Date: 2007-06-05
Speaker: ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN (republican)
Chamber: H

of the Foreign Affairs Committee. and Chairman PAYNE and the ranking member of the Africa subcommittee. Mr. SMITH. for their leadership on the issue of Darfur and for working together to make sure that all of our efforts here continue to be bipartisan. We have over 128 cosponsors of this resolution today. Again. thank you to Congressman JERRY MORAN of Kansas and also Congressman JIM MCGOVERN of Massachusetts and to all of our staff. - This is a mission that we are all on. Many of us have visited on several occasions. and each time we visit Darfur we come back recommitted and rededicated to do what we can each and every day to end this horrific genocide. Thirteen years ago. the world stood by as nearly 1 million people. 1 million people. were slaughtered in the genocide in Rwanda. The best our country could do then. unfortunately. was to apologize for our failure to act. and that was after the fact. Many of us swore that another Rwanda would never happen again on our watch. But today. Mr. Speaker. it is happening again. Nearly 3 years ago. under the bold leadership of our good friend. Chairman DONALD PAYNE. on July 22. 2004. Congress formally declared that genocide was taking place in Darfur. Estimates indicate that nearly 450.000 people have been killed. and 2.5 million innocent civilians have been displaced to date. I witnessed this ongoing tragedy for the first time in 2005 when I visited the refugee camps in Chad and Darfur with two great humanitarian leaders. Don Cheadle and Paul Rusesabagina. this delegation led. again bipartisan. by Chairman ED ROYCE. In February. 2006. under the leadership of our great Speaker. Congresswoman NANCY PELOSI. I had the opportunity once again to visit the refugee camps in another region of Darfur. This again was a bipartisan delegation. And just this past April. along with my colleague Congresswoman ILEANA RoSLEHTINEN. we visited another region in Darfur as part of this visit organized by our majority leader. STENY HOYER. As Congresswoman RoSLEHTINEN has said. what we saw in Darfur. of course. is continuing to deteriorate. More and more people are dying. and even humanitarian aid workers are at risk. The day before our delegation arrived. five soldiers from Senegal were killed in Darfur. African Union soldiers there to protect innocent civilians. Unfortunately. for many Darfurians the situation remains grim. Last week. many of us expressed our support for the Presidents announcement of additional sanctions on businesses con.trolled by the government of Sudan and on individuals in the Sudanese government. Today. we take another step forward by calling on the Chinese to use their unique influence with Sudan to end the genocide. Mr. Speaker. there is no way to sugarcoat this. China is the principal trading partner of a genocidal regime that_ has thumbed its nose at the international community. China reportedly purchases as much as 70 percent of Sudans. oil and has cancelled over $100 million in debt and has provided $20 million in funding to build a palace for General Bashir. China unquestionably has the unique ability to influence Khartoum in a positive manner. but they cannot do so by simply following a policy of appeasement. They must put real pressure on General Bashir to comply with all U.N. resolutions and fully. unconditionally accept the U.N.AU peacekeeping mission. And they must urge Sudan to pursue a renewed peace process with all parties. and they must insist that humanitarian organizations have unfettered access to the 2.5 million people who have been displaced. Most importantly. they should deny Bashir the tools to continue perpetrating the genocide by cutting off. and I mean cutting off. all military arms sales and suspending economic oppoetunities and cooperation with the government of Sudan. The economic costs to China for taking these steps today is minimal compared to the benefit they would achieve if they would provide to the people. of Darfur an end to the genocide and the international acclaim that China could win by helping to end the genocide. I urge our Chinese friends not to view this resolution as a condemnation but to view it as an opportunity to take action to end an urgent moral and humanitarian crisis. So we are urging the Chinese government to act. and our own steps must increase to stop this horrific and unbelievable tragedy occurring on our watch. Mr. Speaker. I want to thank all of the Members here who are speaking in support of this resolution.