Declaring Genocide in Darfur, Sudan

DECLARING GENOCIDE IN DARFUR, SUDAN -- (House of Representatives - July 21, 2004)

Mr. TANCREDO. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 467) declaring genocide in Darfur, Sudan, as amended.

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo), my friend, for yielding me this time, and I thank the ranking member for yielding me this time.

I thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne) for acting. We are acting too late, but it is never too late to do the right thing.

We live in a new world, a world in which it is impossible to say that we do not know, that we have not seen, that we have not heard. Because we live in such a world, to remain silent and inactive is an immoral act; it is an act of indifference and negligence that condemns us as human beings.

The Second World War and the Holocaust have been referenced, the Holocaust appropriately so, because that was an act of eliminating a people because of the fact that they existed. This is an act of trying to eliminate a people, not because they are aggressors, not because they are a danger, but because they exist.

It is incumbent upon not just the United States, but on all the world to act when it is confronted with genocide. It is an act of self-preservation for us to recognize what is being done and to act, for if we do not, we will not live in either a safe or a civilized international community.

Very frankly, we watched in the past decade a genocide occur in Bosnia and Kosovo, and we interviewed some blue helmets who were there on the ground and reported back that, yes, they had seen atrocities committed, but their assignment there was to report, not to act.

The gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) mentioned Dante's reference to those who maintain their neutrality in the face of moral outrage.

This is an important act we take, but it is not enough, because words will not save those children. Words alone will not protect those women from assault and ravage. Words will not feed those people. Words will not prevent the death; but words hopefully will be the beginning of action, a call to morality, a call to civilization, a call to the international community to live out the promises that it included in the United Nations charter, with hope of a new and better and safer and more moral world. That is what this resolution is about.

I thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne). I thank him for his commitment, his leadership, and his steadfastness. I urge all of my colleagues, all of us, everyone, Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, north, east, south and west, to affirm this commitment, this definition, this call to action, this call to a moral world.