[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1328 Engrossed in House (EH)]
<DOC>
H. Res. 1328
In the House of Representatives, U. S.,
November 20, 2024.
Whereas Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide (in this preamble referred to as the ``Genocide
Convention''), adopted at Paris on December 9, 1948, defines genocide as
``any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole
or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental
harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group
conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in
whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births
within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to
another group'';
Whereas the genocide that began in 2003 in Darfur perpetrated by the Government
of Sudan and its proxy Janjaweed militia, explicitly targeting the Fur,
Zaghawa, and Masalit ethnic communities through mass killings, forced
displacement, the razing of villages and cropland, widespread rape,
aerial bombings of civilians, and the blocking of humanitarian
assistance, killed at least 200,000 civilians and displaced 2,000,000
people;
Whereas, on July 22, 2004, Congress declared, with the passage of House
Concurrent Resolution 467 (108th Congress) and Senate Concurrent
Resolution 133 (108th Congress), that atrocities occurring in Darfur
were genocide, and the administration of President George W. Bush
declared genocide in Darfur on September 9, 2004;
Whereas, in 2013, the Government of Sudan, under the administration of the
National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) and the command of the
Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), formed the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a
formal paramilitary force composed primarily of Janjaweed militia;
Whereas Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (commonly known as ``Hemedti''), a Janjaweed
militia leader during the genocide in Darfur that began in 2003, served
as head of the RSF and became the deputy head of the Transitional
Military Council, which took power from the President of Sudan Omar al-
Bashir in 2019, and the deputy chairman of the successor Sovereign
Council;
Whereas the elevation of individuals who served in leadership of the parties
responsible for such genocide, including Hemedti and General Abdel
Fattah al-Burhan of the SAF, into leadership roles in the transition
government in 2019 only heightened the risk of atrocities recurring
across Sudan, including genocide in Darfur;
Whereas fighting between the SAF and the RSF broke out in Khartoum on April 15,
2023, and quickly spread to Darfur, where the RSF has taken control of
four of five regional capitals in Darfur: Nyala, Geneina, Zalingei, and
El Daein;
Whereas, on August 16, 2023, CNN issued an investigative report on the June 15,
2023, atrocity in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, describing the
atrocity as ``one of the most violent incidents in the genocide-scarred
Sudanese region's history'', explaining how ``the powerful paramilitary
Rapid Support Forces and its allied militias hunted down non-Arab people
in various parts of the city . . . reviving a genocidal playbook'', and
in which survivors reported that identifying as Masalit ``was a death
sentence'';
Whereas, on November 3, 2023, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights stated, ``We are deeply alarmed by reports that women
and girls are being abducted and held in inhuman, degrading slave-like
conditions in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in
Darfur'';
Whereas, on November 14, 2023, the United Nations Special Adviser on the
Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, expressed extreme concern
with the ``serious allegations of mass killings'' in Ardamata, which
``may constitute acts of genocide'', citing reports that the violence
killed more than 800 people and displaced 8,000 Sudanese individuals to
Chad;
Whereas, on December 6, 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined that,
since the fighting between the SAF and the RSF began on April 15, 2023,
Sudan has experienced war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic
cleansing in ``haunting echoes of the genocide that began almost 20
years ago in Darfur'', including Masalit civilians being ``hunted down
and left for dead in the streets, their homes set on fire, and told that
there is no place in Sudan for them'';
Whereas a December 15, 2023, Reuters special investigative report detailed the
targeted killing of Masalit men and boys by the RSF, about which an
emergency protection officer for the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees explained that ``the objective of the killings seems to be
the elimination of future fighters as well as the line of ancestry of a
specific ethnic group'', referring to the Masalit people;
Whereas the RSF has killed Masalit political and traditional leaders in El
Geneina, West Darfur, including Khamis Abdullah Abbakar, the Governor of
West Darfur, and Farsha Mohamed Arbab, a prominent leader of the Masalit
Sultanate;
Whereas, on May 9, 2024, Human Rights Watch reported that attacks by the RSF and
allied militias in El Geneina, the capital city of Sudan's West Darfur
state, killed thousands of people and left hundreds of thousands as
refugees, from April to November 2023;
Whereas there is significant evidence of widespread, systematic actions against
the non-Arab ethnic communities of Darfur, including the Masalit people,
committed by the RSF and allied militias that meet one or more of the
criteria under Article II of the Genocide Convention, including--
(1) killing members of the non-Arab ethnic communities in Darfur in
mass killings of civilians, including summary executions in the streets and
shootings of civilians fleeing across the Wadi Kaja river and to the Chad
border, targeted killings of men and boys, targeted killings of Masalit
leaders, and burials in mass graves;
(2) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of such
communities, including through extrajudicial detention, torture and
beatings, extortion, sexual and gender-based violence, mass rape, sexual
slavery, and forced displacement; and
(3) deliberately inflicting on such communities conditions of life
calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part,
including the annihilation of villages, targeted attacks on marketplaces
and schools, widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and
telecommunication, the looting of homes and hospitals, assaults on camps
for displaced persons, the destruction of humanitarian facilities, the
killing of aid workers, and restrictions on humanitarian aid and access;
and
Whereas credible descriptions of the RSF's objective of elimination of the line
of ancestry of the non-Arab tribes of Darfur, survivors' statements
reporting that identifying as Masalit is a death sentence, and reports
that the RSF made clear that there is no place in Sudan for the Masalit,
against the backdrop of the prior genocide in Darfur, evince a specific
intent on the part of the RSF to destroy the Masalit and other non-Arab
ethnic groups in Darfur in whole or in substantial part: Now, therefore,
be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) condemns atrocities, including those that amount to genocide,
being committed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias
against the Masalit people and other non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur,
and the roles of the RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in perpetrating
atrocities, humanitarian catastrophe, and the destruction of Sudan;
(2) calls for an immediate end to the war and all violence and
atrocities in Sudan;
(3) urges the Government of the United States--
(A) to take immediate steps with the international
community, including through multilateral fora, to protect
civilians, including by establishing safe zones and humanitarian
corridors, enforcing the United Nations Security Council arms
embargo on Darfur, and brokering a comprehensive cease-fire
between the warring parties in Sudan;
(B) to support the consistent and transparent documentation
of atrocities and genocidal acts in Sudan by instituting a
mechanism that will, to the greatest extent possible, publicly
release such documentation on a consistent and regular basis;
(C) to immediately identify mechanisms through which to fund
local, community-based organizations that are currently
providing nonlethal assistance to the Sudanese people in
conflict-affected areas that traditional implementing partners
cannot reach, including for the delivery of food, medical aid,
and shelter to individuals impacted by the war in Sudan; and
(D) to review and update the atrocities determination for
Sudan every 180 days for 3 years from enactment;
(4) supports tribunals and international criminal investigations to
hold the RSF and allied militias accountable for war crimes, crimes
against humanity, and genocide; and
(5) calls on the Atrocity Prevention Task Force to conduct a
comprehensive review of its efforts to prevent, analyze, and respond to
atrocities in Sudan, in alignment with the 2022 United States Strategy
to Anticipate, Prevent, and Respond to Atrocities.
Attest:
Clerk.