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“SUDAN” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S4943-S4944 on May 6, 2004.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SUDAN
Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues in calling attention to the horrifying crisis in Darfur, a part of western Sudan where over a million people have been displaced by a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by government-backed militia forces and official Sudanese forces.
Human Rights Watch has documented massacres, widespread rape, massive forced displacement, and indiscriminate aerial bombardment of civilians in Darfur. Amnesty International indicates that the ceasefire agreement signed on April 8 has not stopped the attacks against civilians on the ground, stating that ``attacks on villages continue; indiscriminate and deliberate killings of civilians continue; looting continues and rapes continue.'' Doctors Without Borders, which is actually on the ground delivering services in parts of Darfur, warns of desperate malnutrition and tells us that the absence of food aid on the ground is especially alarming because measles have broken out among the displaced, and measles can seriously aggravate malnutrition.
Because so many homes and farms and mosques and entire villages have been burned and totally destroyed, and because normal life has been so thoroughly disrupted, because fear still dominates the lives of so many civilians, and because the rainy season is beginning--making much of Darfur completely inaccessible by road--literally hundreds of thousands could die of starvation. The humanitarian task before the world would be mammoth even if a major political breakthrough backed by what we have not seen to date--actual effective action taken by the government of Sudan to put a stop to the attacks on civilians. Without such action, the crisis deepens each day.
And even as the government of Sudan has failed to take effective action to stop the attacks and protect the Sudanese people, they also have denied humanitarian organizations and international investigators access to Darfur, deliberately undermining the world's efforts to help those who are suffering and starving. The government's aim appears to be to drive ethnic Africans out of Darfur, and to shield this abhorrent agenda from the eyes of the international community.
It is a disgrace that this same government was just elected to a third term on the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Africans have as great a stake in the commission's work and aims as any people anywhere in the world. They deserve far better representation.
Mr. President, crimes against humanity have been and continue to be perpetrated in Darfur, and the criminals responsible for these atrocities--the planners directing this horror at the highest levels--
should be brought to justice.
I am proud to have joined with my colleague, Senator Brownback, who is deeply committed to Sudan, in introducing S. Con Res. 99. And I am so pleased to have been able to work as part of a bipartisan group, including Senators Frist, Daschle, Biden, Lugar, Alexander, Kennedy and DeWine on Sudan issue over the years. I mention as well that Senator Durbin has been enormously helpful at this time, issue, and discussion possible. I hope that today, by calling for urgent action to implement a humanitarian response plan that does not bow to the constraints imposed by the wishes of the Sudanese Government, we can encourage those working to respond to the needs on the ground. And by calling for a Security Council resolution addressing the situation in Darfur, this resolution will make it crystal clear to the Sudanese government that the current situation is simply unacceptable.
Mr. President, I applaud the efforts of the State Department and the White House to bring an end to Sudan's long and tragic north-south conflict. But the hopes that we all harbor of achieving a just and lasting end to that crisis simply cannot be meaningfully realized in the context of the kind of brutality we see in Darfur.
At the same time, any hopes that the government of Sudan harbors of an easing of economic pressure or isolation stand no chance--no chance at all, Mr. President--of being realized until the situation in Darfur changes, the attacks are stopped, and the international community--from humanitarian aid agencies to cease-fire monitors to U.N. investigators--has full, unfettered access to the region. We need to see real change--not rhetorical change, not change on paper, not change on some days not more of the same on others. And we need to see it right away.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ensign). The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I commend Senator Feingold and Senator Brownback and our colleagues for raising this issue not just on the floor of the Senate but also across our Nation, because it is an issue of enormous importance and consequence, as it should be for all Americans and for people all over the world.
It has been 10 years since the Rwanda genocide. A decade ago, 8,000 Rwandans were being killed every day. Yet the international community was silent. We did not stop the deaths of 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutu, in spite of our commitment that genocide must never again darken the annals of human history.
Sadly, we may now be repeating the same mistake in Sudan.
Over the past few weeks, reports of severe ethnic violence have come from Darfur, a region of western Sudan. We have heard accounts of thousands or even tens of thousands of people murdered, of widespread rape, and of people's homes burned to the ground.
The Sudanese government has refused to allow full access to western Sudan. International monitors and humanitarian workers have been prevented from reaching the area. We need immediate access to gather more information on what is happening and to provide urgent humanitarian relief to the one million people the United Nations reports have been displaced internally in Sudan or across the border to Chad.
Many of us hoped that the humanitarian ceasefire and agreement earlier this month between the Sudanese government and rebel forces in western Sudan would end the many months of violence against entire communities. It has not.
The burning of homes and crops of desperately poor villagers has left in its ashes a humanitarian disaster. Without immediate relief, experts predict deaths in the hundreds of thousands. The cruelty of the Government of Sudan and its paramilitary allies against other ethnic groups raises the very real specter of genocide.
The United States and the international community need to act now, to stop this brutality, to save lives. If we fail to act--and to act now--
the consequences will be dire.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan was eloquent in his statement at the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide. He said that he would not permit Darfur to become the first genocide of the 21st century.
There will be discussion in Washington and around the world about whether the ethnic violence in Darfur is, in fact, genocide, but we cannot allow the debate over definitions obstruct our ability to act as soon as possible.
It is a matter of the highest moral responsibility for each of us individually, for Congress, for the United States, and for the global community to do all we can to stop the violence against innocents in Darfur. We must act, because thousands of people's lives will be lost if we do not.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I applaud both the Senator from Wisconsin and the Senator from Massachusetts for what they have said. Obviously, I agree completely.
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