FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 17, 2006

CONTACT: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider 202-226-7616

Pelosi: ‘Darfur Is a Humanitarian Disaster That Challenges the Conscience of the World’

Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi delivered a major address this morning at the Center for National Policy on the crisis in Darfur.  In her speech, “A Challenge to the Conscience of the World: Bringing Security and Hope to Darfur,” Pelosi discussed her recent trip to Iraq and her call for a U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, which would signal that bringing peace and stability to the region is a high priority for the United States.  Below are her remarks:

“After a day in the refugee camps of Darfur, our bipartisan congressional delegation traveled to Khartoum to meet with Sudanese Vice President Taha.  He asked us, ‘The Sudanese people want to know – why are the Americans so interested in the domestic affairs of Sudan?  We know that Americans are a free-thinking people,’ he said, ‘but maybe your free-thinking does not create a clear understanding of the facts in my country.’

“As we sat there he denied what we saw with our very eyes that day: refugee children struggling in the oppressive heat, without shade or adequate clothing, and sleeping in huts, made from USAID food bags stitched together.  At night, their parents would have to walk for miles outside of the camps for firewood and water, always under the constant fear that they might be attacked.  As he spoke, we could not help but recall their stories of villages torched, children kidnapped, women raped, and men tortured and killed.

“But even in this horror, we saw hope in the bright and playful eyes of toddlers… a hope that dimmed in the haunted eyes of the older children.  I know I speak for everyone in our delegation when I say – we longed to take everyone of these beautiful children home with us.  There were so many. 

“The camps we visited were home to more than 100,000 refugees.  But that is just a fraction of the staggering toll of violence in Darfur. 

“According to United Nations reports, 3 million people need assistance.  Two million people have been displaced from their villages, and nearly 200,000 people have been killed, and that is a conservative estimate. 

“Furthermore, the full extent of the human price has yet to be exacted: concentrated in camps with deplorable sanitary conditions exist – you could call them squalid, that is almost an upgrade from what we saw.  Darfuris are now vulnerable even more disease as the rainy season is just a few months away.  Sicknesses like cholera and dysentery could take tens of thousands more lives.

“We have seen variations of this ‘problem from hell’ before.  Most recently in Rwanda – and we promised, ‘never again.’

“The situation in Darfur is a humanitarian disaster that challenges the conscience of the world.  It is the systematic destruction of a people – it is genocide.

“While we were in Sudan, back at home President Bush reaffirmed that this is indeed ‘genocide.’  Yesterday, members of our bipartisan delegation met with the President at the White House to thank him for his leadership and report on our trip.  During that meeting, we strongly endorsed the appointment of a U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan.  This Special Envoy would signal that bringing peace and stability to Sudan is a priority for the United States.  

“To do this, we must: stop the violence, bring the parties to the negotiating table, and get humanitarian relief to the people who need it.

“Essential to stopping the violence, is stopping the Janjaweed. 

“After persistent and diplomatic questioning by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Vice President Taha finally admitted that the Government of Sudan had supported the Janjaweed in the past.  In fact, the U.S. military briefed us that the Janjaweed is an extension of the Sudanese military, and is engaged in state-sponsored violence.  That must end.

“The African Union is to be commended for its efforts to protect the Darfuri.  We saw the AU’s impact in camps where – for the first time in months – people were able to eat a full meal, and receive some health attention.

“Our delegation reported this to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan when we met with him upon our return.  We came to him to see how we could work together to end the violence.  He told us that much of this would depend on the actions taken last Friday by the African Union.

“Last Friday, after pressure from the Sudanese government, the African Union decided to delay a request for the U.N. to come into Darfur.  But they did vote for a six-month extension for its 7,000 troops.  However, with only 7,000 troops trying to monitor a cease fire in an area the size of Texas, the violence will not end.  The African Union troops must be given more mobility and must be freed from the restriction that limits their effectiveness – they must become peacekeepers. 

“But first, there must be peace. 

“Last Friday, the AU did establish a goal for the parties in the conflict: to sign a peace agreement by April 30.  Achieving that goal requires picking up the pace to get all of the parties to the negotiating table in Abuja, Nigeria.

“Sudan has a model for a negotiated peace – the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that was designed to end civil war between the North and South of the country.  Admittedly fragile, it brought an end to a more than 20-year civil war in which more than 2.2 million people were killed and millions dislocated.

“Replicating this negotiating success in Darfur, however, is complicated by the fact that there is division within the resistance movement.  The two main groups opposing the Janjaweed, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and the Justice Equality Movement (JEM), sometimes have different objectives. 

“All parties – the African Union as a body, African heads of state acting individually, and the international community – need to use their good offices to bring these groups together so that the government in Khartoum cannot use rebel divisions as an excuse not to negotiate.

“In the meantime, it is essential that humanitarian aid gets to the people who need it.  Many of you here today are actively involved in that effort and you know the situation on the ground.  But United Nations dollars for humanitarian relief are expected to run out this month.  Humanitarian workers are harassed: their convoys have been attacked, and some have been kidnapped.

“Humanitarian workers bring no political agenda and no destabilizing intentions.  They carry with them hope and often health.  They must be protected, their supplies must not be diverted, and their volunteers must be respected. 

“Yesterday, the House approved the President’s $439 million for additional assistance for Darfur.   But more will be needed and the United States’s example should encourage other nations to donate.

“This brings us back to Vice President Taha’s question: why is the United States so interested in Sudan?  The answer is that genocide is not the domestic affair of any nation – it concerns the world.  As our colleague Joe Wilson told him, ‘Americans care about people.’

“Our care is reflected in the work being done for the people of Darfur in America’s state legislatures, editorial boards, in corporate boardrooms, college campuses, and especially in our churches.

“This care was spurred by our religious communities, which have taken the lead in our efforts.  I salute the many religious leaders – including members of the Save Darfur Coalition – who are here today.  

“While traveling in Africa, our delegation heard that after winning an Olympic gold medal, Joey Cheek donated his prize to Right to Play and specifically, the children of Darfur.  Joey is a magnificent athlete and an optimistic young man -- I am so pleased he has joined us today.

“Each day that the genocide continues and each day we wait, the hope we saw in the eyes of the youngest children can disintegrate into despair, disease, and death. 

“On April 30, Americans of conscience will come to Washington to echo the call, ‘never again.’  These citizens will demonstrate on behalf of the children of Darfur, and also demonstrate that not only is America great, but America is good.”

“ Democrats are united in presenting a New Direction for America, one that will make our nation as strong as its people, one that brings opportunity, security, and prosperity to all Americans. ”

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi