Hearing on Sudan's Unraveling Peace and the Challenge to U.S. Policy

Wednesday, Sept. 24, 10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2359

 

 

Ambassador Richard Williamson, Presidential Special Envoy for Sudan

 

Ambassador Richard Williamson, a practicing partner in the law office of Winston and Strawn, has served as Special Envoy to Sudan since January 2008.  Ambassador Williamson served previously as Ambassador to the United Nations for Special Political Affairs and as Ambassador to the UN Commission on Human Rights.

 

He also served in senior foreign policy positions under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, including as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations at the Department of State, and an Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs in the White House. 

 

Ambassador Williamson serves on the boards of the International Republican Institute and the Committee in Support of Russian Civil Society, is a member of the advisory committee for the International Human Rights Center at DePaul University, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  He received an A.B., cum laude, in 1971 from Princeton University and a J.D. in 1974 from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was executive editor of the Virginia Journal of International Law.  Ambassador Williamson has authored seven books and edited three and  has written more than 175 articles in professional and popular periodicals.

 

Earl W. Gast, Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for Africa, USAID

 

 Earl Gast has served as USAID's Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for Africa since April 2008.  He is responsible for overseeing operations in the bureau's offices of Sudan Programs, East African Affairs, Administrative Services, and Development Planning.

 

A 15-year USAID veteran, Mr. Gast served as USAID Regional Mission Director for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, and as the USAID representative to the UN agencies in Rome.  Mr. Gast was one of the first USAID employees stationed in Iraq, where, as the Mission's deputy director from April 2003 to March 2004, he helped launch operations and manage a $2.2-billion reconstruction program. He also helped develop the post-crisis strategy for Kosovo, where he served from June 2002 to April 2003 as deputy director.

 

Mr. Gast has received numerous awards and commendations for his dedicated service to USAID. Most prominently, he received the Agency's Award for Heroism in 2004, and in 2003 the Distinguished Unit Award for his work in Iraq and the C. Herbert Rees Award in 1999.  Mr. Gast received a master's degree in political science and Middle East studies in 1987 from George Washington University. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maryland in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in history and criminal law.

 

Susan D. Page, Regional Director for Southern and Eastern Africa, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs

 

Ms. Page is has spent 15 of the past 20 years working and living throughout sub-Saharan Africa, serving as a political and legal advisor to the U.S. State Department, USAID and the United Nations.  She served as the legal advisor to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Secretariat for Peace in Sudan.  During this period, she was an integral member of the IGAD-led mediation process and was instrumental in providing legal and policy advice to the Secretariat and the Parties that led to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) for the Sudan signed in Kenya on January 9, 2005. 

 

Thereafter, Ms. Page served as the Director of the Rule of Law and Prison Advisory Unit at the UN Mission to Sudan (UNMIS), where she provided legal and constitutional advice on the implementation of the CPA.  She also furnished technical advice and analysis to the Darfur parties in Abuja and collaborated with the African-Union led mediation team, also in Abuja. 

 

Before focusing on Sudan, Ms. Page worked for several years in Rwanda as a political officer with the U.S. Embassy and head of the Justice and Human Rights Unit of the United Nations Development Program in Rwanda.

 

Dr. Khataza Gondwe, Research and Advocacy Officer for Sub-Saharan Africa , Christian Solidarity Worldwide

 

Dr. Gondwe has been the Research and Advocacy Officer for Sub-Saharan Africa at the UK-based human rights and religious liberty NGO Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) since 2001, with a special focus on Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan, and Somalia. She has travelled to southern Sudan and has written several extensive briefings on events in the country.

 

Prior to joining CSW, Dr. Gondwe taught a Masters course in International Relations and International Institutions at the University of Limerick, Ireland, before working briefly as a parliamentary assistant to former Liberal member of the UK parliament Sir David Steel. 

 

Dr. Gondwe has a BSc. (Hons.) in French Linguistics and International Relations from the University of Surrey in Guildford (UK), an MA in International Studies from the University of Salford in Manchester (UK), and a Doctorate in human rights from the University of Limerick. 

 

Kenneth H. Bacon, President, Refugees International

 

Kenneth Bacon has served as president of Refugees International since 2001.  Previous posts include his service as Assistant Secretary, Public Affairs, at the U.S. Department of Defense, and Pentagon spokesman. From 1969 to 1994, he was a reporter, editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, based in Washington, DC.

 

Mr. Bacon is the co-chairman of the Partnership for Effective Peacekeeping, and he serves on the boards of The American University in Cairo, Population Action International and InterAction.  He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. 

 

 He has published articles and op-ed pieces on humanitarian issues a number of publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The International Herald Tribune, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and World Policy Journal. 

 

John Prendergast, Co-Chair, ENOUGH Project

 

John Prendergast is Co-Chair of the ENOUGH Project, an initiative to end genocide and crimes against humanity. During the Clinton Administration, Mr. Prendergast was involved in a number of peace processes in Africa as Director of African Affairs at the National Security Council and Special Advisor at the Department of State.  He also has worked for members of Congress, the United Nations, human rights organizations, and think tanks.

 

He has authored eight books on Africa, including Not on Our Watch, a New York Times bestseller he co-authored with actor Don Cheadle.  He has helped produce two documentaries on Northern Uganda and been involved in three documentaries on Sudan.  He also has been part of three episodes of CBS' 60 Minutes which earned an Emmy Award for Best Continuing News Coverage and is helping to develop two additional episodes.

 

He travels regularly to Africa's war zones on fact-finding missions, peace-making initiatives, and awareness-raising trips and is a visiting professor at the University of San Diego and the American University in Cairo.

 

Theodros (Ted) Dagne, Specialist in African Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division, Congressional Research Service

 

A 20-year veteran at the Congressional Research Service, Ted Dagne served as a Special Advisor to Susan Rice, President Clinton's Special Envoy for Sudan and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.  From 1993 to 1995, Mr. Dagne served as a Professional Staff Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Africa.

He has written numerous major studies on Africa, including reports on the War on Terror, the status of democracy, conflict resolution, humanitarian disasters, and studies on over 30 countries; he has helped draft more than 100 resolutions and bills in Congress  Mr. Dagne is the Associate Editor of the Mediterranean Quarterly Journal and has also coauthored two books on Sudan and the War on Terror in Africa.

 

Over the past two decades, Mr. Dagne  has traveled on a fact finding mission to over 30 African countries on multiple occasions. In 2008, Ted traveled three times to a number of African countries, including Kenya, Eritrea, South Sudan, Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, and Rwanda.

 

Dr. Douglas Hamilton Johnson, International Expert to Abyei Boundaries Commission

           

Dr. Johnson has been dealing with the Abyei conflict since 2003, including as an advisor to the government of South Sudan.  He has worked for James Currey, Boydell & Brewer Ltd. since 1996, and has acted as a consultant to organizations such as Oxfam, ACORD, and the World Food Programme.  Dr. Johnson has written numerous articles, chapters, commissioned reports, and books, including The Root Causes of Sudan's Civil Wars.

 

He earned his Bachelor's of Arts degree in History with Departmental Honors in 1971 at Haverford College.  During his undergraduate career Dr. Johnson was an occasional student at Makerere University College in Uganda, reflecting his interest in Africa.  He earned his Master's degree in History in 1973 and his Ph.D. in 1980 at UCLA. 

 

Eliseo Neuman, Director, Africa Institute, American Jewish Committee

 

Eliseo Neuman is Director of American Jewish Committee's (AJC) Africa Institute, which raises awareness among AJC's core constituents and traditional coalition partners of the challenges facing Africa.   Together with advocacy partners, Mr. Neuman visited Juba on a fact-finding mission in February of 2008.

 

Prior to his work at AJC, Mr Neuman was Special Assistant to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and a practicing attorney with Davis Polk & Wardwell, in New York City.