SUDAN ACCOUNTABILITY AND DIVESTMENT ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - December 18, 2007)
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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank my good friend for yielding. I am pleased to join my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in supporting S. 2271, the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act of 2007, which will make yet another contribution and another effort at ending this horrific genocide in Darfur that according to the United Nations as resulted in the deaths of over 200,000 people, while others put the death toll as high as 450,000 with about 2.5 million people displaced. Like many of my colleagues, I have visited Darfur. I have been to Mukjar and Kalma camp.
And I have actually had a face-to-face with General Bashir, the President, the dictator in Khartoum, pushing for peace, pushing for an end to this slaughter. And I have seen firsthand, like many of my colleagues, the unspeakable agony and the devastation, whole families exterminated, entire villages killed, women raped. It is beyond words how much sufferings has been endured--you can see it on the survivors' faces. I would also point out to my colleagues that the United States has not been lax. or underengaged. Can we do more, you bet. Nevertheless USAID, the U.S. Department of State and President Bush himself, our special envoy Andrew Natsios have been very robust in their efforts to try to mitigate the suffering and hopefully to this crisis as well.
The Bush administration took the lead at the U.N.; I would remind my colleagues, in arguing for deployment of a peacekeep force which yielded fruit on July 31 with the authorization of a United Nations-African Union hybrid peacekeeping force that hopefully will begin to get some significant deployment beginning on January 1 to replace the AU force of about 7,000. About 20,000 military, 6,000 police, will form the core of that force; and the sooner they get in there to protect, the better.
Let me also point out to my colleagues that on May 29, 2007, the President ordered the U.S. Treasury to block the assets of three Sudanese individuals involved in the violence and to sanction 31 companies owned and controlled by the Government of Sudan. This legislation builds on this bipartisan effort to say, enough is enough. As Ms. Lee said a moment ago, we looked askance when the Rwandan genocode accrued--killing by the Hutus of the Tutsis and it was Bill Clinton who did apologize, and the Secretary of the United Nations Kofi Annan also had to apologize because we sat idly by and did nothing even though General Dallaire gave us a clear and compelling heads-up, he was, you will recall, the U.N. peacekeeping leader at the time in Rwanda, and we did nothing.
And we also did nothing for years in the Balkans, another genocide that killed innocent people in Bosnia and Croatia. Hopefully, we have learned from that. As a matter of fact, one of the AU peacekeepers that I had met with, who served in Sarajevo and was also serving in Darfur, saw the parallels of nonaction and was very much concerned that it was deja vu all over again. Hopefully, this legislation pushes the ball further down the court so we can protect innocent lives.
As my colleagues know, the bill today prohibits the U.S. Government from entering into or renewing any contract for the procurement of goods and services with any company conducting business operations in Sudan, directs the Security and Exchange Commission to require that all companies trading securities that directly or through a parent or a subsidiary company conducting business in Sudan must disclose the nature of their business operations in Sudan and does some very other important things.
Let me point out to my colleagues, too, that just last week, the Human Rights Council, which was supposed to replace the egregiously flawed Human Rights Commission, has now disbanded a very important working group of experts that had chronicled compelling evidence and testimony about the genocide. The U.N. failed to renew the group's mandate and just did away with it under pressure. The Council continued their special rapporteurs mandate, but they got rid of this very important working group.
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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank Mr. Bachus for yielding further, Mr. Speaker. I just want to read one witness's comment regarding the Human Rights Council, He testified and said: ``We, the victims of Darfur, were hoping so much that this new Human Rights Council would give us a voice and make a difference in our lives. Yet the genocide continues. Time is running out. We need action. Our humanitarian situation is critical. Our security situation worsens every day. The janjaweed are killing and raping us. The innocent civilians of Darfur are in desperate need of protection. We need action, and we need it now.''
Finally, I call on each Member to support this bill--this has to be a strong bipartisan vote. You know, we are often criticized for the excessive partisanship of this Congress which is largely true. This is one area where we can close ranks and do what is right on behalf of a very, very much-suffering people. I thank my friend for yielding that extra time.
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