106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 75

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Condemning the National Islamic Front (NIF) govrights violations, and for other purposes. support for terrorism, and continued human ernment for its genocidal war in southern Sudan,
106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 75

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Whereas according to the United States Committee for Refugees (USCR) an estimated 1,900,000 people have died

over the past decade due to war and war-related causes

and famine, while millions have been displaced from their

homes and separated from their families;

Whereas the National Islamic Front (NIF) government’s war

policy in southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, and the
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Ingessena Hills has brought untold suffering to innocent

civilians and is threatening the very survival of a whole

generation of southern Sudanese;

Whereas the people of the Nuba Mountains and the

Ingessena Hills are at particular risk, having been specifically targeted through a deliberate prohibition of

international food aid, inducing manmade famine, and by

routinely bombing civilian centers, including religious

services, schools, and hospitals;

Whereas the National Islamic Front government is deliberately and systematically committing genocide in southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, and the Ingessena

Hills;

Whereas the Convention for the Prevention and the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the United

Nations General Assembly in 1948, defines ‘‘genocide’’ as

official acts committed by a government with the intent

to destroy a national, ethnic, or religious group, and this

definition also includes ‘‘deliberately inflicting on the

group conditions of life calculated to bring about its

physical destruction, in whole or in part’’;

Whereas the National Islamic Front government systematically and repeatedly obstructed peace efforts of the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) over

the past several years;

Whereas the Declaration of Principles (DOP) put forth by

the Intergovernmental Authority for Development mediators is the most viable negotiating framework to resolve

the problems in Sudan and to bring lasting peace;

Whereas humanitarian conditions in southern Sudan, especially in Bahr al-Ghazal and the Nuba Mountains, dete-
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riorated in 1998, largely due to the National Islamic

Front government’s decision to ban United Nation’s relief flights from February through the end of April in

1998 and the government continues to deny access in

certain locations;

Whereas an estimated 2,600,000 southern Sudanese were at

risk of starvation late last year in southern Sudan and

the World Food Program currently estimates that

4,000,000 people are in need of emergency assistance;

Whereas the United Nations-coordinated relief effort, Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), failed to respond in time at

the height of the humanitarian crisis last year and has

allowed the National Islamic Front government to manipulate and obstruct the relief efforts;

Whereas the relief work in the affected areas is further complicated by the National Islamic Front’s repeated aerial

attacks on feeding centers, clinics, and other civilian targets;

Whereas relief efforts are further exacerbated by looting,

bombing, and killing of innocent civilians and relief workers by government-sponsored militias in the affected

areas;

Whereas these government-sponsored militias have carried

out violent raids in Aweil West, Twic, and Gogrial counties in Bahr el Ghazal/Lakes Region, killing hundreds of

civilians and displacing thousands;

Whereas the National Islamic Front government has perpetrated a prolonged campaign of human rights abuses

and discrimination throughout the country;
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Whereas the National Islamic Front government-sponsored

militias have been engaged in the enslavement of innocent civilians, including children, women, and the elderly;

Whereas the now common slave raids being carried out by

the government’s Popular Defense Force (PDF) militias

are undertaken as part of the government’s self-declared

jihad (holy war) against the predominantly traditional

and Christian south;

Whereas, according to the American Anti-Slavery Group of

Boston, there are tens of thousands of women and children now living as chattel slaves in Sudan;

Whereas these women and children were captured in slave

raids taking place over a decade by militia armed and

controlled by the National Islamic Front regime in Khartoum—they are bought, sold, branded, and bred;

Whereas the Department of State, in its report on Human

Rights Practices for 1997, affirmed that ‘‘reports and information from a variety of sources after February 1994

indicate that the number of cases of slavery, servitude,

slave trade, and forced labor have increased alarmingly’’;

Whereas the enslavement of people is considered in international law as ‘‘crime against humanity’’;

Whereas observers estimate the number of people enslaved by

government-sponsored militias to be in the tens of thousands;

Whereas former United Nations Special Rapporteur for

Sudan, Gaspar Biro, and his successor, Leonardo Franco, reported on a number of occasions the routine practice of slavery and the complicity of the Government of

Sudan;
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Whereas the National Islamic Front government abuses and

tortures political opponents and innocent civilians in the

North and that many northerners have been killed by

this regime over the years;

Whereas the vast majority of Muslims in Sudan do not subscribe to the National Islamic Front’s extremist and politicized practice of Islam and moderate Muslims have

been specifically targeted by the regime;

Whereas the National Islamic Front government is considered by much of the world community to be a rogue state

because of its support for international terrorism and its

campaign of terrorism against its own people;

Whereas according to the Department of State’s Patterns of

Global Terrorism Report, ‘‘Sudan’s support to terrorist

organizations has included paramilitary training, indoctrination, money, travel documentation, safe passage, and

refuge in Sudan’’;

Whereas the National Islamic Front government has been implicated in the assassination attempt of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia in 1995 and the World

Trade Center bombing in 1993;

Whereas the National Islamic Front government has permitted Sudan to be used by well-known terrorist organizations as a refuge and training hub over the years;

Whereas the Saudi-born financier of extremist groups and the

mastermind of the United States embassy bombings in

Kenya and Tanzania, Osama bin-Laden, used Sudan as

a base of operations for several years and continues to

maintain economic interests there;

Whereas on August 20, 1998, United States Naval forces

struck a suspected chemical weapons facility in Khar-
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toum, the capital of Sudan, in retaliation for the United

States embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam;

Whereas relations between the United States and Sudan continue to deteriorate because of human rights violations,

the government’s war policy in southern Sudan, and the

National Islamic Front’s support for international terrorism;

Whereas the United States Government placed Sudan in

1993 on the list of seven states in the world that sponsor

terrorism and imposed comprehensive sanctions on the

National Islamic Front government in November 1997;

and

Whereas the struggle by the people of Sudan and opposition

forces is a just struggle for freedom and democracy

against the extremist regime in Khartoum: Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate

2 concurring), That the Congress—

3 (1) strongly condemns the National Islamic

4 Front government for its genocidal war in southern

5 Sudan, support for terrorism, and continued human

6 rights violations;

7 (2) strongly deplores the government-sponsored

8 and tolerated slave raids in southern Sudan and

9 calls on the government to immediately end the

10 practice of slavery;
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1 (3) calls on the United Nations Security Coun2 cil to condemn the slave raids and bring to justice

3 those responsible for these crimes against humanity;

4 (4) calls on the President—

5 (A) to increase support for relief organiza6 tions that are working outside the United Na7 tions-coordinated relief effort, Operation Life8 line Sudan (OLS), in opposition-controlled

9 areas;

10 (B) to instruct the Administrator of the

11 United States Agency for International Devel12 opment (USAID) and the heads of other rel13 evant agencies to significantly increase and bet14 ter coordinate with nongovernmental organiza15 tions outside the Operation Lifeline Sudan sys16 tem involved in relief work in Sudan;

17 (C) to instruct the Administrator of

18 USAID and the Secretary of State to work to

19 strengthen the independence of Operation Life20 line Sudan from the National Islamic Front

21 government;

22 (D) to substantially increase development

23 funds for capacity building, democracy pro24 motion, civil administration, judiciary, and in25 frastructure support in opposition-controlled
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1 areas, and to report on a quarterly basis to the

2 Congress on the progress made under this sub3 paragraph;

4 (E) to instruct appropriate agencies to

5 provide humanitarian assistance directly, in6 cluding food, to the Sudan People’s Liberation

7 Army (SPLA), its NDA allies, and other indige8 nous groups in southern Sudan and the Nuba

9 Mountains;

10 (F) to intensify and expand United States

11 diplomatic and economic pressures on the Na12 tional Islamic Front government by maintaining

13 the current unilateral sanctions regime and by

14 increasing efforts for multilateral sanctions;

15 (G) to provide the Sudan People’s Libera16 tion Army (SPLA) and its National Democratic

17 Alliance (NDA) allies with political and mate18 rial support;

19 (H) to take the lead to strengthen the

20 Intergovernmental Authority for Development’s

21 (IGAD) peace process; and

22 (I) not later than 3 months after the adop23 tion of this resolution, to report to the Congress

24 about the administration’s efforts or plans to

25 end slavery in Sudan;
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1 (5) calls on the United Nations Security

2 Council—

3 (A) to impose an arms embargo on the

4 Government of Sudan;

5 (B) to condemn the enslavement of inno6 cent civilians and take appropriate measures

7 against the perpetrators of this crime;

8 (C) to swiftly implement reforms within

9 the Operation Lifeline Sudan to enhance inde10 pendence from the National Islamic Front re11 gime;

12 (D) to implement United Nations Security

13 Council Resolution 1070 relating to an air em14 bargo;

15 (E) to make a determination that the Na16 tional Islamic Front’s war policy in southern

17 Sudan and the Nuba Mountains constitutes

18 genocide or ethnic cleansing; and

19 (F) to protect innocent civilians from aer20 ial bombardment by the National Islamic

21 Front’s air force;

22 (6) urges the Inter-Governmental Authority for

23 Development (IGAD) partners under the leadership

24 of President Daniel Arap Moi to call on the Govern-
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1 ment of Sudan to immediately stop the indiscrimi2 nate bombings in southern Sudan;

3 (7) strongly condemns any government that fi4 nancially supports the Government of Sudan;

5 (8) calls on the President to transmit to the

6 Congress not later than 90 days after the date of

7 the adoption of this concurrent resolution, and not

8 later than every 90 days thereafter, a report regard9 ing flight suspensions for humanitarian purposes

10 concerning Operation Lifeline Sudan; and

11 (9) urges the President to increase by 100 per12 cent the allocation of funds that are made available

13 through the Sudanese Transition Assistance for Re14 habilitation Program (commonly referred to as the

15 ‘‘STAR Program’’) for the promotion of the rule of

16 law to advance democracy, civil administration and

17 judiciary, and the enhancement of infrastructure, in

18 the areas in Sudan that are controlled by the opposi19 tion to the National Islamic Front government.

Passed the House of Representatives June 15, 1999.

Attest:

Clerk.