Africa's Newest Nation: the Republic of Southern
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AFRICA’S NEWEST NATION: THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTHERN SUDAN HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, AND HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION JUNE 16, 2011 Serial No. 112–90 Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 66–903PDF WASHINGTON : 2011 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:29 Feb 07, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 F:\WORK\AGH\061611\66903 HFA PsN: SHIRL COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida, Chairman CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey HOWARD L. BERMAN, California DAN BURTON, Indiana GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York ELTON GALLEGLY, California ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American DANA ROHRABACHER, California Samoa DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey EDWARD R. ROYCE, California BRAD SHERMAN, California STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York RON PAUL, Texas GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York MIKE PENCE, Indiana RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri JOE WILSON, South Carolina ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey CONNIE MACK, Florida GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas DENNIS CARDOZA, California TED POE, Texas BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida BRIAN HIGGINS, New York JEAN SCHMIDT, Ohio ALLYSON SCHWARTZ, Pennsylvania BILL JOHNSON, Ohio CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut DAVID RIVERA, Florida FREDERICA WILSON, Florida MIKE KELLY, Pennsylvania KAREN BASS, California TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina ANN MARIE BUERKLE, New York RENEE ELLMERS, North Carolina VACANT YLEEM D.S. POBLETE, Staff Director RICHARD J. KESSLER, Democratic Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, AND HUMAN RIGHTS CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas KAREN BASS, California TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri ANN MARIE BUERKLE, New York (II) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:29 Feb 07, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\AGH\061611\66903 HFA PsN: SHIRL C O N T E N T S Page WITNESSES Mr. Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala, bishop, Diocese of Tambura-Yambio .................. 14 Mr. John Eibner, chief executive officer, Christian Solidarity International— USA ....................................................................................................................... 23 Ms. Dana Lyons Wilkins, campaigner, Global Witness ........................................ 29 The Honorable Roger Winter (former Special Representative on Sudan, U.S. Department of State) ........................................................................................... 36 The Honorable Princeton Lyman, Special Envoy for Sudan, U.S. Department of State .................................................................................................................. 45 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING The Honorable Frank Wolf, a Representative in Congress from the Common- wealth of Virgnia: Letter to President Obama submitted for the record ........ 11 Mr. Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala: Prepared statement ............................................. 17 Mr. John Eibner: Prepared statement ................................................................... 25 Ms. Dana Lyons Wilkins: Prepared statement ..................................................... 31 The Honorable Roger Winter: Prepared statement .............................................. 39 The Honorable Princeton Lyman: Prepared statement ........................................ 49 Ms. Rajakumari Jandhyala, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Afri- ca, U.S. Agency for International Development: Prepared statement ............. 70 APPENDIX Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 90 Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 91 (III) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:29 Feb 07, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\AGH\061611\66903 HFA PsN: SHIRL VerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:29 Feb 07, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\AGH\061611\66903 HFA PsN: SHIRL AFRICA’S NEWEST NATION: THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTHERN SUDAN THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2011 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, AND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:15 p.m., in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. SMITH. The subcommittee will come to order. Good after- noon, ladies and gentlemen. We are holding today’s hearing for the purpose of focusing on the creation and showing our solidarity with the creation of the new nation on the African continent, but also of assessing its myriad of challenges in transitioning successfully to independence. Recent brutal attacks by the Khartoum government on disputed areas in the North-South border area have raised alarms about re- newed violence in this country that already has suffered far too much. For decades, the Government of Sudan in Khartoum has waged war, genocide against the people of Southern Sudan and fa- cilitated the enslavement of its people. Even as we meet today, the regime of President Omar al-Bashir is seizing territory, causing the displacement of more than 100,000 people and killing countless other Black Sudanese. Sudan, geographically the largest country in Africa, has been ravaged by civil war intermittently for 4 decades. The first Suda- nese civil war occurred during the period of 1955 to 1972 and the second ran from 1983 to 2005. More than 2 million people have died in Southern Sudan over the past 2 decades alone due to war related causes and famine, and millions have been displaced from their homes. Since 1989, the United States has maintained multiple sanctions against the Government of Sudan because of human rights con- cerns in Southern Sudan, as well as the western region of Darfur and Sudan’s support for international terrorism. I have had face-to-face meetings with General Bashir in Khar- toum pushing for lasting peace and an end to the abuses of his gov- ernment. Unfortunately in that meeting he was far more interested in discussing the end of U.S. sanctions than he was in discussing how to end the suffering that his government and the rebel groups it sponsors have inflicted on countless innocent lives. (1) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:29 Feb 07, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\AGH\061611\66903 HFA PsN: SHIRL 2 Beginning in 1995, human rights organizations have raised the issue of kidnapping of African Southerners by Arab elements from the North in conjunction with the second civil war between the North and the South. I would note parenthetically that right here in this room, in 1996, I actually held the first hearing on chattel slavery in Sudan, with the focus also on Mauritania, but we did focus primarily on Sudan. And we heard from men and women and mothers who had had their children kidnapped and sold into slavery. It is now esti- mated that between 11,000 and 35,000 Sudanese are being held against their will and subjected to vicious exploitation and violent abuse in the North. The Khartoum government claims that slavery is the product of intertribal warfare, which is not under its control. However, cred- ible sources indicate that the Government of Sudan was involved in arming and otherwise backing numerous militia groups involved in kidnapping and enslaving these Southerners. Regardless of who initiated their enslavement, their freedom must be secured as part of the South’s declaration of independence. One Sudanese slave, Simon Deng, escaped and is now living in freedom in the United States. Deng said that every night while he was in captivity he would go to sleep thinking maybe tomorrow someone will come to my rescue. He now goes to sleep thinking of those fellow slaves left behind, knowing that they are thinking and dreaming the same thought, living on that same hope that tomor- row someone will come to rescue them. These people enslaved in the North must not be forgotten in the celebration and the inauguration of a new country. The United States and the rest of the international community must not let their suffering continue. On January 9th, South Sudan, as we all know, held a peaceful and transparent referendum on Southern secession as called for in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. According to the South Sudan Referendum Commission, 98.8 percent voted for secession. In early February, Sudanese President Bashir officially accepted the result of the referendum. The United States, the African Union, the European Union, the U.N., and others endorsed the result as well. On July 9, 2011, the Republic of South Sudan will officially declare its independence. Unfortunately, a mutual military buildup, occasional clashes and unresolved issues from the CPA led to a tense atmosphere in the Abyei region. On May 19th, according to the U.N. report, a Suda-