Act Now to Stop Humanitarian Catastrophe in Darfur, Sudan

ACT NOW TO STOP HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHE IN DARFUR, SUDAN -- (House of Representatives - June 25, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pearce). Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, 10 years ago, as bloated corpses floated down Rwanda's rivers, the international community debated whether the atrocities being committed in Rwanda fit the legal definition of "genocide." By the time the world stopped debating, it was too late. Over 800,000 men, women, and children had been killed. The failure of the world to act in Rwanda remains a stain on our collective conscience.

We must learn from the tragic mistakes of the past. Today, just 1,000 miles north of Rwanda in the Darfur region of Sudan, more than 30,000 people have already been killed by the Sudanese military's aerial bombardments and the atrocities being committed by their ruthless proxies, the Jangaweed militia. Gang rapes, the branding of raped women, amputations, and summary killings are widespread as we speak.

More than a million people have been driven from their homes as villages have been burned and crops destroyed. The Sudanese government has deliberately blocked the delivery of food, medicine, and other humanitarian assistance. More than 160,000 Darfurians have become refugees in neighboring Chad. Conditions are ripe for the spread of fatal diseases such as measles, cholera, dysentery, meningitis and malaria. The United States Agency for International Development estimates that 350,000 people are likely to die in the coming months and that the death toll could reach more than a million unless the violence stops and the Sudanese government immediately grants international aid groups access to Darfur.

Here in Washington and at the United Nations headquarters in New York, many officials are again debating whether this unfolding tragedy constitutes genocide, ethnic cleansing, or something else. This time let us not debate until it is too late to stop this human catastrophe. Let us not wait until thousands more children are killed before we summon the will to stop this horror. America and the international community have a moral duty to act. The United States and 130 other signatories to the Genocide Convention also have a legal obligation to, and I quote, "undertake to prevent and punish" the crime of genocide.

The Convention defines genocide as actions undertaken "with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, as such." The actions include "deliberately inflicting on members of the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part." By all accounts, including reports of U.N. fact finders and the USAID, it is the African peoples in the Darfur region who have been targeted for destruction by the Khartoum-backed Arab Jangaweed death squads.

In the middle of an unfolding crisis like that in Darfur today, there will always be debate over whether what is happening constitutes genocide. But it is important to remember that the Genocide Convention does not require absolute proof of genocidal intentions before the international community is empowered to intervene. The Convention would, after all, offer no protection to innocent victims if we had to wait until there were tens of thousands or more corpses before we act. A key part of the Genocide Convention is prevention, not just punishment after the fact.

The United States has already done more than any other nation to call attention to and respond to this tragedy. But our efforts to date have not brought an end to the growing crisis. We must take additional measures, and we must take them now.

The May 25 Security Council statements expressing grave concern about the situation in Darfur does not provide any authority for international action. The United States should immediately call for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council and introduce and call for a vote on a resolution that demands the government of Sudan take the following steps:

First, allow international relief groups and human rights monitors free and secure access to the Darfur region; second, the government of Sudan must immediately terminate its support for the Jangaweed and dispatch its forces to disarm them; third, the Sudanese government must allow the more than one million displaced persons to return to their homes.

This resolution must include stiff sanctions if the Sudanese government refuses to meet these conditions, and it must authorize the deployment of peacekeeping forces to Darfur to protect civilians and individuals from CARE and other humanitarian organizations seeking to provide assistance.

It is also critical that United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan exhibit strong leadership on Darfur. I was pleased to join with the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) in urging him to go to Sudan to address the crisis there, and I am pleased that Mr. Annan will finally be going next week. However, this visit must be more than just an expression of concern. Secretary General Annan must make it clear that if the Sudanese government does not cooperate fully in stopping the killings and the destruction, he will push for immediate international sanctions.

And he must let the Sudanese government know that the welcome progress in reaching accommodation with the south in Sudan will not prevent the world from taking action to stop the horror in Darfur. The U.N. ignored warnings of mass murder a decade ago in Rwanda. It must not stand idly by again.

We should not allow other members of the U.N. Security Council to engage in endless negotiations and delay a vote on a strong resolution. Every day that goes by without action means more lives lost. Let's vote on a resolution. If the rest of the world refuses to authorize collective action, shame on them. Failure to pass such a resolution would not represent a failure of American leadership; it would be a terrible blot on the world's conscience.

Whether or not the United Nations acts, the United States should take steps on its own. We should make it clear that if the Sudanese government does not meet the demands in the proposed resolution, the United States will impose travel restrictions on Sudanese officials and move to freeze their assets. Even apart from U.N. action, we can immediately urge other nations to join us in taking these and other measures.

I commend Secretary of State Colin Powell for his decision to travel to Sudan next week and visit the Darfur region. It is critical that the Secretary's visit do more than simply call attention to the tragedy unfolding there. He must make it clear that the failure of Khartoum to fully cooperate in ending the destruction and killings will result in a concerted American effort to punish the Sudanese government and harness international support to intervene in Darfur.

Mr. Speaker, we must not look back on Darfur 10 years from now and decry the fact that the world failed to stop the crime of genocide. Rwanda and other genocides should have taught us that those who knowingly fail to confront such evil are themselves complicit through inaction. We are all God's children. These are crimes against humanity. Let us respond to this unfolding human disaster with the urgency it demands.