Feb 12, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 11, 2000

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom announced today additional witnesses who will appear at its Tuesday, Feb. 15, hearing on religious persecution and the civil war in Sudan. The hearing will take place in SR-253, in the Senate Russell Office Building.

Besides such witnesses as Baroness Caroline Cox, Deputy Speaker of the British House of Lords; Francis Deng, former Sudanese ambassador to the United States; and Bishop Macram Max Gassis, exiled Roman Catholic bishop of El-Obeid, Sudan, the following will testify:

  • Roger Robinson of the William J. Casey Institute, a former member of the National Security Council staff under President Reagan and expert on how access to U.S. stock markets by foreign companies with investments in Sudan can be regulated;

  • Dan Eiffe of Norwegian People's Aid, which provides food relief in southern Sudan;

  • Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College and expert on foreign investment in Sudan's oil pipeline;

  • John Voll of Georgetown University, a recognized authority on Islamic politics and Sudan;

  • Roger Winter of the U.S. Committee for Refugees, a humanitarian-aid organization having front-line familiarity with how food aid affects the war;

  • Jemera Rone, Sudan expert for Human Rights Watch;

  • Steve Rickard, Director of the Washington, D.C., office of Amnesty International.

The hearing will last from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. with a break for lunch. The hearing is open to the press and public. Please note that the correct room number for the hearing is SR-253, Senate Russell Office Building (the Senate Commerce Committee hearing room).

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress." 

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

 

 

 

Rabbi David Saperstein,Chair

  • Dean Michael K. Young, Vice Chair, Hon. Elliott Abrams, Laila Al-Marayati, M.D.Hon. John R. Bolton, Firuz Kazemzadeh, Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick, Nina Shea, Justice Charles Z. Smith, Ambassador Robert Seiple, Ex-Officio, Steven T. McFarland, Executive Director