[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 118 (Wednesday, September 20, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H6819-H6820]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           GENOCIDE IN DARFUR

  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to speak out of order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentlewoman from 
California is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Payne for his 
leadership, and for being that lone voice many, many years ago, calling 
to our attention the atrocities, the genocide, that has been taking 
place in Darfur.
  We have debated this genocide for nearly 2 years now. It is time for 
action. As we speak, the violence in Darfur escalates while the hands 
of the United Nations, quite frankly, are tied by Sudanese President 
al-Bashir.
  Mr. Speaker, this is the moment of truth. The world is watching. Just 
yesterday, the President announced at the United Nations General 
Assembly that Andrew Natsios will serve as the President's Special 
Envoy for Sudan. A special envoy is long overdue.
  The situation in Darfur has deteriorated rapidly over the last few 
months. Rapes have increased. There were about 500 rapes over the 
summer in one camp alone. Twelve humanitarian workers have been killed, 
including two in the last 4 weeks.
  Mr. Speaker, 26,000 Sudan armed forces are headed to Darfur for major 
offensive. There has been renewed aerial bombardment. Twelve years ago, 
the world stood by when almost 1 million people were slaughtered in 
Rwanda. And for the most part the only thing our government did was say 
``I'm sorry,'' and that was after the fact.
  Now we have said, ``Not on our watch. We will not have another 
Rwanda,'' so our credibility, quite frankly, is on the line. We cannot 
let Darfur become another Rwanda. Already too many people, we are 
hearing upwards of 400,000 to 450,000 people have died. Too many women 
have been raped, too many villages have been burned, and too many 
people have been displaced.
  I witnessed this ongoing tragedy on two occasions. The first time was 
in January of 2005 in a bipartisan delegation under the leadership of 
Chairman Ed Royce. We visited the refugee camps in Chad and went into 
Darfur with two great humanitarian leaders, Don Cheadle, the brilliant 
Academy Award nominee, star of ``Hotel Rwanda,'' and also Paul Rusase-
bi-gee-na whose courage in Rwanda saved many, many lives.
  During that visit we saw children and we talked to the children who 
were traumatized. Everyone was traumatized. You could see it in their 
eyes. They were dazed. The children painted pictures when we said what 
happened. They painted pictures of airplanes and helicopters with bombs 
dropping on the villages. Then at the bottom of picture, what was there 
but men on horseback with guns and with machetes burning down the 
villages and killing the people. This is what children saw and what 
they were communicating with us and begging and pleading us to stop.
  Most recently, under the great leadership of Minority Leader Nancy

[[Page H6820]]

Pelosi, she led a bipartisan delegation, we once again visited refugee 
camps in another region of Darfur and saw the same suffering. This was 
a year and a half later, and it was escalating and getting worse. We 
talked to people and saw once again, genocide is taking place right 
during our watch. We have to be more about action and not just about 
talk. We have to use every tool available to end this genocide. That is 
why we are doing everything we can do.
  We are frustrated by the slow action of this Congress and especially 
the Senate. The House passed the bipartisan Darfur Peace and 
Accountability Act in April. Who knows how many lives would have been 
saved had that bill been moved out of the Senate quickly?
  Yes, I believe we have to hit Khartoum where it hurts, and that is in 
their pocketbook, and allow States to divest of their pension funds in 
companies with blood on their hands, companies that have invested and 
are doing business in the Sudan. You may remember that divestment was a 
successful tool in ending the apartheid regime of South Africa.
  Today, young people, State legislatures, colleges, universities, 
States, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon and Maine, have all passed 
legislation mandating divestment of State funds from companies that 
conduct business in the Sudan. The divestment legislation in California 
awaits signature of our Governor. States like Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island, North Carolina, Kansas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Georgia, Maryland, 
New York, Iowa and Texas, all of these States have legislation, they 
are drafting it or it is in place, to divest of State funds from 
companies that conduct business in the Sudan. It is a shame that we 
can't get this provision in the bill or keep it in the bill as it moves 
out of the Senate.
  Additionally, Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) are driving 
their respective colleges and universities to divest from companies 
doing business in the Sudan.
  And yes, we have introduced the Darfur Accountability and Divestment 
Act which applauds the divestment efforts and provides preemption 
language to protect their divestment activities.
  And we also believe in this bill that we are going to go a little bit 
further and say the United States Government prohibits contracts with 
any multinational company doing business in the Sudan if the nature of 
the business relationship is with the national, regional, and local 
Government of Sudan, and many other aspects of really calling out those 
companies who continue to hide behind the shield of their business 
operations and investment operations, but really what they are doing is 
contributing to the Sudanese Government in their efforts to wipe out a 
whole group of people.
  We are not without options to stop this genocide and the suffering in 
Darfur. If we have the political will, we can end the suffering. It is 
a desperate situation. It is a humanitarian catastrophe. We must insist 
upon a real political settlement, a peace agreement that goes far 
beyond the May 6 agreement.
  We have to ensure that Darfurians return to their villages quickly 
and reclaim their lives. We have to bring the perpetrators of this 
State-sponsored genocide, and that is what it is, State-sponsored 
genocide; we have to bring them to justice. I thank Mr. Payne for his 
leadership.

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