[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 70 (Tuesday, May 18, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E894-E895]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   GENOCIDE IN DARFUR, WESTERN SUDAN

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BARBARA LEE

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 18, 2004

  Ms. LEE Mr. Speaker, today I rise because as we speak genocide is 
occurring in Darfur. The international community, particularly the 
United States, has yet to learn from the Rwandan tragedy; ironically, 
we commemorate its 10th anniversary this year.
  Like Rwanda, the warning signs in Darfur were obvious but we did 
nothing--and now the international community is watching, once again, 
with indifference as millions of Black Africans are wiped out of 
western Sudan. The Bush administration has raised concerns, and the 
U.N. has denounced the ``ethnic cleansing'' executed by the Sudanese 
government's militias, but this is beyond ethnic cleansing, this is 
systematic and calculated genocide.
  Prevent Genocide International defines genocide as the ``intent to 
destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious 
group, and the five punishable forms of the crime of genocide include: 
genocide; conspiracy; incitement; attempt; and complicity. All of the 
five punishable forms of genocide are occurring in Darfur. Hundreds of 
thousands are fleeing Darfur; fearing that they will become yet another 
statistic in Khartoum's plan to rape, torture and ultimately wipe out 
all Blacks in the southwestern region of Sudan.
  The number of refugees and internally displaced persons on the 
Chadian border continues to rise. In just the last 12 months, the 
National Islamic Front government of Sudan and its allied militia, the 
Janjaweed, displaced more than 1 million people, forced over 110,000 
people into Chad, and killed more than 10,000 innocent civilians.
  As in other conflicts designed deliberately to humiliate and 
eliminate people because of their identity, we have seen women and 
girls targeted for rape in Darfur. Government troops and their allied 
militia have raped, tortured, maimed and burned entire villages in a 
deliberate and systematic manner to cleanse the area of all Blacks, 
regardless of religion. USAID estimates that at least 3.5 million 
people will die if no one in the international community stops this 
massacre and delivers emergency humanitarian assistance before the 
rainy season begins in June.

  As was the case in 1994 in Rwanda when our government and the 
international community refused to use the word genocide--we are once 
again witness to the same duplicity and lies about the tragedy in 
Darfur. The people who are speaking out loudest regarding the tragedies 
in Darfur are the humanitarian organizations, who to this day, are 
still limited by the Khartoum government in their quest to save lives. 
Humanitarian NGOs have complained of Khartoum's delaying tactics--
stalling on visa applications, and denying travel and work permits, 
preventing NGOs from getting to camps for the internally displaced.
  Mr. Speaker, how can we allow this travesty to continue and not be 
outraged? The government of Sudan in not our partner in peace. We must 
stop pushing a false ``Sudan peace process'' and really deal with this 
genocide.
  I call on the Bush administration to call this attack on the people 
of Darfur what it is: genocide. I ask that the United Nation's meet and 
commission an emergency humanitarian and peacekeeping mission for the 
people of Darfur. And lastly, I call on our global community--
particularly the leaders of the African Union--use their regional 
leadership to save the lives of millions in Darfur. Without our express 
concern and emergency assistance the killing will continue.
  In the words of Gandhi, ``Destruction is not the law of humans. . . . 
Every murder or other injury, no matter for what cause, committed or 
inflicted on another is a crime against humanity.'' We must stop the 
genocide in Darfur now because every death, every rape, every displaced 
person reflects our disregard for their justice and their right to 
life.

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