[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 42 (Wednesday, April 5, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H1461-H1475]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              DARFUR PEACE AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2006

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules 
and pass the bill (H.R. 3127) to impose sanctions against individuals 
responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, to 
support measures for the protection of civilians and humanitarian 
operations, and to support peace efforts in the Darfur region of Sudan, 
and for other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 3127

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

       (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Darfur 
     Peace and Accountability Act of 2006'' .
       (b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents of this Act 
     is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Definitions.
Sec. 3. Findings.
Sec. 4. Sense of Congress.
Sec. 5. Sanctions in support of peace in Darfur.
Sec. 6. Additional authorities to deter and suppress genocide in 
              Darfur.
Sec. 7. Multilateral efforts.
Sec. 8. Continuation of restrictions.
Sec. 9. Assistance efforts in Sudan.
Sec. 10. Reports.
Sec. 11. Rule of construction.

     SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

       In this Act:
       (1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term 
     ``appropriate congressional committees'' means the Committee 
     on International Relations of the House of Representatives 
     and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate.
       (2) Government of sudan.--
       (A) In general.--The term ``Government of Sudan'' means the 
     National Congress Party, formerly known as the National 
     Islamic Front, led-government in Khartoum, Sudan, or any 
     successor government formed on or after the date of the 
     enactment of this Act (including the coalition National Unity 
     Government agreed upon in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement 
     for Sudan), except that such term does not include the 
     regional Government of Southern Sudan.
       (B) Officials of the government of sudan.--The term 
     ``Government of Sudan'', when used with respect to an 
     official of the Government of Sudan, does not include an 
     individual--
       (i) who was not a member of such government prior to July 
     1, 2005; or
       (ii) who is a member of the regional Government of Southern 
     Sudan.
       (3) Comprehensive peace agreement for sudan.--The term 
     ``Comprehensive Peace Agreement for Sudan'' means the peace 
     agreement signed by the Government of Sudan and the Sudan 
     People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in Nairobi, Kenya, 
     on January 9, 2005.

     SEC. 3. FINDINGS.

       Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) On July 22, 2004, the House of Representatives and the 
     Senate declared that the atrocities occurring in the Darfur 
     region of Sudan are genocide.
       (2) On September 9, 2004, Secretary of State Colin L. 
     Powell stated before the Committee on Foreign Relations of 
     the Senate, ``genocide has been committed in Darfur,'' and 
     ``the Government of Sudan and the [Janjaweed] bear 
     responsibility--and genocide may still be occurring''.
       (3) On September 21, 2004, in an address before the United 
     Nations General Assembly, President George W. Bush affirmed 
     the Secretary of State's finding and stated,``[a]t this hour, 
     the world is witnessing terrible suffering and horrible 
     crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan, crimes my government 
     has concluded are genocide''.
       (4) On July 30, 2004, the United Nations Security Council 
     passed Security Council Resolution 1556, calling upon the 
     Government of Sudan to disarm the Janjaweed militias and to 
     apprehend and bring to justice Janjaweed leaders and their 
     associates who have incited and carried out violations of 
     human rights and international humanitarian law, and 
     establishing a ban on the sale or supply of arms and related 
     materiel of all types, including the provision of related 
     technical training or assistance, to all nongovernmental 
     entities and individuals, including the Janjaweed.
       (5) On September 18, 2004, the United Nations Security 
     Council passed Security Council Resolution 1564, determining 
     that the Government of Sudan had failed to meet its 
     obligations under Security Council Resolution 1556, calling 
     for a military flight ban in and over the Darfur region, 
     demanding the names of Janjaweed militiamen disarmed and 
     arrested for verification, establishing an International 
     Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to investigate violations of 
     international humanitarian and human rights laws, and 
     threatening sanctions should the Government of Sudan fail to 
     fully comply with Security Council Resolutions 1556 and 1564, 
     including such actions as to affect Sudan's petroleum sector 
     or individual members of the Government of Sudan.
       (6) The Report of the International Commission of Inquiry 
     on Darfur, submitted to the United Nations Secretary-General 
     on January 25, 2005, established that the ``Government of the 
     Sudan and the Janjaweed are responsible for serious 
     violations of international human rights and humanitarian law 
     amounting to crimes under international law,'' that ``these 
     acts were conducted on a widespread and systematic basis, and 
     therefore may amount to crimes against humanity,'' and that 
     Sudanese officials and other individuals may have acted with 
     ``genocidal intent''.
       (7) The Report of the International Commission of Inquiry 
     on Darfur further notes that, pursuant to its mandate and in 
     the course of its work, the Commission had collected 
     information relating to individual perpetrators of acts 
     constituting ``violations of international human rights law 
     and international humanitarian law, including crimes against 
     humanity and war crimes'' and that a sealed file containing 
     the names of those individual perpetrators had been delivered 
     to the United Nations Secretary-General.
       (8) On March 24, 2005, the United Nations Security Council 
     passed Security Council Resolution 1590, establishing the 
     United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), consisting of up to 
     10,000 military personnel and 715 civilian police tasked with 
     supporting implementation of the Comprehensive Peace 
     Agreement for Sudan and ``closely and continuously liais[ing] 
     and coordinat[ing] at all levels with the African Union 
     Mission in Sudan (AMIS) with a view towards expeditiously 
     reinforcing the effort to foster peace in Darfur''.
       (9) On March 29, 2005, the United Nations Security Council 
     passed Security Council Resolution 1591, extending the 
     military embargo established by Security Council Resolution 
     1556 to all the parties to the N'djamena Ceasefire Agreement 
     of April 8, 2004, and any other belligerents in the states of 
     North Darfur, South Darfur, and West Darfur, calling for an 
     asset freeze and travel ban against those individuals who 
     impede the peace process, constitute a threat to stability in 
     Darfur and the region, commit violations of international 
     humanitarian or human rights law or other atrocities, are 
     responsible for offensive military overflights, or violate 
     the military embargo, and establishing a Committee of the 
     Security Council and a Panel of Experts to assist in 
     monitoring compliance with Security Council Resolutions 1556 
     and 1591.
       (10) On March 31, 2005, the United Nations Security Council 
     passed Security Council Resolution 1593, referring the 
     situation in Darfur since July 1, 2002, to the prosecutor of 
     the International Criminal Court and calling on the 
     Government of Sudan and all parties to the conflict to 
     cooperate fully with the Court.
       (11) In remarks before the G-8 Summit on June 30, 2005, 
     President Bush reconfirmed that ``the violence in Darfur is 
     clearly genocide'' and ``the human cost is beyond 
     calculation''.
       (12) On July 30, 2005, Dr. John Garang de Mabior, the newly 
     appointed Vice President of Sudan and the leader of the Sudan 
     People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) for the past 21 
     years, was killed in a tragic helicopter crash in southern 
     Sudan, sparking riots in Khartoum and challenging the 
     commitment of all Sudanese to the Comprehensive Peace 
     Agreement for Sudan.
       (13) Since 1993, the Secretary of State has determined that 
     the Republic of Sudan is a country which has repeatedly 
     provided support for acts of international terrorism and, 
     pursuant to section 6(j) of the Export Administration Act of 
     1979, section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act, and section 
     620A of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, designated Sudan 
     as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, thereby restricting United 
     States assistance, defense exports and sales, and financial 
     and other transactions with the Government of Sudan.

     SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

       It is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) the genocide unfolding in the Darfur region of Sudan is 
     characterized by acts of terrorism and atrocities directed 
     against civilians, including mass murder, rape, and sexual 
     violence committed by the Janjaweed and associated militias 
     with the complicity and support of the National Congress 
     Party-led faction of the Government of Sudan;
       (2) the Secretary of State should designate the Janjaweed 
     militia as a foreign terrorist organization pursuant to 
     section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act;
       (3) all parties to the conflict in the Darfur region have 
     continued to violate the N'djamena

[[Page H1462]]

     Ceasefire Agreement of April 8, 2004, and the Abuja Protocols 
     of November 9, 2004, and violence against civilians, 
     humanitarian aid workers, and personnel of the African Union 
     Mission in Sudan (AMIS) is increasing;
       (4) the African Union should rapidly expand the size and 
     amend the mandate of the African Union Mission in Sudan to 
     authorize such action as may be necessary to protect 
     civilians and humanitarian operations, and deter violence in 
     the Darfur region without delay;
       (5) the international community, including the United 
     Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the 
     European Union, and the United States, should immediately act 
     to mobilize sufficient political, military, and financial 
     resources to support the expansion of the African Union 
     Mission in Sudan so that it achieves the size, strength, and 
     capacity necessary for protecting civilians and humanitarian 
     operations, and ending the continued violence in the Darfur 
     region;
       (6) if an expanded and reinforced African Union Mission in 
     Sudan fails to stop genocide in the Darfur region, the 
     international community should take additional, dispositive 
     measures to prevent and suppress acts of genocide in the 
     Darfur region;
       (7) acting under Article 5 of the Charter of the United 
     Nations, the United Nations Security Council should call for 
     suspension of the Government of Sudan's rights and privileges 
     of membership by the General Assembly until such time as the 
     Government of Sudan has honored pledges to cease attacks upon 
     civilians, demobilize and demilitarize the Janjaweed and 
     associated militias, and grant free and unfettered access for 
     deliveries of humanitarian assistance in the Darfur region;
       (8) the President should use all necessary and appropriate 
     diplomatic means to ensure the full discharge of the 
     responsibilities of the Committee of the United Nations 
     Security Council and the Panel of Experts established 
     pursuant to section 3(a) of Security Council Resolution 1591 
     (March 29, 2005);
       (9) the United States should not provide assistance to the 
     Government of Sudan, other than assistance necessary for the 
     implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement for 
     Sudan, the support of the regional Government of Southern 
     Sudan and marginalized areas in northern Sudan (including the 
     Nuba Mountains, Southern Blue Nile, Abyei, Eastern Sudan 
     (Beja), Darfur, and Nubia), as well as marginalized peoples 
     in and around Khartoum, or for humanitarian purposes in 
     Sudan, until such time as the Government of Sudan has honored 
     pledges to cease attacks upon civilians, demobilize and 
     demilitarize the Janjaweed and associated militias, grant 
     free and unfettered access for deliveries of humanitarian 
     assistance in the Darfur region, and allow for the safe and 
     voluntary return of refugees and internally displaced 
     persons;
       (10) the President should seek to assist members of the 
     Sudanese diaspora in the United States by establishing a 
     student loan forgiveness program for those individuals who 
     commit to return to southern Sudan for a period of not less 
     than five years for the purpose of contributing professional 
     skills needed for the reconstruction of southern Sudan;
       (11) the President should appoint a Presidential Envoy for 
     Sudan with appropriate resources and a clear mandate to 
     provide stewardship of efforts to implement the Comprehensive 
     Peace Agreement for Sudan, seek ways to bring stability and 
     peace to the Darfur region, address instability elsewhere in 
     Sudan and northern Uganda, and pursue a truly comprehensive 
     peace throughout the region;
       (12) to achieve the goals specified in paragraph (10) and 
     to further promote human rights and civil liberties, build 
     democracy, and strengthen civil society, the Presidential 
     Envoy for Sudan should be empowered to promote and encourage 
     the exchange of individuals pursuant to educational and 
     cultural programs, including programs funded by the 
     Government of the United States;
       (13) the international community should strongly condemn 
     attacks against humanitarian workers and demand that all 
     armed groups in the Darfur region, including the forces of 
     the Government of Sudan, the Janjaweed, associated militias, 
     the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), the Justice and 
     Equality Movement (JEM), and all other armed groups refrain 
     from such attacks;
       (14) the United States should fully support the 
     Comprehensive Peace Agreement for Sudan and urge rapid 
     implementation of its terms; and
       (15) the new leadership of the Sudan People's Liberation 
     Movement (SPLM) should--
       (A) seek to transform the SPLM into an inclusive, 
     transparent, and democratic body;
       (B) reaffirm the commitment of the SPLM to bringing peace 
     not only to southern Sudan, but also to the Darfur region, 
     eastern Sudan, and northern Uganda; and
       (C) remain united in the face of efforts to undermine the 
     SPLM.

     SEC. 5. SANCTIONS IN SUPPORT OF PEACE IN DARFUR.

       (a) Blocking of Assets and Restriction on Visas.--Section 6 
     of the Comprehensive Peace in Sudan Act of 2004 (Public Law 
     108-497; 50 U.S.C. 1701 note) is amended--
       (1) in the heading of subsection (b), by inserting ``of 
     Appropriate Senior Officials of the Sudanese Government'' 
     after ``Assets'';
       (2) by redesignating subsections (c) through (e) as 
     subsections (d) through (f), respectively; and
       (3) by inserting after subsection (b) the following new 
     subsection:
       ``(c) Blocking of Assets and Restriction on Visas of 
     Certain Individuals Identified by the President.--
       ``(1) Blocking of assets.--Beginning on the date that is 30 
     days after the date of the enactment of the Darfur Peace and 
     Accountability Act of 2006, and in the interest of 
     contributing to peace in Sudan, the President shall, 
     consistent with the authorities granted in the International 
     Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), block 
     the assets of any individual who the President determines is 
     complicit in, or responsible for, acts of genocide, war 
     crimes, or crimes against humanity in Darfur, including the 
     family members or any associates of such individual to whom 
     assets or property of such individual was transferred on or 
     after July 1, 2002.
       ``(2) Restriction on visas.--Beginning on the date that is 
     30 days after the date of the enactment of the Darfur Peace 
     and Accountability Act of 2006, and in the interest of 
     contributing to peace in Sudan, the President shall deny 
     visas and entry to any individual who the President 
     determines is complicit in, or responsible for, acts of 
     genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity in Darfur, 
     including the family members or any associates of such 
     individual to whom assets or property of such individual was 
     transferred on or after July 1, 2002.''.
       (b) Waiver.--Section 6(d) of the Comprehensive Peace in 
     Sudan Act of 2004 (as redesignated by subsection (a)) is 
     amended by adding at the end the following new sentence: 
     ``The President may waive the application of paragraph (1) or 
     (2) of subsection (c) with respect to an individual if the 
     President determines that such a waiver is in the national 
     interests of the United States and, prior to exercising the 
     waiver, transmits to the appropriate congressional committees 
     a notification which includes the name of the individual and 
     the reasons for the waiver.''.
       (c) Sanctions Against Certain Janjaweed Commanders and 
     Coordinators.--The President should immediately consider 
     imposing the sanctions described in section 6(c) of the 
     Comprehensive Peace in Sudan Act of 2004 (as added by 
     subsection (a)) against the Janjaweed commanders and 
     coordinators identified by the former United States 
     Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes before the Subcommittee on 
     Africa of the House International Relations Committee on June 
     24, 2004.

     SEC. 6. ADDITIONAL AUTHORITIES TO DETER AND SUPPRESS GENOCIDE 
                   IN DARFUR.

       (a) United States Assistance to Support AMIS.--Section 7 of 
     the Comprehensive Peace in Sudan Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-
     497; 50 U.S.C. 1701 note) is amended--
       (1) by striking ``Notwithstanding'' and inserting ``(a) 
     General Assistance.--Notwithstanding''; and
       (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
       ``(b) Assistance to Support AMIS.--Notwithstanding any 
     other provision of law, the President is authorized to 
     provide assistance, on such terms and conditions as the 
     President may determine and in consultation with the 
     appropriate congressional committees, to reinforce the 
     deployment and operations of an expanded African Union 
     Mission in Sudan (AMIS) with the mandate, size, strength, and 
     capacity to protect civilians and humanitarian operations, 
     stabilize the Darfur region of Sudan and dissuade and deter 
     air attacks directed against civilians and humanitarian 
     workers, including but not limited to providing assistance in 
     the areas of logistics, transport, communications, materiel 
     support, technical assistance, training, command and control, 
     aerial surveillance, and intelligence.''.
       (b) NATO Assistance to Support AMIS.--The President should 
     instruct the United States Permanent Representative to the 
     North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to use the voice, 
     vote, and influence of the United States at NATO to advocate 
     NATO reinforcement of the African Union Mission in Sudan 
     (AMIS), upon the request of the African Union, including but 
     not limited to the provision of assets to dissuade and deter 
     offensive air strikes directed against civilians and 
     humanitarian workers in the Darfur region of Sudan and other 
     logistical, transportation, communications, training, 
     technical assistance, command and control, aerial 
     surveillance, and intelligence support.
       (c) Denial of Entry at United States Ports to Certain Cargo 
     Ships or Oil Tankers.--
       (1) In general.--The President should take all necessary 
     and appropriate steps to deny the Government of Sudan access 
     to oil revenues, including by prohibiting entry at United 
     States ports to cargo ships or oil tankers engaged in 
     business or trade activities in the oil sector of Sudan or 
     involved in the shipment of goods for use by the armed forces 
     of Sudan until such time as the Government of Sudan has 
     honored its commitments to cease attacks on civilians, 
     demobilize and demilitarize the Janjaweed and associated 
     militias, grant free and unfettered access for deliveries of 
     humanitarian assistance, and allow for the safe and voluntary 
     return of refugees and internally displaced persons.
       (2) Exception.--Paragraph (1) shall not apply with respect 
     to cargo ships or oil tankers involved in an internationally-
     recognized demobilization program or the shipment of non-
     lethal assistance necessary to carry out elements of the 
     Comprehensive Peace Agreement for Sudan.
       (d) Prohibition on Assistance to Countries in Violation of 
     United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1556 and 1591.--
       (1) Prohibition.--Amounts made available to carry out the 
     Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.) may 
     not be used to provide assistance (other than humanitarian 
     assistance) to the government of a country that is in 
     violation of the embargo on military assistance with respect 
     to Sudan imposed pursuant to United Nations Security Council 
     Resolutions 1556 (July 30, 2004) and 1591 (March 29, 2005).
       (2) Waiver.--The President may waive the application of 
     paragraph (1) if the President determines and certifies to 
     the appropriate congressional committees that it is in the 
     national interests of the United States to do so.

[[Page H1463]]

     SEC. 7. MULTILATERAL EFFORTS.

        The President shall direct the United States Permanent 
     Representative to the United Nations to use the voice and 
     vote of the United States to urge the adoption of a 
     resolution by the United Nations Security Council that--
       (1) supports the expansion of the African Union Mission in 
     Sudan (AMIS) so that it achieves the mandate, size, strength, 
     and capacity needed to protect civilians and humanitarian 
     operations, and dissuade and deter fighting and violence in 
     the Darfur region of Sudan, and urges Member States of the 
     United Nations to accelerate political, material, financial, 
     and other assistance to the African Union toward this end;
       (2) reinforces efforts of the African Union to negotiate 
     peace talks between the Government of Sudan, the Sudan 
     Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), the Justice and Equality 
     Movement (JEM), and associated armed groups in the Darfur 
     region, calls on the Government of Sudan, the SLM/A, and the 
     JEM to abide by their obligations under the N'Djamena 
     Ceasefire Agreement of April 8, 2004 and subsequent 
     agreements, urges all parties to engage in peace talks 
     without preconditions and seek to resolve the conflict, and 
     strongly condemns all attacks against humanitarian workers 
     and African Union personnel in the Darfur region;
       (3) imposes sanctions against the Government of Sudan, 
     including sanctions against individual members of the 
     Government of Sudan, and entities controlled or owned by 
     officials of the Government of Sudan or the National Congress 
     Party in Sudan until such time as the Government of Sudan has 
     honored its commitments to cease attacks on civilians, 
     demobilize and demilitarize the Janjaweed and associated 
     militias, grant free and unfettered access for deliveries of 
     humanitarian assistance, and allow for the safe and voluntary 
     return of refugees and internally displaced persons;
       (4) extends the military embargo established by United 
     Nations Security Council Resolutions 1556 (July 30, 2004) and 
     1591 (March 29, 2005) to include a total prohibition on the 
     sale or supply of offensive military equipment to the 
     Government of Sudan, except for use in an internationally-
     recognized demobilization program or for non-lethal 
     assistance necessary to carry out elements of the 
     Comprehensive Peace Agreement for Sudan; and
       (5) calls upon those Member States of the United Nations 
     that continue to undermine efforts to foster peace in Sudan 
     by providing military assistance and equipment to the 
     Government of Sudan, the SLM/A, the JEM, and associated armed 
     groups in the Darfur region in violation of the embargo on 
     such assistance and equipment, as called for in United 
     Nations Security Council Resolutions 1556 and 1591, to 
     immediately cease and desist.

     SEC. 8. CONTINUATION OF RESTRICTIONS.

       (a) Continuation of Restrictions.--Restrictions against the 
     Government of Sudan that were imposed pursuant to Executive 
     Order 13067 of November 3, 1997 (62 Federal Register 59989), 
     title III and sections 508, 512, 527, and 569 of the Foreign 
     Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs 
     Appropriations Act, 2006, or any other similar provision of 
     law, shall remain in effect and shall not be lifted pursuant 
     to such provisions of law until the President transmits to 
     the appropriate congressional committees a certification that 
     the Government of Sudan is acting in good faith to--
       (1) peacefully resolve the crisis in the Darfur region of 
     Sudan;
       (2) disarm, demobilize, and demilitarize the Janjaweed and 
     all government-allied militias;
       (3) adhere to United Nations Security Council Resolutions 
     1556 (2004), 1564 (2004), 1591 (2005), and 1593 (2005);
       (4) negotiate a peaceful resolution to the crisis in 
     eastern Sudan;
       (5) fully cooperate with efforts to disarm, demobilize, and 
     deny safe haven to members of the Lords Resistance Army; and
       (6) fully implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement for 
     Sudan without manipulation or delay, including by--
       (A) implementing the recommendations of the Abyei 
     Commission Report;
       (B) establishing other appropriate commissions and 
     implementing and adhering to the recommendations of such 
     commissions consistent with the terms of the Comprehensive 
     Peace Agreement for Sudan;
       (C) adhering to the terms of the Wealth Sharing Agreement; 
     and
       (D) withdrawing government forces from southern Sudan 
     consistent with the terms of the Comprehensive Peace 
     Agreement for Sudan.
       (b) Waiver.--The President may waive the application of 
     subsection (a) if the President determines and certifies to 
     the appropriate congressional committees that it is in the 
     national interests of the United States to do so.

     SEC. 9. ASSISTANCE EFFORTS IN SUDAN.

       (a) Additional Authorities.--Section 501(a) of the 
     Assistance for International Malaria Control Act (50 U.S.C. 
     1701 note) is amended--
       (1) by striking ``Notwithstanding any other provision of 
     law'' and inserting the following:
       ``(1) In general.--Notwithstanding any other provision of 
     law'';
       (2) by inserting ``civil administrations,'' after 
     ``indigenous groups,'';
       (3) by striking ``areas outside of control of the 
     Government of Sudan'' and inserting ``southern Sudan, 
     southern Kordofan/Nuba Mountains State, Blue Nile State, and 
     Abyei'';
       (4) by inserting at the end before the period the 
     following: ``, including the Comprehensive Peace Agreement 
     for Sudan''; and
       (5) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
       ``(2) Congressional notification.--
       ``(A) In general.--Assistance may not be obligated under 
     this subsection until 15 days after the date on which the 
     President has provided notice thereof to the congressional 
     committees specified in section 634A of the Foreign 
     Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2394-1) in accordance with 
     the procedures applicable to reprogramming notifications 
     under such section.
       ``(B) Rule of construction.--The notification requirement 
     of subparagraph (A) shall not apply in the case of assistance 
     subject to notification in accordance with section 634A of 
     the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 pursuant to any provision 
     of an Act making appropriations for foreign operations, 
     export financing, and related programs.''.
       (b) Exception to Prohibitions in Executive Order No. 
     13067.--Section 501(b) of the Assistance for International 
     Malaria Control Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 note) is amended--
       (1) in the heading, by striking ``Export Prohibitions'' and 
     inserting ``Prohibitions in Executive Order No. 13067'';
       (2) by striking ``any export from an area in Sudan outside 
     of control of the Government of Sudan, or to any necessary 
     transaction directly related to that export'' and inserting 
     ``activities or related transactions with respect to southern 
     Sudan, southern Kordofan/Nuba Mountains State, Blue Nile 
     State, or Abyei''; and
       (3) by striking ``the export or related transaction'' and 
     all that follows and inserting ``such activities or related 
     transactions would directly benefit the economic recovery and 
     development of those areas and people.''.

     SEC. 10. REPORTS.

       (a) Report on African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS).--
     Section 8 of the Sudan Peace Act (Public Law 107-245; 50 
     U.S.C. 1701 note) is amended--
       (1) by redesignating subsection (c) as subsection (d); and
       (2) by inserting after subsection (b) the following new 
     subsection:
       ``(c) Report on African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS).--In 
     conjunction with reports required under subsections (a) and 
     (b) of this section, the Secretary of State shall submit to 
     the appropriate congressional committees a report, to be 
     prepared in conjunction with the Secretary of Defense, on--
       ``(1) efforts to fully deploy the African Union Mission in 
     Sudan (AMIS) with the size, strength, and capacity necessary 
     to stabilize the Darfur region of Sudan and protect civilians 
     and humanitarian operations;
       ``(2) the needs of AMIS to ensure success, including in the 
     areas of housing, transport, communications, equipment, 
     technical assistance, training, command and control, 
     intelligence, and such assistance as is necessary to dissuade 
     and deter attacks, including by air, directed against 
     civilians and humanitarian operations;
       ``(3) the current level of United States assistance and 
     other assistance provided to AMIS, and a request for 
     additional United States assistance, if necessary;
       ``(4) the status of North Atlantic Treaty Organization 
     (NATO) plans and assistance to support AMIS; and
       ``(5) the performance of AMIS in carrying out its mission 
     in the Darfur region.''.
       (b) Report on Sanctions in Support of Peace in Darfur.--
     Section 8 of the Sudan Peace Act (Public Law 107-245; 50 
     U.S.C. 1701 note), as amended by subsection (a), is further 
     amended--
       (1) by redesignating subsection (d) as subsection (e); and
       (2) by inserting after subsection (c) the following new 
     subsection:
       ``(d) Report on Sanctions in Support of Peace in Darfur.--
     In conjunction with reports required under subsections (a), 
     (b), and (c) of this section, the Secretary of State shall 
     submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report 
     regarding sanctions imposed under subsections (a) through (d) 
     of section 6 of the Comprehensive Peace in Sudan Act of 2004, 
     including--
       ``(1) a description of each sanction imposed under such 
     provisions of law; and
       ``(2) the name of the individual or entity subject to the 
     sanction, if applicable.''.

     SEC. 11. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.

       Nothing in this Act (or any amendment made by this Act) or 
     any other provision of law shall be construed to preempt any 
     State law that prohibits investment of State funds, including 
     State pension funds, in or relating to the Republic of the 
     Sudan.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Smith) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Madam Speaker, I rise in very strong support of H.R. 3127, the Darfur 
Peace and Accountability Act, and I want to commend the gentleman from 
Illinois (Chairman Hyde) of the International Relations Committee for 
drafting a bill that has the best chance of becoming law and dealing 
with the genocidal situation in Sudan. Despite sometimes difficult and 
complex efforts needed to move this legislation, Mr. Hyde has remained 
steadfast in moving forward and that is why I have continued to support 
his efforts throughout this process.
  Madam Speaker, no single country in Africa has been subject to 
greater partisan and bipartisan attention and deliberation by the 
United States Congress than the Republic of Sudan. Over

[[Page H1464]]

the past 3 years, at least nine major bills and resolutions regarding 
Sudan have been passed by this body, including an historic declaration 
that genocide was occurring in the Darfur region of western Sudan in 
September of 2004.
  For its own part, the administration of President Bush has led both 
humanitarian and diplomatic efforts to address the crisis in Darfur. 
The United States has provided more than $617 million in assistance to 
help ease the suffering of those most affected by the conflict, and 
more than $150 million to support the African Union mission in Darfur.
  I would say parenthetically, last August Greg Simpkins, our expert on 
the subcommittee, and I went to Darfur. We spent several days in 
Khartoum and then made our way up to Mukjar and Kalma camp. Mukjar is a 
very remote camp, where we saw the beneficiaries of that aid, men and 
women and children, who have suffered so much, lost so many of their 
loved ones to this genocide. But it was reassuring and quite 
gratifying, to be blunt, to see American aid providing them with 
healthy and nutritious meals as well as the medicines and at least some 
of the security that they so desperately need.
  We also knew, especially with Mukjar, that if you traveled just a 
kilometer outside camp, the Janjaweed and other killers were waiting to 
continue their genocidal deeds. It was very sobering to know the risks 
and the security fright that they face each and every day knowing that 
they cannot go past the perimeters of the refugee camps.
  We also met in Khartoum with not only Salva Kiir, the Vice President, 
who is doing an extraordinarily good job to try to bring peace to the 
region, but we also met with President al-Bashir. He and his junta 
continue to be largely responsible for many of the crimes committed 
both in Darfur and earlier in the south of Sudan.
  Let me finally point out to my colleagues that at the direction of 
the President, President Bush, the United States Ambassador to NATO has 
pressed for NATO reinforcement of the African Union mission. We all 
know they do not have enough people to do the job. The mission was 
designed and configured in a way that almost doomed it to failure 
despite herculean efforts on their part. We are now pressing for 
reinforcement of those AU troops.
  The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, continues to 
seek authorization to incorporate the African Union Mission into a 
larger, more robust U.N. peacekeeping mission. As Mr. Lantos knows when 
we traveled to New York just a week ago and met with Kofi Annan and 
others, that was one of the key topics we talked about: How do we get 
this AU mission blue helmeted so they can grow the mission, as well as 
boots on the ground to try to mitigate this misery.
  The United States also continues to play a significant role in 
facilitating peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria, between the Government of 
Sudan and the rebels of Darfur.
  Notwithstanding the multiple legislative initiatives and the best 
efforts of this administration and many of our friends in Europe, and 
despite the conclusion of a peace agreement for southern Sudan, the 
passage of six U.N. Security Council resolutions and the deployment of 
nearly 7,000 African Union peacekeepers in Darfur and the conduct of 
seven rounds of peace talks, the crisis in Darfur continues with 
catastrophic consequences. This conflict is real. It is ongoing, it is 
every day, and it demands our resolute attention.
  Madam Speaker, as many as 400,000 people have died and more than 2 
million people have been forced from their homes. Entire villages have 
been looted and destroyed, and countless men, women and children have 
been abducted, murdered, abused and raped. Weapons continue to flow 
into the region unabated despite the existence of an arms embargo, and 
attacks against civilians, humanitarian convoys, and African Union 
peacekeepers increase almost daily as peace talks in Nigeria flounder.
  Despite 14,000 aid workers that make up some 82 NGOs, 13 U.N. 
agencies and the International Committee for the Red Cross, a lack of 
security and reliable transportation means that food aid and other 
humanitarian assistance is becoming increasingly more difficult to 
deliver. While it is clear that something must be done, it is also 
clear that we cannot legislate an end to the atrocities and no number 
of forces from the African Union, NATO, U.N. or even the U.S. can 
impose a permanent peace without the commitment of the Sudanese 
themselves to lay down their arms.
  Still, as humanitarians we cannot stand by idly as the Sudanese 
government officials and rebel commanders jockey for power while 
tragedy continues to unfold in Darfur and threatens to return to the 
rest of Sudan.
  According to a recent International Crisis Group report, Sudan's 
ruling National Congress Party lacks the will to implement the North-
South peace agreement and has frustrated the Darfur peace process by 
``facilitating increased chaos on the ground and promoting divisions 
within the rebels.''
  We are all aware of the complexity of the situation in Sudan and must 
respond accordingly to all of its facets and manifestations. This 
legislation, I believe, attempts a comprehensive effort to deal with 
the tragedy of that country. The committee amendment before you, which 
is the result of 8 months of bipartisan collaboration, contains the 
following measures:
  One, while it does not authorize the use of United States Armed 
Forces in Darfur, it confers upon the President the authority to 
provide assistance to reinforce the deployment and operations of an 
expanded AU mission with the mandate, size, strength and capacity to 
protect civilians and humanitarian operations.
  Two, it encourages the imposition of targeted sanctions against the 
Janjaweed commanders and coordinators.
  Three, it calls for the extension of the military embargo established 
pursuant to U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1556 and 1591 to include 
the government of Sudan.
  Four, it amends the Comprehensive Peace in Sudan Act of 2004 to 
impose an asset freeze and travel ban against individual perpetrators 
of genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity in Darfur.
  Next, it asserts that existing restrictions imposed against Sudan 
shall not be lifted until the President certifies to the Congress that 
the government of Sudan is acting in good faith to:
  One, peacefully resolve the crisis in Darfur;
  Two, disarm, demobilize and demilitarize the Janjaweed;
  Three, adhere to U.N. Security Council resolutions;
  Four, negotiate a peaceful resolution to the crisis in eastern Sudan;
  Five, cooperate with efforts to disarm and deny safe havens to the 
Lord's Resistance Army; and
  Six, fully implement the terms of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
  The legislation also amends the International Malaria Control Act to 
enable the United States Government to continue providing assistance to 
southern Sudan and other marginalized areas and lift restrictions on 
imports and exports for those same areas.
  It also adds a section regarding the preemption of State laws that 
prohibit investment of State pension funds in Sudan.
  Madam Speaker, Sudan is a very sensitive and emotional issue for 
Members of this body. While Sudan may be providing the United States 
with valuable information relevant to the global war on terror, or so 
it says, it is still on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. It is a 
country where the government has unleashed campaigns of terror and 
genocide against its own citizens.
  It is a country where slavery still exists. Back in 1996, I chaired 
the first hearing ever on the continuing use of chattel slavery in 
Sudan, something that we thought was abolished in the 1860s.
  For many, the National Congress Party-led faction of the Sudanese 
government represents pure evil. Although we may differ on our views on 
how best to confront the regime in Khartoum, the need to promote peace 
and accountability throughout Sudan is not a partisan issue. Members, 
such as the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne) and the gentleman 
from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo), have been tenacious on this. Of course 
the ranking member, Mr. Lantos, and all of us have worked on both sides 
of the aisle to try

[[Page H1465]]

to ensure that this body remains focused on Sudan in a meaningful and 
constructive way. Their leadership has been inspiring, and I want to 
thank them all.
  That being said, the bill that lies before you today is the result of 
8 months of inclusive consultations and intense negotiations, and 
represents a truly bipartisan compromise on the efforts to address 
genocide in Darfur while supporting the consolidation of peace in 
southern Sudan.

                              {time}  1100

  And while it represents a compromise, don't be mistaken. This is a 
strong bill. It is an important bill. It is an urgent bill. The people 
of Darfur cannot afford to wait while we continue discussions on how 
best to confront Khartoum. They need our help now.
  I would also like to thank our esteemed ranking member of the 
Judiciary Committee, the chairman and ranking member, Mr. Sensenbrenner 
and Mr. Conyers, for acting so quickly to allow us to get this measure 
to the floor without further delay.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution, 
and I am very pleased to yield 1 minute to the distinguished Democratic 
leader who is in the forefront of every single fight globally on behalf 
of human rights and who has just returned a few weeks ago from a visit 
to Darfur, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.
  Ms. PELOSI. Thank you very much, Mr. Lantos, our distinguished 
ranking member on the International Relations Committee, also a cochair 
of the Human Rights Caucus. Thank you for your great leadership on 
fighting for human rights throughout the world. You have a long history 
of that. You have personal experience in terms of being the only Member 
of Congress who escaped the Holocaust, and you have brought that 
conviction, your ideas, your courage to this fight once again in 
helping the people of Darfur.
  And I want to commend Mr. Chris Smith. He and Frank Wolf have been 
such leaders on this issue for so very many years, and all of us who 
are concerned about Sudan, in particular now, Darfur are deeply in your 
debt.
  I join the gentleman in commending Henry Hyde, as well as Mr. Lantos 
and Donald Payne, our colleague, who have brought this issue to the 
forefront in the Congress of the United States. I thank you for 
authorizing this legislation, for your steadfast leadership in calling 
attention to the crisis in Darfur.
  Mr. Speaker, I bring to the floor a picture of the children, a 
picture of the children of Darfur. All of us on our trip that Mr. 
Lantos mentioned, who visited Darfur, 11 members of a bipartisan 
delegation, all of us wanted to take these children home with us, but 
that wasn't possible. There were so many of them. And it wouldn't be 
right anyway, because they wanted to go home. They wanted to go home to 
their homes which no longer existed.
  When we were there, we visited with them. And after a day in the 
refugee camp, our bipartisan delegation traveled to Khartoum to meet 
with Vice President Taha. He asked us, he said, ``The Sudanese people 
want to know, why are you so interested in Sudanese domestic affairs? I 
know the American people are free-thinking people, but maybe your free-
thinking does not create a clear understanding of the facts in my 
country.''
  Vice President Taha was denying what we had seen with our very own 
eyes that day, refugee children struggling in the heat without shade, 
without adequate clothing and sleeping in make-shift tents that were 
made, some of them, from USAID food bags stitched together.
  The Darfuris are forced to walk miles outside the camps for firewood 
and water, with the constant fear that they may be attacked.
  As Vice President Taha was denying all of this, we could not help 
recalling the stories of villages torched, women raped, children 
kidnapped and men tortured and killed. But even in the horror of all of 
that, we saw hope in the bright and playful eyes of the toddlers. That 
hope, however, was diminished in the eyes of the older children. They 
had really seen too much. They had seen too much.
  The camps we visited were homes to over 100,000 people. That was just 
what we saw when we were there. There are many more. That is just a 
fraction of the staggering toll of the violence in Darfur. But you can 
see these camps, and you can see that some of them are made out of 
USAID food bags.
  According to the United Nations, 3 million people are in need of 
assistance. Two million Darfuris have been displaced, pushed out of 
their homes and their villages, and nearly 200,000 people have been 
killed thus far, and that is a conservative estimate.
  Furthermore, the full human toll is yet to be exacted. Concentrated 
in camps with deplorable conditions, when the rainy season comes, 
Darfuris are now vulnerable to further death from disease. Sicknesses 
like cholera and dysentery could take tens of thousands more lives.
  We have seen variations on this ``problem from hell,'' most recently 
in Rwanda. And at that time, that short time ago, we promised never 
again. We have heard never again over and over again.
  The humanitarian disaster in Darfur challenges the conscience of the 
world. It is the systemic destruction of a people. It is genocide.
  While we were in the Sudan, back home President Bush reaffirmed that 
this is, indeed, genocide. When some of us, Mr. Payne, Mr. Joe Wilson 
and Mr. Clyburn and I met with the President at the White House to 
thank him for his leadership and report on our trip, we also asked him 
to appoint a special envoy, special U.S. envoy for the Sudan. This 
envoy would signal that bringing peace and stability to the Sudan is a 
priority of the United States, and it is a part of this legislation 
that is on the floor today. This envoy, U.S. special envoy, is 
necessary because it will help stop the violence, bring the parties to 
the negotiating table, and get humanitarian relief to the people who 
need it.
  Essential to stopping the violence is stopping the Janjaweed. I heard 
Congressman Smith talking about the Janjaweed in his remarks, and after 
persistent questioning in our meeting with Vice President Taha, 
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, in a very diplomatic but persistent way, 
questioned him about the Sudanese government's support of the 
Janjaweed, which he first denied but later admitted that they had 
supported the Janjaweed in the past. This was the first admission that 
we had seen.
  Before we went into Darfur, the U.S. military briefed us that the 
Janjaweed is an extension of the Sudanese military, and they are 
engaged in state sponsored violence. This must end.
  The African Union is to be commended for its efforts to protect 
Darfur. We saw the AU's camps there where people were getting at least 
something to eat and perhaps some medical attention for the first time. 
But so much more needs to be done.
  So that is why this legislation on the floor today is so important, 
because I don't even know if these children are even alive 1 month 
after we came home, these beautiful children.
  Many people in our country have been actively involved in the effort 
to get more support and humanitarian assistance on the ground. The 
United Nations dollars for Darfur were running out in March.
  Humanitarian workers in Sudan are harassed, their convoys diverted 
and attacked, and some of these workers have been kidnapped. 
Humanitarian workers bring no political agenda or no destabilizing 
intentions to the Sudan. They carry with them hope and sometimes 
health. They must be protected. Their supplies must not be diverted, 
and their volunteers must not be detained.
  So that is why I am very pleased that we were able to pass, in the 
supplemental, the President's request for $439 million, and that Mr. 
Capuano's initiative to add $50 million for assistance was accepted by 
the House. We hope it will be considered in the Senate.
  So this legislation, as was spelled out by Mr. Lantos and Mr. Smith, 
so I won't go into it again, contains very, very important initiatives 
to help make matters better. Stop the violence, bring the parties to 
the table, get the humanitarian assistance to the people.
  This brings us back to Vice President Taha's question, why is the 
United

[[Page H1466]]

States so interested in Sudan? The answer is that genocide is not the 
domestic affair of any nation. It concerns the world. And as our 
colleague, Joe Wilson, said to him, Americans care about people. Our 
care is reflected in the working done for the people of Darfur here in 
this Congress, in State legislatures, in corporate board rooms, on 
college campuses, even on high school campuses and yes, indeed, even in 
the White House.
  This care was spurred by our religious communities which have taken 
the lead in our efforts. I salute many of the religious leaders who 
have taken the lead on this. And on April 30, many people will 
converge, thousands will converge on Washington, and there will be 
events around the country put together by the Save Darfur Coalition.
  Each day that the genocide continues, and each day that we wait, the 
hope we saw in the eyes of the youngest children can disintegrate into 
disease, despair and death.
  Again, on April 30, Americans of conscience will come to Washington 
to echo the call, never again. These citizens will demonstrate on 
behalf of the children of Darfur and demonstrate that, not only is 
America great, but America is good. And this legislation on the floor 
today is a reflection of that goodness. I support it, and salute the 
bipartisan cooperation that wrote it and brought it to floor.
  Again, I thank Mr. Lantos for his exceptional leadership on human 
rights throughout the world and in the Sudan, and Mr. Smith, Mr. Payne 
and Mr. Frank Wolf for their exceptional leadership as well.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may 
consume to my good friend and colleague from Ohio (Mrs. Schmidt).
  (Mrs. SCHMIDT asked and was given permission to revise and extend her 
remarks.)
  Mrs. SCHMIDT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 
3127, the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act. I commend Chairman Hyde 
and Chairman Smith for their work in moving this important legislation 
forward.
  Defending the basic human rights of the world's most vulnerable 
populations should be a priority for all of us. Sudan, the largest 
country in Africa, has been ravaged by civil war intermittently for 
four decades. An estimated 2 million people have died due to war-
related causes and famine, and millions more have been displaced from 
their homes. This ongoing crisis in the Darfur region in Western Sudan 
has led to a major humanitarian disaster.
  Estimates are that up to 300,000 people have been killed in the 
Darfur region over the past 24 months alone. In 2004, the House, the 
Senate and the White House declared the atrocities taking place in 
Darfur as genocide.
  I am proud to be a cosponsor of this important legislation to impose 
sanctions against individuals responsible for genocide, support 
humanitarian operations and promote peace efforts in the region. This 
is not only an issue of religion or politics. This is a matter of mercy 
and humanity.
  I urge my colleagues to vote for H.R. 3127.
  I want to thank Chairman Smith, again, for this great bipartisan 
legislation.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I first would like to thank my colleagues, Chairman Henry Hyde and 
Chairman Chris Smith and the ranking member, my good friend from New 
Jersey, Donald Payne, for keeping this House focused on the grave 
atrocities unfolding every single day in Darfur.
  Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Congress determined some 2 years ago that the 
atrocities in Darfur are genocide. We don't use that term lightly. I 
certainly don't. But it was my privilege to lead the debate on the 
Democratic side designating what is unfolding in Darfur a genocide. 
President Bush later addressed the U.N. General Assembly and reaffirmed 
that our government also designates what is happening in Darfur a 
genocide.
  The United Nations Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs 
yesterday reported that the government of Sudan is preventing him from 
visiting Darfur as an eyewitness to the most recent wave of war crimes 
taking place there. In the past few months, marauding Arab militia, 
backed by Khartoum, have killed an estimated 10,000 children and women 
and men.

                              {time}  1115

  These Arab militias attacked 60 villages, sending thousands of people 
fleeing into the desert. As we speak, Mr. Speaker, Khartoum's Arab 
surrogates continue to disrupt U.N. humanitarian services, kill and 
displace civilians, and destabilize the entire security situation in 
Darfur.
  While the government of Sudan grudgingly acceded to the Comprehensive 
Peace Agreement, so-called, it continues to block every effort to 
protect civilians, stop the genocide, and bring peace to Darfur.
  The numbers of individuals killed, raped, tortured, and displaced is 
staggering. Genocide has destroyed well over 60 percent of the villages 
in Darfur. It has displaced over 2 million human beings and killed an 
estimated 400,000 and driven additional hundreds of thousands into 
refugee camps in neighboring Chad.
  Meanwhile, the escalating violence on the Chad-Sudan border between 
Chadian rebels and the Chadian military is threatening thousands in 
refugee camps and making humanitarian assistance almost impossible. 
Refugee men and boys are forced into recruitment into the rebel 
militia. Rather than getting better, the situation for Darfur refugees 
is becoming all the more precarious with every passing day.
  The President has proposed to our allies that the United Nations have 
a concrete plan to stop the violence in Darfur, deploy NATO staff and 
resources to the region immediately to aid the embattled African Union 
peacekeepers, and within 6 months establish a formal United Nations 
peacekeeping mission in Darfur. Mr. Speaker, I strongly support this 
plan.
  And yesterday I had the occasion to talk to the distinguished Foreign 
Minister of Germany, and I am pleased to state that Germany and the 
United States will stand together as members of NATO in Darfur.
  In a cynical move, the government of Sudan is putting up every 
possible roadblock to prevent this from happening. The regime even 
threatened to pull out of the African Union if it endorsed a U.N. 
handover.
  The government of Sudan opposes a U.N. peacekeeping force for one 
simple reason: it wants to complete the genocide. Working with the 
African Union, the United Nations, and our NATO allies, we have a moral 
obligation to foil this plan by actively bolstering African Union 
forces already there before a U.N. force can finally be deployed.
  The African Union has an urgent need for underground NATO advisers 
and mentors in the areas of command and control, use of intelligence, 
enhanced communications, and for NATO to continue its current 
assistance such as strategic airlift for troop protection and training 
at African Union headquarters.
  As the most powerful countries in the world, all of the governments 
of NATO have a responsibility to contribute in whatever way we can to 
stopping this genocide. It is not a matter of means, Mr. Speaker. It is 
a matter of political will.
  To this end my distinguished colleague Congressman Joe Pitts and I 
have introduced House Resolution 723 that calls on the African Union, 
the United Nations, and NATO to work closely together to strengthen the 
African Union's capacity to deter the ongoing violence until the U.N. 
peacekeepers are fully deployed.
  Recently, the other body passed a similar resolution sponsored by my 
friends and colleagues Joe Biden and Sam Brownback. This effort to 
bridge between the current African Union mission and the fully 
implemented U.N. peacekeeping operation will save tens of thousands of 
lives and allow uninterrupted humanitarian access to the vast numbers 
today in camps in Chad and in Darfur. I urge all of my colleagues to 
cosponsor H. Res. 723, the Lantos-Pitts resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3127, under consideration today, demands 
accountability on the part of the government of Sudan and those most 
responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in 
Darfur. Our bill imposes sanctions against the perpetrators who either 
directly or indirectly are causing such large-scale human suffering and 
devastation.
  I encourage all of my colleagues to support this important bipartisan 
bill.

[[Page H1467]]

  Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride and respect for his work on this 
subject that I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. 
Payne), who has been our conscience on the issue of the Darfur 
genocide.
  (Mr. PAYNE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in absolute strong support of 
H.R. 3127, the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act. I thank Mr. Lantos, 
our ranking member of the International Relations Committee, for his 
continued leadership on issues of importance to the committee, a person 
who can speak of genocide, being the only Member in Congress who is a 
Holocaust survivor. So this is very personal, as it is with all of us.
  I would like to thank Chairman Hyde for the work that he and his 
staff did for being open to negotiations with me and my staff and other 
Members as well as those of other members of the Subcommittee on 
Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations, chaired by 
Representative Smith, my friend from New Jersey, who has done an 
outstanding job chairing the subcommittee.
  I would also like to thank Congressman Wolf for his continued work, 
who for many, many years has been involved in Sudan; and Congressman 
Tancredo, who went to Southern Sudan on his first CODEL a number of 
years ago with Senator Brownback and myself; and to Melvin Watt of the 
Congressional Black Caucus and Barbara Lee and others who have stood 
shoulder to shoulder opposing this horrendous genocide.
  It was nearly 2 years ago on June 24 in 2004 where I stood with the 
Congressional Black Caucus, Leader Pelosi, and Tom Tancredo and 
introduced H. Con. Res. 467, declaring that genocide was occurring in 
Darfur, Sudan and that the government of Sudan was responsible. This is 
the government which harbored Osama bin Laden for 5 years in his 
country and aided and abetted him and assisted him.
  Tragically and to our own shame, the genocide continues today, almost 
2 years later, unabated. Many people were surprised when the Congress 
approved the genocide resolution. And then the next night Senator 
Frist, with unanimous consent in the Senate, had the genocide 
resolution passed in the Senate and the President indicated at the 
United Nations that genocide was going on after Colin Powell declared 
it for the State Department.
  Mr. Speaker, I have walked through the camps of the Darfur people who 
were violently forced by government troops and the Janjaweed 
mercenaries to run for their lives. I have seen the faces in the 
pictures that Leader Pelosi showed and to hear the horror stories.
  Try to imagine what it is like to run away from everything you have 
known in an instance at gunpoint, to look back at your home, at your 
village, to see them engulfed in flames. Imagine the cries of scores of 
men and women, young and old, being brutally killed, terrorized, raped, 
beaten.
  What continues to go on in Darfur today is the ultimate form of 
terrorism. An estimated 400,000 have already died from murder, 
starvation, diarrhea, and preventable diseases. Nearly 3 million were 
forced from their homes into other parts of the region or into Chad. 
Now the security nightmare has spilled over because the Janjaweed has 
gone into Chad. And this is the same government that for 20 years had a 
North-South war where 4 million people were displaced and 2 million 
people died. So this is a government responsible for 6 million 
displaced people, 2\1/2\ million people dead. This government does not 
deserve to even be called a government.
  Truthfully, it is difficult to imagine. We are half a world away, 
safe. That is why we bear even a greater responsibility.
  What can we do? We must call on President Bush to immediately push 
the National Congress Party to disarm the Janjaweed, to give the 
command to the government troops to stop killing innocent people, stop 
raping, to send those responsible for atrocities in Darfur to 
appropriate international authorities as called for in Security Council 
Resolution 1593, and to comply with Security Council Resolutions 1564, 
1591, and 1556.
  Whether they are government officials such as Security and 
Intelligence Chief Salah Gosh or Vice President Taha, who leads the 
Janjaweed, as alleged, we must make sure that this ends.
  I would like to just conclude by saying even in my district on 
Sunday, April 9, the End the Genocide-Save Darfur will be having a 
rally with the American Jewish Congress, the American Jewish World 
Service, the United Jewish Communities of MetroWest, Help Darfur Now. 
So everyone is coming together.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 4 minutes to my good 
friend and distinguished colleague from California, an indefatigable 
fighter for human rights, Ms. Barbara Lee.
  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, first, let me thank our ranking member for 
yielding, and also for your leadership and for making sure that 
wherever genocide is occurring, you take action to stop it, Mr. Lantos. 
Thank you so much.
  I want to thank also Chairman Hyde and Chairman Smith for their 
leadership and for making sure that as we move forward in addressing 
this atrocity that we work together in a bipartisan fashion. It is so 
important that the world see Democrats, Republicans, Independents, all 
of us coming together on this issue.
  And to Mr. Payne, let me just thank you again for your leadership, 
for being oftentimes the lone voice in the wilderness and for staying 
there and plugging along and making sure that this House and the other 
body puts this as a priority because you knew early on what was taking 
place when many did not. So thank you for your leadership.
  And let me also thank Mr. Royce and all of those who have been 
working and in the forefront of this effort because all of us 
understand now that we can no longer stand by as millions of innocent 
people are being displaced and hundreds of thousands are being 
murdered.
  I visited Chad and Sudan last year with Chairman Royce and the 
Academy Award nominee Don Cheadle, and let me tell you we visited those 
refugee camps on the Chadian-Sudanese border.

                              {time}  1130

  Children drew pictures of airplanes flying with bombs dropping. Then 
they had the helicopters going underneath the airplanes. Then the 
militia, the Janjaweed on the horses, coming in burning and raping 
women and kidnapping people. These pictures were vivid that the 
children painted. It convinced me that the Khartoum government was 
clearly responsible for this slaughter.
  We visited also just recently with our great minority leader, Nancy 
Pelosi, El Fasher and the refugee camps around the AU headquarters. 
Quite frankly, it has gotten worse. I want to thank Congresswoman 
Pelosi for her leadership, because we were able once again, and you 
heard her earlier, to visit the refugee camps and talk to people and 
see and learn what we must do in order to stop this slaughter.
  This is an important bill. It addresses not only the immediate needs 
of the Darfurian people, but also the long-term goals of a political 
settlement. First of all, it also asks the Secretary of State to 
declare the Janjaweed a terrorist organization, because that is what it 
is, and we need to be very clear on that. The AU is currently doing a 
remarkable job, and this legislation helps us to help the AU in a 
better way in terms of providing for more support. They need more 
troops.
  This legislation also blocks assets and restricts travel of any 
individual the President determines is responsible for acts of 
genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity in the Darfur region.
  It also supports the International Criminal Court's efforts to 
prosecute those responsible for acts of genocide in Darfur.
  Mr. Speaker, I am disappointed that my provision for capital market 
sanctions, which our subcommittee approved unanimously, did not stay in 
the bill as it moved forward, but my provision to support state-
sponsored divestment campaigns throughout our Nation is in there.
  I want to thank our Chairs for making sure that that is there, 
because efforts to divest from companies that support the Khartoum 
regime should be applauded and the growing divestment movement must be 
supported.

[[Page H1468]]

The University of California is getting ready to divest, Harvard 
University has divested, Stanford has divested, as well as the States 
of Illinois, New Jersey and Oregon. These provisions with regard to 
divestment are very important.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill makes sure that we step up to the plate now 
and put some teeth into our declaration of genocide. We cannot have 
another Rwanda, Mr. Speaker. One million people died, and all we could 
do there was go there later and apologize. Sometimes you see some of us 
wearing ``Not on Our Watch, Save Darfur,'' because we do not intend to 
have on our watch another genocide of that magnitude. 200,000 people is 
too many already. One person is too many.
  So this bill will help us address the growing humanitarian crisis, 
and also the security crisis. In the long run, of course, we know that 
we must have a political solution and a peace accord.
  I want to thank all of you, again, for making sure this remained a 
bipartisan effort.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 2 minutes to my 
good friend and distinguished colleague from Rhode Island (Mr. 
Langevin).
  (Mr. LANGEVIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. LANGEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to commend Mr. Lantos on his outstanding 
leadership on this issue, as well as Chairman Hyde and Chairman Smith 
on this all-important issue. I commend their leadership.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3127, the Darfur Peace 
and Accountability Act of 2006. I also want to express my deep concern 
as well as the concern of an overwhelming number of my constituents 
over the situation in Sudan.
  The ongoing violence and humanitarian disaster in Sudan has led to as 
many as 400,000 villagers killed by militias and left more than 2 
million Sudanese in refugee camps. This dire situation has also 
strained the resources of countries bordering Sudan.
  In the past, I have supported measures that call on the President to 
improve the security in Darfur and increase funding for peacekeeping 
forces and humanitarian assistance. Today, I am proud to be a cosponsor 
of H.R. 3127, which directs President Bush to impose sanctions on the 
government of Sudan as well as freeze the assets of anyone responsible 
for acts of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity in Sudan. 
This measure also calls on NATO to send a civilian protection force to 
assist the African Union mission in Sudan, which has been expanded.
  Mr. Speaker, the plight of the people in Darfur resonates with all of 
us, and we should all be ashamed that the atrocities that have taken 
place and that are taking place right now are happening in our time. 
Where is the world's outrage? Why have we not learned from the mistakes 
of the past, the Holocaust, Armenia, Cambodia, Rwanda?
  Mr. Speaker, now is the time to act. It is our duty to end this 
humanitarian suffering, and I will remain steadfast in my commitment to 
stopping this conflict and promoting peace in Sudan.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). The time of the gentleman from 
California has expired.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that an additional 
20 minutes of debate time be made available, equally divided between 
the two sides.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to my good 
friend from Massachusetts, our distinguished colleague, Michael 
Capuano.
  Mr. CAPUANO. Mr. Speaker, first I would like to add my voice to 
congratulate the leadership of the International Relations Committee 
and to this House for bringing this bill to the floor. I will be 
honest, I had some doubts that this bill would ever get to the floor, 
and the fact that it is here I think is something that deserves 
recognition.
  I think everybody here and everybody who is listening who cares about 
this issue already knows what is going on in the Sudan.
  I just wanted to rise today to express my opinion that this bill 
coming to this floor at this time is representative of what America can 
be in the world. It is representative of what America is. It is the 
best of America. I am not so sure that this bill or anything we can do 
here will actually stop the genocide in Sudan, but we need to do what 
we can do, and that is what this bill does.
  This bill represents the hopes and dreams of the world, for all the 
people who care, honestly care, about human rights, basic human rights. 
I am not talking about the kinds of things we talk about here in 
America which are the extra-human rights we would all like to see. 
These are basic: life and death; enslavement and freedom; torture and 
no torture.
  This bill addresses those issues to the best of our ability, and I 
think just for a moment, every American who cares about this issue 
should take a second and congratulate themselves and to feel good about 
their country and their representatives here in the House who have 
taken action today that we don't need to take. I don't think any of us 
will get a single vote at home because of this action. But it is the 
morally correct thing to do if America wants to continue to be the 
beacon of hope for the entire world.
  Mr. Speaker, I repeat what I said before. I congratulate the 
leadership of this House, and thank them for bringing this bill to the 
floor.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to my fellow 
Californian and good friend, who is a fighter for human rights in 
Africa and everywhere, Ms. Maxine Waters.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California. I 
would like to commend the bipartisan effort of the International 
Relations Committee, and thank you for the work that you have done on 
this most important issue.
  I was just part of a bipartisan delegation led by minority leader 
Nancy Pelosi to the Sudan. Genocide is taking place as we stand here 
today. We met with Vice President Taha. He was unapologetic, he was 
arrogant and he was uncompromising on their position in Darfur. They 
don't like the use of the word ``genocide,'' but he admitted that they 
had funded the Janjaweed because they retaliated against the rebels of 
the south who were resisting the Sudanese government.
  We are on the right track. This Congress has been good in helping to 
identify that, number one, genocide is indeed taking place. Over 
200,000 people have died.
  We watched what happened in Rwanda. We have noted over and over again 
the atrocities of the Holocaust. Yet we can't seem to get the U.N. and 
others to move fast enough to stop this genocide that is taking place 
in Darfur.
  I support this resolution today, this Darfur Peace and Accountability 
Act of 2006 today, because this will impose sanctions on the government 
of Sudan and it will block the assets of and restrict travel for 
individuals who are responsible for acts of genocide, war crimes or 
crimes against humanity in the Darfur region of Sudan. It is long past 
due. We should be tough about it. The sanctions movement is growing. We 
need to squeeze them. We need to make sure that we have the kinds of 
actions that will be felt.
  I was up in the camps. As far as the eyes can see, millions of 
displaced persons who have been driven from their homes, driven from 
their camps, living literally on the ground with little tarps just 
covering them. It is unconscionable that this should continue.
  Again, I thank the International Relations Committee.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 4 minutes to our 
distinguished colleague and my good friend from Texas, Sheila Jackson-
Lee.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, let me again applaud the 
International Relations Committee, Chairman Hyde and the ranking member 
for never stepping away from a very difficult challenge on the 
international arena.
  Mr. Smith, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa, let me again 
acknowledge your ongoing stand against the brutalization of peoples who 
are disenfranchised around this world and taking the responsibility 
that this moral Congress has, the one entity that is looked upon around 
the world for that extended helping hand.

[[Page H1469]]

  I, too, traveled to Chad and to Sudan and looked at this whole 
complex situation. On the one hand, the Sudanese government in a 
certain sense having a mea culpa, ``not me, not I.'' The African Union 
being somewhat helpless to the extent that the charge they are given is 
only to watch and to see. And then in Chad, a country that is now being 
in essence not destroyed, but certainly charged and challenged with 
responsibilities that they cannot handle, thousands upon thousands of 
displaced persons, many of them women and children.
  I visited in the heat of the spring and saw no water for the children 
to go to school, women being raped as they were leaving the camps to 
find survival, the Chad economy not being able to survive because of 
this enormous influx of new human beings. Yet, the Sudanese government 
continues, continues, to deny.
  Might I say that in the course of this work, Mr. Lantos, you know 
that I have worked very hard to be, as many Members of Congress, a 
bridge builder between nations in the Mideast. But it is important for 
our friends, our Arab friends and our friends in China, to understand 
that they are participants, that they are doing all that is good; if 
they become implementers or affirmers of the genocide, that this 
excellent legislation that has the handprint of the outstanding 
gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Payne, who consistently has been on the 
battlefield, along with, of course, the excellent leadership of Leader 
Pelosi, who passionately went to the Sudan just a couple of months ago 
with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and others, who 
symbolize the concern of this Congress, that if they don't understand 
our allies, China being an emerging ally, certainly the work we are 
trying to do in the Mideast, that they are affirming this disaster.

                              {time}  1145

  Then they are not reading the tea leaves. So I come to this floor 
acknowledging the excellence of H.R. 3127, asking for the other body to 
immediately move forward. This is not a can-do piece of legislation. 
This is an emergency piece of legislation. And the President, who 
should have listened to Secretary Powell over a year ago, who declared 
after we pressed as Members of Congress, members of the congressional 
black caucus in particular, that genocide was going on, that it was 
crucial that the genocide that is going on, that Americans, Americans 
in every corner of this particular nation would be empathetic and 
sympathetic to say stop this massive killing. And when I say that, it 
is like horses going into your suburban neighborhoods, men and women or 
men on horses and attacking your homes and sending you out of your 
homes and burning your homes. That is what is going on in Sudan.
  So let me join in the sanctions of this particular legislation, but 
let me say to the gentleman on this floor, I do think it is time to re-
energize the movement that expressed to the Sudanese government by way 
of the embassy, to be very honest with you, that people be at the 
embassy to again express our disappointment with their lack of 
sensitivity. And then I must say that what I intend to do is to begin a 
movement of divestiture. I want to see the investment houses of America 
divest of any investment in the Sudan, and we will begin this as others 
have done in their States, and Texas needs to hear my call. Get your 
money out of Sudan. They are not listening. And the only way that they 
can be heard or we can be heard is the same way that apartheid was 
destroyed in South Africa, was to isolate them and to determine that 
they cannot any longer murder and pillage without impunity in this 
particular country.
  I thank the distinguished gentleman, but I hope that we will be able 
to wage an effort, a bipartisan effort of divestiture, which ultimately 
brought South Africa to its recognition, that of separation of black 
and white and the brutality that occurred had to stop, and look at 
South Africa today. Sudan can be the kind of nation we all can be proud 
of.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank all my colleagues on both 
sides of the aisle for their powerful and impassioned statements. This 
is a legislation of conscience. I urge all of my colleagues to support 
it.
  Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back 
the balance of my time.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, let me just say, in closing, how grateful I am to 
Members on both sides of the aisle for working so steadfastly on this 
legislation. There were some glitches, there were some areas where 
there was broad agreement as well as disagreement. We worked out those 
differences, and I want to thank the Members, but also the staff. Joan 
Condon has done an incredibly good job in walking us through this 
legislation and writing many parts of it. Greg Simpkins, our Africa 
specialist on the subcommittee, who also worked on this legislation, as 
I said earlier, accompanied me to Darfur last August. We saw firsthand 
the devastating impact of this horrific genocide on men, women, and 
children in that beleaguered land. Pearl-Alice Marsh is always a great 
friend of the Africa Subcommittee, who provides very good insights. I 
want to thank her, as well as Noelle Lusane, Don Payne's lead staffer 
who works very well with us, and Ted Dagne. Together we were able to 
work through these differences.
  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3127, the 
Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, legislation aimed at stopping the 
ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.
  As a longtime cosponsor of this critical legislation, I'm pleased 
that this bill has been brought before us today for a vote. With as 
many as 400,000 killed by the orchestrated violence in Darfur, it's 
imperative that the U.S. act quickly and decisively to put an end to 
the crisis.
  H.R. 3127 goes after the individuals both inside and outside the 
Sudanese government who are responsible for the ongoing bloodshed by 
directing the President to seize the assets of and refuse future visas 
to any individual (or their family members) responsible for acts of 
genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity in Sudan. It also 
forbids any U.S. port from accepting any goods or cargo from Sudanese 
ships should the Sudanese government continue to fail to take steps to 
resolve the crisis. Furthermore, in order to give military protection 
for victims on the ground, H.R. 3127 authorizes the President to 
provide assistance for an expanded peacekeeping force in Sudan; the 
African Union Mission in Sudan, AMIS, and directs the President to seek 
NATO reinforcement of AMIS, upon the request of the African Union.
  Last month I voted for and the House passed the Capuano Amendment to 
the FY2006 Supplemental Appropriations Bill for Iraq and Other 
International Activities, which added $50 million in funding to expand 
the African Union's peacekeeping operations in Darfur. This critical 
funding will help the African Union forces provide humanitarian relief 
and protection until further assistance arrives from the U.S. and the 
international community.
  For the past three years I have voted for and cosponsored legislation 
condemning the atrocities in Darfur and appropriately labeling them 
``genocide.'' Both Houses of Congress have concurred with this 
assessment, but little has been effective in stopping the killings and 
displacement. We need to do more, and we need to come up with new 
methods to target those perpetuating the violence. The provisions 
within the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act will give us a fresh set 
of tools to apply to the situation and deliver assistance to those who 
need it. I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 3127.
  Mr. OLVER. Mr. Speaker, for three years the Sudanese government and 
its armed militia have been engaged in a violent conflict against two 
major rebel groups in Sudan. This struggle has evolved into an ongoing 
campaign of government-backed violence and ethnic cleansing, but the 
international community has failed to take sufficient action to put an 
end to these atrocities. Congress and the Bush Administration have 
recognized the slaughter in Darfur as genocide, but it is time to also 
hold the government in Khartoum accountable for the horrendous actions 
against civilians and provide international assistance to the victims 
in Darfur.
  To date, more than two million people in Darfur have been driven from 
their homes and hundreds of thousands have been brutally murdered. Many 
who have been fortunate enough to escape the violence in Darfur have 
sought sanctuary in the neighboring country of Chad, but now acts of 
violence and genocide are following them over the border. The New York 
Times reported on February 28 that Chadians are now becoming the target 
of cross-border attacks by Sudanese militia. These assaults are sending 
civilians from Chad over the border to Sudan, directly into the heart 
of the violence and bloodshed.
  The African Union Mission in Sudan, AMIS, is charged with monitoring 
an ineffective

[[Page H1470]]

ceasefire that has been consistently ignored by both sides of the 
conflict. But the African Union does not have the resources, training 
or mandate to provide real protection for the people of Darfur. The 
African Union needs support from the international community, and H.R. 
3127 is the first step in this process. This legislation directs the 
President to instruct the U.S. representative to NATO to advocate for 
NATO reinforcement of AMIS and to urge the Security Council to adopt a 
resolution supporting the expansion of AMIS.
  Today I offer my support for the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, 
and I hope that Congress, the Bush Administration and the International 
Community can work together to put an end to crisis in Darfur.
  Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Darfur Peace and 
Accountability Act, and urge my colleagues to join me in voting yes on 
this important piece of legislation. I commend Chairman Hyde and my 
fellow New Jerseyans, African Subcommittee Chairman Chris Smith and 
Ranking Member Donald Payne for bringing this bill to the floor and 
helping keep our focus on the terrible crisis in Darfur and 
humanitarian needs in Sudan.
  Three years ago, the people of Sudan began a bloody civil war, with 
two rebel groups in the South rising up against the government in 
Khartoum. The response from the Sudanese government was swift and 
brutal, and its aerial bombardment and support of the criminal militia 
known as the Janjaweed continues today throughout the country. But what 
has been done in the Southern region of Darfur is beyond anything we 
have seen in many years.
  Mr. Speaker, it was not lightly that Congress declared the situation 
in Darfur a genocide on July 22, 2004. The government and its Janjaweed 
allies have killed hundreds of thousands of its non-Arab citizens in 
the region, and this genocide continues unabated today. More than two 
million civilians have been displaced from their homes, over 100,000 
fleeing to neighboring Chad, and these refugees live in the most 
difficult situations, still surrounded by Janjaweed abusers and fearful 
for their safety. Rape has been widespread, and as the Janjaweed move 
across the region they leave a path of destruction that makes living 
nearly impossible for the few survivors left behind.
  The military of the African Union, now 7,000 strong in Sudan, is 
doing valiant work but has never received adequate support. The recent 
discussions with NATO and the United Nations to bring additional forces 
and military material to the peacekeeping and stabilization mission are 
promising, but are not enough. The bill under consideration today would 
authorize much needed assistance to the African Union Mission in Sudan, 
and direct the President to support the expansion of this force to 
strengthen their work to bring peace to the region.
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be a cosponsor of this bill, which lends 
significant support to ongoing efforts to end the crisis in Darfur. The 
bill supports the use of sanctions on the government of Sudan to 
pressure it to end its support for the Janjaweed and return to 
the negotiating table. Only through strong U.S. involvement will there 
be an end to the violence in Darfur, and this bill provides the backing 
the administration needs to take further action.

  Mr. Speaker, it is important to note that the American people are in 
firm support of the U.S. taking action on Darfur, and are strongly 
moved by this tragedy, which some have likened to the Holocaust. In my 
own district, a wide range of faith communities have joined together in 
the South Jersey Interfaith Coalition to Save Darfur. I am proud to be 
an honorary co-chair of this group which brings together people from 
southern New Jersey to take action on this issue. I am also proud of 
the students of Voorhees Middle School, who, with the help of their 
teacher Joyce Laurella, organized ``Project: Save Darfur,'' which has 
raised awareness of the crisis as well as money for UNICEF activities 
in Sudan. Individual action can make a difference, and the U.S. 
government should join its citizens in mobilizing on this important 
issue.
  Mr. Speaker, time is of the essence in this matter, which grows more 
dire every day. We cannot stand idly by, as we did in the face of the 
genocide in Rwanda and in the early stages of the Nazi holocaust, and 
then report sadly from the gravesites of those who died. I strongly 
urge my colleagues to vote yes on the Darfur Peace and Accountability 
Act, and support these steps to end the genocide.
  Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, I join today with many of my colleagues in 
strongly supporting H.R. 3127, the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act 
of 2006. As a co-sponsor of this measure since July 2005, I am 
extremely pleased this measure is finally being considered by the full 
House.
  I traveled to Sudan in 1989. I did not know much about the Horn of 
Africa at the time. But I knew this: 280,000 people starved to death 
the year before and it was not because there was not enough food. There 
was a tremendous outpouring of support from people all over the world, 
and I am proud to say that it came primarily from the United States of 
America. But that food did not get through to the innocent civilian 
populations because of this civil war.
  I went to Sudan with the late Mickey Leland and the late Bill Emerson 
and my colleague Gary Ackerman. I watched in awe as Mickey Leland 
negotiated with tyrant Sadiq al-Mahdi and with the leader of the SPLA 
John Garang, and even that unsavory character next door President 
Mengistu of Ethiopia to create'' corridors for peace.'' He was 
successful that year. And in the following year, deaths due to 
starvation dropped dramatically.
  But in the time since then, we have focused our attention elsewhere. 
We have looked away from this tragedy, and the situation today 
continues to deteriorate.
  Over 2 million people have already died over the past two decades due 
to war-related causes and famine in Sudan and millions more are 
internally displaced--more than any other nation on the face of the 
Earth. And we continue to look the other way.
  As we approach the 91st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, we must 
also recognize that what has been happening in the Darfur region of 
Sudan is also genocide. On July 22, 2004, the House of Representatives 
declared that the atrocities occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan 
are genocide. This bill, H.R. 3127, also includes this declaration.
  We need to get our priorities straight. Let's stop this war and end 
this human suffering. We can start by passing and implementing the 
provisions of this important measure, the Darfur Peace and 
Accountability Act.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, today I am offering my support 
for H.R. 3127, the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act. This bill would 
be an important step in ending the crisis that continues to plague the 
Darfur region of Sudan.
  Since civil unrest erupted in Sudan in February 2003, roughly 400,000 
people have died and an astounding 2.5 million have become displaced as 
a result of policies by the government of Sudan and attacks by 
government troops and government-backed militias. The human inhabitants 
of that beautiful land suffer daily from unimaginable torments 
including rape, hunger, looting, and indiscriminate killing.
  The U.S. government has officially acknowledged that what is 
happening in Darfur is genocide. Now, it is imperative that the U.S. 
and the global community act in defense of those in Sudan who are 
suffering at the hands of their government. If we do not do all that we 
can to bring stability to this humanitarian crisis, then we are 
essentially participating in the problem.
  H.R. 3127 aims to end this deplorable violence through a variety of 
means including increasing asset and travel sanctions, urging the 
expansion and a stronger mandate for the African Union Mission, AMIS, 
bringing perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, or crimes against 
humanity in Darfur to justice through the International Criminal Court, 
and urging the President to apply additional methods of diplomatic 
pressure.
  As a member of the Congressional Sudan Caucus, I have had the 
opportunity to express my commitment to developing a solution that will 
put an end to this continuing genocide. Furthermore, I intend to do 
what I can in my capacity as a Member of Congress to demonstrate this 
august body's dedication to supporting human rights around the world. I 
am optimistic that, by working with advocates and the international 
community, peace will return to Sudan.
  I support the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act. I also urge my 
colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this important legislation.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong 
support of the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act. This legislation is 
a much needed step towards ending the unprecedented tragedy taking 
place in Sudan, and its consideration today is long overdue.
  Over the past 3 years, the world has watched as the situation in 
Darfur has escalated into an unprecedented humanitarian and human 
rights crisis. Since February 2003, civilians in the impoverished 
Darfur region of Sudan have been subject to indiscriminate killings, 
abductions, torture and rape at the hands of the Janjaweed--a lawless 
militia that has the alleged support of the Sudanese government. It is 
clear that the government of Sudan has offered their tacit approval for 
these attacks, and in many instances has engaged in air and ground 
strikes to augment the Janjaweed assaults on the people of Darfur.
  The scope of this ongoing tragedy is hard to imagine. The numbers, 
unfortunately, speak for themselves. An estimated 3.5 million people 
are starving and some 2 million have been displaced from their homes, 
including hundreds of thousands who have fled to Chad for refuge. When 
then Secretary of State Colin Powell called the crisis in Darfur 
``genocide'' in September 2004, an estimated 50,000 people had been 
killed. That number may now reach

[[Page H1471]]

as high as 400,000 today, with 180,000 of these deaths occurring in the 
past 18 months alone according to the United Nations. These numbers 
continue to grow everyday; however we may never fully appreciate the 
enormous human toll these atrocities have taken on Sudan, the continent 
of Africa, and the world.
  The atrocities taking place are nothing less than a human tragedy, a 
world wide cause that we cannot ignore--and yet the international 
community remains essentially paralyzed and unable to stop it. To date, 
there have been 8 rounds of peace talks, the deployment of 6,000 
African Union troops, 6 U.N. Security Council resolutions and 
declarations of genocide by the administration and this Congress. 
Despite this pressure, the Sudanese government has steadfastly refused 
to take any constructive steps towards ending this humanitarian crisis.
  As the leader of the free world and a role model for human rights and 
democracy, we must live up to our own example. To this end, the Darfur 
Peace and Accountability Act takes several important steps toward 
increasing pressure on the government of Sudan to end the current 
crisis. Among its many provisions, this legislation strengthens 
sanctions on individuals and governments responsible for, or connected 
to, the atrocities in Darfur. It also provides strong support for the 
expansion of humanitarian and peacekeeping efforts in the region, and 
calls for the suspension of Sudan's membership in the United Nations. 
While this legislation alone will not end the atrocities in Darfur, it 
will send a strong message to Sudan and the world community that the 
U.S. is serious about bringing an end to the violence.
  Many grassroots groups around the country, such as the Connecticut 
Coalition to Save Darfur, have been working to educate policymakers and 
the public on the urgent need for action in this troubled region of the 
world. Their efforts have ensured that the crisis in Darfur stays in 
the public mind and today's consideration of the Darfur Peace and 
Accountability Act is a testament to their tireless work. I am proud to 
support this legislation, and strongly urge its quick approval in 
conference so that we can get this important bill to the President's 
desk without delay.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3128, the 
Darfur Peace and Accountability Act of 2006.
  Three years ago, the United Nations Security Council declared its 
grave concern at the widespread human rights violations in Darfur and 
expressed its determination to do everything possible to halt a 
humanitarian catastrophe. Since then, at least 300,000 people are 
estimated to have died in Darfur. Currently, more than 3.5 million 
Darfurians depend on international aid for survival and another 2 
million have been driven from their homes.
  In 2004, pressure from Congress and American citizens prompted the 
Bush administration to become the first government to recognize the 
mass killing in Darfur as a genocide. Since then, the U.S. has played 
an important role by pressing for an international response to the 
crisis in Darfur at the U.N. supporting the deployment and expansion of 
the African Union Mission In Sudan (AMIS), and providing critical 
humanitarian aid. Unfortunately, the U.S. and the international 
community have yet to muster the will or cooperative action necessary 
to adequately protect civilians, end the killing, and broker lasting 
peace.
  Last week the U.N. Security Council issued a resolution reaffirming 
that the situation in the Sudan continues to constitute a threat to 
international peace and security. In Darfur large scale attacks on 
villages have been replaced by rampant banditry, a campaign of sexual 
violence, and the practical entrapment of civilians in camps. 
Government backed militias have not been reined in and rebel groups are 
contributing to violence on the ground. Civilians continue to be 
attacked, women and girls raped, humanitarian workers harassed, and 
critical aid supplies disrupted. For people of Darfur, the situation 
remains one of daily violence and insecurity, desperate living 
conditions, and the persistent threat of hunger and disease.
  Sixty years ago, in the wake of the Holocaust, the international 
community vowed, ``Never again.'' Ten years ago, confronted with the 
death toll of the Rwandan genocide, leaders of the same nations again 
declared, ``Never again.'' Today, tens of thousands of women, men, and 
children have been murdered and hundreds of thousands continue to 
suffer in Darfur. The Darfur Peace and Accountability Act reminds the 
administration and the international community that the genocide in 
Darfur demands urgent attention and action, and calls upon the 
President to use both economic and political leverage to elicit 
cooperation from the Sudanese government.
  Passing the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act is a small, but 
important demonstration of this nation's commitment to human rights. I 
hope that passage of this important legislation will spur more 
concerted national and international efforts to bring security and 
stability to the people of Darfur.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support and as a co-sponsor 
of H.R. 3127, the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act of 2006.
  Since February 2003, the Sudanese government--through its proxy, the 
Janjaweed Arab militia--has carried out a campaign to loot and burn 
African villages in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Hundreds of 
thousands of people have been killed, and over 2 million people have 
been displaced. This systematic pattern of attacks against civilians 
includes arbitrary killings, abductions, looting, torture, and rape, 
and such attacks are supported by air and land strikes by Sudanese 
government forces. Congress declared in the summer of 2004 that 
genocide was occurring in Darfur, and the administration followed suit 
in the fall of 2004.
  This bill strengthens the Sudan Peace Act of 2004 by expanding 
sanctions, authorizing funding for humanitarian and peacekeeping 
efforts, and by taking additional steps to bring international 
attention to this conflict.
  First, this bill specifically targets individuals in the government 
as opposed to punishing the coalition government as a whole. It holds 
Sudanese government officials and Janjaweed officers accountable for 
genocidal acts. The bill also targets oil revenues of the Sudanese 
government by denying access to U.S. ports to any ships involved in the 
Sudanese arms or oil industries. It is important that we force those 
responsible for the violence to account for their actions and that we 
prevent the Sudanese government from continuing to profit while 
thousands are being killed.
  Second, the bill increases humanitarian aid to southern Sudan and 
other marginalized areas, which are currently under the control of the 
Sudanese government and thus sanctioned. With this provision, our aid 
will more efficiently reach those in need, even if they live under the 
coalition government. In this way, we can hope to protect those who 
have lost their homes and their livelihoods to the violence of the 
region.
  Third, the bill reinforces the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) 
in order to protect civilians and carry out humanitarian operations. 
Currently, the African Union Mission in Sudan consists of only a few 
thousand troops, and AMIS will require a significant number of supplies 
and additional troops to effectively carry out its mission. The United 
Nations Security Council should also consider authorizing a separate, 
more robust peacekeeping force under U.N. auspices.
  I was pleased that the House appropriated $500 million last month in 
emergency assistance to southern Sudan and Darfur. I urge the House to 
adopt this legislation today, which takes important steps to stop the 
ongoing genocide in Darfur.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3127, the Darfur 
Peace and Accountability Act of 2006. I wish to thank my good friends 
and colleagues on the House International Relations Committee, in 
particular Chairman Henry Hyde and Ranking Member Tom Lantos. I would 
also like to thank the honorable gentleman from New Jersey, 
Representative Donald Payne, for his leadership on Darfur and peace in 
Sudan, as well as my Massachusetts colleague, and Co-Chair of the Sudan 
Caucus, Representative Michael Capuano.
  Mr. Speaker, the genocide in Darfur is an affront to the world, and a 
challenge to the moral and political leadership of the U.S., the 
European Union, the NATO Alliance, the African Union, and the 
international community and its representative body, the United 
Nations. To date, we have failed, individually and collectively, to 
rise and meet this challenge.
  Every day, the carnage continues.
  Every day, villages are destroyed.
  Every day, women and girls are raped.
  Every day, children are held in servitude.
  Every day, the Sudanese government in Khartoum and its terrorist 
allies, the Janjaweed militias, sit fat and happy, secure in their 
knowledge that the world is all bark, and no bite--and they continue 
their pillage and their terror and their violent acts with impunity.
  This bill, Mr. Speaker, attempts to hold the Government of Sudan, its 
leadership and its militia allies accountable for their acts and their 
crimes.
  It is not enough, Mr. Speaker, but it takes important steps to 
strengthen current sanctions, increase the pressure on Khartoum, demand 
greater support for the African Union peacekeeping mission (AMIS), and 
require greater action by the international community, including the 
U.S., to put an end to the slaughter.

[[Page H1472]]

  I wish the bill would have required the establishment and enforcement 
of a no-fly zone over Darfur, but at least it includes a sense of 
Congress provision in support of the no-fly zone. But I warn you, Mr. 
Speaker, in the absence of controlling the skies over Darfur, 
government planes and helicopters will continue to support and protect 
the terrorist militias as they carry out genocidal acts against the 
defenseless population.
  Mr. Speaker, everyone talks about Darfur. For the past 3 years the 
world has called what is happening in Darfur genocide. And yet the 
situation continues, the crisis worsens, the blood continues to flow, 
smoke still rises over the few remaining villages, refugees from the 
region pour into over-crowded camps, hunger and famine stalk the 
refugees, and the conflict spills over into neighboring countries.
  We cannot continue to talk about Darfur, yet turn our eyes away.
  We cannot continue to talk about Darfur, yet take no actions to stop 
the killing.
  I fear, Mr. Speaker, the peace of the dead.
  This is not an African problem, this is a crime against humanity--all 
humanity--our humanity.
  I support H.R. 3127; it is a good step in the right direction; but it 
is not enough.
  We in this Congress; we in this Nation; we in this world have failed 
to meet the test of Darfur--and we will continue to fail until the 
killing stops, peace is achieved, and the murderers--and all those who 
aid and abet them--are held accountable and brought to justice.
  I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3127.
  Mr. TANCREDO. Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by thanking Chairman Hyde, 
Ranking Member Lantos, Africa Subcommittee Chairman Smith and my good 
friend and long time collaborator on Sudan related legislation and 
issues, Donald Payne of New Jersey.
  Mr. Speaker, we all know the numbers: the genocide in Darfur has 
claimed 400,000 lives and displaced over 2.5 million people. More than 
100 people continue to die each day; 5,000 die every month.
  Led and supported by their puppet masters in Khartoum, the Janjaweed 
militia have raped, pillaged, killed and according to this Congress, 
have committed acts of genocide against Darfur's innocent inhabitants.
  Mr. Speaker, despite the efforts of this Congress and the numerous 
governmental and non-governmental organizations who are active on the 
ground in Darfur, the situation continues to deteriorate: atrocity 
crimes are continuing and people are still dying in large numbers from 
malnutrition and disease.
  The humanitarian situation remains catastrophic, due to layers of aid 
obstruction, the lack of an overall humanitarian strategic plan, and 
the weakened state of displaced Sudanese. Refugees and internally 
displaced civilians (IDPs), a disproportionate number of them women, 
are in terribly weakened states, subject to sexual abuse and without 
adequate shelter. The numbers of at-risk civilians continue to 
increase. And as need far outstrips the ability of agencies to deliver 
aid, localized famine is feared.
  To be perfectly frank, I find it reprehensible, Mr. Speaker; simply 
reprehensible that the international community has failed to act on the 
promises made after the Holocaust that never again would genocide occur 
on this planet.
  While I stand here today as a Member of Congress and applaud my 
colleagues for their efforts, I also stand here outraged that the 
United Nations and NATO have allowed despicable war criminals in 
Khartoum, the same criminals that once provided safe harbor to Osama 
Bin Laden and as of Monday, have denied a senior U.N. official from 
entering Darfur, to dictate the method by which the international 
community may respond to acts of genocide.
  Despite my sadness Mr. Speaker, despite my outrage, I come to the 
floor today slightly uplifted over the fact that later today this body 
will vote on and hopefully pass H.R. 3127, the Darfur Peace and 
Accountability Act.
  As I have stated repeatedly during the various markups of this 
legislation, the final version of this bill is certainly not what I had 
hoped for; despite the best efforts of my staff and others, there is no 
authorization of force language; the sanctions could have been 
stronger; there was no mention of a no fly zone; the list goes on.
  Despite these shortcomings, Chairman Hyde's legislation provides the 
President with the necessary authorization authority to help alleviate 
the suffering of the people of Darfur;
  It denies entry to U.S. ports to certain cargo ships if the 
Government of Sudan fails to take specified peace measures in Darfur; 
prohibits, with waiver authority, U.S. assistance to a country that 
violates U.N. Security Council Resolutions that prohibit military sales 
to Sudan; and while the bill provides the President with the authority 
to direct our Ambassadors to NATO and the U.N. to take various action 
to stop the genocide in Darfur; and while those Ambassadors have acted 
accordingly; as I mentioned earlier, both of those organizations have 
been sluggish and as of now ineffective in taking proactive action to 
prevent further atrocities.
  Mr. Speaker, no matter how stringent this piece of legislation could 
have been, it would not have ended the killing, the rape and the 
pillaging that continues to occur in Darfur.
  While the President has taken some action to alleviate the suffering 
of innocent Darfurians, some is simply not enough when a genocide is 
occurring on our watch.
  As I conclude, it is my hope that this piece of legislation sends a 
signal to Khartoum that this Congress will not stand by idly while the 
innocent are slaughtered; in addition, I hope the President will 
increase his pressure on the international community to take decisive 
action to end the genocide and bring those responsible to justice.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3127, The 
Darfur Peace and Accountability Act of 2006. As the entire world 
already knows and our Government has already recognized, genocide is 
today occurring in the Sudanese region of Darfur. Hundreds of thousands 
of civilians have died and almost 1.5 million displaced by Sudanese 
government backed militias. It is a shame that much of the world has 
stood idly by while the slaughter continues and Sudan's vulnerable 
neighbors are left to cope with the tragedy. Additionally, the 
perpetrators have not been held to account.
  I commend my 162 bi-partisan colleagues who have co-sponsored this 
important bill. It includes additional targeted economic and diplomatic 
sanctions against the Sudanese regime and increases support for the 
African Union Mission in Sudan, AMIS, by offering assistance from NATO.
  As privileged citizens of the free world we must be ever vigilant 
toward those who commit barbaric acts in our world. Unfortunately, our 
country has a poor record in this respect. Therefore, we must work to 
ensure that the future generations will not bear this same guilt by 
acting decisively now. As a cosponsor of The Darfur Peace and 
Accountability Act, I will continue to work with my colleagues to see 
that the genocide in Darfur is finally halted and urge the House to 
pass this important legislation.
  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Darfur 
Peace and Accountability Act, H.R. 3127.
  This important bill would block the assets and deny visas and entry 
to any individual (and family member) responsible for acts of genocide, 
war crimes, or crimes against humanity in Sudan. H.R. 3127 authorizes 
support for the African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur. It 
prohibits U.S. assistance to a country in violation of U.N. Security 
Council embargo on military assistance to Sudan. It also urges a 
Security Council resolution supporting expanding the African Union 
peacekeeping mission.
  For too long the world community turned its back to the ongoing 
genocide in the Sudan. But the actions of students, religious leaders, 
and concerned citizens in the United States and around the globe raised 
awareness about the horrors occurring in Darfur. I want to thank all 
who shared with me their concern about Darfur in town hall meetings, 
letters, phone calls, and e-mails over the last three years.
  Today the Congress is answering their calls for action. Passing this 
bill is an all important step to ending the genocide and beginning to 
hold those who are guilty accountable.
  Yet, today there is great suffering in Darfur. The murders continue. 
The brutal violence still occurs. The rapes persist. People still live 
in fear. Since 2003, over 200,000 innocent civilians have been 
slaughtered. More than two million Sudanese civilians are displaced and 
many live in temporary refugee camps. More disturbing, over three 
million Sudanese are in need of humanitarian assistance.

[[Page H1473]]

  The images are stark. The stories are horrifying and sickening. But 
each one is the picture or story of a single person: a fellow human. We 
need to remember that we are all bound together in a common existence 
and a member of the global community. Those who have been slaughtered 
and those who are suffering in Darfur are family. They are our 
brothers, they are our sisters. They share the same earth we do and we 
share a commitment to their safety and wellbeing. My faith, and the 
faith of many others, says that it is immoral to sit idly by.
  Our commitment to end this conflict and to the people of the region 
must not begin and end today. We must remain focused and dedicated to 
ending the genocide and healing the wounds of a prolonged civil war. 
Justice must be served on those who perpetrated these heinous immoral 
crimes and we must help rebuild and restore the lives of the people 
who, through the grace of God, survive this hellish civil war.
  We, here in Congress, have worked to end this civil war before. We 
went on record in September of 2004, declaring Darfur a genocide. Just 
recently, the House approved over $550 million to pay for additional 
peacekeepers, increased humanitarian assistance and resettlement of 
refugees. This money is essential to maintaining the current 
peacekeeping mission and ease the suffering of those who are displaced.
  It is long past time for the United Nations to become involved in 
Sudan. The UN needs to deploy a robust and sizable international 
mission to end the genocide and then work to bring peace to the Sudan.
  After the systematic genocide of the Holocaust, we said never again. 
After the horrors of Rwanda and the Kosovo we committed ourselves to 
preventing genocide before it surfaced elsewhere. Sadly, we are close 
to adding Darfur to this list.
  I call on the President to continue to push this issue with world 
leaders and push in the United Nations to end the genocide in Darfur 
and to internationalize the response. I pray that the suffering will 
soon end, but that we will not soon forget our brothers and sisters in 
Africa.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, the United Nations has identified the 
situation in Darfur, Sudan, as the worst current humanitarian and human 
rights statement of crisis in the world. And, the United States has 
labeled the killings in Darfur as genocide.
  History is littered with examples of the international community 
recognizing the existence of genocide, while at the same time failing 
to put an end to the murder, rape and dislocation of innocent men, 
women and children.
  Sadly, the case of Sudan is yet another sorry demonstration of the 
international community's collective lack of will to confront those 
would commit such horrific acts of cowardice.
  The nations of the world must stop turning a blind eye to the 
suffering of innocents.
  I am pleased that we are considering legislation to provide further 
assistance to the African Union Mission in Sudan, and to strengthen the 
arms embargo against the Janjaweed militia.
  But we must not delude ourselves: the resolution before us today will 
not by itself solve the crisis or put an end to the suffering in Sudan.
  As recognized in this legislation, the mission of the African Union 
peacekeepers must be expanded to allow them to intervene when acts of 
violence are being committed against innocent Sudanese.
  How can we not have learned the lessons of Bosnia, Kosovo and Rwanda, 
where we watched in horror as troops in blue helmets stood by and 
witnessed the rape, murder and displacement of thousands?
  The humanitarian crisis currently taking place in Sudan is among the 
most grave the world has seen in the past decade, and at its heart is 
the genocidal campaign being waged by the Khartoum government.
  The most important, immediate step the world can take to stem the 
violence is to empower the forces already in place to actually protect 
the people of Darfur.
  I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. And, I urge the 
U.S. Representatives at the United Nations to carry out their mission 
as directed in this bill to provide to African Union peacekeepers the 
authority to stop this genocide.
  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act 
passed the House today, Wednesday April 5, 2006. This Act calls for 
action. The specific intent and purpose of this Act must be implemented 
immediately by the Administration. It is too late for more words on the 
horrors of Darfur no matter how strong the words. As Nicholas Kristoff 
in his persistent, piercing Times columns has pointed out that for 
years, we have said ``Never Again, Again.'' And yet, the slow genocide 
continues in Darfur. Babies die of hunger and thirst, women suffer a 
deliberate policy of rape; men are castrated and shot in the head. The 
starvation, the deaths, the burning of villages, the poisoning of 
wells, the slaughter of domestic animals on which people depend, the 
brutal killing of children in front of their mothers continues while 
the world watches. ``Uncover Your Eyes'' Mr. Kristoff tells us. 
``Uncover Your Eyes.'' (Nicholas D. Kristoff, June 7, 2005).
  The killing in Darfur is the first Genocide of the 21st Century. 
There is only one approach to a genocide: It must be stopped using all 
necessary means; and those that perpetuate it must be held accountable. 
There is no excuse for failing to hold accountable those who arm, 
condone and assist in genocide; most especially the excuse for a 
failure to hold a government accountable must not be ``the war on 
terror.'' Those who arm and support the Janjaweed militia as the 
government in Khartoum continues to do are terrorists. If you doubt it, 
then uncover your eyes: the Janjaweed seized nine boys from a village 
called Saleya, stripped them naked, tied them up, cut off their noses 
and ears, gouged out their eyes and shot them to death before leaving 
them near a public well. Nearby villagers got the message and fled. 
Currently rapes take place when women collect firewood. If the men 
collect the firewood, they are castrated and then shot in the head.
  The United States has given a great deal of humanitarian aid to the 
refuge camps where thousands of people of Darfur live. They cannot go 
back to their villages. The representatives from the State Department 
say the starvation and malnutrition rates for these people have slowed 
since 2004. However, they are unable to feed themselves; if they go 
back to their villages and try to restore their dwellings and grow 
crops; they will be killed. There is nothing to indicate the genocide 
has been called off. The non-Arab tribes from the Darfur region of 
Sudan are marked for death because of their tribal membership and the 
fact that they are non-Arab Africans.
  We know what needs to be done. We have the time to do what needs to 
be done. We have the means, the influence, and the power. What we need 
is the will and the leadership. First the United States must recognize 
that if the genocide is to be stopped, the United States will have to 
stop it. This is a most wonderful opportunity never before presented to 
a leader or a country. President Bush on behalf of all the 
compassionate citizens of this country must seize this opportunity.
  Second, the State Department with the leadership of the President 
must recognize that neither the mandate nor the troop strength of the 
African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) is adequate to protect civilians 
in Darfur. Third, although the United Nations Security Council has 
taken steps toward establishing a United Nations peacekeeping mission 
for Darfur, it could take up to a year for such a mission to deploy 
fully and the people of Darfur cannot wait that long. Therefore, the 
African Union must request assistance not only from the United Nations 
but also from NATO. NATO is needed immediately; Pursuant to Chapter VII 
of the Charter of the United Nations a peacekeeping force for Darfur 
must be approved. It must be well trained and equipped and have 
adequate troop strength to protect the people of Darfur and stop the 
deaths of helpless, unarmed civilians many of whom are under the age of 
five.
  In order to achieve this, President Bush must propose that NATO 
consider how to implement and enforce a declared no-fly zone in Darfur 
and deploy troops to Darfur to support to the African Union Mission in 
Sudan (AMIS) until a United Nations peacekeeping force is fully 
deployed in the region. President Bush must also approve supplemental 
funding to support a NATO mission in Darfur and the African Union 
Mission in Sudan and called upon NATO allies led by the Untied States 
to support such a mission and to call upon NATO headquarters staff to 
begin planning for such a mission.
  President Bush has the opportunity that comes once in a presidency 
and perhaps once in a lifetime. He can save an entire people, their 
elders, their parents, their children. He can stop the rapes, the 
maiming of children and women, the acts of barbarism we have shut our 
eyes to because they are unbearable to look at. I implore President 
Bush on behalf of his fellow Americans, uncover your eyes and open your 
heart. Stop the genocide in Darfur.
  Ms. SOLIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3127, the 
Darfur Peace and Accountability Act of 2006.
  Nearly 2 years ago, I joined my colleagues in Congress to declare the 
atrocities in Darfur ``genocide.'' Despite this declaration, hundreds 
of thousands are dead, millions remain displaced and peacekeepers 
continue to lack needed support. It is clear that additional action is 
needed and I am pleased to join my colleagues today in supporting 
passage of the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act of 2006.
  The Khartoum government must be held accountable. It is my hope that 
with this legislation President Bush will exercise the influence of the 
United States at the United Nations to

[[Page H1474]]

garner greater support from the world community to end the crisis in 
Darfur and bring peace to the Sudanese people.
  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support the 
passage of the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act. This bill reflects 
the United States' continued commitment to see that the violence ends 
and a lasting peace is achieved in Darfur.
  Darfur has already been acknowledged as the worst human rights 
tragedy since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Nowhere else have we recently 
seen such a massive attack on innocent civilians who are left to suffer 
in complete isolation, cut off from the rest of the world.
  Nearly 400,000 people have already died in Darfur and over two 
million people continue to live as refugees and internally displaced 
persons. Thousands of women have been raped and sexually abused and 
children are left to die from malnutrition, dysentery and infectious 
diseases.
  Mr. Speaker, last month's approval by the House of funding for Sudan 
is a solid commitment that brings us closer to resolving the crisis in 
Darfur and helping those in need. But it is not enough. Congress must 
continue and hold steadfast to the basic principles of freedom and 
human rights that we stand for and press on until justice is brought to 
the Darfurians.
  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to reiterate my grave concern 
about the situation in Darfur and to express my support for H.R. 3127, 
the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act of 2006. International efforts 
to end the genocide now occurring in Darfur have been lackluster. We 
should be doing more to intervene on behalf of the thousands of 
innocent men, women and children in that region. I am hopeful that this 
legislation will give added momentum to ending that genocide. 
Authorizing the President to provide assistance to the African Union 
Mission on the ground through NATO is just one of the ways that we can 
fight to bring an end to the violence.
  In addition to supporting H.R. 3127, there are several other measures 
that send a message to the Sudanese that the United States cannot 
accept the current state situation such as supporting H. Res. 675, a 
resolution expressing disapproval of the Arab League's decision to hold 
its 2006 summit in Khartoum, Sudan. The resolution calls on the Arab 
League, the government of Sudan, the Sudanese rebels, and the world 
community to do all they can to end acts of genocide in the Darfur 
Region of Sudan.
  One of the most effective tools in sending a message to the Sudanese 
government is divestment. I, along with many colleagues, have requested 
that the University of California Office of the President develop a 
plan of divestment from Sudan.
  Mr. Speaker, the Sudanese government is in complete denial of their 
role in supporting genocide and we must act now to send a message that 
the U.S. will not tolerate this situation--we must pass H.R. 3127.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3128, the 
Darfur Peace and Accountability Act of 2006.
  Three years ago, the United Nations Security Council declared ``its 
grave concern at the widespread human rights violations'' in Darfur and 
``expressed its determination to do everything possible to halt a 
humanitarian catastrophe.'' Since then, at least 300,000 people are 
estimated to have died in Darfur. Currently, more than 3.5 million 
Darfurians depend on international aid for survival and another 2 
million have been driven from their homes.
  In 2004, pressure from Congress and American citizens prompted the 
Bush Administration to become the first government to recognize the 
mass killing in Darfur as a genocide. Since then, the U.S. has played 
an important role by pressing for an international response to the 
crisis in Darfur at the UN, supporting the deployment and expansion of 
the African Union Mission In Sudan (AMIS), and providing critical 
humanitarian aid. Unfortunately, the U.S. and the international 
community have yet to muster the will or cooperative action necessary 
to adequately protect civilians, end the killing, and broker lasting 
peace.
  Last week the UN Security Council issued a resolution reaffirming 
``that the situation in the Sudan continues to constitute a threat to 
international peace and security.'' In Darfur large scale attacks on 
villages have been replaced by rampant banditry, a campaign of sexual 
violence, and the practical entrapment of civilians in camps. 
Government backed militias have not been reined in and rebel groups are 
contributing to violence on the ground. Civilians continue to be 
attacked, women and girls raped, humanitarian workers harassed, and 
critical aid supplies disrupted. For people of Darfur, the situation 
remains one of daily violence and insecurity, desperate living 
conditions, and the persistent threat of hunger and disease.
  Sixty years ago, in the wake of the Holocaust, the international 
community vowed, ``Never again.'' Ten years ago, confronted with the 
death toll of the Rwandan genocide, leaders of the same nations again 
declared, ``Never again.'' Today, tens of thousands of women, men, and 
children have been murdered and hundreds of thousands continue to 
suffer in Darfur. The Darfur Peace and Accountability Act reminds the 
Administration and the international community that the genocide in 
Darfur demands urgent attention and action, and calls upon the 
President to use both economic and political leverage to elicit 
cooperation from the Sudanese government.
  Passing the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act is a small, but 
important demonstration of this nation's commitment to human rights. I 
hope that passage of this important legislation will spur more 
concerted national and international efforts to bring security and 
stability to the people of Darfur.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to express my strong support 
for the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act and urge my colleagues to 
vote for it. This important bill takes critical steps towards ending 
the genocide in Darfur by authorizing the President to provide 
assistance to expand the African Union Mission in Sudan while also 
strengthening sanctions on countries that provide military assistance 
to Sudan.
  The crisis in Darfur, Sudan began in February 2003 when two rebel 
groups emerged to challenge the National Islamic Front government in 
Darfur. Since then, over 300,000 people have died and nearly 2 million 
have been displaced from their homes. It is unfortunate that it took 
the United States until July of 2004 to recognize that these events in 
Darfur constituted genocide and it has taken until April of 2006 for 
the House of Representatives to consider this bill. We have seen far 
too many times the consequences of ignoring genocide or failing to get 
involved quickly.
  The fact is that while we take a crucial step today, more remains to 
be accomplished to ensure a lasting peace in the Darfur region of 
Sudan. Yesterday, in the New York Times, Jan Egeland, the U.N. under-
secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, 
stated, ``Many believe the problems are over in Darfur. They are 
getting worse.'' The United States government must continue to work in 
conjunction with the United Nations and other allies to put pressure on 
the Sudanese government to allow U.N. peacekeeping forces into the 
country.
  I have introduced legislation expressing disapproval of the Arab 
League's decision to hold its 2006 summit in Khartoum, Sudan. The world 
community needs to join us as one in condemning the tragedy in Darfur 
and pressing the Sudanese government to end it.
  Mr. Speaker, the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act is a crucial 
step towards ending the violence. We need to remember, however, that we 
have more to do to end this humanitarian crisis. With nearly two 
million people displaced from their homes and hundreds of thousands 
dead, resolving this conflict should be a priority for Congress and the 
Administration. We cannot allow a tragedy of this magnitude to occur in 
today's world.
  Ms. SCHWARTZ of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, since February 2003, it is 
estimated that the government-sanctioned violence in Darfur has 
displaced 2 million people, forced 200,000 people into exile and led to 
the murder of 300,000 civilians. In July 2004, the United States 
Congress declared the atrocities in Darfur genocide.
  Mr. Speaker, I have a deep and personal understanding of the horrors 
of genocide. My mother, Renee Perl, was forced to flee Austria--alone--
at the age of 14 to escape the Holocaust, leaving behind her family and 
friends.
  As my mother fled the Nazis, the world stood by as Hitler sent Jews 
to their deaths at Auschwitz, Dachau and Treblinka. Six million deaths 
later, the world pledged ``Never Again''.
  Yet, only years after the Nazi-era, millions were sent to their 
deaths in places such as Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda, and the world 
once again took too long to act. And today, millions of innocent 
Darfurian men, women and children are being persecuted by the Sudanese 
government and government-backed militias. To date, however, the 
perpetrators of these atrocities have faced little to no punishment for 
their actions and the genocide continues.
  The 20th century taught us how far unbridled evil can and will go 
when the world fails to confront it. It is time that we heed the 
lessons of the 20th century and stand up to these murderers. It is time 
that we end genocide in the 21st century.
  The bill we are considering today is an important step in this 
direction. By imposing direct penalties on those responsible for crimes 
in Darfur, we are sending a strong message to the Sudanese government. 
But, more must be done.
  The serious crimes by the Sudanese government and the government-
supported militias must be met with serious consequences. We must work 
for tough international economic sanctions on the Sudanese government. 
We must continue to support efforts to

[[Page H1475]]

bring those responsible for crimes against humanity before the 
International Criminal Court. And, most importantly, we must continue 
pressing for a strong, international military engagement with a robust 
mandate to protect civilians in Darfur.
  All across America, millions of Americans are demanding that we take 
action. I urge my colleagues to support this bill and I urge the 
administration to do all it can to end this genocide.
  Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3127, the Darfur 
Peace and Accountability Act. Passage of this bill, which is long 
overdue, will help fulfill the U.S.'s role in ending the genocide in 
Sudan.
  More than a year and a half ago, Congress voted unanimously to 
condemn the genocide in Darfur. Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell 
declared the atrocities in Darfur to be genocide, a statement that was 
hailed as significant and meaningful coming from the highest echelons 
of the U.S. government. Despite these clear pronouncements, however, 
more people die every day and the slow genocide in Darfur persists 
unabated.
  It is beyond imagination that the collective might and concerted will 
of the nations of the world cannot find a way to end this daily toll of 
human misery. I hope and pray that Sudan will allow the proposed UN 
peacekeeping mission to move forward so that we can end this 
devastation. While we wait, however, we must find ways to make the 
African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) stronger, and to bolster these 
efforts with a NATO support.
  We must also send the message to those who perpetrate genocide that 
there will be consequences. The Darfur Peace and Accountability Act 
would impose harsh sanctions against those who are complicit in or 
responsible for acts of genocide, freezing their assets and restricting 
their ability to travel, and would block the Government of Sudan's 
access to the oil revenues used to fund the ongoing genocide.
  The bill also properly recognizes that ending the genocide in Darfur 
is not a challenge to be solved by the United States alone. It provides 
clear support for efforts to establish a U.N. peacekeeping presence in 
Darfur and other multilateral initiatives to pressure the Sudanese 
government to end the genocide.
  My colleagues, ``Never Again'' is a phrase we have all heard before. 
We have all said it before. It is one of the most powerful expressions 
of the natural human inclination to stop suffering, to end the death 
and destruction that stems from senseless hatred and indifference to 
human life.
  Never Again will we let 6,000,000 Jews perish under the noses of the 
civilized world. Never Again will we let Rwandans be rounded up and 
indiscriminately killed because of their tribal affiliation. Never 
Again will we allow ethnic cleansing in the Balkans.
  The problem with the phrase ``Never Again,'' however, is that it is 
usually uttered after the violence is over, as a rallying cry against 
history repeating itself. We have seen, time and time again, that 
history does repeat itself, and it is simply not enough to say that we 
will prevent it next time. We must end the genocide in Darfur now.
  The Darfur genocide is not a Sudanese problem or an African problem. 
It is a human tragedy, and it is ours to solve. If we are serious about 
``Never Again,'' let passage of the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act 
today be just one step along this long and arduous road.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) that the House 
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3127, as amended.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of 
those present have voted in the affirmative.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this question will 
be postponed.

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