Critical Issues Facing Sudan

CRITICAL ISSUES FACING SUDAN -- (Extensions of Remarks - July 31, 2009)

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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, Sudan has been ravaged by intermittent civil war for four decades. Over the last 20 years, more than two million people have died in Southern Sudan due to war-related causes and famine, and millions more have been displaced from their homes. In January 2005, after two and a half years of negotiations, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) of the South and the Government of Sudan signed a final peace agreement known as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). According to the United Nations, U.S. officials and Sudan observers, the implementation of the CPA has been selective and at times deliberately slow. With national elections scheduled for April 2010, the implementation of the CPA is critical

Yesterday, on Thursday, July 30, 2009, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held a hearing on ``Ensuring the Human Rights of the People of Sudan: Implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.'' The distinguished witnesses testifying before the Commission were Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, Head of Mission, Government of South Sudan Mission in the United States; Roger Winter, former Special Representative on Sudan, Department of State; John Norris, Executive Director, the ENOUGH Project; and Amir Osman, Senior Director of Policy and Government Relations, Save Darfur Coalition.

Mr. Osman, a native of Sudan, fled his home country in 2003 because his work on human rights had put his life at risk. He was resettled in the United States in 2006 through the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, moved to Washington, D.C., and joined the Save Darfur Coalition. It is my privilege to share his testimony with my colleagues.

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