[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 103 (Thursday, July 22, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1518-E1519]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  DECLARING GENOCIDE IN DARFUR, SUDAN

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 21, 2004

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, ten years ago, as bloated corpses 
floated down Rwanda's rivers, the international community debated 
whether the atrocities being committed in Rwanda fit the definition of 
``genocide.'' By the time the world stopped debating, it was too late. 
Millions of men, women and children had been killed. The failure of the 
world to act in Rwanda remains a stain on our collective conscience.
  We must learn from the tragic mistakes of the past. Today, one 
thousand miles north of Rwanda, in the Darfur region of Sudan, more 
than 30,000 people have already been killed by the Sudanese military's 
aerial bombardments and the atrocities being committed by their 
ruthless proxies, the Jangaweed militia. Gang rapes, the branding of 
raped women, amputations, and summary killings are widespread. More 
than a million people have been driven from their homes as villages 
have been burned and crops destroyed. The Sudanese government has 
deliberately blocked the delivery of food, medicine and other 
humanitarian assistance. More than 160,000 Darfurians have become 
refugees in neighboring Chad. Conditions are ripe for the spread of 
fatal diseases such as measles, cholera, dysentery, meningitis and 
malaria. The U.S. Agency for International Development estimates that 
350,000 people are likely to die in the coming months and that the 
death toll could reach more than a million unless the violence stops 
and the Sudanese government immediately grants international aid groups 
better access to Darfur.
  Here in Washington and at the United Nations headquarters in New 
York, many officials are again debating whether this unfolding tragedy 
constitutes genocide, ethnic cleansing or something else. This time let 
us not debate until it is too late to stop this human catastrophe. Let 
us not wait until thousands more children are killed before we summon 
the will to stop this horror. America and the international community 
have a moral duty to act. The United States and the 130 other 
signatories to the Genocide Convention also have a legal obligation to 
``undertake to prevent and punish'' the crime of genocide.
  The Convention defines genocide as actions undertaken ``with intent 
to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or 
religious group, as such.'' The actions include ``deliberately 
inflicting on members of the group conditions of life calculated to 
bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.'' By all 
accounts, including the reports of U.N. fact finders, it is the African 
peoples in the Darfur region who have been targeted for destruction by 
the Khartoum-backed Arab death squads.

  In the middle of an unfolding crisis like that in Darfur, there will 
always be debate over whether what is happening constitutes genocide. 
But it is important to remember that the Genocide Convention does not 
require absolute proof of genocidal intentions before the international 
community is empowered to intervene. The Convention would offer no 
protection to innocent victims if we had to wait until there were tens 
of thousands more corpses before we act. A key part of the Genocide 
Convention is prevention, not just punishment after the fact.
  The United States has already done more than any other nation to call 
attention to and respond to this tragedy. But our efforts to date have 
not brought an end to the growing crisis. We must take additional 
measures now.
  The United States should immediately call for an emergency meeting of 
the U.N. Security Council and introduce and call for a vote on a 
resolution that demands that the Government of Sudan take the following 
steps: First, allow international relief groups and human rights

[[Page E1519]]

groups free and secure access to the Darfur region, including access to 
the camps where thousands are huddled in wretched conditions; Second, 
the Government of Sudan must immediately terminate its support for the 
Janjaweed and dispatch its forces to disarm them. Third, the Sudanese 
government must allow the more than one million displaced persons to 
return home. The resolution must include stiff sanctions if the 
Sudanese government refuses to meet these conditions and it must 
authorize the deployment of peacekeeping forces to Darfur to protect 
civilians and individuals from CARE and other hunmanitarian 
organizations seeking to provide humanitarian assistance.
  It is critical that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan exhibit strong 
leadership on Darfur. Mukesh Kapila, until recently the top U.N. 
official in Sudan has been outspoken in sounding the alarm. I am 
encouraged that the Secretary General visited Sudan. However, the 
result of his visit must be more than an expression of concern. 
Secretary General Annan must make it clear that if the Sudanese 
government does not cooperate fully in stopping the killings and 
destruction, he will push for immediate international sanctions. He 
must let the Sudanese government know that the welcome progress made in 
reaching an accommodation with the South will not prevent the world 
from taking action to stop the horror in Darfur. The U.N. ignored 
warnings of mass murder a decade ago in Rwanda; it must not stand by 
again.

  We should not allow other members of the U.N. Security Council to 
engage in endless negotiations and delay a vote on the resolution. In 
this case, every day that goes by without action means more lives lost. 
Let's vote on the resolution. If the rest of the world refuses to 
authorize collective action, shame on them. Failure to pass such a 
resolution would not represent a failure of American leadership; it 
would be a terrible blot on the world's conscience.
  Whether or not the United Nations acts, the United States should take 
steps on its own. We should make it clear that if the Sudanese 
government does not meet the demands in the proposed resolution, the 
United States will impose travel restrictions on Sudanese officials and 
move to freeze their assets. Even apart from U.N. action, we can 
immediately urge other nations to join us in taking these and other 
measures.
  I commend Secretary of State Colin Powell for his visit to the Darfur 
region. It is critical, however, that the Secretary's visit do more 
than simply call attention to the tragedy unfolding there. The United 
States must make it clear that the failure of Khartoum to fully 
cooperate in ending the destruction and killings will result in a 
concerted American effort to punish the Sudanese government and harness 
international support to intervene in Darfur.
  We must not look back on Darfur ten years from now and decry the fact 
that the world failed to act to stop the crime of genocide. Rwanda and 
other genocides should have taught us that those who knowingly fail to 
confront such evil are themselves complicit through inaction. We are 
all god's children. These are crimes against humanity. Let us respond 
to this unfolding human disaster with the urgency that it demands.

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