Chris Smith: “I thank the distinguished chairman for yielding and for his leadership. I especially thank my good friend and colleague…”

“I thank the distinguished chairman for yielding and for his leadership. I especially thank my good friend and colleague, Ms. Bass, for this resolution. Mr. Speaker, last August, my staff director Greg Simpkins and I visited Juba, South Sudan, to press President Salva Kiir, his Vice President, the minister of defense, and five of his top generals to end the civil war, protect innocent lives, and reverse the conditions causing rampant disease and severe malnutrition that could soon lead to a famine. Mr. Speaker, just 2 months ago, famine was formally declared in South Sudan. I especially asked President Kiir to personally intervene and issue and enforce an executive order of zero tolerance on rape and sexual abuse by his soldiers and security personnel against mostly humanitarian aid workers and civilians. I told the President that it was unconscionable in the extreme that South Sudanese soldiers had raped, beaten, and murdered humanitarian aid workers in July at the Terrain compound. One of those workers that was sexually assaulted, as it turned out, was from my own district. I didn't know until 3 days before leaving on that trip that she was in the compound and came close to being raped and it was the intervention of other forces that precluded her from suffering that horrible trauma, but she was, indeed, severely traumatized.…”