[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 117 (Tuesday, September 19, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H6718]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H6718]]
                SUDAN TEETERING ON THE EDGE OF DISASTER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. As the end of the session begins to revolve 
and move toward an end, you begin to hear a lot of discussions about 
the end of the session business or unfinished business. And I hope as 
we proceed toward the first conclusion of the 109th Congress, we will 
view the concept of unfinished business as not only domestic but 
international. I ask that this body and the administration, this 
Nation, not have on our clock another Rwanda.
  I don't think our former President would mind when I make the remarks 
that one of the most difficult days and difficult times of that past 
administration was the failure to act expeditiously on Rwanda. And 
today we ask that Sudan not be another Rwanda, Sudan that is now 
teetering on the edge of disaster, human disaster, and the devastation 
of thousands upon hundreds of thousands of human beings. And what is 
the reason? The reason simply is one person, one man, one human being, 
one head of state, one president. The President of Sudan indicates that 
if the African Union peacekeepers were to set foot on the soil of 
Sudan, he would consider it an attack and therefore attack individuals 
dispatched by the world community.
  Now, the question becomes, what is the response of this world 
community? Is it intimidation, to be intimidated? Is it false 
diplomacy, to sit back and allow this person to brutalize and to, if 
you will, reject the hand of friendship offered by the collective world 
community?
  I ask that we not be intimidated and oppressed by the President of 
Sudan and that we demand that African Union peacekeepers who have been 
dispatched by the United Nations, the very body that has been sent to 
bring the world nations together to solve problems, do their job. And 
that requires sometimes enhanced diplomacy, not accepting diplomacy, 
and certainly a firm hand and firm attitude and firm action.
  None of us are asking to provoke violence, but violence already 
exists in the Sudan. For those of us who have gone, some of us who went 
through Chad because the Sudanese Government refused to give a number 
of Members of Congress the diplomatic papers necessary, many just 
simply went. When I went to Chad and visited with the refugees there in 
the camps, Chad already as a neighboring country is overwhelmed and 
being, if you will, undermined by the hundreds of thousands of refugees 
and the lack of support and resources. I was glad to support an 
amendment to the foreign operations appropriations to ensure that some 
of those heavy burdens of Chad would be provided for.
  But you have not and cannot understand the devastation of violence in 
Sudan if you have not sat down on the ground with the women in a circle 
as I have in those refugee camps listening to women who would not look 
at me face to face, who hid their eyes and their faces, who didn't want 
to talk about the massive rapes over and over again by those who would 
intimidate, rape, murder their men and them and their children. Women 
who had to go out to get the firewood because the man could not. The 
men obviously were not raped, they were brutalized and murdered, and so 
the women sacrificed their bodies by going out to be raped, because if 
the men went out they would be murdered. Is this not a call to action? 
Is this not a reason to tell the President of Sudan to stand down and 
step aside?
  We have gone into conflict and we have had rousing and vigorous 
debates on lesser items than this. And so to the President who is now 
at the United Nations, it is time to turn these three days of the 
general assembly around issues of severity. There is life or death 
matters going on in Sudan. And might I just say this: just a few weeks 
ago, there was some sort of survey that categorized the Members of 
Congress and their response to these issues. Unfortunately, it was a 
skewed survey, because one of the amendments that it scored was an 
amendment that this Congress utilize to make a point by taking money 
away from Egypt. Obviously, that is not the right way to go when you 
talk about solving the problem of Sudan. The way to solve the problem 
for Sudan is to put an allotment of dollars that doesn't take away from 
anyone and enhances both the resources necessary for bringing those 
violent perpetrators out of there and away from those refugees, and as 
well supporting the African Union peacekeepers.

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