House Authorizes Humanitarian Assistance for Sudan

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:

• The United Nations estimates that 2.2 million people are conflict-affected in the Darfur region of Sudan and neighboring Chad. Of that total, 1.2 million people have been internally displaced, 200,000 refugees have fled to Chad, and 50,000 people have been killed;
• The United States Agency for International Development projects that the violence and the obstruction of food and medical care deliveries will result in the death of an estimated 320,000 people between April 1, 2004 and December 31, 2004;
• Sudanese government forces and government supported militias have engaged in the use of rape as a weapon of war, the abduction of children, the destruction of food and water sources, and the deliberate and systematic manipulation and denial of humanitarian assistance for the people of the Darfur region; and
• The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights identified “massive human rights violations in Darfur perpetrated by the Government of Sudan and the Janjaweed, which may constitute war crimes and/or crimes against humanity.”

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.”