that obama now our president it was not long ago that we witnessed another horrified horrific genocide in africa the international community including the united states turned a blind eye to the gruesome genocide in rwanda in one nine hundred ninety four in there was an estimated one million people died in less than one hundred days and are for six years since the genocide began the people of darfur are still waiting for the suffering to add a few years ago i say that if rwanda was a black mark on our conscience dar for is a cancer that will destroy the moral fiber of our society this is still the case i'm not opposed to a policy of engagement in fact i always argue we should give peaceful dialogue a chance before we declare war our policy is to focus on punitive measures i beg to differ united states has been at the forefront when it comes to engagement we never disengage the united states has appointed more special envoy to sudan than it has to any other country in africa why you know wanted to secure a just peace we have imposed punitive measures against this regime but we have always helped the sudanese people in october two thousand and nine last month the obama administration announced the new policy towards policy focuses on three priorities and ends of the conflict and are for implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement the c p a and ensuring sudan does not become a safe haven for international terrorist groups a new policy clarifies a number of issues that surfaced in recent months and reaffirms a conflict and our before that it is genocide stating that the united states is primary objective in darfur is a definite definite and to conflict gross human rights abuses and genocide in darfur the new sudan policy also states that cooperation on counterterrorism without verification verified progress on other issues will not lead to a  support the policy of policy objectives of the new policy question remains what if the regime continues to obstruct these efforts what are we doing to promote justice and accountability century i'm pleased to see general gration we've talked before about the new powers and i'm anxious to hear what has developed in moving forward on this because i think we are anxious to see some concrete too many deaths too many people have been forced from their homes too many families have been destroyed too many women have been raped too many children have been killed and we have a moral responsibility to help the people of sudan the people  process of recruiting young children into the lord's resistance army think about the fact that you have a militia whose purpose is working on this issue of anyone in the congress proceeding my time but he has said no but i would certainly keep the offer open if there's any question you'd like to ask  flies and we had some very very good meetings with government leaders in juba in south sudan and really dealing with this whole issue of referendum both of their districts over the course of the last year or so to meet with their residents who were so interested in following their leadership and so i'd like to really commend both of you for  the work you do back in your district as well as here let's turn to our principal witness on this panel we have major general scott gration u s army air force retired major general scott gration currently serves as the president's special envoy and he spent his childhood in the now democratic republic appreciate the hard work that you're putting into this effort and we appreciate your testimony let me begin by asking a couple of questions  administration's long awaited policy if fully implemented provides a framework to achieve a stable democracy and a lasting peace and at the center of this strategy is a policy implemented fully we started with when i took on this job we had twelve areas where we had differences of agreements between the parties we've been able to close on ten of those twelve the remaining one is the census and therefore the election and then the referendum and on those two when we get agreements we will turn those agreements into and have any of those individuals been involved directly or indirectly committing genocide or crimes against humanity just america is one that involves international community and the broader international community everybody has to be part of the solution to end the conflict and to promote development thank you very much  like we have seen that the government has been responsive in trying to help this situation get better in the very beginning there was only fifteen hundred people there registrars there weren't enough books when we the international community pointed that out they increase the number of registrars increase the number of books to help more people get registered and while that's not perfect we have to remember that this is the first time in twenty four years of they've had election we also have to remember that in the last election only five million people were registered as opposed to the numbers that we have already eleven point nine six people registered already for this election so yes i think that there is an opportunity for us to work on political transformation through this election there's a lot of things that have to continue we have to get sorted out so we can get an agreement between the two parties about the legislature because it's only by having elections down to the legislative level that we can number one have a legislature that is been elected by the people as one that's been appointed number  two we have to make sure that all the other pieces that go into an election to help make it fair that we help with these processes so as not only the law is not only this registration  preparation in terms of credible in terms of counting and security are the same things that we're going through the process now for we're going to have to go through it again and the worst congressman's term and this has been frustrating as you know an issue that many of us feel very deeply about very emotional about and  and so we first of all appreciate your getting here we would hope it would have been sooner than later and that's where a lot of pent up frustration is you can see this is an issue that bipartisan both houses take very seriously i know that the president and you take it very seriously but when you are kept in the dark so to speak you really don't know and we know you're working hard it's just we don't know what you're doing now we've gotten some light now we can have some evaluation as you can see there still a lot of skepticism not a lot of  a lot of us that want to see and come into the twenty first century and we don't see it yet but let me once again thank you for coming  we will adjourn recess this hearing there's no time left but we will be back here for evolves we should be back and a half hour or less with that i'd like to thank  special envoy for coming in this portion of the hearing is adjourned recess thank you hearing into a briefing since as you know house rules indicate that official hearing you may not have official government however they can brief appeared as an expert commentator in the media previously dr newcombe was vice president of the network of philanthropic investment he was a fellow at the as an investigator print and t v journalist last but certainly no stranger and not least we have missed a job in the grass is dependent gas is the sound processes in africa while he was director of african affairs for the national security council and special adviser at the department of state is dependent as has also worked for members of congress the united injustice including those taking place in sudan threaten the very foundation of our common humanity as a private philanthropic organization whose mission is to help in mass atrocities in modern day slavery our work on sudan includes supporting advocacy it's clear that the u s and international attention is focused on resolving the immediate issues issues import or importance and yet settling them will address only some parts of the complex mosaic of center periphery conflict in sudan several high risk flashpoints will still threaten or returns a conflict time and energy should be devoted now to identifying such potential flashpoint and to promote peace building activities meant to reduce those local tensions which could trigger a wider conflict central to these discussions of the transitional areas of southern kordofan on blue nile and the so called three areas regions on the north south border the with the sudan people's liberation army during the civil war the us back two thousand and five comprehensive peace agreement contains separate protocols for these fragile and high risk areas including establishing a parallel referendum for abi a and a popular consultation process for the  states and blue nile both of which will remain in northern sudan beyond twenty eleven these processes are meant to allow local communities to express their views on this and to enter into discussions with part two months persisting grievances serious violence to date as you know in may two thousand and eight local tensions fuelled by failure to implement this led to violent clashes between government forces from the north and south leading to widespread destruction and many local communities and to prevent precisely this kind of violence has lagged behind other efforts as the country that drafted the protocol the united states has a special responsibility here to ensure that agreements  are not just upheld but that they are successful the need for local civil society engagement in a power are also dire and for itself as a member as a member of the committee knows all too well the terrible suffering  efforts to negotiate a darfur peace deal have left critical local voices out of the process making consensus among refugees and internally displaced persons outside of any part of that peace process if we believe that we can achieve peace that this can only be achieved if we help support and sustain the civil society actors that exist and are for and help give them a voice in this critical process mr chairman before i conclude i do want to raise the critical importance of thinking today about the challenges of tomorrow working for peace in sudan must also remain focused on the twenty eleven referendum if the choice for southern independence i think everybody would agree that all indications suggest that it might lead towards independence there are a number of issues that demand urgent attention the risk of conflict i believe can be reduced but in order for peace to prevail international attention coordination and diligence by the united states government is needed on four pressing issues the first cross border oil revenue sharing southern oil revenues is currently split fifty fifty between khartoum and juba should the south the bulk of the oil would remain in the south but the pipeline to port sudan the only means for the north to get their oil to market runs to the north nor south cooperation the oil sector will require international support guarantees capacity building in the south never to cross border population movements as mentioned in my previous comments on their own populations on both sides of the border whose livelihoods depend on continued process water access either for grazing herds or for trade early agreement on continued cross border access will reduce the likelihood of tensions local violence and manipulation by outside forces number three water rights the white nile flows to the south before meeting with the blue nile  north regional concerns about the implications of other need for the nile river treaty need to be addressed such discussions will also require a robust international engagement to ensure that neighboring countries are confident in democratic transformation of the country start a process of transforming a country with a non free and unfair alexion that set the trend in the opposite direction the third thing the non credible election will do is be doing and that rolls right into the thing which is let's not waste tens of millions i think the number is ninety six million dollars of u s taxpayer money underwriting a non credible election that's going to legitimize that war criminal until the parties so what's the bottom line and then until the parties agree to conditions that are in that will allow a credible election i think the united states and the broader interests of the united states has resolved however we have to equally vigorously continue to press for those conditions if we don't condition the necessary precondition for holding the referendum on time if we don't but there's an even more important point from our perspective at the enough project there is a ten minutes till midnight make or break scenario that we're facing today until now and this is for me the most important commission of another genocide in the south which wasn't called the genocide twenty years the parties but particularly the national congress party continue to trample on any agreement because there is no consequence for not implementation it's very obvious  basic human nature so it's time and this is why the congress is so crucial it's time for president obama to decide to implement his own administration's benchmark based policy because  the establishment of conditions for credible elections and the referendum that should trigger consequences now the u s should work within the united nations security council and outside of it because a lot of things are simply not going to be able to move as we all know because of the membership there and we should work to build that coalition of countries that are willing to introduce some of these consequences sometimes we'll have to go it alone but let's at least do the diplomatic work to build the coalition to try to go multilaterally on some of these things and impose consequences as soon as possible on the national congress of basic conditions for peace and the consequences everyone always says oh we agree that the c p a must be fully implemented but i have always had a problem with the delaying of elections or referendums because sometimes the delay then you have another and many times we have a difficulty really  biting the bullet and moving forward so i wonder how we can address both issues that is can the conditions that you mention to be met in time to delay actions and hold a referendum in two thousand and eleven i know there are two separate issues elections coming up next year referendum coming up in eleven we know the month of once the process and there was more excitement about registering i went to the site went to a for the end of the day any delay will have to be a result of the agreement of the parties i want to reinforce that we're not calling for a delay or we're calling on the parties to consider particularly of course the party that has been more forward leaning in the negotiations to consider what their options are going forward in the negotiations with respect to the hold of the e that we won't recognize it we won't provide validation of the results along that same line provide validation to the process by providing all kinds of resources to it if the pre existing conditions the various laws and conditions of freedom of assembly and other security laws are not in place to allow for a free and fair election so they can have the election not underwrite  consequences we're not looking to punish we're looking at the empirical evidence of the last twenty years when national congress party has position and compromise it's been when there has been concerted we have replaced the capacity of survivors of horrific sexual violence and violence as a tool or that is a negligent position on the part of this administration not standing up for the women and the girls who are being targeted in the south we're seeing the beginnings of what we saw for in two thousand and two the year before the genocide and what we saw during the twenty twenty year war from one thousand nine hundred three on and that is  of militias in the south to destabilize what are sometimes called intercommunal violence or tribal violence or cattle raiding or things like that suddenly hundreds and  that may be the road to nowhere and i thank the committee for bringing to our attention this crisis that does not get the attention that i think it's going to grants i'm going to want to work with you directly on this whole question of sexual violence when i was in darfur it was occurring it is not murder and death as you know it is the death of their lives in terms of how they lived it lieutenant general i cause thank you very much and thank you for coming let me thank the panel this has been extremely informative we have a very serious situation here we know because we've been watching the government of sudan for  campaign mode and so almost two thirds of your of your term is now administration doesn't necessarily have to get their progress or lack of it on our terms however we do look n particular some time to assemble itself and we've been patient this was the first hearing that we've had with the special envoy and we're almost going into the new year having one year already passed and so there has been a level of frustration i think that this has been a very good airing i think that the administration is is attempting to come up with policies in afghanistan has taken some many of the problems have been exacerbated by the fact that they were denied things like climate change dealing with some of these other tough issues that have been that have been postponed or delayed so there are a lot of things on the table i think that we need to step up with some of affirmative action and i do believe there may be several points of view in the administration and that's one of the reasons why it's grappling with a policy as it has grappled with and afghanistan policy trying to come up with  a policy things that happened in the past cattle right and communal violence years ago was not as deadly as it is policy and we're going to keep the pressure on we feel that there must be a solution and time is running out we've been paid but as i mentioned