Yesterday, September 23, the office of U.S. Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA) spoke out about the proposed visit of Sudan’s President Omar al Bashir to the United States for the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York. Wolf’s press statement and accompanying letter to President Obama adds the strength of this veteran advocate for human rights and religious freedom to others protesting against the admittance of the Islamist leader to the United States. In his statement, Wolf said that “if internationally indicted war criminal Omar Bashir, the president of Sudan, is allowed into the United States, he should be arrested.”
Wolf spoke in response to reports over the weekend that President Bashir had “booked a hotel room in New York.” The congressman indicated that while the United States as a host country to the United Nations has obligations to global leaders attending the UN meetings, “allowing someone responsible for genocide into the United States would compromise moral legitimacy, embolden war criminals and entrench Bashir.” In what the press release called a “scathing” letter to President Obama, Wolf declared, “Bashir has the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocents on his hand — Christian, Muslim, and animist alike.”
Wolf further advised Obama that “anything that delays Bashir being brought to justice is indefensible.” The National Congress government (formerly the National Islamic Front) of Sudan’s connections to global terrorism are documented. “We must not forget that his government gave safe haven to Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s, and Khartoum was a revolving door for Hamas and other designated terrorist groups,” Wolf said.
But just as important as Bashir’s Islamist pedigree is his brutalization of his own people, with which Wolf has been familiar for over two decades. The congressman told the President that in June of 2004, he led the first congressional delegation with Senator Sam Brownback to Darfur, “soon after the world began hearing about the atrocities being committed against the people of that region.” Wolf described how he “witnessed the nightmare” of “scorched villages and overflowing camps.” He “heard the stories of murder, rape and displacement.” Wolf quoted the International Criminal Court prosecutor saying that in Bashir’s war against Darfur, he “has selected his weapons; they are: rape, hunger, fear,” that are “the most efficient method of destruction, in the face of international scrutiny.”
The Virginia representative added that “Bashir’s assault on his own people pre-dates Darfur.” He highlighted “the more than 2 million that perished during the North-South war.” Wolf also condemned the ongoing genocidal attacks of Bashir’s Sudan armed forces and Islamist militias on the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile State. Finally, he tells President Obama:
You have before you a clear choice. Will you turn a blind eye to slaughter and extend diplomatic courtesy to such a man? Or will you seize the opportunity presented by Bashir’s brazenness and facilitate his transfer, as is legally permissible, to The Hague, such that he is finally made to account for his crimes?
The Institute on Religion and Democracy joins Congressman Wolf in urging that Omar al Bashir be brought to justice. Last Friday, we issued a press release regarding our participation in a public letter to President Obama from a coalition of Sudan activists and advocates. As director of the IRD’s Religious Liberty Program and Church Alliance for a New Sudan, I signed onto the letter, headlined by Hollywood Sudan activists George Clooney, Don Cheadle, and Mia Farrow. As ever, it is assuring to know that Congressman Frank Wolf stands with us, and more importantly, stands with the persecuted and oppressed people of Sudan.
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