Transcripts For CSPAN Homeland Security Inspector General Co

Transcripts For CSPAN Homeland Security Inspector General Confirmation Hearing 20140112

But they do not have the full delegation that it wants. So are you sensing that without that full delegation and yet having participants from both sides that can speak, are you sensing that these talks are going to yield any breakthroughs . Not at the moment. We got agreement, i understand, from ambassador booth from sesation of hostilities. But the other side is still insisting that the 11 detainees be released before they sign off on anything. And we are working here in washington to pressure the government to release the detainees. The two negotiators, the kenyan and ethiopian negotiators were there yesterday. They met with the detainees. Is there any chance thats going to occur . Were hopeful. We heard early right around christmas that the president was going to release eight of them. Secretary spoke to him several times on this. We hope he is getting the message from around the world. Hes getting phone calls from within the region as well as outside the region to impress upon him how important it is to release the detainees. We think it will bring added talks to the negotiations. It will bring political views much more moderate than what were hearing. Theyre not part of the fighting party. So what would be the president s resistance to release him to be a part of this . If he knows that, why would he resist . Thats a question i cant answer for him. Hes accused the prisoners as being part of the alleged coup plot, and that there are legal procedures that they have to go through before he can make the decision to release them. And so then on our side, just to understand how this is playing out, i know weve had ups and downs. Weve had vacancies the there. Who is actually in charge of u. S. Policy relative to this conflict and trying to resolve it . We are in washington in charge of the policy. Ambassador booth has the ability of implementing that policy in terms of negotiations, but our ambassador on the ground is major for the government. Shes there 24 7. He is currently full time leading our efforts to push for the negotiation. Ambassador page has continued to have meetings with the government. Continued to push the government to release the detainees. Shes had several meetings with the detainees. So you think the arrangement we have relative to how we have arranged for our leadership to be, you think its working the way it should . Its working well, sir. And weve invested obviously millions of dollars as a country. Invested a lot of time and a lot of people. South sudan and sudan in general has had a lot of interest from the u. S. Especially what is happening there. Certainly 30 months ago. Has the state department at all questioned our efforts there . Has there been any feeling like we could end up in a place there that is good . Whats the effect on state departments there . I think i can say that we are disappointed with the way things are going in sudan. But we are committed to ensuring that sudan does not fail. Were committed to staying with the process to get them to the peace negotiation table and committed to sudan having a future for their people. They are disappointed. Theyve been failed by their leaders. We still we have to stand with the sudanese people to take this to a conclusion that that will lead the country back on the right track. Chairman menendez was asking a little bit about the u. N. Forces. Many of us have been to darfur and seeing the mandate the u. N. Had there and been frustrated in the past by that. Does this have a right to mandate on the ground in south sudan right now . We think they do . But we have looked at the mandate. And given the Current Situation on the ground, we need to beef up their mandate, particularly on the Peace Keeping side. They are there as a protection force. And certainly in terms of their numbers and capacity, theyre not a place to handle the Current Situation. And its our hope to fill that up rather quickly. Mr. Chairman, first, thanks for conducting this hearing. What you do to promote u. S. Interest under extremely challenging circumstances. So i thank you very much. And strongly support the frame work that you have laid out. This needs to be critically evaluated to make sure there is adequate resources to implement, we hope, some form of cessation of violence. The humanitarian issues are incredibly difficult, the Ngo Community not able to operate as they did prior to this violence. Whether the resources and aid will get to the people who really need it. They can do the release that is desperately needed. And that presented challenges that we expect the United States to play a major role in trying to sort out. And youre correct. Three years ago as the election started as insouth sudan, the United States was cheering. A new nation. The last two and a half years we have not spent enough time dealing with the institutions of the governance that can deal with the challenges of a country. And i hope we will understand that its not just acknowledging a new country, but working to make sure they have the institutions necessary to protect all the citizens from the challenges of ethnic diversity. So i want to talk about one point that their man menendez mentioned. Your response is what i expected to hear. And you said the human rights abuses must be held accountable. Ive heard this before. Weve been through bosnia, syria, now south sudan. And it seems as we start negotiating and getting documentation. And i think one of the problems that we have, those who do the ethnic cleansing do not believe the International Community will ever hold them accountable for the crimes against humanity. Unless we make this a real priority, unless we talk about it and dont put it on the side. I know we have to take care of this. We have to get the parties talking. We dont want to bring up issues that might be divisive. Were never beginning to get attention to accountability to those who commit crimes against humanity that we need. So ive been here if too many of these ethnic cleansing problems around the world. And the response for those who perpetrated it has been weak at best. So what can you tell this committee about how the United States, which has always been the leader on these issues will make sure that those who committed atrocities will be held accountable by the International Community. Thank you for the question. My answer ooem not sure will satisfy you. Its not going to satisfy me. Its hard. But having worked in africa for many years, we have examples where we succeeded. We look at the fact that charles was held accountable and serving the rest of his life in prison. Thats the example that i want to follow for us in sudan. As we look at how but this is hard. I cant say this is something we can accomplish easily. But i can say its something that were committed to making every effort to accomplish. Well, let me just point out if the United States does not make this a priority issue, it will not be a priority issue. Its up to us. I do appreciate the testimony that we are documenting and providing the legal information that will be necessary to the appropriate tribunals the information. But it seems to me that your public statements had every opportunity that you can about we will not tolerate those who perpetrated these atrocities being not being held accountable. I hope when i look at the headlines and papers and see how the negotiations are taking plaig place, that i see this them consistently throughout. If not, as sure as were here today, there will be another country where well see the same tripe of atrocities committed against people because of their ethnicity. Unless we hold accountable and make sure there can be no peace without accountability, it will happen again. Thank you. And i want to thank the distinguished senator for being in this regard. Im wholeheartedly with you in this regard. The commission is incredibly important. And i look forward to working with you, the press, this issue. Not only in soout sudan, but elsewhere. Thank you for holding this hearing. I want to ask you in light of the tragedies that occurred over the last couple of years, first and foremost, what are we doing to ensure the security of our personnel . I know on the 21st of december the u. S. Military aircraft was dispatched to rescue americans fired upon. The servicemen and women i dont know that they were injured in that. So how confident are we that the personnel is secure . Do we know . Senator, thank you for that question. Let me say the security of the personnel for me for the administration is our highest priority. And we watched the security situation on the ground in juba almost on an hourly basis. We have a 24hour task force. Our staff at the embassy are down to minimal levels. Its the ambassador being supported by two staff, and the rest of them are security people. We have 74 marines and 45 forces from east Africa Response unit. To provide the support. And were looking at the security situation with the concern of the ambassador and the rest of the team. The attack on our planes. I know that we are looking into that. We do not know who shot at the planes. But thats something we are in the process of investigating. We think its important to keep the embassy open. We think its important to engage all of the parties and also having our flag flying, its also its a symbol for the people of sudan. And we dont want to abandon them. But at any moept where we determine the situation is not secure for an ambassador to remain we are prer paired to get them out of there before the extreme conditions. My second question ask whether we have the right people. There are media reports about groups who may or may not be responsible. How concerned are we about that . They have the support of the Community Based groups who allegedly may have participated in some ethical targeting. How big of a problem are these Armed Civilian groups out there conduct i conducting attacks and other operations . Thats a big problem. Our concern is they are not under control of the leaders there. Thats a problem that we have to be very conscious of. So its a real problem . It is a real problem. The last question is our national interest. Any time we deal with issues happening abroad, the fundamental question for many people is we understand its a horrible tragedy. But why should the United States care . This is not our business. I hear that from them. I believe the humanitarian issues are both your testimony and miss lundbergs testimony and i agree with all of those things. I think those in it of itself are of interest of the United States. But i want to talk about regional stability and get your input on this. The leaders are desperate to get this thing out because of the oil exports. But this somewhat put a strain on sudans economy because of the loss of the oil fields. And they created some controversial in regards to that. Talked to us a little bit about the threat this poses to sudan and the other nations in the region and the the loss of oil revenues in the field and the flow of refugees that are poring over the border into sudan, from south sudan. What is the possibility this is not resolved of the undermining and spreading to create a real problem in sudan, and then ultimately the entire region becoming unstable. And we all know where this leads to. So describe that threat of spiraling into that. The secrets can spiral into problems for all of the neighbors. Particularly the fact that we saw president bashir visit south sudan that hes clearly concerned about the impact of that situation on what is happening in sudan. Particularly on the flow of oil. We had heard that he had there had been discussions about sudan providing military support to south sudan. The press reports have indicated they do not plan to do that. Theyre going to provide experts to assist in the oil fields. We can do that in many ways. The government of uganda has indicated they have real concerns about the impact of south sudan on uganda. Kenya and uganda already has a very large refugee camp with sudanese refugees, both from the south and the the north. And we are seeing more refugees flow across the border. And they also have concerns. If these countries get involved, the conflict would spread. I want to wrap up by asking about the refugees. If the loss of the oil would create domestic pressures in sudan. But what risk are the refugees at going now in . If you could describe briefly the ramifications of having these camps and other installations crossing over. The risk of violence with other countries as well. Thats a real thing were concerned about as well. From the political standpoint, having outflows of populations into neighboring countries, the problems from the country into the neighboring countries. And thats a concern that all of the neighbors have. They know the impacts the refugees will have on their societies, on their economies. I would add its a region with significant displacement for several decades. You have africa dealing with its own serious spiralling crisis as well. 200,000 people have come from sudan from the two areas of blue nile into south sudan, just in the last two years. So these people are now pearled. Theres always greater danger once the families are displaced and once theyre moving into countries with fewer resources and some are already fragile because of pressures of dealing with so many displaced populations. Let me thank you as the Ranking Member, you have done some tremendous work over the last year. At this time theyre recognizing. I would like to thank the witnesses for sharing their insights today. 2011 i led a resolution welcoming the independence of south sudan, and urging that its leaders address some of of the long standing challenges in order to put them on a path towards longterm stability. And just three years down from the date of the referendum, as you mentioned. Secretary, deeply dispinted by the senseless violence, by the rapidly expanding political challenge in south sudan. A thorough engagement. Ambassador booth is showing and for our ability to step up to the plate quickly. And start, if you would for me, secretary, with just a quick summery as to why south sudan matters to the United States. Why this crisis matters to people of the United States. Thank you for that question. For 30 years the United States has been supporting the people of south sudan. For south sudan became an entity. Supporting the right to exist. The right to freedom of religion. And their fight against the government of sudan. We birthed this nation. And there are americans from all walks of life. Me email is up since this started on december 15th from americans concerned about what is happening in sudan. Ive not gotten a single email from someone saying dont spend your time working on this. And so we do hear as a nation about this country. We also have a significant population of sudanese americans who have thrived in our country. But who have an abiding interest in sudan. It goes without saying that we care. We have an interest. But we also have an interest in maintaining piece in the area and making sure theres no space that extreme it groups can take advantage of. I think if we leave it, it could become a problem. And then it becomes a bigger problem for us. I agree with you that we have both values priors. A new fragile democracy. We want to see it launched and healthy and successful. Does the United States stay the course . Do we remain engaged in a leadership role as we fight for democracy . And as the ongoing negotiations are moving the forward, there is a serious fire immediately. I hope there will be a broader focus. Including corruption chrks is one of the main challenges. What role might the United States be asked to play monitoring the cease fire. What Additional Resources might we bring to the table or be called upon to bring to the table to make sure theyre successful. And what Additional Resources, if i might ask, in both the administrative networks do we need to be deploying in order to be effective in our humanitarian relief efforts. Again, thank you for that question. Ill turn to my colleague. Weve been viewed by both sides as an honest broker. We been accused of supporting each of the other sides. And so i think we probably got it right. And were looking at how we can support the efforts to ensure that there is peace, and each side honors commitments to a cease fire. Were looking at what sources we may have available to support the effort. On the humanitarian side, as i mentioned earlier weve added 50 million in addition to what was already 318 million portfolio. If this conflict persists, if the needs continue to be this urgent, we will start running into tough choices given the rising cry cease that we have with syria, the typhoon that we just responded to. So thanks to the very important support of congress, we were able to do what we needed to do last year. As we look ahead, there will be again tough decisions and the need for the support of all of you in order for us to maintain bloebl humanitarian leadership. This is a great example of how it makes it possible for you to indeed effectively and rapidly respond. My next question has to do with the regional actor and global actor. What sort of messages are we sending to him about the role that we welcome or we hope that uganda might play in what you make of as motives and what are the challenges with uganda. And my last question is, what role does china play . The chinese have been quite active in the region and stability rather than picking sides. Uganda initially went into went into south sudan to support needed infrastructure. So they provided troops to secure the airport. And to secure the road to nimily to ensure that their citizens were able to come out safely. We do know and this has come up as an issue of the talks that the ugandans have indicated, and they said it publicly, that they support the government of south kiir. That they have an interest in the region, and they want to ensure that a democratically elected government is not overthrown by violence. It has caused an issue. It got announced very early on after the summit . That they would support stability in the region, and would be prepared to do so militarily. So this is something that were watching very closely. Their actions do not lead to greater conflict they have indicates to us that they strongly support the Peace Process. They support the negotiations. But in the meantime they

© 2025 Vimarsana