[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 62 (Thursday, May 6, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4943-S4944]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 SUDAN

  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues in 
calling attention to the horrifying crisis in Darfur, a part of western 
Sudan where over a million people have been displaced by a brutal 
campaign of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by government-backed militia 
forces and official Sudanese forces.
  Human Rights Watch has documented massacres, widespread rape, massive 
forced displacement, and indiscriminate aerial bombardment of civilians 
in Darfur. Amnesty International indicates that the ceasefire agreement 
signed on April 8 has not stopped the attacks against civilians on the 
ground, stating that ``attacks on villages continue; indiscriminate and 
deliberate killings of civilians continue; looting continues and rapes 
continue.'' Doctors Without Borders, which is actually on the ground 
delivering services in parts of Darfur, warns of desperate malnutrition 
and tells us that the absence of food aid on the ground is especially 
alarming because measles have broken out among the displaced, and 
measles can seriously aggravate malnutrition.
  Because so many homes and farms and mosques and entire villages have 
been burned and totally destroyed, and because normal life has been so 
thoroughly disrupted, because fear still dominates the lives of so many 
civilians, and because the rainy season is beginning--making much of 
Darfur completely inaccessible by road--literally hundreds of thousands 
could die of starvation. The humanitarian task before the world would 
be mammoth even if a major political breakthrough backed by what we 
have not seen to date--actual effective action taken by the government 
of Sudan to put a stop to the attacks on civilians. Without such 
action, the crisis deepens each day.
  And even as the government of Sudan has failed to take effective 
action to stop the attacks and protect the Sudanese people, they also 
have denied humanitarian organizations and international investigators 
access to Darfur, deliberately undermining the world's efforts to help 
those who are suffering and starving. The government's aim appears to 
be to drive ethnic Africans out of Darfur, and to shield this abhorrent 
agenda from the eyes of the international community.
  It is a disgrace that this same government was just elected to a 
third term on the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Africans have 
as great a stake in the commission's work and aims as any people 
anywhere in the world. They deserve far better representation.
  Mr. President, crimes against humanity have been and continue to be 
perpetrated in Darfur, and the criminals responsible for these 
atrocities--the planners directing this horror at the highest levels--
should be brought to justice.

[[Page S4944]]

  I am proud to have joined with my colleague, Senator Brownback, who 
is deeply committed to Sudan, in introducing S. Con Res. 99. And I am 
so pleased to have been able to work as part of a bipartisan group, 
including Senators Frist, Daschle, Biden, Lugar, Alexander, Kennedy and 
DeWine on Sudan issue over the years. I mention as well that Senator 
Durbin has been enormously helpful at this time, issue, and discussion 
possible. I hope that today, by calling for urgent action to implement 
a humanitarian response plan that does not bow to the constraints 
imposed by the wishes of the Sudanese Government, we can encourage 
those working to respond to the needs on the ground. And by calling for 
a Security Council resolution addressing the situation in Darfur, this 
resolution will make it crystal clear to the Sudanese government that 
the current situation is simply unacceptable.
  Mr. President, I applaud the efforts of the State Department and the 
White House to bring an end to Sudan's long and tragic north-south 
conflict. But the hopes that we all harbor of achieving a just and 
lasting end to that crisis simply cannot be meaningfully realized in 
the context of the kind of brutality we see in Darfur.
  At the same time, any hopes that the government of Sudan harbors of 
an easing of economic pressure or isolation stand no chance--no chance 
at all, Mr. President--of being realized until the situation in Darfur 
changes, the attacks are stopped, and the international community--from 
humanitarian aid agencies to cease-fire monitors to U.N. 
investigators--has full, unfettered access to the region. We need to 
see real change--not rhetorical change, not change on paper, not change 
on some days not more of the same on others. And we need to see it 
right away.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ensign). The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I commend Senator Feingold and Senator 
Brownback and our colleagues for raising this issue not just on the 
floor of the Senate but also across our Nation, because it is an issue 
of enormous importance and consequence, as it should be for all 
Americans and for people all over the world.
  It has been 10 years since the Rwanda genocide. A decade ago, 8,000 
Rwandans were being killed every day. Yet the international community 
was silent. We did not stop the deaths of 800,000 Tutsis and 
politically moderate Hutu, in spite of our commitment that genocide 
must never again darken the annals of human history.
  Sadly, we may now be repeating the same mistake in Sudan.
  Over the past few weeks, reports of severe ethnic violence have come 
from Darfur, a region of western Sudan. We have heard accounts of 
thousands or even tens of thousands of people murdered, of widespread 
rape, and of people's homes burned to the ground.
  The Sudanese government has refused to allow full access to western 
Sudan. International monitors and humanitarian workers have been 
prevented from reaching the area. We need immediate access to gather 
more information on what is happening and to provide urgent 
humanitarian relief to the one million people the United Nations 
reports have been displaced internally in Sudan or across the border to 
Chad.
  Many of us hoped that the humanitarian ceasefire and agreement 
earlier this month between the Sudanese government and rebel forces in 
western Sudan would end the many months of violence against entire 
communities. It has not.
  The burning of homes and crops of desperately poor villagers has left 
in its ashes a humanitarian disaster. Without immediate relief, experts 
predict deaths in the hundreds of thousands. The cruelty of the 
Government of Sudan and its paramilitary allies against other ethnic 
groups raises the very real specter of genocide.
  The United States and the international community need to act now, to 
stop this brutality, to save lives. If we fail to act--and to act now--
the consequences will be dire.
  United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan was eloquent in his 
statement at the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Rwanda 
genocide. He said that he would not permit Darfur to become the first 
genocide of the 21st century.
  There will be discussion in Washington and around the world about 
whether the ethnic violence in Darfur is, in fact, genocide, but we 
cannot allow the debate over definitions obstruct our ability to act as 
soon as possible.
  It is a matter of the highest moral responsibility for each of us 
individually, for Congress, for the United States, and for the global 
community to do all we can to stop the violence against innocents in 
Darfur. We must act, because thousands of people's lives will be lost 
if we do not.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I applaud both the Senator from Wisconsin 
and the Senator from Massachusetts for what they have said. Obviously, 
I agree completely.

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