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Special Orders Speech on Sudan

August 4, 2009
Floor Statement
Rep. Maxine Waters [D-CA]: On March 4th, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

That very same day, following the ICC's decision, the Government of Sudan expelled 13 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Darfur, accusing them of cooperating with the ICC investigation.  These non-governmental organizations include many of the most respected humanitarian organizations in the world.  Among them are Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, International Rescue Committee, and Mercy Corps. 

The withdrawal of these organizations will leave millions of civilians without access to food, clean water, and medical assistance.  This outrageous action is just another example of the cruelty of the Government of Sudan towards its own people.  And it proves that the ICC's decision to issue an arrest warrant for Bashir was entirely justified.

The Government of Sudan has been carrying out a campaign of genocide against the people of Darfur since 2003.  The Sudanese government is supporting militia groups that are engaged in genocidal practices in communities of African farmers in the Western province of Darfur.  These militias are razing villages, systematically raping women and girls, specifically targeting and destroying food and water supplies, and massacring communities.  In the last five years the conflict has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians.  On October 1, 2008, the United Nations reported that there were almost 2.7 million internally displaced persons in Darfur, almost 300,000 of whom were newly displaced in 2008, and an additional 2 million people continue to be directly affected by the conflict.

In July of 2007, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1769, which authorized the deployment of a joint United Nations/African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, known as UNAMID.  The force was to consist of a total of 26,000 troops.  However, UNAMID was deployed at only 63 percent of its full strength as of December 31, 2008, and does not have the capacity to fulfill its mandate to protect civilians in Darfur.  UNAMID must immediately deploy its forces at their full strength, and take all necessary and appropriate action to protect the people of Darfur.

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 nothing but little tarps to cover them.  That was three years ago, and yet this genocide has been allowed to continue. 

If we are serious about opposing genocide, we must take decisive action to stop it. 

• We must demand that all nations respect and enforce the decision of the ICC.
• We must demand that humanitarian organizations be allowed to return to Sudan.
• We must enact and enforce comprehensive sanctions against Sudan without exceptions. 
• We must demand that China stop bankrolling the genocide.
• And we must demand that the United Nations immediately deploy its peacekeeping forces and do everything necessary to protect civilians and save the people of Darfur. 

It's long past time to get serious about genocide. 

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