103D CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. CON. RES. 131
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Whereas the war-induced famine in southern Sudan is threat-
ening the lives of an estimated 4,000,000 people, and an
estimated 80 percent of children in some areas of south-
ern Sudan are reportedly malnourished;
Whereas the civil war between the Government of Sudan and
the factions of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army,
as well as fighting within the Sudanese People’s Libera-
tion Army, have resulted in the displacement of millions
of civilians;
Whereas the United States Government provided over
$85,000,000 in humanitarian assistance to Sudan in fis-
cal year 1993;
•HCON 131 EH
Whereas access for humanitarian relief organizations has
been inconsistent and subject to the military and political
objectives of the Government of Sudan and Sudanese
People’s Liberation Army factions;
Whereas a human rights group reported in early 1993 that
the Government of Sudan is engaged in a program of
military action which appears to amount to ‘‘ethnic
cleansing’’ in the Nuba Mountains and that it continues
to torture political prisoners;
Whereas an estimated 500 unarmed civilians were reportedly
executed by security forces on suspicion that they had
collaborated with the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army
after its incursions into Juba in June and July of 1992;
Whereas the Government of Sudan executed Andrew Tombe
and Baudoin Talley (foreign national employees of the
United States Government) and Mark Laboke Jenner (an
employee of the European Community) in Juba in mid-
August 1992;
Whereas all factions of the Sudanese People’s Liberation
Army also are reportedly responsible for serious abuses
of human rights, including the killing in September 1992
of 4 foreign citizens, the killing of 87 civilians by the
Nasir faction of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army
in January 1992 in Pagarau, and the killing of 200 ‘‘de-
serters’’ by the Torit group near Tonj in Bahr al-Ghazal;
Whereas the government of General Omar Hassan al-Bashir,
which came to power by overthrowing the democratically
elected civilian government on June 30, 1989, formed a
15-member Revolutionary Command Council, abolished
the constitution, the National Assembly, political parties,
and trade unions, and declared a state of emergency;
•HCON 131 EH
Whereas the political, religious, and military policies of the
Bashir government have heightened political and religious
tensions in the country;
Whereas the government in Khartoum has become a threat
to regional stability in part because of its reported activi-
ties in neighboring countries and its relations with known
terrorist and political extremist groups;
Whereas the conflict in southern Sudan, which has dragged
on for over 3 decades, is the result of decades of political,
religious, and economic discrimination against the people
of southern Sudan by successive governments in the
north;
Whereas the people of southern Sudan have not exercised
their political rights freely, except for a brief period after
the Addis Ababa agreement, and the lack of serious ef-
forts by successive governments in Khartoum has re-
sulted in deep mistrust;
Whereas the 1991 division of the Sudanese People’s Libera-
tion Army into factions has resulted in untold suffering
for the people of southern Sudan;
Whereas the Government of Sudan continues its indiscrimi-
nate aerial bombardment of civilians in southern Sudan;
Whereas the factions of the Sudanese People’s Liberation
Army agreed on an 8 point peace plan, including an im-
mediate cessation of hostilities, at a peace conference in
Washington in October 1993; and
Whereas the resolution of the conflict in southern Sudan will
not guarantee respect for human rights and political free-
dom in other regions of the country: Now, therefore, be
it
•HCON 131 EH
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That the Congress—
(1) strongly condemns the Government of
Sudan for its severe human rights abuses, and calls
upon that government to improve human rights con-
ditions throughout the country;
(2) deplores the internecine fighting among the
Sudanese People’s Liberation Army factions which
has caused untold suffering for the people of south-
ern Sudan;
(3) calls on the Government of Sudan and all
factions of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army
to cease hostilities and resolve their differences
through peaceful means;
(4) urges the Government of Sudan and all fac-
tions of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army to
provide full access for and to cooperate with relief
organizations;
(5) encourages the Government of Sudan to
hand over political power to an elected civilian gov-
ernment as soon as possible;
(6) urges the Government of Sudan to lift the
press ban which was imposed after it took power in
June 1989;
•HCON 131 EH
(7) recognizes the right of the people of south-
ern Sudan to self-determination;
(8) urges the Government of Sudan and all fac-
tions of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army to
allow free access to human rights organizations;
(9) commends the Clinton Administration for
placing Sudan on the list of states having a govern-
ment that has repeatedly provided support for acts
of international terrorism;
(10) commends the Government of Kenya, the
Government of Nigeria, the Government of Uganda,
and the Organization of African Unity for their me-
diation efforts;
(11) calls upon the President—
(A) to appoint a special representative for
mediation, reconciliation, and peace in Sudan;
(B) to increase the level of humanitarian
assistance for Sudan that is provided through
nongovernmental organizations, including local
church groups; and
(C) to explore other means necessary to
force the Government of Sudan to halt its war
policies should the humanitarian conditions fur-
ther deteriorate and the Government of Sudan
continue to impede relief efforts; and
•HCON 131 EH
(12) further calls upon the President—
(A) to urge the United Nations to exert all
efforts to bring an early end to the conflict in
Sudan;
(B) to urge that the situation in Sudan be
brought to the attention of the United Nations
Security Council; and
(C) to urge the United Nations Security
Council—
(i) to consider the creation of demili-
tarized zones for war and famine victims in
southern Sudan that would be off limits to
all warring factions;
(ii) to consider the creation of safe ha-
vens for war and famine victims should the
warring factions reject the creation of de-
militarized zones;
(iii) to facilitate safe passage for war
and famine victims to and from conflict
zones; and
•HCON 131 EH
(iv) to impose an arms embargo on
Sudan.
Passed the House of Representatives November 21,
1993.
Attest:
Clerk.