أعضاء في الكونغرس الأمريكي يجمعون توقيعات لحث وباما زيادة العقوبات و حظر الذهب

Keep Sudan/Darfur a Priority -

Join Bipartisan Letter to President Obama

From: The Honorable James P. McGovern

Sent By: [email protected]

Date: 3/2/2016

Keep Sudan a High Priority for Leadership and Action

Join Bipartisan Letter to President Obama

Dear Colleague,

We ask that you join us on sending the letter below to President Obama urging him to re-prioritize peace, accountability and protection of civilians in Sudan during his final year in office. The human rights and humanitarian crisis in Sudan continues to deteriorate. Rape, murder, the burning and #####ng of villages and mass displacement are, once again, commonplace in Darfur. Bombing and starvation are the weapons of war used against the civilian populations of South Kordofan and Blue Nile. And with the attention of the world so focused on other crises, including in South Sudan, the nightmare suffered by the people of Darfur, Blue Nile, South Kordofan and indeed throughout Sudan has faded from the front pages. The United States needs to exercise its leadership in condemning Khartoum’s actions and coordinating a more effective international response.

Today, over 5 million people are in need of life-saving aid across Sudan. Violence has intensified in recent years, with at least half a million people newly displaced in the last two years. USAID’s Famine Early Warning System reports almost 4 million people at crisis levels of food insecurity and warns of increased food insecurity in 2016. In Darfur, U.N. agencies report extreme levels of child malnutrition, and in South Kordofan, food insecurity is at emergency levels, which is just one level below famine. These are a result of deliberate policies by the Sudanese government to deny life-saving humanitarian aid to communities in conflict areas. Violence has also escalated over the control of gold mining, including local mines in northern Darfur, to continue to fund the conflict and its many atrocities.

As you are aware, the conflicts in Sudan have a long history. As described by Congressional Research Service, rather than forging an identity that accommodated the country’s diverse peoples, customs and institutions, the Northern-led regimes espousing Islamist ideals have powered Sudan’s political history, forcing distant provinces to conform to the Arab-dominated center. Khartoum chose to exacerbate racial, religious, cultural and linguistic differences. For over 60 years, the Sudanese government has waged a series of wars, predominantly against “African” blacks, many of whom are Christian or practitioners of traditional religions, as well as Muslims. Years of fighting in the southern part of the country led to the deaths of 2 million peple and eventually the push for the independence of South Sudan in 2011. But other parts of Sudan have remained under siege. The current regime, led by President Omar al-Bashir, has carried out a campaign of terror and murder against Sudan’s border states so severe that the U.S. government, in 2003, recognized that acts of genocide had been committed against the population of Darfur. In October 2006, President Bush signed into law the bipartisan-supported Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, in which Congress gave the Administration additional tools to address this crisis, including the ability to sanction Sudanese officials considered to be contributing to the violation of human rights in Darfur. In 2009, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Bashir for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, and in 2010 it added genocide to the list of charges. As the investigation leading to the arrest warrant makes clear, the war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are focused mainly on black African communities and peoples in Darfur, and those same acts have now been spread to other border regions, like Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

As it has in the past, the U.S. can make a difference in Sudan. But it requires sustained efforts at the very highest level of our government. To join us on the letter to President Obama, or for more information, please contact Cindy Buhl (McGovern) at [email protected]; Carson Middleton (Pitts) at [email protected]; Eliza Ramirez (Capuano) at [email protected]; Brandon Batch (McCaul) at [email protected]; Diala Jadallah (Lee) at [email protected]; or Diana Cloutier (Fortenberry) at [email protected].

Sincerely,

James P. McGovern

Member of Congress

Joseph R. Pitts

Member of Congress

Michael E. Capuano

Member of Congress

Michael T. McCaul

Member of Congress

Barbara Lee

Member of Congress

Jeff Fortenberry

Member of Congress