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Darfur peace and Accountability Act of 2006

Date: Sept. 25, 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights Foreign Affairs


DARFUR PEACE AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - September 25, 2006)

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Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Madam Speaker, I once again rise in strong support of H.R. 3127, the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act. I am proud to be a cosponsor of this important legislation, and look forward to it being signed into law.

The scope of the Darfur tragedy is nothing less than horrific. As far as we know, an estimated 400,000 people are now dead and over two million have been displaced as a result of the violence. Thousands continue to die each month as a result of starvation, neglect and sickness. Unfortunately, little has changed since the House first passed H.R. 3127 in April: the Sudanese government has continued to ignore United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for the end of the conflict, the May 2006 peace agreement has largely been ignored and the violence against the people of Darfur has raged on.

As United Nations Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland noted in August, the situation has only gone ``from real bad to catastrophic.'' It is therefore more important than ever that the United States provide the strong moral leadership necessary to spur the world community to act to stop the killings, kidnappings and rapes in Darfur. As our nation continues to work within the United Nations for strong international action on Darfur, passage of this bill, and its enactment into law, will send a clear message to the government of Sudan that the United States will not simply stand by as these atrocities continue.

Two years ago, this Congress and the administration declared the atrocities in Darfur to be genocide and vowed to end the ongoing campaign of violence. It is in that spirit that we must continue to work to ensure that these strong words are not empty ones, that peace can be found in Sudan, and that the people of Darfur are one day free of the threat of genocide. This bill, and the other Darfur measures that we will pass today, are small but important steps towards reaching these goals.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?r109:./temp/~r109khYx6E

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