[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17847]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     REMEMBERING THOSE WHO PERISHED

  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take Mr. 
DeFazio's time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from 
Washington is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, across America yesterday, we paused to 
honor the innocent Americans who perished 5 years ago on 9/11. A 
memorial day is a time for reflection. It also can be a time for 
action.
  As a doctor, I know that grief can be debilitating, but it can also 
be motivating. There is something America can do to transform our grief 
into positive action.
  Right now, half a world away, there is incomprehensible pain and 
suffering going on in Darfur. Imagine human suffering on a scale 150 
times worse than 9/11. Over 470,000 people in Darfur have gone hungry 
for the last 3 months. They are cut off from humanitarian aid. They are 
innocent victims in the middle of what can be described either as 
genocide or homicide.
  The estimates range from 200,000 to half a million innocent people 
who have been slaughtered in just 3 years. That is the equivalent of a 
9/11 attack every single week for 3 full years. That level of death and 
suffering in our world today might be incomprehensible except that it 
is happening. It is a reality.
  Peacekeepers from the African Union have slowed the genocide, but 
they are slated to leave Darfur at the end of the month. No one doubts 
the killing will resume if the Sudanese Government is left without an 
outside force attempting to restrain them. Unless we intervene, there 
will be 200, 300, who knows how many times 9/11s in Darfur, to people 
just as innocent as the Americans who perished 5 years ago.
  It is true that the United Nations passed a resolution last month 
calling for a new peacekeeping force in Darfur, but the Sudanese 
Government responsible for the killings must approve deployment of 
these peacekeepers. Nothing more than lip service is going to occur 
unless we lead the world in demanding an end to the killings, backed up 
by a multinational force that can finally protect innocent people.
  Last year, I and other Members of Congress, Democrats and 
Republicans, traveled to the Sudan. We visited camps along the border 
with Chad and met countless refugees. These were people who lost their 
homes, belongings, and loved ones. Everything.
  A corrupt government says these are people guilty of being born with 
a certain color of skin and into a particular tribe. Punishment for 
innocence is death.
  The world has seen this before. We know what to do; we simply aren't 
doing it. The number of innocent people literally starving to death in 
Darfur is 150 times the number of Americans who perished during 9/11. 
Humanitarian aid cannot reach them, and that is the situation with 
soldiers from the African Union attempting to enforce a peace. What 
chance do these people have if modest peacekeeping efforts disappear at 
the end of September?
  First and foremost, the President should declare Darfur a global 
crisis and reinforce such a position with diplomacy aimed at uniting 
the world against evil. Other nations are better positioned 
diplomatically to demand that the Sudanese Government pay attention.
  In close cooperation with other governments, we should do everything 
from establishing a no-fly zone to keep Sudanese helicopter gunships 
grounded to serving notice on the Sudanese Government that innocent 
people should not be starved to death.
  Before 9/11, crises as far away as Sudan perhaps didn't find much 
room in the American consciousness. Post-9/11, we cannot help but see 
that death, poverty, and injustice anywhere in the world affects those 
of us who live in the United States.
  Yesterday across America, we stopped to remember 9/11. In Darfur, we 
can honor the Americans who died on 9/11 by preventing tens of 
thousands of innocent people in Darfur from dying right before our 
eyes. We have 21 days to unite the world against attacks as horrifying 
as 9/11. This can be a defining moment for our Nation. I hope the 
President sees it as just that and acts before it is too late.

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