    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book I)]
    [April 18, 2007]
    [Pages 420-425]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
    April 18, 2007

        Thank you all. Please be seated. Thank you all very much. I
    appreciate your hospitality, Mr. Chairman.
    Thank you very much for the fine job you're doing. I am honored to have
    just taken a tour of this important museum with Sara
    Bloomfield, who arguably is one of the
    best museum directors in the country--[applause]--particularly if you
    can put up with the board of directors that I've named. [Laughter]
        I thank you all for serving. I appreciate you taking on this
    important assignment.

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    For--my friends on the board will tell you that I hold the Holocaust
    Museum dear to my heart. You will hear me express my appreciation for
    the work that is being done here, and I mean it sincerely.
        I thank very much Elie Wiesel for joining
    us. He's a big figure in the life of the world, as he should be. He
    speaks with moral clarity. And I can't thank you enough for being a
    leader of talking about what is right. And I'm honored to be in your
    presence.
        I am traveling with some members of my administration, starting with
    the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.
    Thank you for being here. Presidential Special Envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios--thank you for coming, Andrew. And
    the newly minted--or newly sworn in U.N. Ambassador Zal Khalilzad--Mr. Ambassador, thanks for coming.
        I want to thank the Members of Congress who have joined us;
    appreciate you taking time. I thank the members of the diplomatic
    community who have joined us. I'm honored that you are here. I thank the
    survivors of the Holocaust who have graced us with your presence.
        We meet at a time of sorrow for our Nation. Our flags fly at half-
    mast in memory of 32 souls whose lives were taken at Virginia Tech on
    Monday morning. That day we saw horror, but we also saw quiet acts of
    courage. We saw this courage in a teacher named Liviu Librescu. With the
    gunman set to enter his class, this brave professor blocked the door
    with his body while his students fled to safety. On the Day of
    Remembrance, this Holocaust survivor gave his own life so that others
    may live. And this morning we honor his memory, and we take strength
    from his example.
        This is a place devoted to memory. Inside this building are etched
    the words of the Prophet Isaiah: ``You are my witness.'' As part of this
    witness, these walls show how one of the world's most advanced nations
    embraced a policy aimed at the annihilation of the Jewish people. These
    walls help restore the humanity of the millions who were loaded into
    trains and murdered by men who considered themselves cultured. And these
    walls remind us that the Holocaust was not inevitable; it was allowed to
    gather strength and force only because of the world's weakness and
    appeasement in the face of evil.
        Today, we call what happened ``genocide,'' but when the Holocaust
    started, this word did not yet exist. In a 1941 radio address, Churchill
    spoke of the horrors the Nazis were visiting on innocent civilians in
    Russia. He said: ``We are in the presence of a crime without a name.''
    It is an apt description of the evil that followed the swastika. Mankind
    had long experience with savagery and slaughter before. Yet in places
    such as Auschwitz and Dachau and Buchenwald, the world saw something new
    and terrible: the state-sanctioned extermination of a people, carried
    out with the chilling industrial efficiency of a so-called modern
    nation.
        Some may be tempted to ask: Why have a museum dedicated to such a
    dark subject? The men and women who built this museum will tell you:
    Because evil is not just a chapter in history; it is a reality in the
    human heart. So this museum serves as a living reminder of what happens
    when good and decent people avert their eyes from hatred and murder. It
    honors those who died by serving as the conscience for those who live.
    And it reminds us that the words ``never again'' do not refer to the
    past; they refer to the future.
        You who are survivors know why the Holocaust must be taught to every
    generation. You who lost your families to the gas chambers of Europe
    watch as Jewish cemeteries and synagogues across that continent are
    defaced and defiled. You who bear the tattoos of death camps hear the
    leader of Iran declare that the
    Holocaust is a myth. You who have found refuge in a Jewish homeland know
    that tyrants and terrorists have vowed to wipe it from the map. And you
    who have survived evil know that the

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    only way to defeat it is to look it in the face and not back down.
        It is evil we are now seeing in Sudan, and we're not going to back
    down. For 22 years, Sudan was plagued by a civil war between the north
    and south that claimed more than 2 million lives. That war came to an
    end in January 2005, when Sudan's Government and rebels in the south
    signed a comprehensive peace agreement that the United States helped to
    broker. Under this historic accord, Sudan established a Government of
    National Unity that includes a First Vice President and other cabinet
    members from the country's south. It also established a government for
    Southern Sudan that the United States is providing with aid and other
    assistance.
        Unfortunately, just as peace was coming to the south, another
    conflict broke out in the west, where rebel groups in Darfur attacked
    government outposts. To fight this rebellion, the Government in Khartoum
    unleashed a horse-mounted militia called the Janjaweed, which carried
    out systematic assaults against innocent civilians.
        The human toll has been staggering. More than 200,000 people have
    died from the conflict or from malnutrition and disease that have spread
    in its wake. And more than 2 million people have been forced from their
    homes and villages into camps both inside and outside their country.
        Ending the violence in Darfur requires better security for the
    people of Darfur; it requires progress toward political reconciliation.
    Today, more than 7,000 African Union troops have been deployed to
    Darfur, and they serve courageously. The problem is, the area they
    patrol is the size of Texas; 7,000 people is not enough to provide the
    security the people of Darfur need. Ultimately, the violence will
    continue until Sudan's Government and the rebel groups reach a political
    settlement that includes traditional community leaders, representatives
    of civil society, and African and Arab tribes in the region.
        This museum cannot stop the violence, but through your good work,
    you're making it impossible for the world to turn a blind eye. Earlier I
    saw an exhibit that puts faces on the millions of men, women, and
    children who have been killed or driven into the desert. I also saw an
    interesting new venture that you've arranged with Google Earth. As a
    result of this partnership, millions of Internet users around the world
    will be able to zoom in and see satellite images of the burnt-out
    villages and mosques and schools. No one who sees these pictures can
    doubt that genocide is the only word for what is happening in Darfur and
    that we have a moral obligation to stop it.
        The United States is helping to lead the effort. Last May, I
    announced an agreement for Darfur that we helped broker between the
    Sudanese Government and the largest rebel group. It's a positive
    agreement. It gave us some sense of optimism that we could help stop the
    genocide. Under this agreement, Sudan's Government promised to disarm
    the Janjaweed and punish all those who violated the cease-fire. The main
    rebel group agreed to withdraw into specified areas.
        In August, the United Nations followed up this agreement with a new
    Security Council resolution. This resolution authorized the U.N. Mission
    in Sudan to extend its forces to Darfur and to transform the existing AU
    forces into a larger, better equipped U.N. peacekeeping mission. The
    U.N. recognized there were not enough forces in Darfur to bring security
    and peace.
        In November, the United Nations, the African Union, the EU, the Arab
    League, the Government of Sudan, the United States, and 12 other nations
    reached another important agreement at a meeting in Addis Ababa. This
    agreement strengthened the terms of the cease-fire. It reenergized the
    political process and called for the joint

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    U.N.-AU peacekeeping force to go into action, a force that would be
    nearly three times the size of the existing AU force.
        These are all good agreements. They represent a clear path to end
    the conflict. And if implemented, they would allow the people of Darfur
    to return home to their villages safely, and begin to rebuild their
    lives in peace.
        Unfortunately, these agreements have been routinely violated.
    Sudan's Government has moved arms to Darfur, conducted bombing raids on
    villages. They've used military vehicles and aircraft that are painted
    white, which makes them look like those deployed by humanitarian
    agencies and peacekeeping forces.
        Many rebel groups have also pursued violence instead of peace. The
    groups who have not signed onto last May's peace accord have splintered,
    and they're roaming the Darfur's countryside pillaging and stealing at
    will. They have killed civilians. They've plundered vehicles and
    plundered supplies from international aid workers. They've added to the
    lawlessness. The Government in Khartoum has been able--unable to control
    the problem, and they made it even worse last fall with a failed
    military campaign designed to crush the groups.
        While there is now a temporary lull in the fighting between the
    government and militias and rebel groups, millions of displaced people
    remain highly vulnerable to attack. The increased lawlessness and
    instability has made it difficult for aid workers to deliver relief to
    those who need it; some organizations have been forced to evacuate their
    staff for safety reasons. Once again, the consequences are being borne
    by defenseless men, women, and children. That is the story being told
    here at the Holocaust Museum, and I appreciate what you're doing.
        The brutal treatment of innocent civilians in Darfur is
    unacceptable. It is unacceptable to me, it is unacceptable to Americans,
    it's unacceptable to the United Nations--at least that's what they've
    said. This status quo must not continue.
        Just this week, Sudan's Government reached an agreement with the
    United Nations to allow 3,000 U.N. troops and their equipment into the
    country to support the AU force. The world has heard these promises from
    Sudan before. President Bashir's record has been to promise cooperation while finding new
    ways to subvert and obstruct the U.N.'s efforts to bring peace to his
    country. The time for promises is over; President Bashir must act.
        The Secretary-General of the United Nations,
    Ban Ki-moon, is now in discussions with President Bashir to get the Government of Sudan to meet all
    its commitments. President Bashir should take the last chance by
    responding to the Secretary-General's efforts--and to meet the just
    demands of the international community. He must follow through on the
    deployment of the U.N. support forces. He must allow the deployment of
    the full, joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force and take every
    necessary step to facilitate its deployment. He must end support for the
    Janjaweed. He must reach out to the rebel leaders and allow humanitarian
    aid to reach the people of Darfur. And he must stop his pattern of
    obstruction once and for all.
        I have made a decision to allow the Secretary-General more time to pursue his diplomacy. However, if President
    Bashir does not fulfill the
    steps I outlined above, in a short period of time, my administration
    will take the following steps.
        First, the Department of Treasury will tighten U.S. economic
    sanctions on Sudan. This new effort will allow the United States to
    enforce more aggressively existing sanctions against Sudan's Government
    by blocking any of its dollar transactions within the U.S. financial
    system. As part of this effort, the Treasury Department will add 29
    companies owned or controlled by the Government of Sudan to its list of
    Specially Designated Nationals. This designation will bar these
    companies from the U.S. financial

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    system and make it a crime for U.S.--American companies and individuals
    to willfully do business with them.
        Second, we will also target sanctions against individuals
    responsible for the violence. These sanctions will isolate designated
    individuals by cutting them off from the U.S. financial system,
    preventing them from doing business with any American citizen or
    company, and calling the world's attention to their crimes.
        Third, I will direct the Secretary of State to prepare a new United Nations Security Council
    resolution. This resolution will apply new sanctions against the
    Government of Sudan and against individuals found to be violating human
    rights or obstructing the peace process. It will impose an expanded
    embargo on arms sales to the Government of Sudan. It will prohibit
    Sudan's Government from conducting any offensive military flights over
    Darfur. It will strengthen our ability to monitor and report any
    violations. And in the next days, we will begin consulting with other
    Security Council members on the terms of such a resolution.
        If Sudan's obstruction continues despite these measures, we will
    also consider other options. Last week, I sent Deputy Secretary of State
    Negroponte to the region. He informed
    Sudan's Government and rebel groups that our patience is limited, that
    we care deeply about the human condition in Darfur, that it matters to
    the United States that people are suffering.
        I have spoken in the past about the need to end Sudan's use of
    military aircraft to attack innocent civilians. We also are looking at
    what steps the international community could take to deny Sudan's
    Government the ability to fly its military aircraft over Darfur. And if
    we do not begin to see signs of good faith and commitments, we will hear
    calls for even sterner measures.
        The situation doesn't have to come to that. I urge the United
    Nations Security Council and the African Union and all members of the
    international community to stand behind the Addis Ababa framework and
    reject efforts to obstruct its implementation. The world needs to act.
    If President Bashir does not
    meet his obligations to the United States of America, we'll act.
        As we continue to pressure the Government of Sudan to meet its
    commitments, we will continue our engagement in support of the people of
    Darfur. My administration is increasing support for the Transitional
    Darfur Regional Authority. It's an interim authority designed to help
    the people of Darfur improve local government and build foundations for
    a healthy economy. We are increasing support for Sudan's First Vice
    President and the United
    Nations and African Union special
    envoys, who are working to bring the rebel
    groups together and get them to sign in to the peace process.
        We're continuing our humanitarian assistance to the people of
    Darfur. Since 2005, the United States has devoted more than $2 billion
    to humanitarian relief and development, and I thank the American people
    for their generosity. We'll continue to bring relief to the people of
    Darfur. We'll continue to insist that rebel groups and the Sudanese
    Government allow international workers to deliver this relief to the
    people who depend on it.
        All the people in this room and people in this country have a vital
    role to play. Everyone ought to raise their voice. We ought to continue
    to demand that the genocide in Sudan be stopped.
        During my tour of the Darfur exhibits this morning, I was shown a
    photo of a 1-year-old girl who had been shot as her mother fled the
    Janjaweed. Although the mother had tried to protect her baby, it was to
    no avail. When the photo was taken, an observer nearby began to shout:
    ``This is what they do! This is what happens here! Now you know! Now you
    see!''
        Thanks to the efforts of the people in this room, the world knows
    and the world sees. And now the world must act.

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        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:32 a.m. In his remarks, he referred to
    Fred S. Zeidman, Chairman, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council; Sara J.
    Bloomfield, director, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; Nobel Prize winner
    and author Elie Wiesel; President Mahmud Ahmadi-nejad of Iran; President
    Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir and First Vice President Salva Kiir Mayardit
    of Sudan; United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Darfur
    Jan Eliasson; and African Union Special Envoy for the Darfur Talks and
    Chief Mediator Salim Ahmed Salim.