FOLLOWING THE DANFORTH REPORT: DEFINING THE NEXT STEP ON THE PATH TO PEACE IN SUDAN HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JUNE 5, 2002 Serial No. 107–100 Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international—relations U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 80–060PDF WASHINGTON : 2002 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) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York TOM LANTOS, California JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa HOWARD L. BERMAN, California DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American DAN BURTON, Indiana Samoa ELTON GALLEGLY, California DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina SHERROD BROWN, Ohio DANA ROHRABACHER, California CYNTHIA A. MCKINNEY, Georgia EDWARD R. ROYCE, California EARL F. HILLIARD, Alabama PETER T. KING, New York BRAD SHERMAN, California STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ROBERT WEXLER, Florida AMO HOUGHTON, New York JIM DAVIS, Florida JOHN M. MCHUGH, New York ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York JOHN COOKSEY, Louisiana WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York RON PAUL, Texas BARBARA LEE, California NICK SMITH, Michigan JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Pennsylvania DARRELL E. ISSA, California EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon ERIC CANTOR, Virginia SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada JEFF FLAKE, Arizona GRACE NAPOLITANO, California BRIAN D. KERNS, Indiana ADAM B. SCHIFF, California JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia DIANE E. WATSON, California MARK GREEN, Wisconsin THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff Director/General Counsel ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Staff Director M. PATRICIA KATYOKA, Professional Staff Member MARILYN C. OWEN, Staff Associate (II) C O N T E N T S Page WITNESSES The Honorable Walter Kansteiner, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, U.S. Department of State ...................................................................... 6 Roger P. Winter, Assistant Administrator, Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, U.S. Agency for International Development .. 11 Michael K. Young, Chairman, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom ................................................................................................................ 16 Francis Deng, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies, The Brookings Institu- tion ........................................................................................................................ 52 John Prendergast, Co-Director, Africa Program, International Crisis Group .... 65 Ken Isaacs, International Director of Projects, Samaritan’s Purse ..................... 70 Eric Reeves, Professor, Smith College ................................................................... 74 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING The Honorable Walter Kansteiner, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, U.S. Department of State ...................................................................... 8 Roger P. Winter: Prepared statement .................................................................... 13 Michael K. Young: Prepared statement ................................................................. 18 Francis Deng: Prepared statement ........................................................................ 56 John Prendergast: Prepared statement ................................................................. 67 Ken Isaacs: Prepared statement ............................................................................. 73 Eric Reeves: Prepared statement ........................................................................... 76 APPENDIX Questions for the record submitted to the Honorable Walter Kansteiner by the Honorable Joseph Crowley, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York and responses ....................................................................... 89 The Honorable Jeff Flake, a Representative in Congress from the State of Arizona: Prepared statement .............................................................................. 90 (III) FOLLOWING THE DANFORTH REPORT: DEFIN- ING THE NEXT STEP ON THE PATH TO PEACE IN SUDAN WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2002 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:57 a.m. in Room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Henry Hyde (Chairman of the Committee) presiding. Chairman HYDE. The Committee will come to order. As a result of the bloodiest war on the African continent some- where in that land of misery today a child will die, a mother will lose a limb, and a young woman will be enslaved. This is the re- ality in Sudan, a country at war, a terrible war. You have heard the numbers—2 million dead, and more than 5 million displaced. Despite these frightening numbers very little is being done to end the suffering of the helpless and the innocent. Today’s hearing is another effort, one of many in the past decade, to help push the quest for peace in Sudan. We cannot turn a blind eye to the suffering of the weak and the helpless civilians in south- ern Sudan, and we cannot pretend we do not know. We witness the suffering every day. It is incumbent upon us to do something, to do the right thing. For almost 4 decades the East African country with a population of 35 million people has been the scene of intermittent conflict. The Sudanese conflict, Africa’s longest running civil war, shows no sign of ending. The National Islamic Front Regime, which came to power by ousting a democratically elected government in 1989, con- tinues to mount a brutal military campaign against its powerless masses in the south. Unfortunately, a new generation of southern Sudanese are grow- ing up in the midst of war and hopelessness; children are being killed and maimed by a government determined to exterminate its own people. In February, government helicopter gunships mowed down scores of civilians who were waiting in line for food at a United Nations feeding center. Seventeen people were killed and scores wounded. This Committee processed the Sudan Peace Act. The House passed the bill by 422 to two in June 2001, and appointed conferees several months later. The act is an effort to address some of the problems facing Sudan and to provide assistance to those fighting for democracy and freedom, and to punish those who trade in blood (1) 2 oil. Unfortunately, our colleagues in the Senate have yet to appoint conferees in order to reconcile the two versions of the bill. The Bush Administration had demonstrated its keen interest in bringing about an end to the conflict. On September 6, 2001, Presi- dent Bush appointed Former Senator John Danforth as Special Envoy for Peace in the Sudan. During a White House ceremony the President stated that, ‘‘For nearly 2 decades the government of Sudan has waged a brutal and shameful war against its own people, and this is not right, and this must stop.’’ We welcome the President’s asserted engagement in Sudan. Senator Danforth was given the mandate to ascertain if there is a role for the United States to play in the peace process. As part of his mandate, he first sought to test the parties to the conflict to determine if they were serious about a negotiated settlement. He proposed four confidence-building measures. These included: (1) a cease-fire in the Nuba Mountains region to facilitate relief assist- ance; (2) the creation of ‘‘days of tranquility’’ to administer immuni- zations and provide humanitarian relief assistance; (3) an end to aerial bombardment of civilian targets; and (4) the creation of an Eminent Persons Group on slavery in Sudan. In April 2002, Senator Danforth submitted his report to Presi- dent Bush, recommending continued U.S. engagement in the peace process. The release of the Danforth Report provides an oppor- tunity for Congress to assess the direction of U.S. engagement in the peace process. While I am encouraged by the Administration’s high level commitment, I am disheartened to learn conditions on the ground have not changed. However, the witnesses today will lend us greater insight into the problems involved in the peace process and the impact which implementation of the recommendation contained in the Danforth Report might have on easing the conflict in Sudan. I now turn to the Ranking Member, Mr. Lantos, for his opening remarks. Mr. LANTOS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and before offering my opening remarks I want to commend you for your opening state- ment which I had the privilege of reading, and I want to explain to you that I was on the Floor making a statement on the most re- cent suicide bombing in Israel, which I think needed to be com- mented on. Sixteen Israelis were massacred this morning in a suicide bomb- ing of a bus, with 50 Israelis being injured, many of them critically. With a population 50 times that of the State of Israel, this is the equivalent of 800 Americans having been blown to bits and some 2500 Americans injured, many of them critically. If in the morning paper we would be reading that 800 of our citizens were killed in suicide attacks, we would understand