A resolution urging the Government of National Unity of Sudan and the Government of Southern Sudan to implement fully the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that was signed on January 9, 2005.

I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to consideration of S. Res. 388, submitted earlier today.

Mr. President, I applaud my Senate colleagues for supporting this resolution urging all parties in Sudan to implement fully the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended Sudan's decades-long civil war.

For more than 50 years, Sudan has been plagued by war and violence. In fact, since gaining independence in 1956, the people of Sudan have known only 10 years of peace. But, last January, following painstaking negotiations and numerous unsuccessful attempts at peace, the Government of Sudan in the north and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in the south signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, bringing an end to Sudan's second civil war that lasted more than 20 years.

This second civil war led to the deaths of more than 2 million people, and an additional 4 million were internally displaced or became refugees. I have visited Sudan on a number of occasions, and I have met with the victims and survivors of this tragedy. The CPA offers the Sudanese people a chance at a peaceful and secure life. It is time for the agreement to be fully implemented.

In the past year, the government of Sudan and the SPLM have taken concrete steps to implement certain parts of the CPA. For example, the two sides have ratified a new national constitution and have formed a government of National Unity in Khartoum and a Government of Southern Sudan based in Juba in the south.

However, the overall pace of implementation has been slow and insufficient, and both parties have failed to meet certain benchmarks or adopt the recommendations of the commissions established to monitor the CPA's implementation. These include the formation of Joint Integrated Units, which aim to integrate forces from both the north and the south, a more equitable distribution of resources between the north and the south, and a full and transparent accounting of Sudan's oil revenues.

The implementation of the CPA is particularly urgent for the people of Southern Sudan. In this region alone, the World Food Program estimates that more than 2.9 million people were severely and adversely affected by the civil war.

Last month, I met with Mrs. Rebecca Garang. She currently serves as the Minister for Roads and Transport for the Government of Southern Sudan. She is also the wife of the late John Garang, the long-time leader of the SPLM who successfully negotiated the CPA but died tragically in a helicopter crash last summer.

During our talks, Mrs. Garang stressed the humanitarian and reconstruction needs of the Southern Sudanese people. They are in desperate need of assistance to build and improve vital infrastructure components such as an education system, a health care system, and a transportation system that are virtually non-existent in Southern Sudan.

At the end of the current six-year interim period, the CPA provides for the people of Southern Sudan to decide their own political future in a referendum. But in order to achieve John Garang's vision of a new, united Sudan, the people of Southern Sudan must see the tangible benefits of peace.

Implementing the CPA can also have a positive impact on ending the genocide in Sudan's western region of Darfur. Unfortunately, since the signing of the agreement, little progress has been made in ending this genocide. Hundreds of thousands have already died as a result of violence, disease, and malnutrition. And, millions more have been internally displaced or continue to languish in refugee camps in neighboring Chad.

However, the CPA can serve as a basis for a peacefully negotiated end to the genocide in Darfur. For this reason, it is even more vital for the full and complete implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

Until that time, the United States should continue to apply pressure on the Government of National Unity in Khartoum to fully implement the CPA. This includes maintaining the sanctions that are currently in place.

In addition, we need to continue to expand our humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to the people of Southern Sudan. Delivering to them the real benefits of peace will strengthen their support of the CPA and for a united Sudan.

During my travels to Sudan, I have heard first-hand accounts of the violence, suffering, and insecurity endured by so many in Sudan. Much of the Sudanese population has never known or experienced any sustained period of peace, stability, or security. This needs to change.

Those in leadership in Sudan need to proceed with full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. And, I urge the United States and the international community to take concrete, assertive steps to demonstrate their continued solidarity with the Sudanese people to help them achieve their goal of a peaceful and stable Sudan.

I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Foreign Relations Committee be discharged from further consideration of and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 383.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. President, both of these resolutions have to do with the Sudan, a country where for the last really 23 years there has been real turmoil in terms of a civil war underway that is addressed in part under S. Res. 388, the Sudan Peace Agreement, and then, more recently, over the last 3 years, in a western part of Sudan, the Darfur region, where we have seen genocide underway, as we have spelled out on the floor over the last year and talked about.

Both of these resolutions address a human tragedy that has played out over the last several years. The first, the Sudan Peace Agreement, is a reaffirmation of a peace agreement which has been made that we need to support. And it is probably the only way we can reverse what has been a tragedy that has killed about 2 million people and caused 5 million people to be displaced from their homes throughout Sudan over the last 23, 24 years.

The Darfur crisis is one that we have described on this floor many times. And as we have followed it, since February a year and a half ago, things have gotten better and worse and better and worse. Right now they are not going very well. So I appreciate Senators Biden and Lugar putting forth that resolution.