Article: Senator Applauds Sudan Bill, Calls for Greater Anti-AIDS Measures

14 June 2001

Article: Senator Applauds Sudan Bill, Calls for Greater Anti-AIDS Measures

Lawmaker and surgeon Bill Frist reacts to House bill

By Jim Fisher-Thompson
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington - Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, former chairman and now ranking member of the Senate Africa Subcommittee, has commended a bill passed by the House of Representatives on June 13 aimed at pressuring the Sudanese government to end a conflict that has cost the nation millions of lives.

On the same day, Frist, the Senate's only heart surgeon who has conducted several humanitarian medical missions to Sudan and other parts of Africa, introduced a bill in the Senate calling for $700 million in new anti-AIDS funding for overseas.

Frist has lobbied for several years to open the southern region of Sudan to mercy flights by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) while highlighting the growing AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa in hearings he conducted as head of the Senate Africa Subcommittee.

In a statement he released to the press on June 13 Frist applauded the passage of the "Sudan Peace Act" by the House of Representatives, noting that "American leadership is essential to ending the war in Sudan."

Frist said, "In my visits to Sudan, I've seen first-hand the horrible realities of war and the great need and desire for peace. For more than 18 years, the Sudanese have been embroiled in the costliest war of this century. With more than two million lives already claimed and another four million people displaced, we must step up pressure on the Sudanese government to reach a comprehensive peace process and end the atrocities against its people."

The lawmaker added that "by aggressively addressing our differences with the Sudanese government," which the new legislation does, " we can move toward an end to the hostilities."

In addition, "House passage of this legislation is not only an important step toward establishing peace in the region, but also will help to invigorate the efforts of our international partners," he said.

Representative Ed Royce of California, chairman of the House Africa Subcommittee, shepherded the Sudan Peace Act through its final passage in which the vote was 422 for and only 2 against.

In a statement he gave to the press June 13, Royce roundly condemned the Sudanese government for conducting "genocide" against its own people in the south. He said, "Sudan is suffering through the longest running civil war in the world. The fighting between the radical government in the north and forces in the south has led to human suffering on a massive scale."

The lawmaker warned that with "famine a constant...over three million Sudanese will require emergency food aid this year."

The Sudan legislation consists of a number of provisions including:

-- requiring U.S. companies trying to raise capital in the United State to do business in Sudan to "enhance their reporting requirements." The report, which should include any known violation of human rights, "will be a valuable tool in alerting American investors." It should also "serve as a deterrent to foreign companies raising money on U.S. markets for oil development activities in Sudan; activities that unquestionably are intensifying the fighting and human suffering in Sudan;"

-- urging the Bush Administration to make available to the National Democratic Alliance $10 million in previously appropriated funds which would be used to build the civil society that has been devastated in the south; and

-- requiring the Administration "to develop a contingency plan to operate outside of Operation Lifeline Sudan, the humanitarian relief effort that has been manipulated by the government of Sudan.

In the Senate, Frist co-sponsored "the International Infectious Diseases Control Act of 2001" introduced the same day the Sudan Act passed in the House. It would authorize the funding for the $200 million investment the Administration has already made to the United Nations-sponsored Global Trust Fund to fight disease as well as commit another $500 million for fiscal year 2003 to fight disease worldwide.

In his statement Frist said "the United States has been a leader in the global battles against AIDS...Because of the enormity of this epidemic, we, and the rest of the world, must do more. Already, following our lead, many other nations, corporations and individuals have begun committing new resources to address this global crisis. If we act together, we can give hope to millions of people around the world."