‘Do You Have What You Need…?’: Tim Kaine Asks Special Envoy For Sudan About Staffing & Resources

4 months ago

During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) questioned the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello about personnel and resources.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, Senator Young. Senator Kaine. Rep. Perriello, it's really good to see you.

00:05Very good to see you. Along with others on this committee, I began advocating for

00:11the creation of this special envoy position quite a while ago because the

00:17magnitude of this challenge, including the fact that the world isn't paying

00:21sufficient attention to it, demonstrated that we really needed to up our game and

00:26devote more resources to being a part of the solution. I was so happy

00:32when finally the administration decided to create this position, and the fact

00:37that you, a longtime friend with deep background in the region and an

00:43expertise to be able to do this work with distinction, were nominated for it

00:48and put into the role is something I'm very gratified by, and I know I speak for

00:52many of my colleagues, and certainly Senator Warner, who also advocated for

00:56the creation of this position. I've got a couple of questions for you. The

01:00questions my colleagues have asked I think have done a good job of framing

01:04out the challenge. I want to make sure you have the resources to do the job

01:07that you need to do, but before I get there, just an observation. As you know,

01:11Virginia has a pretty significant diaspora community from Sudan, and we

01:16have a diaspora community from a number of African nations because one out of

01:20eight of us now is born in another country. One of the things I've noticed

01:25in the past in interacting with diaspora communities, and I'll use Ethiopia as an

01:30example, our diaspora here have different points of view. Some are sympathetic to

01:36the central government, some are more sympathetic to the Tigray region's

01:39leaders, so it's not uncommon within a diaspora community to find divided

01:43opinions. Within the Sudanese diaspora in Virginia, I've not found divided opinions.

01:49I found among the Sudanese, as you point out, there was a belief that they had

01:54negotiated a path forward and that they believe both the ASF and the RSF are

01:58hijacking that path, and it's interesting to walk into a meeting of a diaspora

02:03community and not have an internal tension about who they support. They

02:08would very much support a process as you describe, and it's a very difficult thing,

02:14but it's nice to know that at least here at the home front, the diaspora

02:19community here with deep ties in Sudan are really on board with the vision that

02:24you and the administration have outlined. It's said here in DC that personnel make

02:29policy, and we pressed hard for this envoy position. Glad to learn, as I

02:35said, that you were Secretary Blinken's candidate, and I think you're the right

02:38one. Do you have what you need, both in terms of personnel and resources, to

02:44fulfill this very challenging mandate, and could you describe the makeup of the

02:48team that you're working with? Thanks, Senator, and I do feel like I have had

02:52tremendous support from the State Department and the interagency all the

02:56way up to the Secretary, and I want to come back to that, but on your diaspora

03:01point, I think it's really important to underline what you've

03:04said, because I think we see the same thing with Sudanese civilians across

03:10the region, many of whom are spread across Nairobi, Kampala, Chad, etc.

03:16This won't surprise any of you, but if you just look at Twitter and

03:21Facebook, you would think that people are very divided on certain political

03:26questions, but in fact, when you actually talk to people, and the polls show this

03:30as well, there is incredible consensus among the Sudanese people about wanting

03:35an end to the war and wanting a restoration of the arc that they had

03:39finally had that was hopeful, and I think even on some of the additional questions

03:45about things like not wanting to see the backdoor to power from former corrupt

03:50officials or Islamic extremists. Again, they're very interesting and important

03:55questions that will take years for the Sudanese to decide and to debate, much

04:00like we have many in our own country, and that's the right thing to happen in a

04:05democracy that they hope to have. So there are questions that are quite

04:10vibrant discussions, but there's not disagreement on this core question about

04:15ending the war, returning to a civilian transition, and having an integrated

04:20professional military under SAF, bringing in not just the RSF, but the various JPA

04:26signatories into that process. They want to be proud of their military, like we

04:30are. They want the reforms and things that will get there. Some of those things

04:34will take years to happen, just like it took years to set up the joint

04:39command here. But again, I think we've seen that in the diaspora, and I want to

04:43give a particular acknowledgment, which again won't surprise you from your work,

04:48that this consensus has been particularly strong, particularly

04:51powerful among Sudanese women. We've seen this through various alliances around

04:57the region and inside. It's been such an important part of the resistance

05:00committees that helped bring Bashir down, that have helped to shield

05:05communities from harm during these atrocious circumstances. I've seen it in

05:10my organizing meetings around the region. Not only the group that is most likely

05:15to show up on time with an agenda and action steps ready is definitely going

05:20to be the alliances. We had a wonderful event here with Vital Voices that

05:24Linda Thomas-Greenfield joined, that had a number of very powerful Sudanese women

05:29speaking out on this experience. And of course, this is in no small part

05:34because women and girls have borne the brunt of many of the atrocities,

05:39certainly the horrific and systematic use of rape as a weapon of war, but also

05:44the issues of famine and starvation and displacement. So we do believe the

05:49diaspora in this case has a very important and constructive role to play.

05:52It also goes back to Senator Young's point and others about needing that to

05:56be a community that wants to return to Sudan, whether full-time or being

06:01investing there, whether that's investing their human capital or their

06:04other capital. And I think people do stand ready to build that future Sudan

06:09in this case. So I just really I'm proud of how many we have in Virginia of

06:13people from Sudan, but also it is something where we've got a broader

06:18voice here that needs to be amplified and that we can try to center in these

06:23conversations. And I think that's an important message I've had to both our

06:27Saudi hosts and others about the talks, which is the baseline for the

06:31negotiations need to be what the Sudanese people have already stated as

06:34the framework. I want the chairman to be able to ask questions. Can you just give

06:38me a very quick answer on do you have the resources you need to fulfill your

06:42mandate? We do. I mean we have posts have been incredible. As you know, I'm

06:45traveling almost every day and that's a lot of work for an underfunded

06:49department. People have been wonderful. I think that there's some mid to over the

06:53horizon questions we can talk about, whether it's Special Envoy's office or

06:56Sudan more generally, of what we should be ready for in a case of further

06:59deterioration or a breakthrough. But I've been very appreciative of the

07:04welcome at State and the Secretary's willingness to engage directly on this

07:09issue at the highest levels with some of the key actors. Great, thank you. Thank

07:12you, Mr. Chair.

‘Do You Have What You Need…?’: Tim Kaine Asks Special Envoy For Sudan About Staffing & Resources

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