[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Pages 23732-23733]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                URGING AGREEMENT FOR PEACEKEEPING FORCE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 631, submitted earlier 
today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 631) urging the Government of Sudan 
     and the international community to implement the agreement 
     for a peacekeeping force under the command and control of the 
     United Nations in Darfur.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, along with Senator Brownback, Senator 
Kennedy, and others, I rise today in support of a bipartisan resolution 
on the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, and the urgent need to get a robust 
peacekeeping force on the ground there as soon as possible.
  This Congress will adjourn in the next several hours or several days, 
but the crisis in Darfur continues. As it continues, many innocent 
people will lose their lives in what our administration and most of the 
world has characterized as genocide.
  On Wednesday of this week, in a meeting with the United States 
Special Envoy to the Sudan, Andrew Natsios, we asked him: What can 
Congress do at this point in time to help? Along with some technical 
changes in law that we will certainly consider, Mr. Natsios asked that 
we pass this resolution. Again, I think his hope is we will bring this 
matter to the attention of the American people and express to the world 
community our continuing alarm over this crisis in Darfur.
  The President approved Mr. Natsios to his position in September. For 
months before that, many of us here in the Senate had urged the 
President to name a special envoy. We believed that violence and 
suffering in Darfur demanded a single individual in a leadership 
position who could devote all his time and energy to working to resolve 
this terrible crisis. That places a special obligation on us to listen 
when Mr. Natsios asks for help.
  The resolution before us spells out the terrible facts of the 
genocide in Darfur and outlines two significant responses by the 
international community. The first was the passage by the United 
Nations Security Council of Resolution 1706, which authorized a 23,000-
person peacekeeping force to Darfur, which was to be deployed no later 
than October 1 of this year. It is now well into December, and not a 
single U.N. peacekeeper has been deployed to Darfur, for the simple 
reason the Sudanese Government has continued to refuse to give consent 
to this United Nations mission to be sent expressly to protect innocent 
people in Darfur.
  It looked for a moment last month as if Secretary General Kofi Annan 
had managed to break through this impasse.
  On November 16, Secretary General Annan, along with the African 
Union, met in Ethiopia and helped broker the Addis Ababa agreement with 
the Sudanese Foreign Minister. This agreement laid out a roadmap for a 
joint or hybrid peacekeeping mission combining United Nations and 
African Union personnel under U.N. command and control. The Sudanese 
agreed to this in principle, although they did not agree on the spot to 
the numbers spelled out in the agreement; namely, 10,000 additional 
military peacekeepers and 3,000 police officers. These troops could 
join the 7,000 African Union monitors already in Darfur.
  The resolution we have introduced on a bipartisan basis expresses the 
support of the United States Senate for this agreement, as well as U.N. 
Security Council Resolution 1706. It also declares that numbers and 
standards laid out in the Addis Ababa agreement represent the minimum 
acceptable. Hundreds of thousands of people have died in Darfur over 
the last 3 years; 2\1/2\ million have been driven from their homes. In 
recent months, violence has escalated.
  You and I and our colleagues in the Senate are thinking now about 
holiday gifts, Christmas gifts. We are thinking about being with our 
families and sharing a peaceful moment in our homes with our friends 
and with those we love at this time of year. As we consider the safety 
and security of our lives in the United States as we approach this 
holiday season, we cannot forget those who are suffering and dying 
around the world and in this spot on Earth known as Darfur. You cannot 
pick up a newspaper in America this week without seeing full-page ads 
urging the United States to take action, urging Congress to take 
action. This resolution we pass may not save a single life, but it may 
start a call to arms across this country and around the world that we 
will not tolerate a genocide.
  Over 10 years ago there was a genocide in Rwanda. Sadly, we never 
accepted the reality of what faced us. Sadly, we never responded. There 
were a few stalwart, courageous voices in the Senate. My predecessor 
Senator Paul Simon, and the retiring Senator from Vermont, Jim 
Jeffords, spoke out. If they had been listened to, hundreds of 
thousands of lives could have been spared in the Rwandan genocide. Now 
this is our time.
  I commend President Bush and his administration for acknowledging 
that, indeed, we face a genocide. But having made that admission, it 
calls on every civilized country on earth and every civilized person on 
Earth to do something, not just to acknowledge this terrible human 
tragedy but to do something.
  In our meeting this week, special envoy Natsios described one murder 
among many. He told us of a woman in a refugee camp whose 1-year-old 
baby was shot and killed by a jingaweit militia man while she held the 
baby in her arms. The world cannot allow this to happen. Today we 
express our strongest support for a real peacekeeping force for Darfur 
made up of African Union and U.N. personnel to save the next child in a 
mother's arms.
  I urge the Senate to pass this resolution. I say with real regret 
that it is certainly the least we can do today. I certainly wish we 
could do more.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution 
be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be 
laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the resolution 
be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 631) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S. Res. 631

       Whereas Congress declared on July 22, 2004 that the 
     atrocities in Darfur were genocide;
       Whereas, on September 9, 2004, Secretary of State Colin 
     Powell testified that ``genocide has been committed in 
     Darfur'';
       Whereas, on June 30, 2005, President Bush confirmed that 
     ``the violence in Darfur region is clearly genocide [and t]he 
     human cost is beyond calculation'';
       Whereas, on May 8, 2006, President Bush stated, ``We will 
     call genocide by its rightful name, and we will stand up for 
     the innocent until the peace of Darfur is secured.'';
       Whereas hundreds of thousands of people have died and over 
     2,500,000 have been displaced in Darfur since 2003;
       Whereas the Government of Sudan has failed in its 
     responsibility to protect the many peoples of Darfur;
       Whereas the international community has failed to hold 
     persons responsible for crimes against humanity in Darfur 
     accountable;
       Whereas, on May 5, 2006, the Government of Sudan and the 
     largest rebel faction in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation 
     Movement, led by Minni Minnawi, signed the Darfur Peace 
     Agreement (DPA);
       Whereas the Government of Sudan has not disarmed and 
     demobilized the Janjaweed despite repeated pledges to do so, 
     including in the DPA;
       Whereas violence in Darfur escalated in the months 
     following the signing of the DPA, with increased attacks 
     against civilians and humanitarian workers;

[[Page 23733]]

       Whereas violence has spread to the neighboring states of 
     Chad and the Central African Republic, threatening regional 
     peace and security;
       Whereas, in July 2006, more humanitarian aid workers were 
     killed than in the previous 3 years combined;
       Whereas increased violence has forced some humanitarian 
     organizations to suspend operations, leaving 40 percent of 
     the population of Darfur inaccessible to aid workers;
       Whereas, on August 30, 2006, the United Nations Security 
     Council passed Security Council Resolution 1706 (2006), 
     asserting that the existing United Nations Mission in Sudan 
     (UNMIS) ``shall take over from [African Mission in Sudan] 
     AMIS responsibility for supporting the implementation of the 
     Darfur Peace Agreement upon the expiration of AMIS' mandate 
     but in any event no later than 31 December 2006'', and that 
     UNMIS ``shall be strengthened by up to 17,300 military 
     personnel . . . up to 3,300 civilian police personnel and up 
     to 16 Formed Police Units'', which ``shall begin to be 
     deployed [to Darfur] no later than 1 October 2006'';
       Whereas, on September 19, 2006, President Bush announced 
     the appointment of Andrew Natsios as Presidential Special 
     Envoy to Sudan to lead United States efforts to bring peace 
     to the Darfur region in Sudan;
       Whereas, on November 16, 2006, high-level consultations led 
     by Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, and 
     Alpha Oumar Konare, Chairperson of the African Union 
     Commission, and including representatives of the Arab League, 
     the European Union, the Government of Sudan, and other 
     national governments, produced the ``Addis Ababa Agreement'';
       Whereas the Agreement stated that the Darfur conflict could 
     be resolved only through an all-inclusive political process;
       Whereas the Agreement stated that the DPA must be made more 
     inclusive, and ``called upon all parties--Government and DPA 
     non-signatories--to immediately commit to a cessation of 
     hostilities in Darfur in order to give [the peace process] 
     the best chances for success'';
       Whereas the Agreement included a plan to establish a United 
     Nations-African Union peacekeeping operation;
       Whereas the Agreement stated that the peacekeeping 
     operation would consist of 17,000 military troops and 3,000 
     police, and would have a primarily African character;
       Whereas the Agreement stated that the peacekeeping 
     operation must be logistically and financially sustainable, 
     with support coming from the United Nations;
       Whereas the Agreement stated that command and control 
     structures for the United Nations-African Union force would 
     be provided by the United Nations;
       Whereas the Government of Sudan's Foreign Minister agreed 
     to the conclusions of the High Level Consultation on the 
     Situation in Darfur, though the Foreign Minister indicated 
     that he would need to consult with his government on the size 
     of the peacekeeping mission;
       Whereas, at an international press conference on November 
     27, 2006, Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir rejected 
     the Addis Ababa Agreement and reiterated his objections to 
     any substantive United Nations involvement in Darfur, saying, 
     ``Troops in Darfur should be part of the [African Union] AU 
     and under command of the AU'';
       Whereas it is imperative that a peacekeeping force in 
     Darfur have the sufficient strength and mandate to provide 
     adequate security to the people of Darfur; and
       Whereas Presidential Special Envoy Andrew Natsios set 
     December 31, 2006 as the deadline for the Government of Sudan 
     to comply with the demands of the international community or 
     face serious consequences: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) supports, given the rapidly deteriorating situation on 
     the ground in Darfur, the principles of the Addis Ababa 
     Agreement in order to increase security and stability for the 
     people of Darfur;
       (2) declares that the deployment of a United Nations-
     African Union peacekeeping force under the command and 
     control of the United Nations, as laid out in the Addis Ababa 
     Agreement, is the minimum acceptable effort on the part of 
     the international community to protect the people of Darfur;
       (3) further supports the strengthening of the African Union 
     peacekeeping mission in Sudan so that it may improve its 
     performance with regards to civilian protection as the 
     African Union peacekeeping mission begins to transfer 
     responsibility for protecting the people of Darfur to the 
     United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force under the 
     command and control of the United Nations, as laid out in the 
     Addis Ababa Agreement;
       (4) calls upon the Government of Sudan to immediately--
       (A) allow the implementation of the United Nations light 
     and heavy support packages as provided for in the Addis Ababa 
     Agreement; and
       (B) work with the United Nations and the international 
     community to deploy United Nations peacekeepers to Darfur in 
     keeping with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1706 
     (2006);
       (5) calls upon all parties to the conflict to immediately--
       (A) adhere to the 2004 N'Djamena ceasefire; and
       (B) respect the impartiality and neutrality of humanitarian 
     agencies so that relief workers can have unfettered access to 
     their beneficiary populations and deliver desperately needed 
     assistance;
       (6) urges the President to--
       (A) continue to work with other members of the 
     international community, including the permanent members of 
     the United Nations Security Council, the African Union, the 
     European Union, the Arab League, Sudan's trading partners, 
     and the Government of Sudan to facilitate the urgently needed 
     deployment of the peacekeeping force called for by United 
     Nations Security Council Resolution 1706;
       (B) ensure the ability of any peacekeeping force deployed 
     to Darfur to carry out its mandate by providing adequate 
     funding and working with our international partners to 
     provide technical assistance, logistical support, 
     intelligence gathering capabilities, and military assets;
       (C) work with members of the United Nations Security 
     Council and the international community to develop and impose 
     a set of meaningful economic and diplomatic sanctions against 
     the Government of Sudan should the Government of Sudan 
     continue to refuse to cooperate with the implementation of 
     United Nations Security Council Resolution 1706 and the 
     principles contained in the Addis Ababa Agreement; and
       (D) work with members of the United Nations Security 
     Council and the international community to address escalating 
     insecurity in Chad and the Central African Republic; and
       (7) strongly supports United Nations Security Council 
     Resolution 1706 and the principles embedded therein.

                          ____________________