[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 117 (Tuesday, September 19, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9692-S9693]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHE IN DARFUR

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, it is disheartening to be back on the floor 
of the Senate again to talk about the looming humanitarian catastrophe 
in the Darfur region of Sudan. Despite the partial peace agreement 
signed in May between the Sudanese Government and one rebel faction, 
the 3-year civil war

[[Page S9693]]

in Darfur has intensified in recent months. By any account, the 
situation is rapidly deteriorating.
  Today, Darfur faces a more complex and brutal environment where rebel 
groups have splintered, and one has joined forces with the Sudanese 
Army, strengthening jingaweit militias that have long used rape, murder 
and mayhem to gain control of the region.
  On August 28, Sudanese Government forces launched a major offensive 
in Darfur to finish off any opposing rebels, in direct violation of the 
Darfur Peace Agreement and cease-fire accord. As a result, tens of 
thousands more civilians have been forcibly displaced, bringing the 
total to more than 2 million people. And, of course, for those who have 
been displaced, disease and dysentery are rampant, causing the death 
rate to increase.
  Relief organizations that have not already left the region face near 
impossible hurdles to reach hundreds of thousands of desperate people 
in need of food, water, and medical attention who are also vulnerable 
to the intensifying and indiscriminate aerial bombings. It is a scene 
straight out of Hell.
  The well-intentioned, 7,000-member African Union peacekeeping force 
is understaffed, under-equipped, and has been unable to stop the 
violence in Darfur. The fact is they don't even have the 
communications, airlift, mobility, or support that most military would 
have. Estimates of the number of people who have died from war and 
disease in Darfur range as high as 450,000. That is 75 percent of the 
population of my own State of Vermont.
  The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1706 that 
would replace the African Union force with a much larger U.N. force 
empowered to protect civilians. The Sudanese Government not only 
rejected the resolution but demanded that the African Union withdraw 
from the country after its mandate expires at the end of this month.
  While the United Nations, the African Union, and most of the 
international community are united in support of a larger U.N. 
peacekeeping force, the government in Khartoum has repeatedly refused. 
I think they probably fear that the U.N. can pose a challenge to its 
own ability to act with impunity and its own ability to carry out 
murder and mass extinction of people.
  It is ludicrous that a lone despot, Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-
Bashir, can obstruct the deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force to 
stop genocide from continuing in his country. He has even gone so far 
as to threaten to attack any U.N. force that enters Sudan. This is a 
man who has made it very clear he supports the genocide and will try to 
stop anybody who wants to bring a halt to it.
  Despite the Bush administration's diplomatic efforts in pressing for 
urgent international intervention to ease the Darfur crisis, China and 
Russia managed to thwart passage of a stronger U.N. Security Council 
resolution. And on August 20, the Arab League Committee on Sudan backed 
the Sudanese President's refusal of a U.N. peacekeeping force. They 
further distanced themselves from any responsibility for the situation 
in Darfur. It is amazing. People are dying. People are being killed. 
They are being raped. They are being murdered. They are being starved 
and they are dying of all kinds of diseases. Nobody takes 
responsibility. All the forces that can do something about it--Russia, 
China, the Arab League, Sudan itself, that could stop this--wash their 
hands of it.
  The diplomatic inertia on Darfur is illustrative of just how much 
America's credibility and influence has eroded in the eyes of the 
world, largely because of our misguided policy in Iraq. We can't 
threaten anybody. We can't cajole anybody. We have lost our 
credibility. We have squandered the trust and confidence of our allies, 
particularly those in the Arab world, and now the administration's 
leverage with which to solve other regional and global crises has 
weakened. Darfur is one example. The impasse over Iran's nuclear 
program is another.
  It is tragic how much damage this administration's policies have 
caused to America's leadership on so many issues that require the 
cooperation and support of other nations. The price in Darfur is an 
emboldened Sudanese regime that has managed to defy U.S. diplomatic 
pressure and the deaths of thousands of innocent people. Urgent and 
immediate action is essential to save Darfur from further catastrophe.
  First, the President will today finally appoint a Presidential 
Special Envoy to Sudan. Many of us here, myself included, called for 
the designation of a Special Envoy for Sudan for months, so this long 
overdue decision is welcome.
  Secondly, although the African Union troops are too few and lightly 
equipped to stop the violence, they are serving as witnesses for the 
rest of the world at a time when the government in Khartoum commits 
atrocities and makes it more difficult for humanitarian organizations 
and journalists to operate.
  The United States and other nations must continue to support the 
African Union until a U.N. peacekeeping force is deployed, knowing that 
could take 4 to 6 months.
  There should be no doubt that our first priority is to get U.N. 
peacekeepers on the ground as soon as possible. But in the interim, if 
African Union troops are forced to leave at the end of September, the 
last line of protection will be lost and an even worse period of 
lawlessness and slaughter will begin.
  Third, the administration should call upon the European Union and 
United Nations Security Council to impose financial, travel, and 
diplomatic sanctions against the Sudanese leadership, rebel forces, and 
others responsible for the atrocities in Darfur.
  Fourth, we must increase diplomatic pressure on countries friendly to 
Khartoum--particularly Russia, China, members of the Arab League--to 
use their influence to convince Sudan to support a United Nations 
peacekeeping force. If they don't, Russia, China, and members of the 
Arab League also have to bear complicity for genocide. Unfortunately, 
these are the same countries where our own influence has weakened 
dramatically over the past 5 years.
  Fifth, the administration should urge all United Nations member 
states to accelerate implementation of Security Council Resolution 1706 
for the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to Darfur. The White House 
should be working vigorously to persuade other countries to commit 
troops and funds for the U.N. force.
  Finally, in circumstances such as these, the United Nations should be 
empowered to deploy troops to prevent the mass murder of civilians, 
irrespective of stubborn, self-serving opposition of the government of 
the country.
  When a country's corrupt, abusive leader, lacking any legitimate 
mandate from the people, flagrantly violates U.N. resolutions and a 
cease-fire agreement and embarks on a scorched Earth campaign which 
threatens the lives of countless innocent people, the U.N. should be 
able to go in.
  If Darfur was not in Africa but it was in Europe, we would have 
responded differently. Although belated, our response, as the leader of 
NATO, to the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia put a quick end 
to that ethnic cleansing.
  Darfur is on a different continent, but the forcefulness of our 
response to genocide should not depend on where genocide occurs or the 
race or ethnicity or nationality of the victims. Human beings are 
dying, irrespective of their color or their ethnicity or their 
nationality. The United States should stand up and do all we can to 
stop genocide.
  I have no illusions about the difficulties of ending this conflict, 
nor do I question the sincerity of those who tried. But the efforts so 
far have been woefully inadequate. The situation calls for more 
intensive, sustained, high-level attention than our country and other 
countries have provided so far. It is genocide whether it is White 
people or Black people, whether it is Europeans or Africans. Genocide 
is genocide.
  I yield the floor.

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