Darfur

Floor Speech

DARFUR -- (Senate - December 18, 2007)

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I have repeatedly come to the floor to speak about one of the worst human tragedies in recent memory--the crisis in Darfur.

For 4 long years the world has watched as thousands of innocent victims have been murdered, tortured, and raped--their villages burned, their livelihoods stolen. More than 2 million people have been chased from their homes--many trapped in dangerous refugee camps for almost 5 years.

Many of us on both sides of the aisle and in the international community have repeatedly called for greater U.S. and global action. President Bush has rightly called the situation in Darfur genocide. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said, ``Darfur is the greatest humanitarian crisis the world faces today.''

And U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has made ending the crisis one of his top priorities.

His efforts and those of many others led to 2 promising breakthroughs earlier this year.

First, the various parties agreed to start peace talks. With more and more rebel groups involved in the violence, a long-term political settlement will be vital in bringing stability to the region.

Second, the U.N. Security Council voted to deploy a 26,000-member peacekeeping force to bring the ongoing carnage to an end and help create an atmosphere for such negotiations.

Under pressure from the international community, the Sudanese government--notorious for its delays, denials, and obstruction--grudgingly accepted this new force.

Despite these assurances, we had many reasons to be skeptical of the regime's true intentions.

For example, Sudan has appointed its own former minister of interior, Mr. Ahmed Harun, to lead a committee to investigate human rights abuses and also to help oversee the deployment of the peacekeeping force.

Mr. Harun is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

As interior minister, Mr. Harun helped fund, recruit, and arm the Janjaweed militia which was directly involved in perpetuating the genocide in Darfur.

Mr. Harun's place in on trial in The Hague, not investigating violence he helped perpetuate.

Equally troubling are the continued attacks on international aid workers, fissures in the peace agreement between North and South Sudan, and continued violence in Darfur.

While the Khartoum government thumbs its nose at the international community, thousands of innocent victims remain trapped in sprawling refugee camps--their lives horribly uprooted, their families traumatized with fear and dislocation.

And now, tragically, it appears that the Sudanese government was never serious about the U.N. peacekeeping force. With only 3 weeks until the deployment is scheduled to begin the Sudanese government is back to its old tricks.

A few weeks ago, the U.N.'s top peacekeeping official, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, told the Security Council that obstacles created by the Sudanese Government were jeopardizing the deployment of the new peacekeeping force.

In particular, Sudan is now objecting to the deployment of non-African peacekeepers.

Sudan's obstruction is madness and must not be tolerated.

In fact, 13 former world leaders and current activists, including former President Jimmy Carter, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Bangladeshi microfinance champion Muhammed Yunus, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have called for the immediate deployment of the peacekeeping force.

This group of ``Elders'' noted in a recent report that the residents of Darfur, as well as Sudanese elsewhere, are desperate for the peacekeepers to arrive.

The stakes are too high and the humanitarian crisis has dragged on too long to allow any further backsliding by the Sudanese Government.

That is why I believe it is time to increase the pressure on the Sudanese Government.

Earlier this year I introduced 2 versions of legislation that would increase economic pressure on the Sudanese regime. Each of those bills supported state and local divestment efforts, and therefore would allow each of us to do our part to end the madness in Darfur by selling off any investments in companies that support the Sudanese regime.

I am pleased that Senator Dodd, as chairman of the Banking Committee, adopted ideas from these bills into the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act of 2007--a bill the Senate passed last week and the House just moments ago passed by a unanimous vote of 411 to 0.

I thank him, as well as Ranking Member Shelby and others who have worked on this bill--especially Senators Cornyn and Brownback, who joined me as lead sponsors of the legislation I originally introduced.

I hope Congress's support for this bill sends the Government of Sudan an important message--that its brazen delays and obstruction of an internationally sanctioned peacekeeping force in Darfur can no longer be tolerated.

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