US Wolf critical of lobbyist representing Government of Sudan

Oct 21, 2005 (WASHINGTON D.C.) — Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) today released the statement below concerning the Government of Sudan’s hiring of a Washington lobbyist. It is being inserted in the Congressional Record.

Wolf, who is the chairman on the bipartisan Congressional Human Rights Caucus, has been to Sudan five times, most recently in June 2004. A copy of his report detailing his trip to Darfur can be found by clicking here.

Extensions of Remarks

The Honorable Frank R. Wolf of Virginia

October 17, 2005

Sudan Hires Washington Lobbyist

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, here we go again. First it was Patton, Boggs trying to polish the image of Saudi Arabia. Then we had Akin, Gump trying to assist China in buying a U.S. oil company. Now comes the shocking news that a Washington lobby shop has landed the Government of the Republic of Sudan as a client. Where will the lobbying wheel of fortune stop next?

The Government of Sudan has hired Mr. Robert J. Cabelly, managing director, C/R International, to lobby on its behalf. How can an American company use such bad judgment and represent a country whose leaders are suspected of organizing and arming militias to commit genocide? And why did the United States State Department sign-off on such a plan?

While shocking to some, it may not be all that surprising for anyone familiar with Mr. Cabelly’s history. After working at the State Department for more than a decade where he developed hundreds of contacts in Africa, Mr. Cabelly went on to found C/R International. This international consulting firm received $6 million from Angola from 1996 to 2002 in order to successfully defeat a series of bills for an international oil embargo, according to a Harper’s magazine article from March 2004. “While [Mr. Cabelly’s firm] served Angola, the government’s troops beat and raped civilians, and killed suspected rebel sympathizers,” wrote Harpers’ magazine.

On August 12 of this year, Mr. Cabelly filed with the Foreign Agents Registration Unit at the Department of Justice, reporting a contract with the Government of the Republic of Sudan for $530,000 per year. The contract lists the agreed representation by Mr. Cabally for the Government of Sudan as providing “public relations, government relations and strategic counsel as they would relate to implementing the North-South peace agreement, cooperating in the war on terrorism, and addressing other issues….”

But make no mistake, Sudan is hiring this firm to help counteract the ongoing worldwide campaign against the government’s policy in the Darfur region of the country. This American company is taking money to wage a lobbying war against the hundreds of organizations and more than 130 million Americans who have voiced their concern about the situation in Sudan. While coalition groups work every day to call the world’s attention to the regime in Khartoum and its condoning of the action of a violent militia which is raping and killing innocent women, men and children and pillaging villages in Darfur, they might be surprised to learn that one of the Government of Sudan’s contract employees in working against it right here in Washington. Just last week there were new reports that the violence in Darfur is growing worse. The Sudan government has not reined in the janjaweed militia.

There is no question about what is occurring in Sudan. Last year the United States clearly stated that genocide is occurring in Darfur. This Congress passed a resolution affirming it. President Bush has called the actions in Darfur as genocide on repeated occasions. The United Nations has referred the case to an international tribunal to investigate war crimes.

I have been involved on Sudan issues for over 15 years. I have traveled to Sudan five times since 1989 with my most recent trip last summer to Darfur. I talked with women who had been raped and families whose members had been murdered. I saw emaciated children, dying from hunger and disease. I have seen with my own eyes bombed schools in Yei and horrific scenes of devastation inflicted upon the people of Sudan by government forces. The war between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army claimed the lives of over two million people and has left the country in despair. Although the fighting is over in the South and a Comprehensive Peace Agreement awaits implementation, death and destruction at the hands of the government and its proxy militia in Darfur continues unabated.

The United State government and the United States Congress stands united with the people of Sudan and any lobbyist who walks these halls on behalf of the Government of Sudan is not welcome. The Sudan regime should be spending its money reining in the Janjaweed, and turning over criminals to the International Criminal Court, not hiring lobbyists to try to improve their image.

We are all aware of the actions of the Government of Sudan and no amount of lobbying will change that.