Recognizing The Fifth Anniversary Of The U.S. Declaration Of Genocide In Darfur

Floor Speech

Recognizing The Fifth Anniversary Of The U.S. Declaration Of Genocide In Darfur

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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I want to commend our ranking member for authoring this important resolution to mark the tragic fifth anniversary of the declaration by the United States Congress that the systematic violence, killing, and displacement of millions in Darfur, Sudan constitutes genocide.

Madam Speaker, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has proven once again that he considers the people of Darfur to be merely pawns and throwaways in a shameless game that he is playing with the international community. The gulf between his actions and his words is as wide as the callous attitude that I encountered when I met with and argued with him personally in Khartoum, and the desperate, deeply grieved look on the faces of the refugees I met in the IDP camps in Darfur, including Mujar and Kalma camp.

During our meetings, General Bashir showed no remorse whatsoever for inflicting unspeakable pain, death, displacement, and destitution on large numbers of people. Today, as we know, over 300,000 to upwards of 450,000 Darfurees have been killed and another 3 million have been displaced from their homes. And, of course, this is in addition to some 2 million killed and 4 million displaced in southern Sudan in the aggression that immediately preceded the killings in Darfur.

For all of our efforts in this Congress, Madam Speaker, the suffering continues 5 years after that recognition that what was taking place in Darfur was indeed genocide. The signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement in May of 2006 and the deployment of a joint African Union-U.N. peacekeeping mission has not stopped the violence, much less ushered in a long-term peace for which the people of Darfur so desperately long.

The country of Sudan is going through a critical time that will have serious implications for Darfur as well as other regions of the country. Last week the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague issued a ruling with respect to the boundary dispute in Abyei, one of the major points of contention between the north and the south. National elections, which were supposed to be held this month, have been postponed until April of 2010. Although these developments do not involve Darfur directly, a resolution of the conflict in Darfur is dependent on the complete and peaceful implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the north and south.

Over the past 5 years, Madam Speaker, and even before that, the profound bipartisan congressional concern has not diminished nor has it abated. Tomorrow the Africa Subcommittee will hold a hearing on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. On Thursday the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission will do likewise, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has slated a hearing on it on Thursday. This week we will also hear from General Scott Gration, the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, during which time we will hear further details about the administration's strategy in trying to mitigate and hopefully end this despicable violence in Darfur.

This is a very important resolution, Madam Speaker, and I hope the full membership of this House will support it.

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