[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 15928]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                 SUDAN

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, there is a second issue I want to mention 
that I addressed 2 weeks ago on the floor of the Senate and want to 
follow up on. It has to do with a tragic situation in Sudan, in the 
western part of Sudan in the three states of Darfur, Sudan.
  The situation there, even over the last 3 weeks, has steadily 
deteriorated. We have hundreds of thousands of refugees that are 
currently at risk. We are entering the rainy season there, and that 
makes the delivery of relief supplies very difficult.
  Since my comments on the floor of the Senate, Secretary of State 
Powell, in the first week of this month, went to the Darfur region and 
made observations and certain requests. At about the same time, 
Secretary General Kofi Annan also visited the region and made certain 
requests. Senator Brownback, our distinguished colleague from Kansas, 
subsequent to their visit, also visited the region and made 
observations and with a video camera took some traumatic footage of the 
devastation going on there. Another delegation from the House will be 
going shortly.
  We have to take action to address this humanitarian problem. The 
administration is working hard to get relief to these people who are 
suffering, but there is systematic violence that is going on against 
the civilian populations in Darfur by the government and by the 
militias that are supported by the government. That violence must come 
to an end.
  I spend a lot of time in the Sudan and each year go to southern Sudan 
as part of medical mission work that I do. In the coming weeks or 
months, I will be returning to Sudan as part of this medical mission 
work. I look forward at that point in time to seeing if we are having 
an impact in both the southern part of the Sudan but also in the Darfur 
region and will report back to this body. Hopefully we will be able to 
report that we are making progress. Two million people are being 
affected by this crisis, so it is a large crisis. I do ask the 
Government of Sudan to take immediate steps to end the violence in that 
part of the world.

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