[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 102 (Wednesday, July 21, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8534-S8535]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Darfur, Sudan

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, 1,000 people died there yesterday, 1,000 
people will die there today, 1,000 more will die tomorrow and the day 
after that, and then the next day for as long as we can possibly 
imagine. I am speaking of Darfur, Sudan. In that region of the world 
this year, 300,000 people may be dead; 1\1/2\ million people in Sudan 
are homeless. Villages have been decimated, women have been 
systematically raped, crops have been destroyed, and wells have been 
poisoned with human corpses. This is genocide. Let us not mince words. 
It demands action.
  The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of 
Genocide requires signatories, including the United States of America, 
to prevent and punish acts that are ``committed with the intent to 
destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial or religious 
group.'' That is exactly what is taking place in Sudan today.
  We in the United States have to join with civilized nations around 
the world to stop the genocide in Darfur because we have failed 
sometimes before. We failed knowingly time and time again in the 20th 
century. Ten years ago we failed the people of Rwanda.
  Samantha Power is the author of a book which I have read, a book 
which haunts and inspires me. It is a book entitled ``A Problem From 
Hell: America and the Age of Genocide.'' She wrote, ``The United States 
had never in its history intervened to stop genocide and had in fact 
rarely even made a point of condemning it as it occurred.''
  That is a terrible condemnation on our Nation, and it is one that I 
think calls us all to action in Sudan.
  This is not a partisan issue. I want to salute my colleagues on the 
Democratic side, Senator Jon Corzine of New Jersey, and on the 
Republican side Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and Senator Mike DeWine 
of Ohio. They have spoken out on this floor time and time again about 
the genocide in Sudan. They remember, as I remember, what happened in 
Rwanda--what happened while I was a Member of Congress, and while I did 
not pay as much attention as I should have.
  Ten years ago, between 800,000 and a million people were butchered in 
Rwanda. The killings took place with terrifying efficiency. The weapons 
of mass destruction were simple: the machete, the club, the torch. 
Those with enough money in Rwanda were sometimes able to pay their 
killers to shoot them rather than hack them to death with a machete. 
These killings were crudely carried out and executed, but they were 
carefully orchestrated. They were designed to wipe out an ethnic group, 
the Rwandan Tutsis, from the face of the Earth, along with any other 
moderate Hutus who dared to question the ruling ideology.
  Bill Clinton, a man I count as a friend, was President of the United 
States when this occurred. He read a series of articles about the 
killings in Rwanda. He turned to his National Security Adviser Sandy 
Berger and asked, Is what they are saying true? How did this happen? 
Bill Clinton came to realize after the genocide in Rwanda that the 
United States had made a historic, tragic mistake of not speaking up, 
of not moving with other nations to stop what happened in Rwanda. He 
visited that country and apologized on behalf of our country and the 
rest of the world for ignoring, for standing idly by, while a million 
people died. That happened in Rwanda because the United States allowed 
it to happen.
  I am dwelling on Rwanda today, but the crisis is in Sudan. Why? 
Because years from now I don't want those of us serving in Congress to 
be asked about Sudan, How did this happen? We know how it is happening, 
and we know it continues to happen even as we speak.
  Ten years ago, seven Tutsi pastors trapped in a hospital that was no 
sanctuary wrote to the world pleading for intervention and assistance. 
Here are their words: ``We wish to inform you that we have heard that 
tomorrow we will be killed with our families.'' There was no 
intervention. There was no help. And the next day, these Christian 
pastors and their families were killed, and hundreds of others with 
them.
  We failed to act in Rwanda. We cannot fail to act in Darfur, Sudan. 
For months, in western Sudan, the janjaweed, Arab militias--death 
squads--have waged war on the ethnic African villagers. They have 
killed thousands outright. They have engaged in massive, systematic 
rape and told their victims that they hoped they would produce ``light-
skinned'' babies. They have made 1.5 million people homeless, some 
internally displaced and some forced into Chad and other neighboring 
nations. The Sudanese Government, a government which should be 
protecting its people, has conspired in this mass murder and 
contributed to it by deliberately shutting out international 
humanitarian efforts to reach the refugees. Starvation, disease, and 
exposure to the elements are also the weapons of genocide.
  My family grew up in Springfield, IL in a typical American community 
and typical American neighborhood. Next door were our closest friends, 
the Mays family. There was a young woman, a young girl when I first met 
her, who grew up with my kids. Her name is Robin Mays. She is an 
amazing young woman who succeeded in so many different facets of life 
and decided to enlist in the Air Force right out of college. She was in 
the Air Force for 7 years as an officer in charge of logistics. When 
she came out of the Air Force, she came to me and said, I would like to 
do something that uses my skills that might help people. I put her in 
contact with the World Food Program. She went to Ethiopia, and she was 
involved in dealing with the refugee problems and feeding thousands. 
She came back to the United States and went to work for USIA. A few 
months ago, she was sent to the Sudan, and she is there. She is working 
in Sudan now with the victims of genocide, with the refugees. The other 
day she sent an e-mail to her family. She shared it with me. She was so 
excited because she heard there were actually people in the United 
States talking about what was happening in Sudan. It was encouraging to 
her that the rest of the world even knew what was happening in Sudan. 
She didn't hold any great hope that we would run to her aid and find 
some relief for these poor victims, but she was so encouraged that we 
even knew and that we even cared.
  What a sad commentary on a great nation like the United States and 
many other great nations around the world, that that is the best we can 
do to acknowledge the problem, to express our concern.
  An estimated 180,000 Sudanese have fled to Chad, one of the poorest 
countries in the world. Hundreds of thousands more are displaced within 
Sudan, roaming around, trying to look for a safe place or something to 
feed their children. When you look at the images

[[Page S8535]]

of the mothers in the Darfur region, Sudanese mothers and their 
children with matchstick legs, covered with flies, dying, starving 
right before our eyes, we have to ask, are we doing what we should? Is 
the United States doing what it should?
  We have to take steps, and we have to take them now, to stop this 
mass slaughter. We start by calling it what it is--genocide--and by 
labeling it a genocide. It calls all who signed the treaty to action to 
prevent genocide, not just to care but to do something. The United 
States and the United Nations must both label this for what it is. 
Secretary of State Powell has stated that Sudan is ``moving toward a 
genocidal conclusion.'' That is short of calling it a genocide, but I 
give the Secretary of State credit. In many times gone by, when a 
genocide was occurring, we could not even bring ourselves at the 
official level to acknowledge it. Secretary of State Powell is doing 
that, and I salute him for it. Sudan has reached the stage of genocide, 
but that genocide has not reached its final conclusion. There is still 
time to save the lives of hundreds of thousands.
  On Friday of this week, many of us will leave this Chamber. We will 
be off to political conventions, campaigns, time with our families, 
vacations. The first part of September, we will return. Six weeks from 
now, 45 days from now, we will be back, but during that 45-day period 
of time, 40,000 or 50,000 innocent people will die in the Sudan. There 
is no vacation from genocide. There is certainly no vacation from the 
Sudan. I try to imagine, as I stand here with all the comforts of being 
a U.S. Senator in this great country, what it must be like to be a 
mother or a father in that country now watching your children starve to 
death, fearing systematic rape, torture, and killing, which have become 
so routine.
  We have to do something. We have to do it now. Congress should move 
to pass resolutions to let the world know we are prepared to move 
forward. Senator Brownback, a Republican from Kansas, and Senator 
Corzine, a Democrat from New Jersey, are pushing forward a resolution 
that we should not leave this city for any length until it is enacted. 
But we need not just words. We need to continue to send assistance, as 
we have, and we deserve credit as a nation for caring and reaching out, 
but we need to do more--food, water, medicine, but also security for 
foreign aid workers to get in and to allow the Sudanese refugees to 
return home.
  The United Nations Security Council has failed as well. It has been 
stymied by several nations which don't want to hold the Sudanese 
Government responsible for what is happening. We need to move 
immediately. I know our new U.N. ambassador, Jack Danforth, a man whom 
I greatly respect, a man of conscience, understands this, as we do. He 
needs to push those members of the Security Council to get the United 
Nations to act on Darfur and the Sudan immediately. We need to 
intervene. We need to see whether, in the 21th century, international 
institutions such as the United Nations can succeed where others have 
failed.

  The United States also has rich intelligence resources and 
capabilities that track militia activity. We have 1,800 troops on 
Dijibouti who could join an international humanitarian mission. 
Ultimately, it is the African Union that must supply the personnel to 
enforce security, but we can help.
  President Bush--and I disagree with him on so many things, but I have 
to give him credit where it is due--helped in Liberia with a handful of 
marines prepared to act. They brought stability to a situation that 
seemed out of control. We need that same leadership again from this 
White House, from this Department of Defense, from the State 
Department, and from this Congress.
  Security is a prerequisite in this country of Sudan for helicopter 
and truck transport which is going to carry supplies to those who are 
literally starving to death. The Sudanese Government has to rein in 
these militias. It cannot continue to look the other way. It recently 
allowed some relief supplies to be offloaded, but the Government has 
helped unleash the genocide in the Sudan, helped arm and direct the 
Janjaweed. They cannot be trusted to see to their disarmament without 
international supervision. We have voted to extend millions in 
emergency assistance to Sudan, but that assistance will never reach 
them unless we create conditions on the ground that allow its 
distribution.
  Mine is only one voice in a Chamber of 100 Senators, in a nation of 
millions of people. I don't know that what I have to say in the Senate 
will have an impact on anyone, but I could not and many of my 
colleagues could not countenance leaving Washington in good conscience 
for an August vacation recess and acting like the carnage in Sudan is 
not occurring. It is genocide. Those in the civilized world must stand 
up and not only condemn it but take action to bring it to an end as 
quickly as possible.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Collins). The Senator from Minnesota.
  Mr. COLEMAN. Madam President, I rise to speak on a matter different 
than what my friend and colleague from Illinois has spoken about, but 
before I do, I associate myself with his comments.
  I stand with him and others on both sides of the aisle in asking the 
question, Are we doing all that we should be doing in the Sudan? 
Genocide is occurring. We can have debate about the legal definition of 
genocide, but for the folks who are experiencing the pain and the 
suffering, the torture, they are not interested in legal debate.
  I hope we heed the call of my friend from Illinois, that before we 
leave, before we go home to be with our families and do the things we 
do in our State and throughout this country, that we at a minimum speak 
out, that at a minimum the voice of this Congress be heard, and that we 
then move forward on the path, beyond speaking out, that will provide 
some action, that will provide a level of safety, security, and 
comfort, the basic things that need to be done in the Sudan.
  As I listened, I want my friend from Illinois to know that his words 
have had impact. I hope they echo far beyond these halls and that we do 
what should be done, that we make a statement in this Congress, that 
statement be turned into action, and that action has some impact.
  (The remarks of Mr. Coleman pertaining to the introduction of S. 2715 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. COLEMAN. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. FRIST. Madam President, last night I filed a cloture motion on 
the Sixth Circuit judicial nomination of Henry Saad. That vote will 
occur tomorrow morning. Two additional Sixth Circuit nominations are on 
the Executive Calendar, ready for consideration. I am prepared to ask 
unanimous consent for time agreements and up-or-down votes on these 
nominations; however, I understand that there will be objection from 
the other side.
  I ask the Democrat leadership if it is true they would not agree to a 
time agreement on these Sixth Circuit nominations?
  Mr. REID. The majority leader is correct.

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