Panel Authorizes Humanitarian Assistance for Sudan

On September 30, the House International Relations Subcommittee on Africa approved, by voice vote, 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 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.