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“SUDAN TRAGEDY” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H3398-H3400 on May 1, 2014.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SUDAN TRAGEDY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, this month marks the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide in which nearly a million perished in a horrific 100-
day span while the world idly stood by.
As has been documented in print and film, including Samantha Powers' riveting book, ``A Problem From Hell: American and the Age of Genocide,'' cables were sent, reports of the violence and the targeting of innocents received, and yet the American foreign policy apparatus was largely consumed not with stemming the bloodshed, but rather with avoiding use of the word ``genocide'' less it necessitate a response. And so many people died.
Of course, there is the now notorious negligence of the United Nations in this regard, which culminated in a catastrophic moral failure on the part of the international community.
Kofi Annan, then head of U.N. peacekeeping, was receiving on-the-
ground intelligence from General Dallaire, who was a Canadian general, about the impending tragedy, and yet he repeatedly refused to authorize General Dallaire to seize known weapons caches until it was too late. What horrors might have been prevented had Annan chosen otherwise?
Fast-forward several years.
President Clinton traveled to the Kigali Airport in Rwanda and issued what has come to be known as the ``Clinton apology'' for failing to do more to stop the violence.
Later, President George W. Bush famously wrote ``not on my watch'' in the margin of a report on the Rwandan genocide.
No President, Republican or Democrat, wants atrocities to occur on their watch. I venture this much is true of President Obama. And yet every indication points to the fact that the crisis currently unfolding in South Sudan is headed the way of Rwanda.
In fact, yesterday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, characterized South Sudan as ``on the verge of catastrophe.'' But with the stakes as high as they are, the situation is simply not being met with the urgency it demands.
It is time for bold action.
President Obama, who so far has failed on this issue, should immediately dispatch former Presidents George W. Bush, who has a great reputation in Africa, and former President Bill Clinton, who also has a good reputation in Africa, to the region to help negotiate a lasting peace and to convey in no uncertain terms that the fate of South Sudan is a U.S. foreign policy priority.
Both of these men, President Bush and President Clinton, have done a great deal on this issue and have remained invested in Africa beyond their Presidencies.
This pair of statesmen, hailing from two different political parties, would send a powerful message to the warring factions, and especially as it relates to President Kiir, with whom President Bush and his team forged a lasting relationship during intensive negotiations involved with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and would open immediate lines of communication at a pivotal time.
I first visited Sudan in 1989, years before Darfur became a household word, and I have prayed for the day when the people of that long-
suffering land would enjoy peace and representative government. I have been five subsequent times, most recently in 2012.
For more than two decades, a steady stream of Sudanese activists, Lost Boys and Girls who resettled in the United States, humanitarian groups operating in the region, and others have visited my office.
Whether it was the seemingly intractable war between the North and the South, the genocide in Darfur, or, in recent years, the violence in the Nuba Mountains set against the backdrop of the birth of a new nation, I have followed events closely in that part of the world, urging U.S. administrations of every stripe to engage vigorously in pursuit of lasting peace, justice, and rule of law.
I asked President Bush to appoint a special envoy. He appointed former Senator John Danforth, who did an incredible job with then-
Secretary of State Powell.
While I did not support Obama's candidacy, I was heartened and encouraged by his rhetoric on Sudan during the 2008 campaign. I took further encouragement from some of the individuals who joined his foreign policy team--senior advisers with strong human rights credentials and a stated desire to see the United States lead in the prevention of crimes against humanity and other atrocities.
Sadly, those words have not translated into action.
As I noted earlier, Samantha Power, who rose to prominence for her reporting on genocide prevention, now represents the U.S. at the United Nations in New York. I wish her voice was stronger within this administration on this issue. I urge everyone to read her book. It was a profound book. I urge her to take the message of the book and be a spokesman in this administration.
Today, I stand before you as concerned as I ever have been about the state of affairs in South Sudan and the potential for the recent violence to spiral into genocide--a genocide that could defy even the horrors of Rwanda, given that oil reserves are in play.
On Monday, I received deeply troubling reports from individuals on the ground about recent atrocities in South Sudan and the lack of an effective U.S. or international response. I heard of civilians, including women and children, indiscriminately targeted and killed. I learned of houses of worship turned from places of sanctuary to mass graves. I was told of ethnic divisions that now run so deep, it could take generations to heal.
These reports, coupled with a smattering of news stories from the last several months, belie what can only be characterized as an emergency situation in urgent need of high-level intervention.
Consider the following excerpts from media accounts.
Voice of America, April 21:
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan on Monday accused opposition forces in Bentiu of carrying out targeted killings, including of children, and inciting ``vengeful sexual violence'' against women after they captured the town last week from government troops . . . UNMISS also said that individuals associated with the opposition have been using an FM station in Bentiu to broadcast hate speech.
It sort of reminds you of exactly what took place in Rwanda.
Will we ever learn?
The Washington Post, April 22:
Gunmen in South Sudan who targeted civilians, including children and the elderly, left ``piles and piles'' of bodies, many of them in a mosque and a hospital, the United Nations' top official in the country said Tuesday.
CNN, April 23:
South Sudanese rebels seized a strategic oil town last week, separating terrified residents by ethnicity before killing hundreds . . . Residents sought shelter in churches, mosques, and hospitals when the rebels raided Bentiu town.
Fox News, April 3:
As rebel forces entered Bentiu last week, residents were led to believe that by entering the mosque, they would be safe . . . But once inside they were robbed of money and mobile phones and a short while later gunmen began killing, both inside the mosque and inside the city hospital . . . If you were not Nuer, nothing could save you. The gunmen killed wantonly, including children and the elderly.
The Economist, April 26:
Even in a civil war that has been rife with atrocities, the scale of the massacre of civilians in South Sudan's oil hub of Bentiu on April 15-16 plumbed a new depth of hell. The rebel White Army, so-called after the ash its fighters sometimes smear on themselves, killed anyone they suspected of supporting the government, including--it is reported--200 people in a single mosque and others in churches and aid-agency compounds.
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Local radio broadcasts helped to stir up ethnic hatred to direct the violence at perceived enemies of Riek Machar. No side is winning. Hopes of building a new country from scratch are drowning in blood.
I have a photo here--and many others--a graphic visual image of what you have just heard described. It is from the most recent massacre in Bentiu this month.
We see pictured the piles of bodies described in the news accounts, and just yesterday morning, I received reports from someone on the ground that another attack in that town could be imminent.
Where is the urgency from the Obama administration? Where is the outrage?
I read with great interest the recent statements by Kenya's president, in which he said: ``During the 20th commemoration of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda''--the 20th anniversary is this month--``I expressed our region's disappointment at having done little to nothing at the time to end the slaughter of a million innocent victims, human beings in Rwanda, by a bloodthirsty cabal.''
He went on--and I commend the president of Kenya for saying this: ``I also pledged,'' he said, ``in the name of Kenya and the region that we would never again allow a similar genocide to happen within our shores.''
``I return,'' he said, ``to the pledge today because of what is happening in parts of Sudan. We are outraged and gravely concerned at seeing the killings of hundreds of innocent civilians caught up in the internal conflict of the South Sudan Liberation Movement.''
``We refuse,'' he said, ``to be witnesses to such atrocities and to remain helpless and hopeless in their wake.''
President Obama, Vice President Biden, this is happening on your watch. Will you allow it to continue? Will you to refuse to be a witness to the atrocities?
News coverage of these events have been sporadic, at best. While most Americans are likely unaware of the horrors being perpetrated in South Sudan, people who are in a position to help know what is happening.
Yesterday, I had a press conference with Congressman Pitts and Congressman Smith. Two members of the press--two members, only two members of the press even came. The room was empty. Nobody's covering this story hardly.
Will it be like Rwanda, when they all had all the stories, and you remember the movies that they did on Rwanda, looking back? Will the press then cover it, looking back? Will they then say whose fault it was that they didn't act?
Where is the media today? Where are the networks? Where is the Obama administration?
Cables are now being sent to Washington. Talking points are being drafted at the National Security Council and the State Department. These events are not happening in a vacuum.
Will we see the contents of the reports only after it is too late, when enterprising filmmakers and authors dredge up the documents and wonder why no one mustered the will to act?
A joint op-ed piece yesterday by long-term South Sudan expert Eric Reeves and John Prendergast, who has been on the scene, who has done so much to bring the attention to these issues, opened with the following line--they say: ``No civilians in the world are in greater danger than those in South Sudan.''
Again, here is what they said: ``No civilians in the world are in greater danger than those in South Sudan.''
You see how powerful--where they say even more than in Ukraine, more than in Syria?
The pair continue:
Unlike the asymmetric warfare to which we have been accustomed to hearing about in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and in Darfur, symmetric warfare ensures heavy casualties in military confrontations, but victories and defeats now have more ominous consequences; for in South Sudan, the victors see a military victory as justifying civilian slaughter of the predominant ethnic group of the opposing forces, and with a terrifying momentum, ethnic slaughter leads yet to greater ethnic slaughter.
In short, crimes have been committed by both sides. There are no angels in this conflict. There must be accountability for anyone implicated in these atrocities. We have the technology, the capacity, the eyewitness accounts to know who is involved and who is actively violating the ceasefire.
Reeves and Prendergast further warn of looming famine, given that the planting season has already been disrupted with more than a million forced out of their homes, and ominously, they predicted that as many as 7 million--7 million--could face starvation this fall.
The atrocities must stop. The suffering must cease. What is the end game?
America helped give birth to South Sudan. We have a moral obligation to do something and something bold. So I say this: President Obama, you must not allow this to continue on your watch. I call on your predecessors, President Bush and President Clinton, to immediately engage in this crisis before more innocent blood is shed.
President Bush would go. President Clinton would go. Can you imagine the image of both President Bush and President Clinton there together?
So I close with this last thought: President Obama, Vice President Biden, failure to act--and this will be in the Congressional Record for future generations to see--failure to act will be a stain on your administration and a blot on your conscience.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaMalfa). Members are reminded to address their remarks to the Chair and not to others in the second person.
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