Deprtment of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2006

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am a cosponsor of this amendment to provide $50 million in assistance for the African Union in Darfur, Sudan. The African Union is today our only line of defense against genocide in Darfur. As the President restated at the G8 meeting earlier this month, what is happening in Darfur is genocide. And, as he said, the human cost is beyond calculation.

The African Union has struggled to raise the numbers of peacekeeping troops needed in Darfur, but it has nonetheless made a difference. The AU has saved lives, but it has not been able to create conditions of security. To make a greater difference, it will have to increase the number of troops on the ground.

This amendment earmarks $50 million from the newly drafted Conflict Response Fund to the Foreign Military Finance Account for the African Union mission in Darfur.

The administration has asked for a Conflict Response Fund to respond to conflicts that may emerge in the next year. The conflict in Darfur has already emerged. It must be addressed.

And the State Department has said that it needs at least $100 million to support the expansion of the African Union mission. This amendment at least gets us halfway there.

You might ask why the administration didn't ask for this money for the African Union directly. Apparently when the budget request was formulated, they did not think that the AU mission would have to be scaled up still further. Evidence on the ground tells us that expanding the mission is a necessity, and so is the additional funding.

This spring, the Joint Assessment Team of the EU, the U.N., the AU, and the U.S. conducted assessment of the AU's Darfur mission.

The assessment found that where the current AU mission has deployed, the security situation has improved. The Joint Assessment Team also found that the general security level remains unacceptable. That is still true today.

The Joint Assessment report concluded that the African Union mission should be doubled by September, followed by a subsequent expansion ``to contribute to a secure environment throughout Darfur in order to enable full returns of displaced persons.''

To accomplish this task--even to undertake it--will require additional assistance from the United States. The AU is on the front lines against genocide. We have to help.

There are those who think that the crisis in Darfur is over because today the villages in the region are no longer on fire.

Sadly, the fires are out, not because the Sudanese Government has necessarily changed its policies, but because so many villages have already been burned to the ground.

Darfur is still the scene of terrible violence and terrible fear.

There are still hundreds of thousands, even millions of people who are living in displacement camps in Sudan or in refugee camps outside its borders. And these people are still under attack. Women and girls are still at risk of rape every time they go to collect firewood or water.

People are still being killed. Children, especially, are still dying from the diseases that plague refugee camps.

If the African Union cannot create conditions of greater security, these people cannot go home. If the AU cannot create conditions of safety, these people will not go home.

Right now, they would rather risk the misery, the disease, and the danger of the camps than go home and risk facing the jingaweit and the Sudanese army.

The violence, food insecurity, and enormous numbers of displaced persons combine to make Darfur still one of the most desperate places on the planet. This is not yesterday's tragedy.

Over 2 million people have been driven from their homes. Over 300,000 have probably been killed, maybe even more. The insecurity makes humanitarian assistance difficult, meaning still more people will die. Increasing our assistance to the African Union is, frankly, the very least that we can do--I believe we should do far more--but at the very minimum we should help the African Union try to end this slaughter.

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