2000
[DOCID: f:h2052rfs.txt]
107th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2052
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 14, 2001
Received
June 21, 2001
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
AN ACT
To facilitate famine relief efforts and a comprehensive solution to the
war in Sudan.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Sudan Peace Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The Government of Sudan has intensified its prosecution
of the war against areas outside of its control, which has
already cost more than 2,000,000 lives and has displaced more
than 4,000,000 people.
(2) A viable, comprehensive, and internationally sponsored
peace process, protected from manipulation, presents the best
chance for a permanent resolution of the war, protection of
human rights, and a self-sustaining Sudan.
(3) Continued strengthening and reform of humanitarian
relief operations in Sudan is an essential element in the
effort to bring an end to the war.
(4) Continued leadership by the United States is critical.
(5) Regardless of the future political status of the areas
of Sudan outside of the control of the Government of Sudan, the
absence of credible civil authority and institutions is a major
impediment to achieving self-sustenance by the Sudanese people
and to meaningful progress toward a viable peace process.
(6) Through the manipulation of traditional rivalries among
peoples in areas outside of its full control, the Government of
Sudan has used divide-and-conquer techniques effectively to
subjugate its population. However, internationally sponsored
reconciliation efforts have played a critical role in reducing
human suffering and the effectiveness of this tactic.
(7) The Government of Sudan utilizes and organizes
militias, Popular Defense Forces, and other irregular units for
raiding and enslaving parties in areas outside of the control
of the Government of Sudan in an effort to disrupt severely the
ability of the populations in those areas to sustain
themselves. The tactic helps minimize the Government of Sudan's
accountability internationally.
(8) The Government of Sudan has repeatedly stated that it
intends to use the expected proceeds from future oil sales to
increase the tempo and lethality of the war against the areas
outside of its control.
(9) By regularly banning air transport relief flights by
the United Nations relief operation, Operation Lifeline Sudan
(OLS), the Government of Sudan has been able to manipulate the
receipt of food aid by the Sudanese people from the United
States and other donor countries as a devastating weapon of war
in the ongoing effort by the Government of Sudan to starve
targeted groups and subdue areas of Sudan outside of the
Government's control.
(10) The acts of the Government of Sudan, including the
acts described in this section, constitute genocide as defined
by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime
of Genocide (78 U.N.T.S. 277).
(11) The efforts of the United States and other donors in
delivering relief and assistance through means outside of OLS
have played a critical role in addressing the deficiencies in
OLS and offset the Government of Sudan's manipulation of food
donations to advantage in the civil war in Sudan.
(12) While the immediate needs of selected areas in Sudan
facing starvation have been addressed in the near term, the
population in areas of Sudan outside of the control of the
Government of Sudan are still in danger of extreme disruption
of their ability to sustain themselves.
(13) The Nuba Mountains and many areas in Bahr al Ghazal
and the Upper Nile and the Blue Nile regions have been excluded
completely from relief distribution by OLS, consequently
placing their populations at increased risk of famine.
(14) At a cost which has sometimes exceeded $1,000,000 per
day, and with a primary focus on providing only for the
immediate food needs of the recipients, the current
international relief operations are neither sustainable nor
desirable in the long term.
(15) The ability of populations to defend themselves
against attack in areas outside of the control of the
Government of Sudan has been severely compromised by the
disengagement of the front-line states of Ethiopia, Eritrea,
and Uganda, fostering the belief among officials of the
Government of Sudan that success on the battlefield can be
achieved.
(16) The United States should use all means of pressure
available to facilitate a comprehensive solution to the war in
Sudan, including--
(A) the multilateralization of economic and
diplomatic tools to compel the Government of Sudan to
enter into a good faith peace process;
(B) the support or creation of viable democratic
civil authority and institutions in areas of Sudan
outside of government control;
(C) continued active support of people-to-people
reconciliation mechanisms and efforts in areas outside
of government control;
(D) the strengthening of the mechanisms to provide
humanitarian relief to those areas; and
(E) cooperation among the trading partners of the
United States and within multilateral institutions
toward those ends.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term
``appropriate congressional committees'' means the Committee on
International Relations of the House of Representatives and the
Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate.
(2) Government of sudan.--The term ``Government of Sudan''
means the National Islamic Front government in Khartoum, Sudan.
(3) OLS.--The term ``OLS'' means the United Nations relief
operation carried out by UNICEF, the World Food Program, and
participating relief organizations known as ``Operation
Lifeline Sudan''.
SEC. 4. CONDEMNATION OF SLAVERY, OTHER HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES, AND TACTICS
OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SUDAN.
The Congress hereby--
(1) condemns--
(A) violations of human rights on all sides of the
conflict in Sudan;
(B) the Government of Sudan's overall human rights
record, with regard to both the prosecution of the war
and the denial of basic human and political rights to
all Sudanese;
(C) the ongoing slave trade in Sudan and the role
of the Government of Sudan in abetting and tolerating
the practice;
(D) the Government of Sudan's use and organization
of ``murahalliin'' or ``mujahadeen'', Popular Defense
Forces (PDF), and regular Sudanese Army
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units into
organized and coordinated raiding and slaving parties
in Bahr al Ghazal, the Nuba Mountains, and the Upper
Nile and the Blue Nile regions; and
(E) aerial bombardment of civilian targets that is
sponsored by the Government of Sudan; and
(2) recognizes that, along with selective bans on air
transport relief flights by the Government of Sudan, the use of
raiding and slaving parties is a tool for creating food
shortages and is used as a systematic means to destroy the
societies, culture, and economies of the Dinka, Nuer, and Nuba
peoples in a policy of low-intensity ethnic cleansing.
SEC. 5. USE OF APPROPRIATED FUNDS.
The Congress urges the President to promptly make available to the
National Democratic Alliance the $10,000,000 in funds appropriated for
assistance to such group under the heading ``Other Bilateral Economic
Assistance, economic support fund'' in title I of H.R. 5526 of the
106th Congress, as enacted into law by section 101(a) of Public Law
106-429.
SEC. 6. SUPPORT FOR AN INTERNATIONALLY SANCTIONED PEACE PROCESS.
(a) Findings.--The Congress hereby recognizes that--
(1) a single viable, internationally and regionally
sanctioned peace process holds the greatest opportunity to
promote a negotiated, peaceful settlement to the war in Sudan;
and
(2) resolution of the conflict in Sudan is best made
through a peace process based on the Declaration of Principles
reached in Nairobi, Kenya, on July 20, 1994.
(b) United States Diplomatic Support.--The Secretary of State is
authorized to utilize the personnel of the Department of State for the
support of--
(1) the ongoing negotiations between the Government of
Sudan and opposition forces;
(2) any necessary peace settlement planning or
implementation; and
(3) other United States diplomatic efforts supporting a
peace process in Sudan.
SEC. 7. MULTILATERAL PRESSURE ON COMBATANTS.
It is the sense of the Congress that--
(1) the United Nations should be used as a tool to
facilitate peace and recovery in Sudan; and
(2) the President, acting through the United States
Permanent Representative to the United Nations, should seek
to--
(A) revise the terms of OLS to end the veto power
of the Government of Sudan over the plans by OLS for
air transport relief flights and, by doing so, to end
the manipulation of the delivery of relief supplies to
the advantage of the Government of Sudan on the
battlefield;
(B) investigate the practice of slavery in Sudan
and provide mechanisms for its elimination; and
(C) sponsor a condemnation of the Government of
Sudan each time it subjects civilians to aerial
bombardment.
SEC. 8. DISCLOSURE OF BUSINESS ACTIVITIES IN SUDAN.
(a) Disclosure Requirements.--No entity that is engaged in any
commercial activity in Sudan may trade any of its securities (or
depository receipts with respect to its securities) in any capital
market in the United States unless that entity has disclosed, in such
form as the Securities and Exchange Commission shall prescribe--
(1) the nature and extent of that commercial activity in
Sudan, including any plans for expansion or diversification;
(2) the identity of all agencies of the Sudanese Government
with which the entity is doing business;
(3) the relationship of the commercial activity to any
violations of religious freedom and other human rights in
Sudan; and
(4) the contribution that the proceeds raised in the
capital markets in the United States will make to the entity's
commercial activity in Sudan.
(b) Disclosure to the Public.--The Securities and Exchange
Commission shall take the necessary steps to ensure that disclosures
under subsection (a) are published or otherwise made available to the
public.
(c) Enforcement Authority.--The President may exercise the
authorities he has under the International Emergency Economic Powers
Act to assist the Securities and Exchange Commission in carrying out
this section.
SEC. 9. PROHIBITION ON TRADING IN UNITED STATES CAPITAL MARKETS.
(a) Prohibition.--The President shall exercise the authorities he
has under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to prohibit
any entity engaged in the development of oil or gas in Sudan--
(1) from raising capital in the United States; or
(2) from trading its securities (or depository receipts
with respect to its securities) in any capital market in the
United States.
(b) Definition.--For purposes of this section, an entity is
``engaged in the development of oil or gas in Sudan'' if that entity is
directly engaged in the exploration, production, transportation (by
pipeline or otherwise), or refining of petroleum, natural gas, or
petroleum products in Sudan.
SEC. 10. REPORTING REQUIREMENT.
Not later than six months after the date of the enactment of this
Act, and annually thereafter, the Secretary of State shall prepare and
submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report regarding
the conflict in Sudan. Such report shall include--
(1) a description of the sources and current status of
Sudan's financing and construction of infrastructure and
pipelines for oil exploitation, the effects of such financing
and construction on the inhabitants of the regions in which the
oil fields are located, and the ability of the Government of
Sudan to finance the war in Sudan with the proceeds of the oil
exploitation;
(2) a description of the extent to which that financing was
secured in the United States or with involvement of United
States citizens;
(3) the best estimates of the extent of aerial bombardment
by the Government of Sudan, including targets, frequency, and
best estimates of damage; and
(4) a description of the extent to which humanitarian
relief has been obstructed or manipulated by the Government of
Sudan or other forces.
SEC. 11. CONTINUED USE OF NON-OLS ORGANIZATIONS FOR RELIEF EFFORTS.
(a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of the Congress that the
President should continue to increase the use of non-OLS agencies in
the distribution of relief supplies in southern Sudan.
(b) Report.--Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of
this Act, the President shall submit to the appropriate congressional
committees a detailed report describing the progress made toward
carrying out subsection (a).
SEC. 12. CONTINGENCY PLAN FOR ANY BAN ON AIR TRANSPORT RELIEF FLIGHTS.
(a) Plan.--The President shall develop a contingency plan to
provide, outside the auspices of the United Nations if necessary, the
greatest possible amount of United States Government and privately
donated relief to all affected areas in Sudan, including the Nuba
Mountains and the Upper Nile and the Blue Nile regions, in the event
that the Government of Sudan imposes a total, partial, or incremental
ban on OLS air transport relief flights.
(b) Reprogramming Authority.--Notwithstanding any other provision
of law, in carrying out the plan developed under subsection (a), the
President may reprogram up to 100 percent of the funds available for
support of OLS operations (but for this subsection) for the purposes of
the plan.
SEC. 13. INVESTIGATION OF WAR CRIMES.
(a) In General.--The Secretary of State shall collect information
about incidents which may constitute crimes against humanity, genocide,
war crimes, and other violations of international humanitarian
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law by
all parties to the conflict in Sudan, including slavery, rape, and
aerial bombardment of civilian targets.
(b) Report.--Not later than six months after the date of the
enactment of this Act and annually thereafter, the Secretary of State
shall prepare and submit to the appropriate congressional committees a
detailed report on the information that the Secretary of State has
collected under subsection (a) and any findings or determinations made
by the Secretary on the basis of that information. The report under
this subsection may be submitted as part of the report required under
section 9.
(c) Consultations With Other Departments.--In preparing the report
required by this section, the Secretary of State shall consult and
coordinate with all other Government officials who have information
necessary to complete the report. Nothing contained in this section
shall require the disclosure, on a classified or unclassified basis, of
information that would jeopardize sensitive sources and methods or
other vital national security interests.
Passed the House of Representatives June 13, 2001.
Attest:
JEFF TRANDAHL,
Clerk.
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