Speech #1100021180

Thus. this is an area in which there is ample opportunity for the Congress and the Bush administration to find common ground to alleviate the overwhelming suffering in Darfur. Not since the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a systematic campaign of displacement. starvation. rape. mass murder. and terror as we are witnessing in Darfur for the last 3 years. At least 400.000 people have been killed. more than 2 million innocent civilians have been forced to flee their homes and now live in displacedpersons camps in Sudan or in refugee camps in neighboring Chad. and more than 3.5 million men. women. and children are completely reliant on international aid for survival. Unless the world stirs from its slumber and takes concerted and decisive action to relieve this suffering. the ongoing genocide in Darfur will stand as one of the blackest marks on humankind for centuries to come. The people of Darfur cannot wait. The time has come for decisive leadership from the United States. It has been more than 2 years since I and my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus Darfur Task Force met with Secretary Colin Powell to press successfully for the administration to declare that the campaign of ethnic cleansing and atrocities carried out against civilians primarily by the Government of Sudan and its allied Janjaweed militias is genocide. It has been more than a year since I flew to Chad and walked across the border to Sudan and met with African Union troops who pleaded for more peacekeeping authority and the resources to protect the refugees from violence. rather than merely monitor it. After retuming from that Congressional delegation. I worked with other Members of Congress to secure increased funding to aid the thousands of Sudanese displaced to refugee camps in Chad and to provide additional funding to assist Chad in responding to the humanitarian crisis. It has been almost 2 years since the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1556 demanding that the government of Sudan disarm the Janjaweed. This demand was later followed by Resolution 1706. which authorizes a 20.000 strong U.N. peacekeeping force.