Congressman Johnson Presents Evidence of War Crimes by Sudanese Armed Forces in S. Kordofan

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Hank Johnson, who represents Georgia’s Fourth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, today presented on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives evidence of war crimes committed by the Sudanese Armed Forces in Sudan’s South Kordofan state.

Johnson’s remarks were delivered following reporting by Al Jazeera English that evidenced atrocities committed by Sudanese Armed Forces against the Nuba population in South Kordofan. Alleged war crimes include air strikes targeting Nuba civilians and widespread extrajudicial executions of suspected dissidents in South Kordofan. The congressman also presented satellite imagery, analyzed by Harvard University’s Humanitarian Intitative, that may indicate the presence of mass graves outside of Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan.

Video of Congressman Johnson’s speech is available in embeddable format via YouTube (LINK).

The full text of his remarks are below.

“Mr. Speaker: today, thanks to the courageous reporting of two journalists for Al Jazeera’s English network – Callum Macrae and John D. McHugh, who risked death to find the truth -- we have shocking evidence of war crimes committed by the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, against Nuba civilians in Sudan’s South Kordofan province.

Here, in this photo, a five year old victim of an air strike.

Here, a bomb crater in the middle of this Nuba village. 50 feet wide, 15 feet deep.

Here, satellite imagery analyzed by Harvard University’s Humanitarian Initiative reveals evidence of mass graves outside South Kordofan’s capital of Kadugli.

At this moment, Mr. Speaker, as U.N. personnel hide behind their barracks walls, the SAF are hunting men, women and children on foot, in fighter jets, and with bombs rolled out of the back doors of cargo aircraft onto Nuba villages.

Mr. Speaker, where does the United Nations stand as the Nuba are wiped out? Where do we stand?”

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