Rep. Pitts: Call a Spade, a Spade - Sudan Atrocities are Genocide
Washington-Congressman Joe Pitts (R, PA-16) today said that the human rights situation in Sudan appears to fit the international definitions of genocide.
"The current events in the Darfur region of Sudan are horrifying," said Congressman Pitts. "The government of Sudan must be held accountable for the crimes against humanity its militias are perpetrating."
Article 2 of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
"Let's call a spade, a spade - the situation in Darfur seems to fit the internationally accepted definition of genocide. We have no excuse but to act to to stop the death, rape, and bloodshed of millions of innocent people. I fully support the U.S. government's investigations into allegations of genocide in this area. We need to stop the suffering there as soon as we can," concluded Congressman Pitts.