IV

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 113

Regarding human rights violations and oil development in Sudan.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

APRIL 26, 2001

Mr. PAYNE submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred

to the Committee on International Relations, and in addition to the Committee on Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined

by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall

within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Regarding human rights violations and oil development in

Sudan.

Whereas in 1999 Sudan began to export oil; the National Islamic Front (NIF) government earns an estimated

$500,000,000 each year from oil revenues or ‘‘blood oil’’;

Whereas this regime is using these revenues to expand its

purchase of deadly weapons, including helicopter

gunships, tanks, and heavy artillery, with the goal of realizing its military objectives in south Sudan;

Whereas military expenditures by the NIF government have

doubled in the last two years; as a consequence, this regime is building an arms industry to bolster its military
2

•HCON 113 IH

strength in order to defeat the Sudan People’s Liberation

Army (SPLA);

Whereas the increase in aerial bombardment and deployment

of deadly new helicopter gunships in south Sudan is directly linked to oil revenues; according to the United

States Committee for Refugees (USCR), the NIF government bombed 152 civilian targets in 2000 and the bombings continue in 2001;

Whereas oil development and extraction has displaced countless civilians from their homes and villages; according to

a report by Christian Aid, 55,000 civilians have been displaced and 48 villages have been burned in the 12-month

period ending in March, 2001;

Whereas the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Corporation

(Talisman Energy, China National Petroleum Corporation, and Petronas of Malaysia) has extended its operations westward into Concession Block 4, Lundin Oil is

now operating, along with passive investor OMV of Austria, in Concession Block 5a, south of Bentiu, and

TotalFinaElf of France appears poised to enter its immense concession areas south and east of Bentiu;

Whereas increased investment by Western and Asian companies in Sudan’s oil sector will further diminish NIF’s

willingness to negotiate a just peace, and increased oil

revenues will also make possible the larger destructiveness of the regime’s war effort;

Whereas the United States Government cannot ignore or look

with indifference on the destructive role of oil development in Sudan; presently Talisman Energy of Canada,

PetroChina of China (a subsidiary virtually wholly owned

and fully governed by China National Petroleum Cor-
3

•HCON 113 IH

poration), Lundin Oil of Sweden, and TotalFinaElf of

France all have listings on United States stock exchanges;

Whereas it is not the intent of Congress to impose sanctions

affecting capital markets in the United States casually or

without the greatest concern for the integrity of those

markets; and

Whereas the United States Congress cannot remain passive

in the face of a catastrophe defined by the destruction

and displacement of millions of human beings, especially

when the complicity of corporate oil development activities in this catastrophe is unequivocally clear: Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate

2 concurring), That the Congress—

3 (1) strongly urges the President to deny oil

4 companies operating in Sudan the ability to raise

5 capital or trade equities in the United States capital

6 markets, including the New York Stock Exchange,

7 the American Stock Exchange, and the NASDAQ;

8 (2) strongly urges the President to expand Ex9 ecutive Order 13067 (economic and trade sanctions

10 on Sudan) by denying capital market opportunities

11 to all publicly traded equities of all oil companies op12 erating in Sudan;

13 (3) calls urgently upon all oil companies oper14 ating in Sudan to freeze oil production in Sudan,

15 and cease exports of oil from Sudan, until a just
4

•HCON 113 IH

1 peace agreement in Sudan is reached, until the aer2 ial bombardment of civilian targets in Sudan is halt3 ed, until the slave raids in Sudan are halted and a

4 family reunification program is put in place, until all

5 political prisoners in Sudan are released, and the

6 emergency decrees, which were imposed in December

7 1999 by the NIF government, are suspended;

8 (4) calls on the international community to boy9 cott oil from Sudan and the foreign companies in10 volved in the production of oil in, and the export of

11 oil from, Sudan;

12 (5) strongly urges companies contemplating an

13 entrance into Sudan’s oil sector not to do so until

14 a just peace in Sudan is secured;

15 (6) urges United States companies and individ16 uals in the United States who may have indirectly

17 invested in companies involved in oil development in

18 Sudan to divest their holdings; and

19 (7) calls on the President to investigate possible

20 violations of Executive Order 13067 by PetroChina

21 in its Initial Public Offering on the New York Stock

22 Exchange in April 2000.

Æ