Subject: NEWS:FRC Applauds House Action Condemning Sudanese Government Atrocities
From: Jyothi Kanics (jkanics@igc.org)
Date: Thu Jun 24 1999 - 08:19:34 EDT
Monday June 21, 1:50 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Family Research Council
FRC Applauds House Action
Condemning Sudanese Government
Atrocities
'While Much Action Has Been Taken On Behalf Of Kosovo, It's Time To
Help The People Of Sudan, Where The Human Rights Abuses Are Far
Greater,' FRC's William Saunders Says
WASHINGTON, June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Last week, amidst continuing concern
over Kosovo and
domestic disputes about juvenile crime, a significant action by the U.S.
House of Representatives
escaped notice. On June 15, in a nearly unanimous vote, (416-1) the
House, in H. Con. Res. 75,
condemned the Sudanese government for its atrocities against its own
citizens.
``Family Research Council applauds the House for condemning the slaughter
and slavery committed by
the Sudanese government,'' William Saunders, Counsel for Human Rights and
Foreign Policy for the
Family Research Council, said Monday. ``The resolution is significant
because it demonstrates a
bipartisan consensus in the House to respond to atrocities perpetrated by
the government of Sudan
against its own people. After our months-long focus on human rights
abuses in Kosovo, it is time to
focus on the far greater abuses in Sudan.''
Rep. Donald Payne (D-N.J.), who returned with Rep. Thomas Tancredo
(R-Colo.) from a trip to
Sudan two weeks ago, sponsored the bill. Rep. Tancredo, along with 55
other House members,
cosponsored it. Saunders urged the Senate to speedily pass the Senate
version of the resolution,
sponsored by Senator Sam Brownback.
Saunders said, ``In the meantime, the House should move to support its
insightful statement with
forthright action:
It should appropriate sufficient funds to support those
organizations that deliver relief wherever
it is needed and do not bow to the veto of the government in
Khartoum.
It should invite the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to explain
the failure of the UN to
address the situation aggressively as well as the failure of
Operation Lifeline Sudan to get food
to needy people.
It should pressure the Clinton Administration, weeks after President
Clinton promised Nobel
Prize winner Elie Wiesel he would never ignore another African
genocide, to make the just
resolution of the conflict in Sudan a top foreign policy priority.
The Congress should continue current sanctions against Sudan, and
explore avenues for
increasing economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime.
And it should -- through Select Committees, members' trips to
affected areas, and every other
means -- continue to shine the light on practices which the world
has long agreed violate every
norm of civilized behavior.``
SOURCE: Family Research Council
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