PREPARED REMARKS OF SCHAKOWSKY RELEASED DURING RALLY IN CHICAGO CALLING FOR END OF GENOCIDE IN SUDAN

August 25, 2004
Press Release

AUGUST 25, 2004

PREPARED REMARKS OF SCHAKOWSKY RELEASED DURING RALLY IN CHICAGO CALLING FOR END
OF GENOCIDE IN SUDAN

CHICAGO, IL - The following statement was released today by U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) during a rally in Chicago calling for an end to the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Below is Schakowsky's statement:

I want to thank the Chicago Coalition to Save Darfur, its many individual members and all of the organizations that have worked to put together this important event today. And I want to thank all of you for taking the time to be here to focus needed attention on the in Darfur, Sudan. There is a growing humanitarian crisis and genocide that is taking place in Sudan. Tens of thousands of people have already been killed with hundreds more being killed every day. Thousands more have been raped, terrorized and over 1 million civilians have been forced from their homes, forced to struggle against starvation and disease in refugee camps and elsewhere.

The indisputable loss of those innocent lives, the displacement of 1.25 million Darfurians and the rape and brutalization of women and children in Darfur warrants aggressive action by the United States and the world. The United States, as the world's only superpower has a moral obligation to take a leadership role in responding to this crisis. I approach this issue not only as a member of Congress, but also as a Jew and as a grandmother. I don't want to have to look into the eyes of my grandchildren one day and have them ask me: "Grandma, you were there, you were in Congress when all of those innocent lives were being taken, what did you do"? Each of us has to face the next generation, and we must act now to stop the killing in Sudan or we will be forced to explain our failure to them. And like so many Jewish people, I am still haunted by the Holocaust, by the fact that millions of our brothers and sisters were killed while the world stood by in silence.

Every year members of Congress and other leaders gather in the U.S. Capitol to commemorate the Holocaust and every year we repeat the words "never again". We say "never again" as a promise that we will never allow the world to sit by and do nothing while innocent lives are being lost to genocide. But, as we all sadly know, time after time since the Holocaust, genocide has taken place. And today it is taking place again.

During one of my first visits to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, I noticed a famous Dante quote being displayed. It read: "The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis."

The United States Congress has taken neutrality off the table, has designated the killing in Darfur to be genocide and has called on President Bush to take action to put an end to it. There are some nations and some on our government who prefer a neutral or less aggressive stance. But we cannot afford such an approach.

Today, as our brothers and sisters in Darfur are being brutalized and killed, we all have a duty to act. Your presence here is important. But we have much more work to do. We must convince the President to achieve passage of a stronger resolution at the United Nations once the August 31st deadline for progress by Sudan has passed. Too much time has already passed and the government of Sudan must not be allowed to waste any more time while innocent civilians lose their lives.

Now is the time for the Bush Administration to act immediately and aggressively to halt the suffering and killing in Sudan. The United States has already sent some emergency humanitarian funding to the region and Congress has appropriated additional funds. However, President Bush has a number of options that he can and should take to help end the genocide, including:

  • Supporting the African Union by providing more resources and technical assistance to bolster the force already deployed in Darfur.
  • Working more aggressively with the UN to push for concrete measures, such as a robust international security force, in order to prevent additional loss of human life.
  • Considering the use of multilateral or even unilateral intervention to stop genocide in Darfur, Sudan, should the United Nations Security Council fail to act.
The United States must fulfill its moral obligation to lead the world in responding to this humanitarian crisis. If we do not succeed, the lives lost will be our responsibility too. I pledge to you I will do everything I can to make sure we meet this imperative. Again, I want to thank each of you for your attention to this critical issue.