Sudan

Floor Speech

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last night the Senate adopted S. Con. Res. 25, a concurrent resolution welcoming the independence of the Republic of South Sudan, congratulating the people of South Sudan for freely and peacefully expressing their will through an internationally accepted referendum, and calling on the governments and people of Sudan and South Sudan to peacefully resolve outstanding issues including the final status of Abyei. I was happy to see us recognize this important development.

Years ago when violence was raging in Darfur I regularly came to the floor to try to keep the world's attention on the calamities happening in that far corner of the world.

Fortunately, after a number of years and constant international pressure, a sizeable international peacekeeping force was deployed in Darfur, and over time the worst of the violence largely subsided.

Meanwhile a fragile peace treaty--the Comprehensive Peace Agreement or CPA--also started to bring an end to a devastating civil war between North and South Sudan that killed and displaced millions. I give President George W. Bush credit for seeing that important agreement to fruition.

A key CPA provision called for an independence referendum for the southern half of Sudan. This referendum occurred in January and was largely peaceful and without incident.

The South voted overwhelmingly for independence, which the North agreed to respect. And on Saturday, amid widespread celebration and a host of visiting international dignitaries, South Sudan became the world's newest country.

Last year Senator Sherrod Brown and I visited Sudan. I wanted to see the country--and the new one about to emerge--with my own eyes.

The South faces a daunting task--building a nation that can be responsive to the needs of its 8 million residents, writing a constitution, and creating a functional government.

The people of South Sudan, who have seen so much suffering after years of civil war, deserve this chance at a peaceful and democratic nation--and the international community should help it get started and remain viable and stable.

The people of the North face challenges too, including a fragile economy and a dwindling of the Nile River due to climate change.

And despite the peaceful independence process for the South, many complicated issues related to borders, oil revenues, and immigration still remain to be worked out between both sides.

The Obama administration, including its special envoy Ambassador Princeton Lyman, has been working diligently to help resolve these very thorny issues.

Unfortunately, we have seen a rash of new violence in a number of border areas between North and South Sudan.

With much of the world's attention turned elsewhere, we must not let new violence undermine the hard fought gains that have been achieved in Sudan.

First, in May the Sudanese armed forces invaded the disputed oil-rich Abyei region, displacing as many as 100,000.

Fortunately, both sides met recently in Ethiopia and agreed to withdraw their forces from the region. The U.N. Security Council also voted to send a 4,200-person Ethiopian peacekeeping force there for 6 months to protect civilians and humanitarian workers.

These are steps in the right direction, and I urge both sides to respect the agreement and work to negotiate a long-term solution to Abyei that will allow its people to live in peace.

More recently there has been a new outbreak of violence--one with disturbing similarities to the violence in Darfur--in an area called Southern Kordofan.

Most people have probably never heard of Southern Kordofan--an area that borders South Sudan and is one of the few major oil-producing regions in the north.

During the North-South civil war, segments of the population supported the south and tensions remain today as a result. Southern Kordofan has a certain degree of autonomy and recently held separate state elections, yet there were allegations of election rigging in favor of North Sudan.

In early June, the North Sudanese government sent troops into the Nuba region in Southern Kordofan to disarm individuals sympathetic to the South--resulting in the displacement of more than 70,000. Humanitarian aid was blocked and U.N. staff harassed and detained.

And there have been allegations of targeted aerial bombing and house to house violence on the Nuba mountain people that are of grave concern.

North Sudan stands to lose sizable revenue from Southern independence and Southern Kordofan is one of the North's major sources of oil revenue. Many have speculated about the timing of the attacks--so close to Southern independence--but I am not going to dwell on motives because what matters most is that the aggression stops.

Two weeks ago both sides signed an African Union-mediated agreement to find a ``peaceful resolution of their differences ..... cease hostilities, permit humanitarian access, and allow the return of displaced persons to their homes.''

I hope this agreement is respected. The last thing the people of North or South Sudan need is more human suffering and displacement.

There must be an immediate cessation of hostilities and end to harassment of U.N. staff in Southern Kordofan.

Both sides must follow through with commitments to demilitarize Abyei.

Humanitarian agencies must have safe an unrestricted access to the areas.

And it is long overdue that the various parties in the Darfur conflict reach a long-term political settlement that will allow people to be safe and to return to their homes.

Continued progress on all these fronts is also the best path forward for improving Sudan's relations with the United States and the rest of the global community.

President Obama has called on Sudanese leaders to choose peace, and I strongly echo his sentiments.

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