President Clinton, do something

December 9, 1999

President William Jefferson Clinton
The White House
Washington, DC

Dear Mr. President:

The moment of truth for the suffering millions in Sudan is upon us, even as that moment is shadowed by the terrible realities of human destruction that have proceeded from the last sixteen years of civil war. In south and central Sudan, the homeland of Christians and African traditional believers, two million have been killed, five million displaced, and many hundreds of thousands are at risk of starvation. Either America leads the way towards peace at this crucial historical juncture, or an unspeakable catastrophe evident to all will take its final, dreadful toll in a century already defined too fully by indifference and genocide.

Your powers to intervene in this great episode of human suffering and destruction are many, Mr. President. Your voice above all others – declaring to the world the reality of Sudan’s agony – will be heard and heeded. We thus call on you to take a visible, personal stance on the genocide now taking place in Sudan, doing so by publicly meeting with such leaders as Elie Wiesel and with persons directly familiar with the policies and practices of the Khartoum regime. Such a step will powerfully educate the American people and the world to the fact of that regime’s genocidal policies. It will eradicate any remaining vestige of Secretary Albright’s recent, sadly pessimistic lament that "the human rights situation in Sudan is not marketable to the American people." In sum, your public, personal attention to the realities of Sudan will create an environment for change and will help generate international resolve to bring about a just peace in Sudan through a reinvigorated IGAD peace process.

There are also explicit actions you can take to bring about a just peace. Critically, we call on you to fully and vigorously enforce your own Executive Order of 1997 toward the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and other companies now providing massive oil revenues for the Khartoum regime. The Order should be construed or amended to bar CNPC from access to U.S. capital markets so long as it continues to be a 40% partner in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company project, and so long as that venture provides the regime with millions of dollars in annual oil revenue.

Reportedly, CNPC and its investment banker, Goldman Sachs, will shortly seek to avoid the Executive Order and public censure by a "restructuring" scheme purporting to withhold IPO funds from CNPC’s commitments in Sudan, Iraq and other terrorist states. The fungibility of money and the scale of CNPC’s activities in Sudan thoroughly undermine the credibility of this contrivance. No such arrangement would have been permitted to evade America’s successful assault on South African apartheid, and it must not be permitted to do so in the service of Sudanese genocide.

Secretary Albright has also directed recent remarks at the second major source of the regime’s oil income – CNPC’s partner in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company project, Canada’s Talisman Energy, Inc. The Secretary made clear that she viewed with alarm the efforts of some countries "to help [Sudan] expand their [oil] drilling," and indicated that she was "definitely going to discuss this with the Canadians." We call on you to do so as well, directly and urgently with Prime Minister Chretien, and further ask you to endorse the growing movement of pension funds and investors to divest Talisman Energy stock and to enforce strictly your 1997 Executive Order by pursuing investigations into reports of possible violations by American companies until the IGAD peace process is successfully concluded.

A recent, remarkable Washington Post lead editorial of November 15 described an "oil-inspired softness on Sudan" caused by Talisman Energy, CNPC and Western oil companies seeking to engage in future projects in Sudan. The editorial expressed concern that:

peace hopes have been buried by the recent completion of an oil pipeline, promising $200 million or more a year in revenues. Rather than negotiate, the north declares that it will use its new oil wealth to stock up on military gear and win a victory on the battlefield. The government is bent on ethnic cleansing of territory surrounding other, as yet unexploited, oil fields. Once it has control of these, it will purchase yet more tanks and missiles.

We deeply share the concerns of Secretary Albright, powerfully elaborated by the enclosed editorial, and call on you to take all possible steps to ensure that the Khartoum regime is barred from receiving oil revenues with which it will insulate itself from, and undermine, the IGAD process.

Finally, we call on you to actively support the Sudan Peace Act as originally introduced by Senators Frist, Brownback and Lieberman, and to work more closely on issues involving Sudan with those Senators and with such House leaders as Congressmen Payne, Watts, and Wolf. We particularly urge strong Administration support for stripping from the regime any authority over the distribution of US food, medical and other humanitarian assistance – an authority with which it has systematically sought to starve the people of South Sudan into submission.

In a nationally televised dialogue with Elie Wiesel, conducted after the Kosovo campaign had been initiated and in the wake of Rwanda, you pledged to do all in your power to ensure that genocide would not occur again in Africa during your Presidency. We implore you, in the names of countless lost Sudanese, to raise the profile of Sudan and to add your public voice and leadership to ensuring the success of the IGAD peace process. In this regard, we believe it crucial for you to use your Executive Order and the authority of your office as a means of resolute economic communication: there will be no assisted oil development in Sudan – or the funding, directly or indirectly, of such assistance by US investors – until a just peace has been achieved.

Respectfully,

Elliott Abrams
President, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Commissioner, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

Judge William P. Clark
Former National Security Advisor to President Reagan

The Rt. Reverend Keith L. Ackerman
Bishop
Episcopal Diocese of Quincy

David Aikman
Senior Fellow
Ethics and Public Policy Center

William L. Armstrong
(Former U.S. Senator 1979-1990)

Ruben Benjamin
President
Southern Sudanese Community, Washington, DC

Dennis E. Bennett
Founder
www.ViTrade.com

Mrs. Mary Ellen Bork
Catholic Campaign for America
Board of Directors

Commissioner John Busby
National Commander
The Salvation Army

Ann J. Buwalda, Esq.
USA Director
Jubilee Campaign

Charles W. Colson
Founder
Prison Fellowship Ministries

Samuel L. Cotton
Executive Director
Coalition Against Slavery in Mauritania and Sudan

The Reverend Dr. Jim Dixon
Senior Pastor
Cherry Hills Community Church
Highlands Ranch, Colorado

Bernard Dobranski
Dean, Ave Maria School of Law
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Charles A. Donovan
Executive Vice President
Family Research Council

The Reverend Monsignor Thomas M. Duffy
Shine of the Most Blessed Sacrament
Washington, DC

The Reverend John C. Eby
National Coordinator
American Baptist Evangelicals

The Reverend Samuel L. Edwards
Executive Director
Forward in Faith, North America

David F. Forte
Professor of Law
Cleveland State University

John Friar
Professor, School of Business
Northeastern University

Robert P. George
McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence
Princeton University

Mary Ann Glendon
Professor of Law
Harvard University

The Reverend Marcel Gournizo
President, Aid to the Church in Russia

Rabbi Irving Greenberg
President
Jewish Life Network

E. Brandt Gustavson
President
National Religious Broadcasters

Steven W. Haas
President
Prayer for the Persecuted Church

The Reverend David R. Harper
Chair, SOMA International
Rector, Church of the Apostles, Episcopal, Fairfax, Virginia

Joseph Harris
General Secretary
United Methodist Men

The Reverend Dr. James V. Heidinger, II
President and Publisher
Good News Forum for Scriptural Christianity in the United Methodist Church

Kent R. Hill
President, Eastern Nazarene College
Quincy, Massachusetts

Michael Horowitz
Senior Fellow
Hudson Institute

The Rt. Reverend John W. Howe
Bishop
Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida

Deal W. Hudson
Editor and Publisher
Crisis magazine

Joseph K. Grieboski
President
Institute on Religion and Public Policy

Dr. Charles Jacobs
President
American Anti-Slavery Group

The Rt. Reverend Stephen H. Jecko
Bishop
Episcopal Diocese of Florida

David Jessup
President
Social Democrats, USA

Dean Jones
Actor and President of the Christian Rescue Committee

The Reverend Dr. D. James Kennedy
Senior Pastor
Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church

Clifton Kirkpatrick
Stated Clerk of the General Assembly
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Diane L. Knippers
President
Institute on Religion and Democracy

Richard Land
President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Southern Baptist Convention

Barbara Ledeen
Executive Director for Policy
Independent Women’s Forum

William Ochan Levi
Founder and President
Operation Nehemiah Missions International

Duane Litfin
President, Wheaton College
Wheaton, Illionois

Dr. Kevin Mannoia
President
National Association of Evangelicals

Dr. Paul Marshall
Senior Fellow
Center for Religious Freedom

The Rt. Reverend Paul V. Marshall
Bishop
Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem

Margaret T. McLaughlin M.F.I.C.
Peace and Justice Office
Missionary Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception

The Very Reverend Dr. Peter C. Moore
Dean and President
Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry
Ambridge, Pennsylvania

Bishop Robert C. Morgan
President of the Council of Bishops
The United Methodist Church

Jimmy Mulla
President
Southern Sudanese Voice for Freedom

The Reverend Richard John Neuhaus
President
Institute on Religion and Public Life

Peggy Noonan
Author

Michael Novak
George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion and Public Policy
American Enterprise Institute

Thomas C. Oden
Professor of Theology and Ethics
Drew University

The Reverend Bill Oudemolen
Senior Pastor, Foothills Bible Church
Littleton, Colorado

Father Boniface Ramsey
Pastor, St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church
New York, New York

Eric Reeves
Professor of English
Smith College

The Very Reverend Keith Roderick
Secretary General
Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights

Robert Royal
President, Faith & Reason Institute
Washington, DC

David Runnion-Bareford
Executive Director, Biblical Witness Fellowship in the United Church of Christ

Nina Shea
Director, Center for Religious Freedom, Freedom House
Commissioner, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

L. Faye Short
President, RENEW Network
Of the United Methodist Church

Burt Siegel
Executive Director, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Philadelphia

William E. Simon
Former Secretary of the Treasury

Justice Charles Smith
Commissioner, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

Steven Snyder
President, International Christian Concern

The Reverend Don Sweeting
Senior Pastor, Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church
Englewood, Colorado

George Weigel
Senior Fellow
Ethics and Public Policy Center

Harden White
Executive Director
The Salvation Army World Services Office

Dr. J. L. Williams
Founder and Executive Director
New Directions International

Parker T. Williamson
Executive Editor
The Presbyterian Layman

Roger P. Winter
Executive Director
U.S. Committee for Refugees

Michael K. Young
Dean, The George Washington University Law School
Vice Chair, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

Andrew Akuak
Executive Director, Southern Sudanese Community,Washington, DC

Beverley H. Allison
Executive Director, Committee to Assist the Episcopal Diocese of Honduras

Gary A. Anderson, Sr.
Philadelphia Baptist Church
Waynesboro, Tennessee

The Rev. Canon Patrick P. Augustine, Chair, Companion For World Mission,
Partner with Province of Sudan

The Reverend Caroline Bail
Pastor, Canaan Congregational Church
Canaan, New York

Nancy J. Banfield
Major
The Salvation Army Eastern Territorial Headquarters

Allison Beltz
Founder, Persecuted Church Task Force
Cherry Hills Community Church,
Highlands Ranch, Colorado

John L. Boone
Chairman
Presbyterian Action for Faith & Freedom

Jane Campbell
Editor
Chosen Books

The Reverend Steve Capper
Rector, Church of the Redeemer
Houston, Texas

M. Kent Choate
Family Ministries Specialist
Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma

The Reverend Richard Cizik
Vice President, Governmental Affairs
National Association of Evangelicals

Janice Shaw Crouse
Senior Fellow
The Beverly LaHaye Institute

The Reverend Monsignor William J. Awalt
Pastor, St. Ann’s Catholic Church
Washington, DC

William Devlin
President
Urban Family Council

Barrett J. Duke, Jr.
Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
Southern Baptist Convention

Lieutenant Kimberly L. Edmonds
Commanding Officer, The Salvation Army
Reidsville, North Carolina

O. W. Efurd
Executive Director, Hawaii
Pacific Baptist Convention

John Eibner
Director of CSI Advocacy Campaign
Christian Solidarity International

The Reverend Hentzi Elek
Associate Rector, St. Francis Episcopal Church
Great Falls, Virginia

Scott Field
Associate Director
SOMA USA (Sharing of Ministries Abroad)

The Reverend Dr. Michael L. Ford
President, Jonsquill Ministries
Covington Theological Seminary

Timothy D. Foster
Ethics & Religious Liberty Committee

Northwest Baptist Convention The Reverend Dr. Ira Gallaway
Associate Director, Confessing Movement of the United Methodist Church

W. Langley Granbery, Jr.
World Relief Corporation
Nashville, Tennessee

The Reverend John A. M. Guernsey
Rector, All Saints’ Episcopal Church
Woodbridge, Virginia

The Rev. Mark H. Hansen, Rector, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bristol, Connecticut,
Visiting Lecturer, International Studies, Trinity College, Hartford

K. Dwayne Hastings
Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
Southern Baptist Convention

William Flynn
President
American Association, Order of Malta

The Reverend Patrick Hensy, C.S.P.
Director, University Catholic Center
Austin, Texas

The Rt. Reverend Daniel W. Herzog
Bishop
Episcopal Diocese of Albany

Norman Hill
President
A. Philip Randolph Institute

Elizabeth K. Holmes
Miss. Baptist Christian Action Commission
Southern Baptist Convention

The Reverend Richard Hudson
Associate Pastor, Saint Catherine of Siena Catholic Church
Austin, Texas

The Reverend Sharon Inake
Nuuanu Congregational Church
Honolulu, Hawaii

Dr. L. Dan Ireland
Alabama Citizens Action Program
Southern Baptist Convention

The Reverend Dr. Jeffrey J. Jeremiah
Senior Pastor, First Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Renton, Washington

The Reverend Dr. Richard J. Jones
Professor of Mission & World Religions
Virginia Theological Seminary

Nagi Kheir
Washington, DC Representative
The American Coptic Association

The Reverend Richard Kim
Rector Emeritus, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Detroit, Michigan

David W. King
Chairperson, New Mexico
Christian Life Committee
Southern Baptist Convention

Jacqueline E. Kraus
Commission on Global Ministry
Episcopal Diocese of Chicago

Rob Lanning
USA Representative
Christian Solidarity International

The Reverend Grant LeMarquand
Assistant Dean
Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry

Bette Bao Lord
Chairman of the Board
Freedom House

Joseph L. Mack
Director of Christian Concerns
South Carolina Baptist Convention

The Reverend James K. McCaslin, Jr.
Rector, All Souls Episcopal Church
Jacksonville, Florida

The Reverend C. J. McCloskey, III
Director, Catholic Information Center
Washington, DC

Charles McClung
Director, Missions Ministries Department
California Southern Baptist Convention

Faith J. H. McDonnell
International Religious Liberty Associate
Institute on Religion and Democracy

Claudia McGeary
Church Liaison on Sudan
New York, New York

The Reverend Dr. Gavin J. McGrath
Associate Professor of Theology
Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry

Lucy Flemming McGrath D.M.L.H.S.L.
Chairperson, Pro-Life Committee
Order of Malta, American Association

Maureen McLaughlin
Notre Dame Education Center
South Boston, Massachusetts

The Reverend Dave McPherson
Pastor, West Bowles Community Church
Littleton, Colorado

Mel Middleton
Director
Freedom Quest International

Joe Bob Mizzell
Director of Christian Ethics
Alabama Baptist Convention

Fe R. Nebres
Associate Conference Minister, Hawaii Conference, United Church of Christ

Steven S. Nelson
Director of Hunger Concerns
Southern Baptist Convention

The Reverend Dr. Stephen F. Noll
Academic Dean
Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry

Kent R. Olney
Associate Professor of Sociology
Olivet Nazarene University

Glen Owens
Assistant Executive Director
Florida Baptist Convention

William Page
President
Federal Association, Order of Malta

The Reverend Michael Kiju Paul
Diocese of Kajo Keji
Episcopal Church of Sudan

Herb Pearce
Director of Missions
Church of the Apostles, Episcopal
Fairfax, Virginia

Bradford Phillips
Director
Persecution Project

Jere L. Phillips, Executive Director/Minister
West Virginia Convention of Southern Baptists

The Rev. Canon Thomas M. Prichard
Executive Director
South American Missionary Society
Ambridge, Pennsylvania

The Reverend Dr. Daniel D. Robinson
Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church
Highlands, North Carolina

The Reverend Dr. John H. Rodgers, Jr.
Dean Emeritus
Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry

William L. Saunders
Human Rights Counsel
Family Research Council

Joyce Shepard
Director of Sudanese Ministries
St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, Nashville, Tennessee

The Reverend Chuck Singleton
Senior Pastor, Loveland Church
Rancho Cucamaonga, California

Michael Slotznick
Vice President, American Jewish Committee Philadelphia Chapter

The Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Timothy R. Smith
Rector, Christ Episcopal Church
Mobile, Alabama

The Reverend Jon S. Stasney
Rector, St. Nicholas’ Episcopal Church
Midland, Texas

Helen Rhea Stumbo
Past Chairman of the Board, Institute on Religion and Democracy
Ft. Valley, Georgia

David E. Sumner
Associate Professor of Journalism
Ball State University

The Very Rev. Stuart W. Swetland, S.T.D.

Catholic Chaplain, University of Illinois,

Vicar for Social Justice, Diocese of Peoria

Edwina Thomas

National Director

SOMA USA (Sharing Of Ministries Abroad)

The Rev. Henry Lawrence Thompson III

Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology Director of Field Education

Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry

Auburn Faber Traycik

Executive Director, Foundation for Christian Theology

Publisher, The Christian Challenge

The Reverend Mark D. Wallace

Vicar, Holy Trinity Church

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

The Reverend Todd H. Wetzel

Executive Director

Episcopalians United

The Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Rodney A. Whitacre and Seth C. Whitacre

Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry

Michael J. Woodruff, Esq.

Managing Director

Gammon & Grange, P.C.

Debra Andrew, Director of Christian Social Ministries, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Alexandria, Virginia

Jack Slater Armstrong
Producer, Music from Sudan
Mobile, Alabama

Jacqueline A. Bernacchi
Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry
Ambridge, Pennsylvania

Frances Boyle
Teacher and Pastoral Counselor
SOMA USA (Sharing of Ministries Abroad)

William R. Brown, Sr.
Brown Development C.L.C.
Stockbridge, Georgia

David M. Condron
Writer
Friends of Sudan, Virginia Chapter

Jane Crowley
Presbyterian Liaison to the Sudan Commission of Virginia

Sheryl Findley
South American Missionary Society
Ambridge, Pennsylvani

Mrs. Jessie Gilyard
Friends of Sudan Coalition
New York

Mary D. Gustafson
Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry
Ambridge, Pennsylvania

Mary Hannigan
Friends of Sudan Coalition
p>New York

Cook Kimball
Friends of Sudan Coalition
New York

Ron Kramm
South American Missionary Society
Ambridge, Pennsylvania

Moira E. MacLean
Director of Extension Studies
Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry

J. V. Millard
Coordinator, Persecuted Church Project
Diocese of Lexington

Virginia Murphy
Friends of Sudan Coalition
Boston, Massachusetts

John S. Nicholas
South American Missionary Society
Ambridge, Pennsylvania

Donald D. O’Connell
Friends of Sudan Coalition
Diocese of Virginia

Cinde Rawn
South American Missionary Society
Ambridge, Pennsylvania

Trumbull Rogers
Friends of Sudan Coalition
New York

Don S. Russer
Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry
Ambridge, Pennsylvania

Renee Smith
Friends of Sudan Coalition
Arizona

Carol Updike
Administrative Director
SOMA USA (Sharing of Ministries Abroad)

Stewart W. Wicker
South American Missionary Society
Ambridge, Pennsylvania

Denise Yaworsky
South American Missionary Society
Ambridge, Pennsylvania