President Bush has signed into law a bill intended to press the Islamic regime of Sudan to end its military campaign against some of its own citizens.
The president signed the Sudan Peace Act Oct. 21.
The House of Representatives and the Senate adopted the act only two days apart just a few weeks earlier.
The House and Senate passage brought conclusion to legislation that seemed destined for failure. The House approved the bill with a 359-8 vote Oct. 7. The Senate adopted the measure by unanimous consent Oct. 9.
The legislation provides immediate aid to southern Sudan’s beleaguered citizens and requires the White House to monitor peace negotiations and to enforce sanctions on the Khartoum regime if it is not negotiating in good faith or is interfering with humanitarian aid.
Sudan’s civil war of two decades is largely a religious one. The militant Islamic regime has waged what has been widely described as a genocidal campaign against Christians, animists and moderate Muslims in the southern and central regions of the country.
The Khartoum-supported effort has included slave raids and the bombardment of hospitals, churches, schools and relief stations. It also has consisted of the rape of women and children, as well as the forcible conversion to Islam of children and starvation for Sudanese who refuse to convert.
More than 2 million people have been killed and about 4.5 million people have been displaced from their homes.
Khartoum representatives criticized the congressional action, saying it would harm peace efforts, the newspaper Al-Khartoum reported, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation. Leaders of the Sundanese regime and the resistance movement agreed in July to a framework for a peace process. Those negotiations have been halted, according to recent reports.
Even during the negotiations, there were reports the Islamic government’s forces continued to attack Sundanese in the south. Islamic troops killed about 1,500 people and displaced about 350,000 in a late July effort, according to the Church Alliance for a New Sudan, a division of the Institute on Religion and Democracy.
(BP)
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