Pelosi: 'Stop the Genocide Now!'

Pelosi: 'Stop the Genocide Now!'

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi spoke at the Save Darfur Coalition's "Rally to Stop Genocide" today on the National Mall in front of an estimated audience of 50,000 people. Below are her remarks:

"Thank you, Congressman Tom Lantos.

"Some of my other colleagues are also here today: Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York, Congressman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, Congressman Elijah Cummings, Congressman Ben Cardin, and Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Congressman Donald Payne of New Jersey, Congressman Jim Moran and Congressman Frank Wolf of Virginia. They have traveled to the region, they have gone to jail, and they have taken their message to the floor of the Congress.

"We are all glad to see so many of you here today, seeking justice for the people of Darfur.

"Earlier this year, some of us in a bipartisan delegation traveled to Darfur. We saw the people in the refugee camps, and now because of you and the Save Darfur Coalition, the eyes of the world are on those refugee camps, and the eyes of the world are on all of us to see what we will do about it.

"But I want to share with you the eyes of the children that we saw in those camps. The little toddlers still had hope in their eyes, a sparkle. Those a little older had already seen too much - rapes, killings, pillaging - all of this with the knowledge of the world.

"The genocide in Sudan must stop and it must stop now.

"When we left the camps we traveled to Khartoum and met with the leaders of the Sudanese government and they denied what we had seen with our very eyes that day. ‘Why,' they asked, ‘are the American people so interested in the domestic affairs of Sudan?' We said because the American people care, and you are a demonstration of that care here today. Genocide is not an internal domestic affair, it is a concern for the world, and it must stop, and it must stop now.

"The genocide in Darfur is a challenge to the conscience of the world. We must act. So working together in a bipartisan way, with the President of the United States - and I may add some of us never agree with the President of the United States - but on Darfur we all agree that this genocide must stop.

"We worked in a bipartisan way to pass the Darfur Accountability Act, and it called for a U.S. Special Envoy to the Sudan. A U.S. Special Envoy will signal that stopping the genocide in Sudan is a priority for the United State of America and it is necessary to stop the violence, to bring the parties to the table for a peace agreement, and to get the humanitarian assistance to the people in need.

"This is more necessary than ever when the UN is saying that they may have to cut the food supply in half. That cannot be tolerated.

"Stop the genocide now!

"It's wonderful that so many of you are here today. But a person who has been there from day one - a pioneer, a person who told Congress for years what was happening in the Sudan, a champion of human rights around the world, Congressman Frank Wolf of Virginia."

http://democraticleader.house.gov/press/articles.cfm?pressReleaseID=1537