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106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. RES. 109

Relating to the activities of the National Islamic Front government in Sudan.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 27, 1999

Mr. BROWNBACK (for himself, Mr. FRIST, Mr. HUTCHINSON, Mr. LAUTENBERG, Mr. MACK, and Mr. LIEBERMAN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

RESOLUTION

Relating to the activities of the National Islamic Front

government in Sudan.

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

in Sudan over the past decade due to war and war-related causes and famine, and millions more people in

Sudan have been displaced from their homes and separated from their families, making this the deadliest war

in the last decade in terms of mortality rates;

Whereas the war policy of the National Islamic Front government in southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains has

brought untold suffering on innocent civilians and threatens the very survival of a whole generation of southern

Sudanese;
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Whereas the people of the Nuba Mountains are at particular

risk from this policy because they have been the specific

target of a deliberate prohibition on international food

aid, which has helped induce a man-made famine, and

have been subject to the routine bombing of their civilian

centers, including religious facilities, schools, and hospitals;

Whereas the National Islamic Front government is deliberately and systematically committing crimes against humanity in southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains;

Whereas the National Islamic Front government has systematically and repeatedly obstructed the peace efforts of the

Inter-governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) in

Sudan over the past several years;

Whereas the Declaration of Principles put forth by Inter-governmental Authority for Development mediators provides

the most fruitful negotiating framework for resolving

problems in Sudan and bringing lasting peace to Sudan;

Whereas humanitarian conditions in southern Sudan, especially in Bahr al-Ghazal, deteriorated in 1998 largely because of the decision of the National Islamic Front government to ban United Nations relief flights in those

areas from February through April 1998;

Whereas the National Islamic Front government continues to

deny access by United Nations relief flights to certain locations in Sudan, including a blanket prohibition on

flights to the Nuba Mountains, resulting in deterioration

of humanitarian conditions;

Whereas approximately 2,600,000 Sudanese were at risk of

starvation in Sudan in late 1998, and the World Food
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Program currently estimates that 4,000,000 people are in

need of emergency assistance in that area;

Whereas the relief effort in Sudan coordinated by the United

Nations, Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), failed to respond in a timely fashion to the humanitarian crisis in

Sudan at the height of that crisis in 1998 and has allowed the National Islamic Front government to manipulate and obstruct relief efforts in Sudan;

Whereas relief efforts in Sudan are further complicated by repeated airborne attacks by the National Islamic Front

government on feeding centers, clinics, and other civilian

targets in certain areas of Sudan;

Whereas such relief efforts are further complicated by the

looting and killing of innocent civilians by militias sponsored by the National Islamic Front government;

Whereas these militias have carried out violent raids in Aweil

East and West, Twic, and Gogrial counties in the Bahr

al-Ghazal/Lakes Region, killing and displacing thousands

of civilians, which reflects a deliberate ethic cleansing policy in these counties and in the Nuba Mountains;

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

and discrimination throughout Sudan;

Whereas the militias associated with the National Islamic

Front government have engaged in the enslavement of innocent civilians, including children, women, and elderly;

Whereas slave raids are commonly undertaken by the militias

of the Popular Defense Force of the National Islamic

Front as part of a self-declared jihad, or holy war,

against the predominately Christian and traditional believers of southern Sudan;
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Whereas the Department of State in its report on Human

Rights Practices for 1997 affirmed with respect to Sudan

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 Department of State in its report on Human

Rights Practices for 1998 states with respect to Sudan

that ‘‘[c]redible reports persist of practices such as the

sale and purchase of children, some in alleged slave markets’’;

Whereas the enslavement of people is considered a crime

against humanity under international law;

Whereas it is estimated that tens of thousands of Sudanese

have been enslaved by militias sponsored by the National

Islamic Front government;

Whereas the former United Nations Special Rapporteur for

Sudan, Gaspar Biro, and the present Special Rapporteur,

Leonardo Franco, have reported on a number of occasions the routine practice of slavery in Sudan and the

complicity of the National Islamic Front government in

that practice;

Whereas the National Islamic Front government abuses and

tortures political opponents and innocent civilians in

northern Sudan, and many people in northern Sudan

have been killed by that government over the years;

Whereas the vast majority of Muslims in Sudan do not prescribe to policies of National Islamic Front extremists,

including the politicized practice of Islam, and moderate

Muslims in Sudan have been specifically targeted by the

National Islamic Front government;
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Whereas the National Islamic Front government is considered by much of the world community as 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 New York City in 1993;

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

Whereas Osama bin-Laden, the Saudi-born financier of extremist groups and mastermind of the bombings of the

United States embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es

Salaam, Tanzania, 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 Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, in retaliation for those bombings;

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

the war policy of the National Islamic Front government

in southern Sudan, and that government’s support for

international terrorism;
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Whereas in 1993 the United States Government placed

Sudan 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 to the National Islamic Front government, is a

just struggle for freedom and democracy against that

government: Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved, That the Senate—

2 (1) strongly condemns the National Islamic

3 Front government in Sudan for its support for ter4 rorism and its continued human rights violations;

5 (2) strongly deplores the slave raids in southern

6 Sudan and calls on the National Islamic Front gov7 ernment to end immediately the practice of slavery

8 in Sudan;

9 (3) calls on the United Nations Security

10 Council—

11 (A) to condemn such slave raids and bring

12 to justice those responsible for the crimes

13 against humanity which such slave raids entail;

14 (B) to implement the existing air embargo,

15 and impose an arms embargo, on the National

16 Islamic Front government;

17 (C) to swiftly implement reforms of Oper18 ation Lifeline Sudan in order to enhance the
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1 independence of that operation from the Na2 tional Islamic Front government; and

3 (D) to determine whether or not the war

4 policy of the National Islamic Front govern5 ment in southern Sudan and the Nuba Moun6 tains constitutes genocide; and

7 (E) to implement the recommendations of

8 the United Nations Special Rapporteur for

9 Sudan, Leonardo Franco, who has called for

10 the posting of human rights monitors through11 out Sudan; and

12 (4) calls on the President to take leadership on

13 policies—

14 (A) to increase support for relief organiza15 tions working outside the umbrella of Operation

16 Lifeline Sudan, including, in particular, the

17 dedication of programs to and an increase in re18 sources of organizations serving the Nuba

19 Mountains;

20 (B) to instruct the Agency for Inter21 national Development (AID) and other appro22 priate agencies to—

23 (i) provide additional support to and

24 coordinate activities with nongovernmental

25 organizations involved in relief work in
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1 Sudan that work outside the umbrella of

2 organizations supported by Operation Life3 line Sudan, including the Nuba Mountains;

4 and

5 (ii) enhance the independence of Op6 eration Lifeline Sudan from the National

7 Islamic Front government, including by re8 moving that government’s power of auto9 matic veto over its operation;

10 (C) to double the funds that are made

11 available through the so-called STAR Program

12 for the promotion of the rule of law to advance

13 democracy, civil administration, and the judici14 ary, and the enhancement of infrastructure, in

15 areas in Sudan that are controlled by the oppo16 sition to the National Islamic Front govern17 ment;

18 (D) to instruct the Agency for Inter19 national Development to provide humanitarian

20 assistance, including food, directly to indigenous

21 service groups in southern Sudan and the Nuba

22 Mountains;

23 (E) to intensify and expand United States

24 diplomatic and economic pressure on the Na25 tional Islamic Front government in conjunction
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1 with and urging other countries to impose sanc2 tions regimes on that government that are simi3 lar to sanction regime imposed on that govern4 ment by the United States;

5 (F) to continue to enhance the peace proc6 ess in Sudan supported by the Inter-govern7 mental Authority for Development; and

8 (G) to report to Congress not later than

9 three months after the adoption of this resolu10 tion regarding the efforts or plans of the Presi11 dent to promote the end of slavery in Sudan.

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