[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 50 (Thursday, March 22, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3603-S3605]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  GENOCIDE ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2007

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise to speak about S. 888, the Genocide 
Accountability Act. It is a bipartisan bill I have introduced with 
Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, and 
Senator John Cornyn of Texas.
  This Genocide Accountability Act is the first legislation produced by 
the Judiciary Committee's new Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, 
which I chair and Senator Coburn serves as ranking member.
  I wish to thank organizations that have endorsed this act, including 
Africa Action, the American Jewish World Service, Amnesty International 
USA, the Armenian Assembly of America, the Armenian National Committee 
of America, the Genocide Intervention Network, Human Rights First, 
Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, Refugees 
International, and the Save Darfur Coalition.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record 
a letter from the organizations I have just mentioned supporting this 
legislation.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                                   March 15, 2007.
     Hon. Richard J. Durbin,
     Hon. Tom Coburn,
     Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, Senate Committee on 
         the Judiciary, Washington, DC.
       Dear Chairman Durbin and Ranking Member Coburn: We write to 
     express our strong support for the Genocide Accountability 
     Act. We believe this legislation, a product of the 
     Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law's inaugural hearing 
     on genocide, is necessary in order to enable the United 
     States to lead the world in bringing perpetrators of the most 
     serious human rights crimes to justice. We look forward to 
     its swift enactment into law.
       Winston Churchill once remarked that the extermination of 
     Jews in Europe was ``a crime without a name.'' That inspired 
     Raphael Lemkin to name it, and he then devoted his life to 
     codifying the crime of genocide in international law. 
     Lemkin's work culminated in the United Nations Convention on 
     the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The 
     most serious human rights crime had a name, but since 1988, 
     when the United States formally ratified the treaty, genocide 
     has been a crime under U.S. law only in the narrowest of 
     circumstances.
       The Genocide Implementation Act (18 U.S.C. 1091), enacted 
     in 1987 as a prerequisite to the United States becoming a 
     party to the Genocide Convention, provides jurisdiction over 
     the crime of genocide only in circumstances where the 
     perpetrator is a U.S. citizen or the crime took place in the 
     United States. Since the time that law was enacted, the 
     world's pledge that it would ``never again'' tolerate mass 
     slaughter has been mocked again and again--in Bosnia, in 
     Rwanda and now in Darfur. As the violence in Darfur rages 
     into its fifth year, the United States must do all it can to 
     deter those who act with seeming impunity, including by 
     removing any barriers to prosecution in this country of those 
     responsible for genocide.
       The Genocide Accountability Act would accomplish this by 
     enabling the Department of Justice to prosecute foreign 
     nationals suspected of genocide who are present in the United 
     States. This is not merely a theoretical concern. The Justice 
     Department has already identified individuals who may have 
     participated in the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides and are 
     currently living in the United States under false pretenses, 
     but current law fails to provide jurisdiction to charge them 
     with that crime.
       Like the pirate and the slave trader, perpetrators of 
     genocide are rightly considered to be the enemies of all 
     mankind. The United States must not remain passive when those

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     suspected of genocide enter or are found in its territory. By 
     eliminating barriers to prosecution, as the United States has 
     done in the cases of hostage-taking, torture, and other 
     serious crimes, the Genocide Accountability Act will ensure 
     that perpetrators of genocide do not evade accountability 
     when they are present in the United States. We welcome its 
     introduction and strongly urge its enactment into law.
           Sincerely,
         Africa Action, American Jewish World Service, Amnesty 
           International USA, Arab American Institute, Armenian 
           National Committee of America, Center for American 
           Progress Action Fund, Genocide Intervention Network, 
           Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, Open Society 
           Policy Center, Physicians for Human Rights, Refugees 
           International, Save Darfur Coalition.

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank Senator Leahy for allowing the 
creation of this new subcommittee in Judiciary that is known as Human 
Rights and the Law. It is the first time in the 218-year history of the 
Senate such a committee has been designated, and I am honored to serve 
as its chair.
  After our first hearing on genocide in Darfur, we decided it was time 
to close the legal loopholes that prevent the U.S. Justice Department 
from prosecuting people in our country who have committed genocide. 
This legislation is a result of our first hearing. We heard about these 
gaps in the law and found them hard to believe. Unlike the laws of 
torture, piracy, material support for terrorism, terrorism financing, 
hostage taking, and many other Federal crimes, laws related to genocide 
do not allow the arrest and prosecution in the United States of people 
who are not U.S. citizens, or who have not committed the act of 
genocide in our Nation. Of course, those are few and far between. There 
is no reason to treat genocide, perhaps the worst crime known to 
humanity, differently than any of these crimes.
  During the Human Rights Subcommittee's hearings, we heard from Romeo 
Dallaire. He is now a member of the Canadian Senate, and he was the 
general in charge of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Rwanda in 1994. He 
tried desperately to stop that genocide, and many people refused to 
even listen. Two notable exceptions were former colleagues in the 
Senate: my predecessor, Senator Paul Simon of Illinois, and a man whom 
I respect very much and recently retired, Senator Jim Jeffords of 
Vermont. They appealed to the Clinton administration to send troops 
into Rwanda--just a small force to stop the massacre--but sadly, the 
administration did not respond. President Clinton has said it was the 
worst mistake of his administration. His candor and honesty are 
appreciated, but we should learn from that mistake.
  Despite all of the world's solemn promises, today in Darfur, in 
western Sudan, another genocide rages. In a region of 6 million people, 
hundreds of thousands have been killed, and over 2 million people have 
been displaced. For them, the commitment of ``never again'' rings very 
hollow. Earlier this month, Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir 
sent a letter to the U.N. Secretary General rejecting the core elements 
of the plan to send U.N. peacekeepers to Darfur. Bashir claimed that 
U.N. and African peacekeeping forces have no authority to protect 
civilians in his country, saying Sudan bears the primary 
responsibility.
  Four years into the genocide, the claim that the Khartoum regime will 
protect civilians in Darfur is not only implausible, it is offensive. 
President Bashir has thumbed his nose at the international community. 
The question is: How will we respond, once having declared a genocide?
  Last week a U.N. human rights team reporting on Darfur called for 
U.N. Security Council intervention, tougher sanctions, and criminal 
prosecution of guilty parties. They also called for the international 
community's response to the genocide in Darfur immediately.
  The U.N. human rights team is led by Jody Williams, a genuine 
American hero who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to ban 
landmines. Upon completing her investigation of Darfur, Ms. Williams 
had a message for the international community. She said:

       If you're not prepared to act on what you say, don't say 
     it.

  Jody Williams is right. We have to do more than just talk about 
genocide in Darfur. Today, joined by Senator Sam Brownback, a 
Republican of Kansas, and 30 of my colleagues, I sent a letter to the 
President urging him to put the question of meaningful multilateral 
sanctions to a vote before the U.N. Security Council. We have been told 
in the past that one of the permanent members of this council may veto 
the resolution. I say: So be it. Let that nation stand up in front of 
the world and say they are going to veto this effort to stop this mass 
murder.
  We recognize there are political risks to advancing this strategy, 
but it is time to weigh those risks against the damage that is being 
done and the verdict of history. It is our moral obligation to do 
everything we can to stop this genocide in Darfur.
  Another important step is to make clear the commitment of the United 
States to hold accountable those who are guilty of this ultimate crime. 
It is hard to imagine that individuals in the Sudanese Government whom 
we have identified as being involved in genocide have come to the 
United States and have been treated as visiting dignitaries, and have 
traveled with impunity around our Nation. It is hard to imagine we 
would turn our back on the fact of what they have done in their own 
home country.
  I am pleased the International Criminal Court is moving forward with 
this investigation into the Darfur genocide, but that does not excuse 
the United States from its obligation to prosecute war criminals who 
seek safe haven or even travel in the United States.
  It is not just Darfur. The Justice Department has identified 
individuals who participated in the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides 
living now in the United States under false pretenses. How can we let 
the United States be a safe haven for those who are guilty of genocide 
around the world? The fact is the law is on their side. American law 
doesn't give us the authority to arrest and prosecute these 
individuals, and that is why I have introduced this legislation, to 
change the law and let them know they can no longer seek a safe haven 
in the United States.
  The Genocide Accountability Act says if you commit genocide anywhere 
in the world and come to the United States, America will hold you 
accountable under the law. This is the first legislation produced by 
the Human Rights Subcommittee. There will be more bills to follow. But 
I doubt the subcommittee or any other committee in Congress will face 
another issue as compelling as this genocide in Darfur.
  In 1862, 1 month before he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, 
President Abraham Lincoln sent a message to Congress proposing to end 
slavery. His words reach us even today when he said:

       We--even we here--hold the power and bear the 
     responsibility.

  Those words remain true. We here, even now, hold the power and bear 
the responsibility to do all we can to stop this genocide. Enacting the 
Genocide Accountability Act is an important step to ending impunity for 
perpetrators of genocide.
  Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. I 
ask unanimous consent that the letter which was sent to the President 
be printed in the Record.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  There being no objection, the letter was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                                  U.S. Senate,

                                   Washington, DC, March 22, 2007.
     The President,
     The White House,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Mr. President: We write to you as Members of Congress 
     who are deeply concerned about the ongoing genocide in Darfur 
     and equally frustrated by the inability or unwillingness of 
     the international community to put a halt to it. Last August, 
     the United Nations Security Council passed UNSC Resolution 
     1706, which expanded the mandate of the United Nations 
     Mission in Sudan to include Darfur and stated that over 
     20,000 military and civilian police personnel were to be 
     deployed as peacekeepers in the region. Over six months have 
     passed and fewer than 200 UN personnel have been deployed 
     because of the Sudanese government's refusal to comply with 
     what the Security Council has authorized.
       History demonstrates that Sudan's leadership does not 
     respond to this type of request. We believe that it is time 
     for the Security Council to enact a new resolution, imposing 
     multilateral economic sanctions on the Sudanese government 
     and targeted sanctions on individuals named by the UN 
     Commission of inquiry as being responsible for crimes against 
     humanity.
       We recognize that previous U.S.-led efforts to move 
     stronger resolutions at the Security

[[Page S3605]]

     Council have been deterred by the threat of a veto by one or 
     more of the Permanent Members. We frankly urge you to 
     introduce and push for a vote on a resolution imposing 
     multilateral sanctions regardless. Let a country stand before 
     the community of nations and announce that it is vetoing the 
     best effort we can muster to build the leverage necessary to 
     end ongoing mass murder.
       There are political risks to advancing this strategy, but 
     we urge you to weigh those risks against the verdict of 
     history if we fail to try. If the Security Council does not 
     act, the United States should engage with our allies to 
     create a coalition that will impose economic penalties on the 
     Sudanese government. The United States has already 
     implemented a number of unilateral sanctions, and we 
     understand that you are considering still more, a development 
     that we would applaud. However. the real key to changing 
     Khartoum's behavior most likely lies in multilateral 
     sanctions, especially those aimed at the Sudanese oil 
     industry.
       We encourage you to put this matter before the United 
     Nations Security Council as soon as possible. A threatened 
     veto should not silence us.
       We know that you share our commitment to this issue and we 
     commend your courage in recognizing this genocide for what it 
     is. We look forward to continuing our efforts until a timely 
     solution to the crisis in Darfur is found.
           Sincerely,
         Dick Durbin, Joe Biden, Carl Levin, Russell D. Feingold, 
           Bill Nelson, Joe Lieberman, Mary Landrieu, Sam 
           Brownback, John E. Sununu, Mel Martinez, Jack Reed, Tom 
           Harkin, Barbara A. Mikulski, Barack Obama, Robert 
           Menendez, Dianne Feinstein, John Cornyn, Susan Collins, 
           Wayne Allard, Mark Pryor, Richard Burr, Sherrod Brown, 
           Olympia Snowe, Frank R. Lautenberg, Amy Klobuchar, Mike 
           Crapo, Maria Cantwell, Elizabeth Dole, Patty Murray, 
           Hillary Rodham Clinton, Chris Dodd, Jim Webb, John F. 
           Kerry, Pat Roberts.

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