[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 117 (Tuesday, September 19, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H6716]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       IMMINENT CRISIS IN DARFUR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Doyle) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DOYLE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call on my colleagues in the 
House to act quickly on an issue where literally thousands of lives 
hang in the balance. I speak, of course, of the situation in Darfur, 
where the Sudanese Government is pursuing a policy of genocide.
  This is different than your run-of-the-mill civil war. This is a case 
in which a government has pursued policies of widespread destruction, 
rape and murder in order to destroy entire tribes that it considers 
enemies.
  The Sudanese Government and its allies consciously target civilians.
  I do not care which term you prefer, a systematic violation of human 
rights, violations of international law, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, 
crimes against humanity, or genocide, the undisputable bottom line is 
that the Sudanese Government is carrying out and supporting acts so 
reprehensible and so horrible that no one with the ability to try to 
stop it can, in good conscience, fail to do so.
  For the last 3 years, the Sudanese Government and its proxies, the 
Janjaweed militias, have been attacking villages in Darfur; destroying 
homes, crops and properties; and killing, raping and torturing innocent 
civilians in a concerted effort to destroy, or at least displace, the 
tribes most closely associated with the Darfur rebel groups. As a 
result of this violence and the resulting starvation, exposure and 
disease, 300,000 people have died, and 2 million more are refugees.
  A cease-fire agreement was reached in 2004, and the Sudanese 
Government agreed to monitoring by an African Union force of 7,000 
troops.
  The deployment of this African mission in Sudan, inadequate though it 
was to oversee an area the size of Texas, forced the Sudanese 
Government and the Janjaweed militias to be a bit more surreptitious 
about their genocidal activities, which continued, but at a 
significantly slower pace.
  The Sudanese Government and one rebel faction signed a peace 
agreement this past May. Nevertheless, the killing by government forces 
and the Janjaweed militias has continued. In fact, the Sudanese 
Government has launched a major military offensive to finish the job in 
Darfur before it is compelled by international pressure to allow the 
U.N. peacekeepers into the region. This is a major violation of the 
Darfur peace agreement.
  The mandate of the African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur is 
set to expire at the end of September, just over a week from now. At 
that point there will be no military force protecting the people of 
Darfur from the central government and the Janjaweed militias, and no 
official observers to deter the Sudanese military and militias by 
bearing witness to their acts. The only constraint on the Sudanese 
Government's genocidal policies will be gone, and many of us are 
worried that what will follow will rival the level of death and 
destruction inflicted in Rwanda 12 years ago. Moreover, without the AU 
peacekeepers in place, humanitarian aid deliveries will grind to a 
halt, endangering the 3 million people who rely on that aid for 
survival.
  Millions of lives are at stake, and the only practical solution at 
hand is an extension of the AMIS peacekeeping force's mandate. The AU 
Peace and Security Council is expected to approve the AMIS mandate 
tomorrow. We need to do our part as well.
  Recently the other body adopted an amendment to the 2007 defense 
appropriations bill that would increase funding for the African Mission 
in Sudan by $20 million. The other body, to its great credit, 
recognized the fact that only the African Mission in Sudan can prevent 
the likely deaths of thousands of people.
  I rise today to urge my colleagues to adopt this provision in the 
conference report, in this appropriations bill. We have no morally 
acceptable choice but to act and act quickly. Let us do our part to 
prevent more deaths in Darfur.

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