Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act
The ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan already is believed to have caused the deaths of almost half a million people. More than 200,000 people have been killed by Sudanese government forces and armed militias since 2003, and another 200,000 people have died as a result of the deliberate destruction of homes, crops and water supplies and the resulting conditions of famine and disease. More than 2.5 million people have been displaced.
According to a recent United Nations report, attacks against humanitarian aid workers have increased 150 percent in the past year. There are currently 13,000 humanitarian aid workers in Darfur, providing aid to more than 4 million people, and violence limits their ability to reach people in need. In June, approximately one in six humanitarian convoys leaving the capitals of Darfur provinces were ambushed by armed groups. About two-thirds of the population of Darfur is dependent upon these courageous aid workers and the aid they bring.
Early in 2006, I visited the Darfur region with my good friend from California, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and I was deeply disturbed by what I saw. As far as the eyes could see, there were crowds of displaced people who had been driven from their homes, living literally on the ground with little tarps just covering them. That was over a year ago, and yet this genocide has been allowed to continue.
The world stood by and watched the genocide that occurred in Rwanda. The world has noted over and over again the atrocities of the Holocaust. Yet we cannot seem to get the international community to move fast enough to stop the genocide that is taking place in Darfur.
The Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act is a concrete proposal to impose sanctions on the Government of Sudan and on corporations that continue to do business with this genocidal regime. I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill, and I hope that it will be enacted and implemented in time to save lives, allow humanitarian aid to continue, and force the Government of Sudan to stop this genocide.
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