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“SUDAN” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H2095-H2098 on May 2, 2002.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SUDAN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2001, the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. TANCREDO. Mr. Speaker, it is appropriate on this national day of prayer that we recognize the great gifts that we have been given and the great land in which we live and we give thanks for it. It is also, I think, important for us to think about some places in the world that desperately need our prayers and our help, in a variety of ways, but certainly our prayers. It is appropriate that today we think about a place far away, quite remote, someplace that does not come to mind very often but should because of the horrendous conditions in which people are forced to live. The place I refer to today is Sudan.
We have often seen pictures like these. They are often presented on television as the basis of appeals for aid or for charity for people who are certainly less well off than we and who are in dire straits. The horrendous thing here in the Sudan is that these people, people of southern Sudan specifically, are suffering not just because of the vagaries of the weather and the difficulty with the terrain in that area of the country, the arid part of the nation in which many live. They are not really, in fact, dealing with that as their major problem. They are, in fact, starving to death, it is true. They are dying of diseases by the thousands. To date, 2 million have died over the course of the last 10 years as a result of a civil war that has been going on there. That war is really what has caused the great damage to the people and to the land and to the lives of literally millions upon millions of southern Sudanese.
So today I want to refocus the attention of this House on the plight of these people. We have in the past acted in this body and passed something called The Sudan Peace Act. It languishes in the Senate, as do other pieces of legislation. This one no one seems to care about. It does not have the high visibility, of course, of so many of the other things we do around here, and so no one seems to care. I hope today to bring to the attention of this body and to the people in this country the plight of these people in south Sudan and to once again help us focus on what we can do to help and why we should help.
To aid in that endeavor, I will turn to my colleague, a member of the Committee on the Judiciary, the distinguished gentleman from Indiana
(Mr. Pence), who has graciously agreed to come down here and discuss this issue. I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman with a gentle heart from Colorado for yielding and giving me the honor of coming alongside and joining him in his effort to bring a forgotten part of the world before the American people.
Without flattering the gentleman, it would be important to state for the record that his efforts and the efforts of our colleague and friend Senator Sam Brownback have almost singularly awakened the conscience of the people of the United States of America about the plight and the humanitarian crisis and the moral bankruptcy of the government of Sudan.
A few points before I yield back to my better in this. Those that are with us, Mr. Speaker, should understand there is simply a humanitarian crisis in Sudan that requires a response by the United States. There is a government of Sudan that simply cannot in demonstrable ways be trusted in these efforts and should not be coddled even in the name of advancing our interest in the war on terrorism.
On the humanitarian crisis, as the gentleman from Colorado said, Mr. Speaker, 2 million Sudanese people have died of war-related injuries in recent years, including disease and starvation. We Americans still grieve the mindless loss of some 6,000 lives on September 11, yet 2 million people have been lost both to the violence of war and the devastation of its aftermath, with another 4 million Sudanese being displaced.
The government of Sudan uses a divide-and-destroy strategy to pit southern ethnic groups one against another. They actually have attacked civilian food production and supplies using starvation as a weapon of destruction in their war. And the government of Sudan conducts regular slave raids on villages in the south, preying most especially on the Christian population in south Sudan.
It is also well documented that the government of Sudan uses oil revenues to support its oppression of the southern Sudanese, this according to the Committee on Conscience at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
In an alarming scenario, Sudanese government helicopter gunships recently bombed a world food program site in the western Upper Nile, killing 17 civilians. A government that bombs food production facilities is a morally bankrupt government with which the United States cannot deal.
And if we needed more evidence, Mr. Speaker, a mid-level al Qaeda official was recently captured in Sudan and, of course, Osama bin Laden has in recent years taken refuge there. A clear connection exists between Sudan and extremist elements in our war on terrorism.
The commander of Sudan's popular defense force called on the Sudanese people to join a holy war with the Palestinian people and rid Jerusalem of its, in his words, Zionist filth. These are the words of the commander of Sudan's defense forces. The president of Sudan has called for training camps to be set up for this purpose as well. And following this announcement, hundreds of thousands of Sudanese marched in the streets of Khartoum chanting anti-Israel, anti-U.S. slogans and singing the praises of Osama bin Laden.
After a cease-fire was agreed upon, the government of Sudan still denied humanitarian access to 43 locations in southern Sudan. Prior to this, the government of Sudan banned flights to, on average, 25 locations. In other words, they have announced they will continue bombing but just prevent international observation by kicking out all NGOs.
While he has asked me not to mention his name, Mr. Speaker, I am privileged to serve a district where a church in a small rural town of my heartland Indiana district raised the funds and sent a mission group to Sudan to do nothing more than deliver an ultralight aircraft so the Christians in southern Sudan would be able to surveil approaching armaments preparing to bombard cities, as they do with longer-range weapons.
The Bible tells us, on this national day of prayer, Mr. Speaker, that
``From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded. From the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.'' The gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo) has responded to that call from his heart in leading the way in this institution for the development and the passage in this Congress of the Sudan Peace Act.
I have been privileged to join the gentleman from Colorado in drafting a letter urging action on the Sudan Peace Act and would urge all of my colleagues to join us and many other prominent Members of this institution who have already added their names to this correspondence, including the majority leader, the conference chairman, and the distinguished chairman of the Committee on International Relations, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde).
Let me say the United States, Mr. Speaker, has been blessed with an abundance of material goods, authority, and moral conscience. We can no longer tolerate the government-funded and subsidized massacre of human life, nor can we, as a Nation that is pluralistic in its faith but dominated by both a heritage and a contemporary Christian population, neither can we as a government of so great a people, turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the suffering of the magnitude in Sudan that, again I hasten to add, is not a humanitarian crisis, Mr. Speaker, that is borne of environmental collapse or of drought, but it is a humanitarian crisis that is the result of the oppression and the murder of hundreds of thousands and millions of innocent civilians by the government of Sudan.
It is almost difficult to speak those words and imagine a place that would be so correctly described as a hell on earth. Yet there are people there whose faith puts mine to shame. There are people there every day tending to the sick and caring for the homeless. So let us simply today urge our colleagues to join us in this effort to call for action.
Again, I am very humbled to be able to stand with the gentleman from Colorado in this cause and simply cannot help but feel, as we have said one to another, that of all the things that we debate on this blue and gold carpet, of all the things that we will have the privilege of being a part of in the year or years that we each of us have left in this place, perhaps there will be nothing of greater significance in eternity than what we do for the least of these in the world.
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The way we can in our own modest way in this institution steer the policy of the United States of America to a bright and moral compass that believes in human dignity and believes in human freedom and actually sets international policy in a way that expresses that belief, which I maintain is in the heart of the American people.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo) for yielding and for calling this Special Order, and look forward to laboring with the gentleman as he continues his important work pressing for the passage of the Sudan Peace Act, and bringing the plight of these extraordinary people of the Sudan to the attention of this body.
Mr. TANCREDO. Mr. Speaker, I must say that listening to the gentleman helps recharge my batteries on the issue. I think that the gentleman has been, certainly flattering, but more than that, he has in a way that I could never have done, focused the attention of this body on an issue of, I think, monumental importance, and I thank the gentleman for his kind words.
I had the great privilege of going to the Sudan. Actually, it was the very first trip I ever took as a congressman. It was in 1999. Senator Brownback and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne), we were privileged to go to the Sudan. I did not know what I was going to see there. I was concerned about the conditions there, and our own safety, as a matter of fact. I have to admit that was of some concern to me. We were told that we should not go. The State Department sent cables to my home stating do not go there. We have no people that we will give you as support. You should not go. Some of these places are in an area that is actively involved with the war effort in the south. There are towns that are being bombed, so we cannot really say anything about your safety except that you will have very little security.
Under those conditions, I wondered how sage I was about actually making a decision to go on such a trip. But it was important to do. I felt moved to do it, and I was going with someone who had been there before. The gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne), has been there several times and is another stalwart in support of our efforts on behalf of the Sudanese people, especially the people of the south. The gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne) had been there several times.
What we saw was devastating in many ways because we could see the incredible obstacles that confront these people. There was a severe drought, but it was only exacerbated by the activities of the government of the north. People were being massacred and hospitals were being bombed and schools were being invaded, and teachers and children shot and people were being rounded up, taken away, forced into slavery in the north. We think to ourselves and certainly we did on that trip, what can we possibly do about this? How can we possibly change the policies of our Nation, change the situation in a country so far away. Yet certainly I felt, and so did Senator Brownback and the gentleman from New Jersey
(Mr. Payne), felt compelled to do something.
I will never forget being in a town called Yei in the southern tip of Sudan, and there was a great confrontation just a few days before we got there. Armed confrontation. The place had been bombed many times. As we walked through that small town of maybe 1,000, maybe 2,000 people, we were immediately surrounded by hundreds of children. They kept pressing closer and closer to us, so close we could hardly move.
They kept saying something that I could not understand. Our guide interpreted. He said they said they are trying to get close to you because they assume if they get close to you, an American congressman, whoever is dropping bombs will not drop a bomb at that point in time. Of course I was hoping the same thing, that that would be the case, but I was hoping that there was something that I could do to stop that fear forever for them because the fear in their eyes and the hunger in their eyes, it is just a vision that no one can experience without coming away with a sincere desire to do something to help.
I also remember the last day I was there, it was spent in a small mud-sided facility with a grass and palm roof, and it was the local church which had been constructed in a place where there were over 30,000 refugees. This was actually just one of many small churches in this refugee center, and all of these people had been driven out of their homes in the north, the northern part of Sudan. Almost everyone had lost someone. Somewhere near 6,000 people died from the trek from the Nuba Mountains down to this particular village, almost all of them children, and yet they came together in this makeshift church and they began to sing the praises of Jesus Christ.
They were spirit-filled in a way I can tell Members I hardly see in the United States, and I am an evangelical Christian. It was almost miraculous to see these people with that expression of emotion and that much joy that they were expressing in that kind of a setting. As I say, almost everyone had lost someone. They were living in a foreign land, land that they could not farm. It was a life that any of us would probably find fruitless and perhaps hopeless, and they had hope, and that hope was in the Lord.
I remember thinking to myself and telling them, as a matter of fact, that I had been moved to come there because of something that had happened in my church in Colorado about 4 or 5 years prior where I was witnessing a program that was done, it was called the Persecuted Church Around the World, and it focused on the Sudan. I was not in Congress at the time. I was not even thinking of running for Congress. A gentleman was in this position, and we assumed that he was going to be in that position for quite a long time. But I felt a need to do something. After many twists and turns, I ended up in the Congress, and I asked for the Committee on International Relations, and then I asked for the Subcommittee on Africa, and I ended up in Sudan in this church.
I said I want to tell you a story. It is only right that my trip to the Sudan ends in a church because it started in a church. I told them the story about hearing about their plight, and wanting to do something about it.
What was interesting to me, and what I told them in that church, was that I thought of course that I was doing something for them, to help the people in Sudan. In reality, of course, what had happened was God had done something to help me. He had done far more for me, and the trip did more than I could do for the people of Sudan. That is the way of God. It is intriguing, and certainly it inspires us.
I came back and we did introduce the Sudan Peace Act. It calls for a number of things, including an end to any sort of corporate participation in Sudan. We already banned corporate involvement in the United States, but our bill says any foreign corporation that goes in there would be delisted from the American stock exchanges, the New York and American Stock Exchange. This is a very significant step to take, and it is probably why the bill is languishing in the Senate because that is a major, major step. A lot of concerns have been expressed about the kind of precedent that it would set. Let me tell Members why we have to do that.
The war in the south, and I should back up and explain, it is in our interest, it is in the interests of the United States of America to bring this conflict to an end in Sudan. As the gentleman from Indiana
(Mr. Pence) mentioned, the northern part of Sudan is an area where we have found in the past people like Osama bin Laden who have been given safe havens there. It is still a place where al Qaeda finds a respite. One was just found there not too long ago.
It is not in our interest to have this conflict ongoing in the south. It is in our interest to bring it to an end, and if that means the separation of the country into two parts, so be it. I used to think that perhaps we could do something to just simply stop the fighting and keep the country united, maybe under some sort of federalist system where there is some sort of autonomy for the south. But because of the many times that the government in Sudan, and I will refer to it as Khartoum, the northern government, Khartoum has simply promised something but almost before the ink is dry on the promise, they have broken it. They are in the process now of pursuing the war in the south in a vigorous way, even though they promised that they would not.
They promised a cease-fire. They are funding this war through the revenues derived from an oil pipeline recently opened, and that is why we have to ask the corporate world to be aware of what they are doing in the Sudan, be aware of the fact that the revenues that are derived from the sale of the oil in Sudan, those revenues are going to the prosecution of the war. Without those revenues, this war may very well have come to an end, but now that money is used and can be used and is being used to purchase arms, to pay for troops, and to continue the persecution of the south.
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Now, it is a complex situation. It is not just the fact that the south is Christian and the north is Muslim. It is the fact also, of course, that there is a different culture, different languages and different interests entirely for the two peoples of this nation. It may very well be that we are at that point where that nation has to split asunder and that the people of the south will be allowed to actually construct their own government and determine their own faith.
At any rate, the only step we can take, the only step open to us right now in this body, is to encourage Members of the other body to advance the bill, the Sudan Peace Act. Let us bring it to a vote. It has passed in both Houses. We are awaiting the appointment of a conference committee. That is all that is stopping us from actually taking the next step and doing something significant to bring peace to this troubled land. Let us appoint a conference committee.
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Issa). The Chair must remind Members to avoid improper references to the Senate.
Remarks in debate may not urge Senate action or characterize Senate action or inaction.
Mr. TANCREDO. I thank the Speaker for his admonition.
This conference needs to be voted on by this House and by the whole body, and we need to do it as quickly as possible in order for us to bring some relief to the people who have suffered for so long.
As I say, it is in our interests, it is in this Nation's interests, to bring peace to this land and to deal directly with the issue of the kind of horror and devastation that has besieged it for so long and that has plagued it for so long. So I hope that we will do that soon.
As I say, on this National Day of Prayer, as we think about our own wonderful gifts that we have in this Nation and the challenges that we have as a Nation, certainly as a result of actions in the Middle East, the activities in the Middle East and other places, there are challenges to the nation, but what is happening in Sudan is not just a challenge for us to look at in a foreign policy sense. It is a challenge to our own moral precepts. It is a challenge to who we are as a Nation, who we are as a people.
Can we make the time, even though so many other things are pressing upon us in this body, can we make the time to deal with one of the worst situations that exists anywhere on the planet? In fact, the Secretary of State described it almost exactly in that way in testimony in front of our committee as one of the worst situations that exists anywhere in the world.
Now, if that is the case, and I believe it to be, then does this not deserve our attention, our continued attention? If it is one of the worst situations that exists anywhere on the planet, does it not behoove us to do everything we can to bring this to an end and to help the people in this country begin to think about a new life in a new land?
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