PRINTER'S NO. 2253
No. 226 Session of 2000
INTRODUCED BY GREENLEAF, O'PAKE, WENGER, KITCHEN, TOMLINSON AND
BOSCOLA, OCTOBER 12, 2000
REFERRED TO INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS, OCTOBER 12, 2000
A RESOLUTION
1 Urging the President and the Congress of the United States to
2 publicly denounce the human rights violations occurring in
3 southern Sudan and to take immediate action against the
4 National Islamic Front government for its persecution of
5 Christians.
6 WHEREAS, The National Islamic Front government's self-
7 declared jihad or holy war against the predominantly traditional
8 and Christian south is nothing more than genocide or ethnic
9 cleansing; and
10 WHEREAS, According to Freedom House, one of the oldest human
11 rights groups in the United States, nearly 2 million Sudanese of
12 Christian faith have been martyred since 1983; and
13 WHEREAS, There are reports and widespread evidence of
14 Christians who are suffering torture, maiming, killing,
15 imprisonment, enslavement and starvation simply for their faith;
16 and
17 WHEREAS, According to the United States Committee for
18 Refugees, an estimated 4.5 million people have been displaced
19 from their homes and separated from their families; and
1 WHEREAS, The United Nations World Food Program estimated in
2 1998 that 2.6 million people in southern Sudan were in danger of
3 starvation and currently estimates that nearly 4 million people
4 are in critical need of assistance; and
5 WHEREAS, The National Islamic Front government has purposely
6 blocked humanitarian efforts by organizations seeking to deliver
7 donated food supplies to southern Sudan, thus creating a manmade
8 famine; and
9 WHEREAS, The atrocities being committed on Christians in the
10 Sudan are unconscionable and an abuse of human rights; therefore
11 be it
12 RESOLVED, That the Senate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
13 urge the President and the Congress of the United States to
14 publicly denounce the human rights violations occurring in
15 southern Sudan and to take immediate action against the National
16 Islamic Front government for its persecution of Christians; and
17 be it further
18 RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to
19 the President of the United States, to the presiding officers of
20 each house of Congress and to each member of Congress from
21 Pennsylvania.
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