Darfur
DARFUR -- (Senate - November 16, 2006)
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I come to the floor tonight because during the break, I sat and watched ``60 Minutes'' with my wife one evening. During the course of the program, there was a segment on the horrible situation that is now occurring in Darfur in the nation of Sudan on the continent of Africa. I have been blessed and lucky to visit Africa several times. I am drawn back every time I leave. I think I have to get back there; there is so much more I need to see. I don't know whether it is that it is the cradle of civilization and that is where the first remnants of early human life have been found, but Africa draws you back to those roots and origins.
The last time, I took a trip with Senator Brownback of Kansas. We went to Rwanda, which, of course, is a country that conjures immediately an image of horrible death and suffering. Over 10 years ago, genocide occurred in Rwanda. We look back now on the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people and realize that the United States basically stood by idly and watched that occur. President Bill Clinton was in office at the time and was urged by many Members of Congress, including my predecessor, Senator Paul Simon of Illinois, to send some type of military force to try to stop the killing.
When we visited Rwanda, Senator Brownback and I stayed in the now famous Rwanda Hotel, known as Des Mille Collines, which means a thousand hills. It is in the city of Kigali in Rwanda. As we stayed there and I saw this hotel, having seen the movie, I was haunted by the images of that movie, how that hotel had become a refuge during the genocide and people streamed in from all over Rwanda because they knew this hotel manager was doing his best to protect them. They were drinking water, after the regular supplies were cut off, out of the swimming pool because it was the only place to turn. As I looked down at the pool, I could not imagine people scrambling along the edges of the pool to find water for themselves and their children. As you walked through the halls, you thought of the people huddling there and praying they would not be beaten or macheted to death at any given moment.
Down the hill from the hotel is a Catholic church--a red brick church, simple and plain. I went in there early in the morning and looked inside as those who were waiting for mass gathered. I thought: This is an interesting gathering place at 6 a.m. I went back to the hotel and asked about it. It turns out that 1,200 people were killed in that church. They were seeking asylum and refuge in the church, and the people who were determined to kill them came in and hacked them to death on the stones of the very church I visited. That was 10 years ago. We did nothing. We could not even bring ourselves in America to use the word ``genocide'' to describe what was going on.
I think President Clinton would be the first to admit that this is one of the chapters of his Presidency that he is not proud to recount. He has personally gone there to apologize that the United States didn't do more.
Mr. President, let's fast-forward to today. Today is not Rwanda. Today it is Darfur. I come to the floor today to talk about the ongoing tragedy in Darfur, Sudan, and to report that amidst all of the sad comments about what is happening there, a ray of hope broke through today.
Darfur is in a distant corner of the world, but it is familiar to millions of us in America. It has come home to many of us through news stories and photos about women being brutalized, families murdered, and villages being burned. The violence has gone on for over 3 years.
The U.N. news service reports from yesterday describe more attacks by the jingaweit militia in south Darfur. More villages were burned and more crops were destroyed. The U.N. news reports describe how humanitarian personnel in west Darfur had to be evacuated because of growing threats to their safety. And violence in Darfur has spread to neighboring eastern Chad and the Central African Republic. At least 200,000 people have died. More than 2 million people have been displaced from their homes. Today, 4.5 million people are at risk in Darfur and eastern Chad. Hundreds of thousands are in desperate need but beyond the reach of humanitarian organizations. As I said, this has gone on for more than 3 years.
Last May, the Sudanese Government signed a peace agreement with one of the major rebel groups that it had been battling, but violence since then has only increased. In that agreement, the Khartoum Government promised to disarm the jingaweit, which have terrorized Darfur. Instead of disarming them, the Government in Khartoum is remobilizing and rearming the militias. They have even given these militiamen, who were killing and burning and raping and pillaging, uniforms to wear.
On November 5, a reporter for Reuters news organization described the impact of this remobilization of the militia:
Arab militias on horses and camels wearing pristine uniforms and carrying brand new guns attacked three villages, killing dozens, mostly children. One witness told the reporter, ``They took the babies and children from their mother's arms, beat the women and shot the children. .....'' And they said to the mothers, ``We are killing your sons and when you have more, we will come and kill them, too.''
The U.N. Security Council has passed resolutions condemning the violence and authorizing a U.N. peacekeeping mission of more than 20,000 troops. But the Government of Sudan has refused to allow the peacekeepers in the country. Presently, there are 7,000 African Union monitors in Darfur, but they are outnumbered by Sudanese forces by 200 to 1. The African Union forces do not have the mandate or the means to protect people, although some commanders have tried to make a difference in their local areas.
Rwandan peacekeepers have been among the most effective in Darfur. Maybe the memory of their own genocide brings them to this mission of mercy. They are also among the most frustrated that they cannot do more and the world refuses to engage.
Twelve years ago, Canadian General Romeo Dallaire was a U.N. commander stationed in Rwanda during the genocide I have described. He begged for more troops from all over the world. He begged for more ammunition. He begged for the authority to stop the killing in Rwanda. He was ignored. He got nothing. Hundreds of thousands of people died needlessly. He managed to save some, but for the most part he could only stand helplessly watching as a witness to the slaughter.
Today, Rwandan peacekeepers lack the means and the authority to stop another genocide. Like Dallaire, they need the world to act. What is needed is a much larger, more robust peacekeeping force, and it is needed urgently right now.
Eric Reeves, a professor of literature who has become the unofficial chronicler and probably the foremost expert on the genocide in Darfur, writes:
The people of Darfur have been abandoned. Given how clearly and predictably genocidal events have unfolded over most of the past three and a half years, this failure now exceeds in all too many ways the shameful international acquiescence before the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Those are the words of Mr. Reeves.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan today convened a high-level meeting in Ethiopia to find a way beyond this impasse and to finally break through with help for these people. U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, is there. So are representatives from the other permanent members of the Security Council, the Arab League, and the European Union. The Sudanese Government is also officially attending. They are there to find a way to get peacekeepers on the ground in Sudan in a section of that country as large as the State of Texas.
Whether the peacekeepers come under the U.N. title or through some other combination with the African Union, they are desperately needed. The title doesn't mean much; it is the mission that counts. It must be large enough, well equipped enough, and with the mandate and authority to protect the people of Darfur.
The latest news reports indicate that they may have made progress in their meeting, and we pray to God they did. Kofi Annan announced today that Sudan has accepted in principle a United Nations-African Union mission in Darfur, but there has been no agreement as to the number of troops that will be accepted and deployed.
I hope this is truly a breakthrough and not more empty rhetoric from the Government of Sudan.
Today's news reports are full of new killings in Darfur. The Darfur peacekeeping force must have the capability, the numbers, and the authority to preempt, prevent, deter, and respond to attacks on civilians and to protect the camps of those who have been displaced. There must be a clear timetable to make this happen, and it must start now. The violence in Darfur has spilled beyond its borders. Villages in Chad are burning.
For too long the world has done too little. I hope today's reports represent a breakthrough that Sudan will, indeed, accept the peacekeeping mission that is so badly needed in Darfur.
Mr. President, we never know if any word spoken on the floor of the Senate or even heard or noticed will make a difference. I guess the purpose of my speech this evening is for my own satisfaction. I sat there with my wife, and we watched that ``60 Minutes'' program about these helpless people who are the victims of this genocide in Darfur, and she turned to me and said: Isn't there something you can do?
Well, I gave a speech. I wish I could do more. I wish I had the power of the President. I wish I had the power of the United Nations. I wish I had the power to send the troops to protect these poor people. But when the record is written of this time, I hope it is written that at least we spoke up, at least we spoke the word ``genocide,'' a word we were even afraid to mouth during the Rwandan crisis.
We know what is happening. In just a few short days, many of us will be sitting around with our families giving thanks for all the blessings we have in this great country, and we have so many: our wealth, our prosperity, our happiness, our families. I hope for a moment that the people of this country will reflect on the less fortunate and remember this tiny country, Sudan, and this great continent of Africa that is now sadly the site of the first serious genocide of the 21st century. We need to do so much more.
Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
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