[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 124 (Tuesday, July 31, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10408-S10409]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 DARFUR

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the ongoing 
genocide in Darfur. As my colleagues know, the United Nations Security 
Council is currently hammering out the final text of a new resolution 
related to the expanded United Nations African Union hybrid force to 
protect civilians who have been victims of genocide in Darfur. This 
resolution represents the best hope for the international community to 
finally come together to put an end to the violence in that country.
  This new U.N. resolution reportedly calls for a large increase in 
military and police personnel to be deployed to Darfur. It calls on 
member states to make commitments to contribute troops to the hybrid 
force, and for this bolstered hybrid force UNAMID to take command of 
the region by the end of the year. Importantly, it also calls on the 
Sudanese Government and all rebel groups to enter into peace 
negotiations to reach a political settlement which will ultimately end 
the conflict in Darfur.
  If these reports are accurate, then we may be one step closer to 
ending the violence in Darfur. But in order to actually stop the 
violence, we must ensure that the hybrid force is large enough to 
effectively carry out its mission, and deployed quickly to stop the 
violence immediately. These increased forces are desperately needed to 
replace the currently under-funded and under- equipped paltry AU force 
of 7,000 soldiers presently in Darfur.
  We simply cannot wait any longer to protect the hundreds of thousands 
of innocent civilians whose villages have been burned, who have been 
driven into refugee camps, and who have been raped and murdered.
  I welcome the calls of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French 
President Nicholas Sarkozy for the United Nations to quickly adopt this 
new draft resolution, and I appreciate the leadership they have 
demonstrated in personally committing to ensure that the peace process 
moves forward, once the U.N. resolution has passed. Prime Minister 
Brown recently declared that ``this is one of the great humanitarian 
disasters of our generation. It is incumbent on the whole world to 
act.'' I wholeheartedly agree and I urge President Bush to join with 
Prime Minister Brown and President Sarkozy in personally committing to 
ending the conflict in Darfur.
  Recent reports have also indicated that the text of the resolution 
relating to implementing multilateral sanctions has been softened due 
to the objections of some African member states, as well as China.
  While I strongly believe that robust targeted sanctions should be 
implemented against members of rebel groups and the Sudanese 
Government, that we should curb the Sudanese Government's access to oil 
revenues, increase penalties on private companies operating in Sudan, 
and allow for the divestment of funds in Sudan, the sad truth is that 
what is most needed now from the international community is a 
legitimate U.N. mandate for a strengthened hybrid peacekeeping force.
  But there is no reason why the United States can't move forward to 
implement unilateral sanctions against Sudan, even if the international 
community and the Bush administration refuse to do so. As chairman of 
the Banking Committee I have asked the majority leader to expedite 
Senate consideration and passage of S.831, The Sudan Divestment 
Authorization Act of 2007. The majority leader was prepared to do so, 
but the minority objected. I have also asked that the majority leader 
to hold H.R. 180, the Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act of 2007, 
at the desk and attempt to pass this bill prior to the August recess. I 
am also planning to ask the majority leader to expedite consideration 
of S. 1563, the Sudan Disclosure and Enforcement Act of 2007. These 
three bills represent a good step towards applying targeted economic 
pressure against the Sudanese Government.
  The implementation of robust and targeted sanctions is long overdue. 
In fact, the time to implement the sanctions was 4 years ago, and it 
should have been among the first components of the administration's 
Plan A, instead of the last resort of its Plan B--a plan which it has 
still failed to implement, despite Special Envoy Andrew Natsios's 
assurances over 7 months ago, back in January of 2007, that action was 
imminent.
  Sudan's U.N. ambassador recently asserted that the text of the new 
U.N. Security Council resolution is ``hostile'' and full of 
``insinuations.'' He further declared that the language is ``ugly'' and 
``awful.'' Ugly and awful? Ugly and awful is the murder of 450,000 
people in Darfur and the displacement of 2.5 million civilians. Ugly 
and awful is the Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, after his recent 
visit to Darfur, declaring ``that most of Darfur is now secure and 
enjoying real peace. People are living normal lives,'' he said. Ugly 
and awful is the United States and the international community waiting 
one day longer to protect these innocent civilians.
  The time for action is now. We must not allow the Sudanese Government 
to

[[Page S10409]]

engage in anymore prevarication regarding its acceptance of a hybrid 
peacekeeping force. And we must ensure that this new U.N. Security 
Council resolution marks the beginning of the end of genocide in 
Darfur, by mandating the immediate deployment of a robust multinational 
peacekeeping force.

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