US Congress reps. seek to commemorate Sudan’s CPA

By Daniel Van Oudenaren

January 20, 2010 (WASHINGTON) — Three Republican congressmen introduced a resolution in the US House of Representatives today to belatedly recognize the fifth anniversary of the signing of Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and call for “urgent and aggressive actions to establish peace in all regions of Sudan.”

The CPA, signed on January 9, 2005, marked the end of over two decades of war between the Khartoum government and Southern guerrillas. It established a six year interim period before a popular referendum on the independence of South Sudan. The United States, along with Norway and the United Kingdom, are guarantors of the fragile peace agreement.

Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey, the highest ranking Republican on the Africa and Global Health Subcommittee, submitted the resolution in the House of Representatives on Wednesday morning, referring it to the Foreign Affairs Committee. The lawmaker was also acting for Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia, co-chair of the Sudan Caucus.

The resolution contains language similar to demands voiced by Rep. Smith on December 3, when President Obama’s special envoy to Sudan appeared before a hearing of the House. The congressman and his colleague Rep. Donald Payne (Democrat – New Jersey) at that time expressed dissatisfaction that the “benchmarks” of the Sudan strategy remain classified. He also asked the envoy, Scott Gration, to provide a briefing on the “secret annex” of the Administration’s strategy.

In this context, today’s resolution urges US policy makers to “establish and adhere to specified measures to be taken against the respective parties if and when they fail to implement the CPA in accordance with the terms and timeline established therein, and to implement a more robust set of multilateral measures against those individuals who act as obstructionists to peace…” The House Resolution makes additional recommendations that are similar to stated US policy aims, but which have not yet been achieved.

Sheri Rickert, a staffer of Rep. Chris Smith, said at a public event today at the Hudson Institute that one reason for the belatedness of the commemorative resolution was that the Congress had been in recess until January 12.

“We’ve spent the past week trying to encourage and cajole our Democratic colleagues to co-sponsor the resolution. After multiple requests, multiple offers to change language that they might object to – though we tried our best to keep it bipartisan – the only response we got back was either ‘not interested’ or ‘we don’t have time to look at it properly.’ So we really regret that we had to introduce it as [only] a Republican resolution. As has been said this has been and should be a bipartisan issue,” she said.

(ST)