[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 103 (Thursday, July 22, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8636-S8639]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DARFUR
Mr. BROWNBACK. I thank the Chair. Mr. President, I appreciate the
majority leader identifying the successes and what we need to be
working on. I also appreciate the first part of his speech when he
talked about the Sudan, which is something I wish to address for my
colleagues.
The House of Representatives has just passed 422 to 0--they rarely do
things quite in that fashion--a resolution calling what is taking place
in Sudan genocide--genocide, the killing of a group of people purposely
by a government, by a group.
I do not think we have ever done that before in the middle of a
genocide as it is taking place. We have always adopted a resolution
afterward, and once the genocide has occurred, we have said: That is
terrible; that should not have happened; and, oh, by the way, it was
genocide. They have taken a bold step, the right step, the proper step
for the first time to say, while we are in the middle of this crisis,
let's call it genocide now, put pressure on the international community
to act and address it.
I say to my colleagues tonight, we have virtually the identical
resolution in front of this body that we are seeking to move through by
unanimous consent. I hope they will consider it and let it through. At
this point in time in our sessions, people hold up everything: I am not
going to let anything get on through here. I plead with my colleagues,
people who are watching, who are monitoring the Chamber, if you are
considering that on this resolution, please pull it off and please let
this one pass on through so both the House and the Senate can speak
with clarity and call the situation in western Sudan, this Darfur
region, genocide, and stop the killing.
While the world debates, people die in Darfur, and that is what is
taking place today. I was there about 3 weeks ago and 30,000 had died
already. Over 300 villages had been burned out, and about a million
people were in refugee camps in western Sudan and Chad. The people were
in horrific condition and in a very fragile state. They were willing to
return to their villages if security could return to the region, but an
armed Arab militia was strong through the region, called the Janjaweed,
which are men on horses and camels in some cases, with guns. They go in
and burn out villages, shooting and killing the men, raping the women,
and driving people into refugee camps.
These are deplorable conditions which, if they are not eased, if the
situation does not improve, our own Agency for International
Development projects that at a minimum 300,000 will die. We are at
30,000 now. We project 300,000 will die if everything goes well from
this point forward, and it could go up from there. That is where we are
right now: 30,000 dead, projecting 300,000 in the next 6 to 9 months,
and it could go above that very easily.
We have a chance, we really have a moment, that we can actually get
it right before they die. It was just a couple of months 10 years ago
that in Rwanda we saw 800,000 people die. We said after that, ``never
again.'' Well, now we have 30,000 and we are headed to 300,000. Are we
going to look back on this one and say, ``never again,'' or are we
going to get in on this one now and say, ``no, let us stop it''?
It is a fairly simple solution, putting pressure on the international
community, putting pressure on the African Union, to bring in troops to
stabilize this area. It cannot be done by the Government of Khartoum.
They have dirty hands. They have armed the Arab militias that are going
into the region. It cannot be done by the Arab militias. They are
killing the African villagers in this region. They are doing ethnic
cleansing and raping the women.
We interviewed a number of different women who had been raped. All of
them said that their rapist said to them: We want to create lighter
skinned babies. In that region, the paternity determines the ethnicity
of the child.
We cannot let this one keep going when we know it is happening and we
have a way to stop it. I plead with my colleagues, just look at this.
Let this one move on through, then both the House and the Senate will
have spoken and called it genocide. We will put pressure on the
international community to act, put pressure on Kofi Annan at the U.N.,
put pressure on the African Union to address this situation before the
numbers keep mounting. We can do this.
I will show briefly to my colleagues new pictures Congressman Frank
Wolf and I took, as I say, about 3 weeks ago when we were in the
region. This is a typical burned-out village that we saw. We drove by a
number of these. These are some of the leaders of the group who are
trying to come back to the village. The raids all happened very
similarly. Bombers came in, supplied by the Sudanese Government.
Helicopters--I will show a picture of one of those in just a little
bit--supported by the Sudanese Government would come in in an air
attack. Then the Janjaweed, the Arab militias, would come back on
camels, horseback, guns blazing, burn the various houses, kill the men,
rape the women, pillage, plunder, and steal. As we can see from this
picture, this is a sparse and difficult climate in which to live. They
drive people out of their villages, away from their wells, and people
die.
This next picture is one of the helicopters used in these raids. It
has guns mounted on the front. This is old Soviet equipment, yet it
works very well in this region when the people they are going against
are unarmed altogether. They will go in on these runs. We saw this
particular helicopter within 100 yards of a Sudanese Government
outpost, within 50 yards of a Janjaweed encampment.
So when the Sudanese Government is saying, Well, it is the Janjaweed
that is doing it and we are going to try to disarm them, we are going
to control them, they are arming them, this is just them doing
something they have done in the south for years, where they arm a
militia so they can have some deniability that it is their hands, but
in fact it is clearly them who are conducting this.
The next picture I want to show is a woman who has been shot. She is
an amputee. We visited with her. We can see where her leg was shot and
amputated.
This final picture is chilling. We went into three different refugee
camps. Fortunately, children are children everywhere, and they will
lighten up. They will be lively. They have smiles on their faces. In
one of the camps they were doing an art project to encourage kids to
make different things out of clay or actually out of mud. They were
doing the soldiers on horses who had attacked them with guns. They made
these little mud figures showing what had taken place. We also have
drawings that were brought back, drawn by the children, of villages
being burned. There is nothing quite like seeing the world through the
eyes of a child. It is a very dangerous world and a deadly world these
children have seen.
I have a trip report, and I ask unanimous consent that it be printed
in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[[Page S8637]]
Trip Report--Senator Sam Brownback and Congressman Frank Wolf.
darfur, western sudan--june 27-29, 2004
It was just 10 years ago--in 1994--when the world stood by
and watched as more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis were
systematically murdered in Rwanda by rival extremist Hutus.
When the killing finally ended after 100 days--and the
horrific images of what had taken place were broadcast around
the globe--world leaders acknowledged it was genocide,
apologized for failing to intervene, and vowed ``never
again.''
That pledge from the international community is being put
to the test today in western Sudan, where an estimated 30,000
black African Muslims have been murdered and more than 1
million have been driven from their tribal lands and forced
to live in one of 129 refugee camps scattered across the
western provinces of Darfur. More than 160,000 have fled
across the border to Chad.
The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide describes genocide as
acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part,
national, ethnic, racial or religious groups, such as:
Killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or
mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting
on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about
physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures
intended to prevent births within the group, or forcibly
transferring children of the group to another group.
Having recently spent 3 days and 2 nights (June 27-29) in
Darfur, we believe what is happening there may very well meet
this test.
During our trip we visited 5 refugee camps: Abu Shouk;
Tawilah; Krinding; Sisi, and Mornay--all sprawling tent
cities jam-packed with thousands of displaced families and
fast becoming breeding grounds for disease and sickness.
We drove past dozens of pillaged villages and walked
through what was left of four that were burned to the ground.
We heard countless stories about rape, murder and plunder.
We even watched the barbarous men who are carrying out
these attacks--Arab militiamen called Janjaweed--sitting
astride camels and horses just a short distance from where
young and old have sought what they had hoped would be a safe
harbor.
Janjaweed is roughly translated in Arabic as ``wild men on
horses with G-3 guns'' Ruthless, brutal killers, the
Janjaweed have instigated a reign of terror on Darfur--a
region about the size of Texas--for more than a year. They
kill men. They rape women. They abduct children. They torch
villages. They dump human corpses and animal carcasses in
wells to contaminate the water. Their mandate is essentially
doing whatever necessary to force the black African Muslims
from their land to never return.
It is clearly the intent of Janjaweed to purge the region
of darker-skinned Africans, in particular members of the Fur,
Zaghawa, and Massaleit tribes.
janjaweed mandate
From where does this mandate come? The Government of Sudan
disavows supporting the Janjaweed. Some officials in Khartoum
even deny the existence of a humanitarian crisis in the
region. Yet the facts prove otherwise. We witnessed the
destruction. We heard horrific accounts of violence and
intimidation. We talked to rape victims. We saw the scars on
men who had been shot. We watched mothers cradle their sick
and dying babies, hoping against all odds that their children
would survive. We saw armed Janjaweed waiting to prey on
innocent victims along the perimeter of refugee camps.
To hear the vivid, heartrending descriptions of the attacks
it is clear the Janjaweed have the support--and the
approval--of the Government of Sudan to operate with
impunity. The same stories were repeated at every camp we
visited. The raids would happen early in the morning. First
comes the low rumble of a Soviet-made Antonov plane--flown by
Sudanese pilots--to bomb the village. Next come helicopter
gunships--again, flown by Sudanese pilots--to strafe the
village with the huge machine guns mounted on each side.
Sometimes the helicopters would land and unload supplies
for the Janjaweed. They would then be reloaded with booty
confiscated from a village. One man told us he saw cows
being loaded onto one helicopter. Moments later, the
Janjaweed, some clad in military uniforms, would come
galloping in on horseback and camels to finish the job by
killing, raping, stealing and plundering.
Walking through the burned out villages we could tell the
people living there had little or no time to react. They left
everything they owned--lanterns, cookware, water jugs,
pottery, plows--and ran for their lives. There was not even
time to stop and bury their dead.
The Janjaweed made certain that there would be nothing left
for the villagers to come home to. Huts were torched.
Donkeys, goats and cows were stolen, slaughtered or dumped
into wells to poison the water. Grain containers were
destroyed. In one village we saw where the Janjaweed even
burned the mosque.
Only the lucky ones--mostly women and children--made it out
alive.
ethnic cleansing
What is happening in Darfur is rooted in ethnic cleansing.
Religion has nothing to do with what has unfolded over the
last year.
No black African is safe in Darfur. Security is non-
existent. The Janjaweed are everywhere. Outside the camps.
Inside the camps. They walk freely through the marketplace in
Geneina, a town in far western Darfur, with guns slung over
their shoulders. One shopkeeper, we were told, was shot in
the head by a Janjaweed because he wasn't willing to lower
the price of a watermelon.
Government of Sudan military and security forces also are
omnipresent. At each of the places we visited we were either
trailed or escorted by a mixture of military regulars, police
forces and government ``minders.'' There have been reports
that the government has been folding the Janjaweed into its
regular forces as a way to disguise and protect them. At two
of the camps we visited, we were told the government had
inserted spies to report on what was said or to threaten
those who talked. We were told the ``minders'' repeatedly
scolded refugees and told them in Arabic to shut up. Yet,
even with these threats, refugees in every camp we visited
were eager to tell their stories.
It should be understood that the Janjaweed are not
``taking'' the land from the black Muslim farmers they are
terrorizing. The Janjaweed, whose historical roots are part
of the region's roving nomads who have battled with the
African farmers for generations, are employing a government-
supported scorched earth policy to drive them out of the
region--and perhaps to extinction. It also was clear that
only villages inhabited by black Africans were being
targeted. Arab villages sitting just next to African ones
miles from the nearest towns have been left unscathed.
On our first day in the region, we met with local
Government of Sudan officials in the town of El Fasher, a
two-hour plane ride west of Khartoum. They blame the crisis
in the region on two black African rebel groups--the Sudan
Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement
(JEM)--who started an uprising in February 2003 over what
they regarded as unjust treatment by the government in their
struggle over land and resources with Arab countrymen. The
rebel forces actually held El Fasher for a short period last
year. A cease-fire was agreed to in April 2004 between the
rebel groups and the Government of Sudan, but the Janjaweed
have continued to carry out attacks with the support and
approval of Khartoum.
While local government officials in El Fasher were adamant
in saying there is no connection between the Government of
Sudan and the Janjaweed, whom they called ``armed bandits,''
the militiamen we saw did not look like skilled pilots who
could fly planes or helicopters.
We also were told the Janjaweed are well armed and well
supplied. If they are traditional nomads, how are they
getting modern automatic weapons, and, more importantly, from
whom? They also are said to have satellite phones, an
astonishing fact considering most of the people in the far
western provinces of Darfur have probably never even seen
or walked on a paved road.
The impunity under which the Janjaweed operate was most
telling as we approached the airport in Geneina on our last
day in the region for our flight back to Khartoum. In plain
sight was an encampment of Janjaweed within shouting distance
of a contingent of Government of Sudan regulars. No more than
200 yards separated the two groups. Sitting on the tarmac
were two helicopter gunships and a Soviet-made Antonov plane.
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
The situation in Darfur is being described as the worst
humanitarian crisis in the world today. We agree. But sadly,
and with a great sense of urgency, things are only going to
worsen. Some say that even under the best of circumstances,
as many as 300,000 Darfuris forced from their homes are
expected to die from malnutrition and diarrhea or diseases
such as malaria and cholera in the coming months. Measles
have already spread through Abu Shouk, a large refugee camp
outside El Fasher.
According to some predictions, the death toll could reach
as high as 1 million by next year. The Darfuri farmers have
missed another planting season and will now be dependent on
grain and other food stuffs provided by the international
community for at least another year. The impending rainy
season presents its own set of problems, making roads
impassable for food deliveries and the likelihood of disease
dramatically increasing with the heavy rains.
The potential for a crisis of catastrophic proportions is
very real, especially since none of the villagers we talked
to at the refugee camps believed they will be able to go back
to their homes anytime soon. Having been brutally terrorized
by the Janjaweed and fearing for their lives, they do not
believe Government of Sudan officials who say it is safe to
return to their villages. We heard stories of some families
who went back to their villages only to return to the camps a
week later for fear of being attacked again.
The attacks have traumatized thousands of young children.
In an effort to cope with what they have endured, programs
have been established in the camps to help the young boys and
girls deal with their psychological scars. Part of the
program encourages them to draw pictures of what they have
seen. The crayon drawings are chilling. Huts on fire, red
flames shooting through the roof. Planes and helicopters
flying overhead shooting bullets. Dead bodies. Depictions,
perhaps, of their mother or father.
[[Page S8638]]
We also saw a group of children who had made clay figures
of men on camels and horseback attacking villages. There is
no way to measure the impact of these atrocities on the
thousands of children living in these camps. Their lives are
forever scarred.
DIFFICULT LIFE IN IDP CAMPS
Abu Shouk was the first of five IDP (Internally Displaced
People) camps we visited. More than 40,000 people live in
this sprawling tent city, created in April after El Fasher
was overrun with homeless families. Methodically laid out
with water stations, a health clinic, a supplemental feeding
station and crude latrines, it is being hailed as a ``model''
by humanitarian relief workers in the region.
However, aid workers at Abu Shouk are deeply distressed.
They observe that malnutrition and child mortality rates at
this ``model'' camp have reached alarming levels. They fear
what may be happening at the other camps, especially in the
more remote areas of Darfur that have not been reached by
humanitarian groups.
Life in the camps is difficult. Crude shelters made from
straw and sticks and covered with plastic sheeting stretch as
far as the eye can see. Families arriving at the camps--
almost all after walking for days in the hot sun from their
now abandon villages--are given only a tarp, a water jug,
cookware and a small amount of grain.
The sanitary conditions are wretched. The sandy conditions
make building latrines difficult. At Mornay, the largest of
the IDP camps in Darfur with more than 70,000 inhabitants, it
was hard not to step in either human or animal feces as we
walked. In a few weeks, when the heavy rains begin, excrement
will flow across the entire camp. Mortality from diarrhea,
which we were told represents one-third of the deaths in the
camps, will only increase.
To their credit, all the non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) that have been allowed to operate in Darfur have
done--and continue to do--a tremendous job under extremely
trying circumstances. The Government of Sudan has repeatedly
thrown up roadblocks to bringing in aid. It has denied or
slowed visa processing for relief workers. It has kept aid
vehicles locked up in customs for weeks at a time. It has
blocked relief groups from bringing in radios. It has limited
access to certain regions of the country. All this has made
getting medicine, food and other humanitarian supplies, like
plastic sheeting and water jugs, an uphill battle. While the
Government of Sudan plays its games, people are dying as
needed aid sits on tarmacs.
As we approached the Mornay camp on the last day of our 3-
day trip, we were stopped by Government of Sudan soldiers and
security officers. They followed us throughout the camp,
watching with whom we talked. Amazingly, their presence did
not inhibit the refugees from recanting the horrors from
which they escaped and, for some--mostly women--continue to
endure.
The men said while they feel somewhat secure inside the
confines of the camps, they dare not venture outside for fear
of being shot or killed by the Janjaweed. They showed us
scars on their arms and legs of the gunshot wounds they
received while escaping from their villages. They are
despondent over the fact that they are unable to provide food
for their families because they cannot farm their fields.
They expressed utter sadness and outrage about their wives
and daughters who venture outside the borders of the camp to
collect firewood and straw, knowing the fate that awaits them
at the hands of the Janjaweed. Life and death decisions are
made every day: send the men out and risk death or send the
women out and risk rape.
Rape is clearly another weapon being used by the Janjaweed.
Rapes, we were told, happen almost daily to the women who
venture outside the confines of the camps in search of
firewood and straw. They leave very early in the morning,
hoping to evade their tormentors before they awake. With the
camps swelling in size and nearby resources dwindling, they
often walk several miles. The farther the women go from the
camp, the greater the risk of being attacked by the
Janjaweed. As we approached Mornay, we saw a number of
Janjaweed resting with their camels and horses along the
perimeter of the camp, easily within walking distance.
We heard the horrific story of 4 young girls--two of whom
were sisters--who had been raped just days before we arrived.
They had left the camp to collect straw to feed the family's
donkey when they were attacked. They said their attackers
told them they were slaves and that their skin was too dark.
As they were being raped, they said the Janjaweed told them
they were hoping to make more lighter-skinned babies.
One of the 4 women assaulted, too shy to tell her story in
front of men, privately told a female journalist traveling
with us that if anyone were to find out she had been raped,
she would never be able to marry.
We were told that some of the rape victims were being
branded on their back and arms by the Janjaweed, permanently
labeling the women. We heard the chilling account of the rape
of a 9-year-old girl.
We also received a letter during our trip from a group of
women who were raped. To protect them from further attacks,
we purposely do not mention where they are from or list their
names. The translation is heartbreaking:
``Messrs. Members of the U.S. Congress
``Peace and the mercy and the blessings of God be upon you.
``We thank you for your help and for standing by the weak
of the world, wherever they are found. We welcome you to the
. . . region, which was devastated by the Janjaweed, or what
is referred to as the government `horse- and camel-men,' on
Friday . . . 2004, when they caused havoc by killing and
burning and committing plunder and rape. This was carried out
with the help of the government, which used the . . . region
as an airport and supplied the Janjaweed with munitions and
supplies. So we, the raped woman of the . . . region, would
like to explain to you what has happened and God is our best
witness.
``We are 44 raped women. As a result of that savagery, some
of us became pregnant, some have aborted, some took out their
wombs and some are still receiving medical treatment.
Hereunder, we list the names of the raped women and state
that we have high hopes in you and the international
community to stand by us and not to forsake us to this
tyrannical, brutal and racist regime, which wants to
eliminate us racially, bearing in mind that 90 percent of our
sisters at . . . are widows.
``[Above] are the names of some of the women raped in the .
. . region. Some of these individuals are now at . . ., some
are at Towilah and some are at Abu Shouk camps. Everything we
said is the absolute truth. These girls were raped in front
of our fathers and husbands.
``We hope that you and the international community will
continue to preserve the balance of the peoples and nations.
``Thank you.
``From: The raped women at . . .''
These rape victims have nowhere to turn. Even if they
report the attacks to the police, they know nothing will
happen. The police, the military and the Janjaweed all appear
to be acting in coordination.
DIRE SITUATION IS MAN-MADE
The situation in Darfur is dire, and from what we could
see, it is entirely man-made. These people who had managed to
survive even the severest droughts and famines during the
course of their long history are now in mortal danger of
being wiped out simply because of the darker shade of their
skin color.
The first step in resolving this crisis is disarming the
Janjaweed. It must be done swiftly and universally. If not,
the Janjaweed will just bury their weapons in the sand, wait
for the pressure from the international community to lift,
then reinitiate their reign of terror.
A system of justice overseen by outside monitors must also
be implemented. The heinous, murderous acts carried out by
the Janjaweed cannot go unpunished. War crimes and crimes
against humanity clearly have been--and continue to be--
committed. Those responsible must be brought to justice.
Over the course of 3 days, we saw the worst of man's
inhumanity to man, but we also saw the best of what it means
to be human: mothers waiting patiently for hours in the hot
sun so that they could try to save their babies; NGO aid
workers and volunteer doctors feeding and caring for the sick
and the dying, and the courage and bravery of men, women and
children eager to talk to us so that we would know their
story.
The world made a promise in 1994 to never again allow the
systematic destruction of a people or race. ``Never again''--
words said, too, after the Holocaust. In Darfur, the
international community has a chance to stop history from
repeating itself. It also has a chance to end this nightmare
for those who have found a way to survive. If the
international community fails to act, the next cycle of this
crisis will begin. The destiny facing the people of Darfur
will be death from hunger or disease.
When will the death of innocent men, women and children--
who want nothing more in this world than to be left alone to
farm their land and provide for their families--be too much
for the conscience of the international community to bear?
We sat with the victims. We heard their mind-numbing
stories. We saw their tears. Now the world has seen the
pictures and heard the stories. We cannot say we did not know
when history judges the year 2004 in Darfur.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The Government of Sudan
The Government of Sudan should immediately implement key
provisions of the April 8, cease-fire agreement, including:
the cessation of attacks against civilians; disarming the
Janjaweed, and removing all barriers to the admittance of
international aid into Darfur. There should be a strict
timetable holding the Government of Sudan accountable for
implementing these provisions.
The Government of Sudan should renew a dialogue with the
Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement
to discuss the political, economic and social roots of the
crisis.
The African Union
Additional cease-fire observers should be deployed and
violations of the cease-fire reported immediately. The
current number of 270 observers is inadequate to monitor the
activity of an area the size of Texas.
The United States
The United States should publicly identify those
responsible for the atrocities occurring
[[Page S8639]]
in Darfur, including officials and other individuals of the
Government of Sudan, as well as Janjaweed militia commanders,
and impose targeted sanctions that include travel bans and
the freezing of assets.
The president should instruct the U.S. representative to
the United Nations to seek an official investigation and hold
accountable officials of the Government of Sudan and
government-supported militia groups responsible for the
atrocities in Darfur.
The United Nations
The United Nations should pass a strong Security Council
resolution condemning the Government of Sudan. It should call
for: an immediate end to the attacks; the immediate disarming
of the Janjaweed; the immediate protection of civilians by
beginning a review of the security of refugees in Darfur; the
determination of the feasibility of sending in U.N.
protection forces; an immediate review of bringing legal
action against those responsible for the policies of ethnic
cleansing, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur,
and the imposition of targeted sanctions that include travel
bans and the freezing of assets.
The United Nations should immediately deploy human rights
monitors to Darfur.
The protection of civilians and access to humanitarian aid
should be a primary concern; the Security Council must be
prepared to establish a no fly zone if the cease-fire
continues to be violated.
The United Nations together with other organizations should
continue to coordinate a relief strategy for getting aid into
those regions of Darfur that have yet to receive humanitarian
assistance. Alternative routes and means of delivering aid
should be considered if the Government of Sudan continues to
impede deliveries.
The United Nations should take immediate steps to seek the
removal of Sudan from the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights.
The United Nations should set a deadline for the Government
of Sudan to comply with all obligations under the ceasefire
and prepare contingency plans in the event those deadlines
are not met.
We would like to thank everyone involved in organizing,
coordinating and implementing our trip. Representatives from
the State Department, USAID and the NGOs both in Washington
and Sudan deserve special thanks.
We would also like to thank Sean Woo, general counsel to
Sen. Brownback (R-KS), and Dan Scandling, chief of staff to
Rep. Wolf (R-VA), for accompanying us on the trip. They
played a critical role in writing this report and took all
the photographs. In addition, we would like to thank Janet
Shaffron, legislative director, and Samantha Stockman,
foreign affairs legislative assistant, to Rep. Wolf, and
Brian Hart, communications director, and Josh Carter,
legislative aide, of Sen. Brownback, for editing the report.
Colin Samples, an intern in Rep. Wolf's office, did the
design and layout.
We also want to extend our thanks to Secretary of State
Colin Powell and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan for
visiting the region. Their personal involvement in working to
resolve this crisis is critically important.
Mr. BROWNBACK. The hour is late, but I simply ask my colleagues that
we pass this by unanimous consent and then both Houses will have
spoken. This is a situation of Muslim-on-Muslim violence. If people are
worried about different religions, this is not the case. It is ethnic.
It is Arab-on-African violence.
Osama bin Laden had been in Sudan for 5 years, 1991 to 1996. This is
where he started organizing violent groups. He did it first in Sudan.
The government there has been very efficient in carrying forth what
Osama had taught them.
Finally, we can make a difference in Sudan and, by extension, all of
Africa, but we really need to act now. We are going to be out the whole
month of August. By that period of time, thousands more will die. I
realize this is a resolution, so it can be said, well, it does not do
that much, but it does put pressure on the international community. It
will be the first time we spoke ahead of the full genocide taking place
where we actually maybe can stop it and save some lives instead of
lamenting afterwards that we should have done something. The
administration has really done an overall very good job on this issue
in pushing and pressing it, but let's not stop there. Let's keep moving
and let's try to get something done.
I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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