[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 118 (Wednesday, September 20, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H6821]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE WORSENING GENOCIDE IN DARFUR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Jefferson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Payne, Congressman 
McGovern, and Congresswoman Barbara Lee for their leadership and for 
their commitment to bring peace and security in the war-torn region in 
western Sudan that we have talked about today as Darfur.
  I rise today to echo what my colleagues of the Sudan Caucus have 
already said. We all know what is going on in Darfur and what needs to 
be done. What else needs to be said or done for the United Nations to 
act effectively?
  The situation in Darfur has deteriorated rapidly over just the last 
few months, with increased rapes, 500 rapes over the summer in one camp 
alone; renewed attacks on innocent victims, 12 humanitarian workers 
killed, including 2 in the last 4 weeks; 26,000 Sudan Armed Forces 
headed to the Darfur region to engage in a major offensive; renewed air 
bombardments; the peace agreement not working; continued integration of 
the Janjaweed into the security forces of the national police of the 
government; government-sponsored terrorism against innocent victims.
  How many lives need to be affected, Mr. Speaker, before we say it is 
enough? Two point six million, is that not enough?
  How many people need to be displaced, Mr. Speaker? Two million? Two 
million is not enough?
  How many people need to die? Four hundred thousand women and 
children, innocent people?
  How many women need to be raped before we say enough is enough in 
that region of the world, and our Nation will not stand for it?
  Someone said the death of any person diminishes each one of us. If 
that be true, and if we are truly involved in the global world, then 
all of us, every life in this country, every life in America, every 
life in the world, is made smaller and less significant by the 
suffering we let others endure and by the suffering we tolerate of them 
in Darfur.
  The people of Darfur are suffering a slow and painful death, and it 
is a catastrophe that doesn't have to take place. We have options. We 
can do things about this. And as other speakers have said, it doesn't 
involve brute force. It doesn't involve going to war. It involves 
making sure that the United Nations does its job, that America does its 
job, that we engage the government there, but that we don't wait for 
the government to give permission to come into the region, that we do 
what needs to be done. Because that region is so vast and so large and 
so difficult to patrol, it takes a lot of forces in there to make it 
work. And it takes, also, people on the ground feeling confident and 
hopeful enough to take some things into their own hands. Right now they 
don't have any idea what tomorrow is going to bring, and they cannot 
have hope in that sort of situation.
  So, Mr. Speaker, we are here tonight to urge the American people to 
become engaged with us in the Congress, with the voices that are here 
that are now trying to tell the people in this country how important 
Darfur is to all of us, to our country not because it has a lot of oil 
or a lot of sugarcane or a lot of other things that we are using in 
this country, not because it has a lot of people there who are 
committed to democracy and to America, but because there are human 
beings there who are suffering needlessly, and we can stop it. We can 
do something about it. And if we don't, it makes us smaller in our 
efforts to increase our stature in the world.
  There is no way, as some have said, that we are going to take 
America's credibility seriously on the issues of human rights and the 
issues of democracy if we do not do it where it is taking place in the 
worst and most flagrant fashion. So that place today happens to be 
Darfur.
  We watched in astonishment when we saw the atrocities in Rwanda. We 
watched in other places around the world. But the major place right now 
where we have so much going on in one place, one little corner of the 
world where innocent people are dying and we can do something about it, 
is Darfur.
  So I hope the American people get this name in their minds, look this 
country up on the map, and come to understand what is going on. It is 
important to us. It is important to us as human beings that we do 
something about this. And we are here tonight almost just as voices in 
the wilderness crying about this thing. Look, it is time for America to 
act. It is time for our President to act. It is time for our Congress 
to act. It is time for all of us to engage in this.
  So that is why we are on the floor tonight, to make sure that those 
who are at home now around their dinner tables, who are sitting and 
watching some show on television might take a minute just to think 
about the people in Darfur and try to find a way with all of us to join 
hands with them to help to end their suffering.

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