[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 18796-18797]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  DARFUR PEACE AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Reichert). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rush) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, we are at a very dangerous point in time in 
our fight for human rights and human dignity as the atrocities in the 
Sudan continue to spiral out of control and hundreds of thousands of 
lives are held in the balance.
  Millions of Sudanese have already been brutalized, raped, murdered, 
and displaced as the world stands idly by and waits to decide whether 
they are going to intervene or not on behalf of those victims.
  Mr. Speaker, we cannot afford to wait any longer. This Nation, our 
Nation, America must reclaim its role as the world's moral leader and 
the world's greatest defender of the oppressed. At a time when we are 
asking others to trust our judgment and join us against tyranny, there 
is no other call as just as the one we face in Darfur.
  America cannot and the world cannot continue to turn a blind eye to 
the atrocities taking place in Sudan. History would judge us harshly 
for allowing these acts of brutality to fester, and this purge on 
humankind will forever and ever stain our collective memories.
  President Bush, in looking back on these same atrocities that took 
place in Rwanda, once a very long time ago declared, ``Not on my 
watch.''
  Indeed, all decent, responsible peoples now look back in disgrace and 
horror as we recall how genocide was passively allowed to take place in 
our modern and civilized world, and we did nothing, absolutely nothing, 
to stop it.
  Today, as we face the same predicament, it is imperative that we act 
quickly and decisively to stop the brutality before it spreads any 
further, stop the rapes, stop the murders before they spread any 
further, because this type of mass murder and brutality not only hurts 
those who are being oppressed, but it also damages the souls and the 
psyches of those who stand by and provide no help. If we are the true 
leader of the free world, then America has the added responsibility and 
the duty to stand up and fight for the oppressed. We have the power. We 
have the prominence. We have the influence to act, and that is what we 
must do. We do not have to use brute force in Sudan to fight these 
atrocities, but at the very least, we must, we must, we must rally the 
world to this cause. We must show honor. We must show courage. We must 
lead others in this struggle for human dignity and respect.
  My friends, this is not a Republican or a Democratic issue. This is 
not even an American issue. This is a human issue. And we all have a 
stake in the outcome, because if we live in a world where people are 
allowed to be mutilated and raped, where people can be pushed out of 
their homes and murdered indiscriminately and without reproach while 
the powerful just stand by and watch, then we are losing the war 
against terror, and the world we are leaving for our children will be 
one not worth fighting for.

[[Page 18797]]

  We must act. We must act now. We must stop the murder and the 
genocide in Darfur.

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