[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 13133]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN DARFUR

  Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, Senator Brownback and I have submitted a 
resolution to designate July 15-17, 2005 as a National Weekend of 
Prayer and Reflection to draw attention to the genocide and Crimes 
Against Humanity occurring in Darfur, Sudan, and to find a solution to 
this great moral challenge. The resolution calls upon the people of the 
United States to pray and reflect. Churches, synagogues, mosques, other 
communities of faith, and all individuals of compassion will join 
together to acknowledge, observe, and reflect upon the crimes against 
humanity that continue to occur in Darfur, so that we can together end 
the genocide and bring about lasting peace to Sudan.
  The Congress and administration have already defined the atrocities 
in Darfur as genocide. Estimates of the death toll range from 180,000 
to 400,000. More than two million people have been displaced from their 
homes, including over 200,000 refugees in Chad. Recent accounts of 
these atrocities, as reported by Doctors without Borders, include 
documented rapes by soldiers and government-backed militia.
  Many religious and human rights leaders, communities, and 
institutions throughout the world have already spoken out, and called 
for an end to the genocide. In my own state, thousands participated in 
a Darfur Sabbath Weekend on May 14-15, 2005, when clergy and 
congregations throughout New Jersey addressed this crisis during their 
worship services. With my friend and colleague Representative Donald 
Payne, I was privileged to visit a mosque, a synagogue, a Catholic 
rectory, an African American Baptist Church and a United Methodist 
Church during those two days.
  Whatever the denomination, we spoke to each other in the same 
language, and committed ourselves to the same determination to act 
according to our words and the dictates of our universal conscience. 
That profound experience impels me to this broader outreach. I want to 
take this opportunity to urge my fellow members of Congress to join me 
in saying, ``never again.'' Never again, will we accept the slaughter 
of fellow human beings. Never again, will we stand by as systematic 
crimes are inflicted upon humanity. I ask that you join me, Senator 
Brownback and people all across the globe in supporting this unified 
movement to tell the world that humanity will never again allow 
genocide to occur.

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