On October 7, the House approved, 412-3, a bill (H.R. 5061) that would authorize $450 million in FY2005 to end the genocide in the Sudan and to facilitate peace negotiations in the region. Of that amount, $150 million would be available for humanitarian assistance for the Darfur region of Sudan and eastern Chad. The House International Relations Committee approved the measure on September 30 (see The Source, 10/1/04). The Senate approved a comparable bill (S. 2781) on September 23 (see The Source, 9/24/04).
Sponsored by Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), the Comprehensive Peace in Sudan Act contains a number of findings, including:
H.R. 5061 calls upon President Bush to urge strong action from the United Nations Security Council. Specifically, the Security Council should encourage member states to freeze all Sudanese assets and discontinue the importation of Sudanese oil.
Rep. Tancredo said that Sudan “is a country wracked with pain. It has experienced more than 2 million dead in a period of a civil war that has lasted…a quarter of a century. Four million displaced. In Darfur now we are witnessing something again of enormous tragedy. The numbers are staggering. At least 50,000 dead again now in Darfur because of the genocide going on there conducted by the government against the people in that area, and 350,000 or more in camps who are close to perishing simply because of the terrible conditions in which they are forced to exist.”
Highlighting the atrocities committed in Sudan, Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) stated, “Government troops and their allied Janjaweed militia have raped, tortured, maimed, and burned entire villages in a deliberate and systematic manner to cleanse the area of African Muslims. They have used Antonov bombers and helicopter gunships to destroy the villages and then encourage the Janjaweed on camel and on horseback to finish the job. Men have been murdered, many times forced into huts and burned alive to death. Women and girls have been raped, many branded so it will be known publicly that they have been raped; therefore, they will be outcasts in the Muslim religion. They have been beaten. Women have been abducted.”