U.S. Senator Russ Feingold on the Crisis in Darfur, Sudan As Prepared May 6, 2004 Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues in calling attention to the horrifying crisis in Darfur, a part of western Sudan where over a million people have been displaced by a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by government-backed militia forces and sometimes official Sudanese forces themselves. Human Rights Watch has documented massacres, widespread rape, massive forced displacement, and indiscriminate aerial bombardment of civilians in Darfur. Amnesty International indicates that the ceasefire agreement signed on April 8 has not stopped the attacks against civilians on the ground, stating that "attacks on villages continue; indiscriminate and deliberate killings of civilians continue; looting continues and rapes continue." Doctors without Borders, which is actually on the ground delivering services in parts of Darfur, warns of desperate malnutrition and tells us that the absence of food aid on the ground is especially alarming because measles have broken out among the displaced, and measles can seriously aggravate malnutrition. Because so many homes and farms and mosques and entire villages have been burned and totally destroyed, and because normal life has been so thoroughly disrupted, because fear still dominates the lives of so many civilians, and because the rainy season is beginning - making much of Darfur completely inaccessible by road - literally hundreds of thousands could die of starvation. The humanitarian task before the world would be mammoth even if a major political breakthrough occured backed by what we have not seen to date – actual effective action taken by the Government of Sudan to put a stop to the attacks on civilians. Without such action, the crisis deepens each day. And even as the Government of Sudan fails to take effective action to stop the attacks and protect the Sudanese people, they also deny humanitarian organizations and international investigators access to Darfur, deliberately undermining the world's efforts to help those who are suffering and starving. The Government's aim appears to be to drive ethnic Africans out of Darfur. It is a disgrace that this same government was just elected to a third term on the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Africans have as great a stake in the Commission's work and aims as any people anywhere in the world. They deserve far better representation. Mr. President, crimes against humanity have been and continue to be perpetrated in Darfur, and the criminals responsible for these atrocities - the planners directing this horror at the highest levels - should be brought to justice. I am proud to have joined with my colleague, Senator Brownback, who is deeply committed to Sudan, in introducing S. Con Res. 99. I hope that, by calling for urgent action to implement a humanitarian response plan that does not bow to the constraints imposed by the wishes of the Sudanese Government we can encourage those working to respond to the needs on the ground. And by calling for a Security Council resolution addressing the situation in Darfur, this resolution will make it crystal clear to the Sudanese Government that the current situation is simply unacceptable. Mr. President, I applaud the efforts of the State Department and the White House to bring an end to Sudan's long and tragic north-south conflict. But the hopes that we all harbor of achieving a just and lasting end to that crisis simply cannot be meaningfully realized in the context of the kind of brutality we see in Darfur. At the same time, any hopes that Sudanese Government harbors of an easing of economic pressure or isolation stand no chance – no chance at all, Mr. President - of being realized until the situation in Darfur changes, the attacks are stopped, and the international community - from humanitarian aid agencies to cease-fire monitors to UN investigators - has full, unfettered access to the region. We need to see real change - not rhetorical change, not change on paper, not change on some days but more of the same on others. And we need to see it right away.

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