SCHAKOWSKY APPLAUDS CONGRESSIONAL ACTION TO END GENOCIDE IN SUDAN
July 23, 2004
SCHAKOWSKY APPLAUDS CONGRESSIONAL ACTION
TO END GENOCIDE IN SUDAN
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) applauded Congressional action calling for an end to the Genocide in Sudan. Both the House and Senate passed resolutions that would designate the growing humanitarian crisis in Sudan as genocide. The House-passed bill calls on the Bush Administration to undertake steps to implement multi-lateral and, if necessary, unilateral action to stop the loss of innocent lives in Sudan.
Schakowsky joined members of the Congressional Black Caucus and others in imploring Congressional leaders to pass the legislation before the August recess period.
Schakowsky met with Secretary of State Colin Powell on July 23 to discuss the urgent situation in the Sudan and the Bush Administrations response.
The following statements were delivered by Schakowsky on the House floor on Wednesday, July 20, 2004:
Morning One-Minute Speeches:
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor today with a sense of urgency to call on my colleagues to act now, before we adjourn, upon the crisis that is developing more and worsening every day in the Sudan.
Over 1 million Sudanese have been displaced and 30,000 have been killed so far in Darfur, and we understand that a minimum of 1,000 people a day are dying, being killed. Women and girls are being systematically raped and brutalized by thugs who have been reported to sing with glee as they inflict pain and humiliation beyond belief.
I stand here today not only as a Member of the United States House of Representatives but as a Jew, as part of a people who are still haunted by the killing of 6 million during World War II, while there were people in the world who knew what was happening, and as a grandmother who does not want to face my grandchildren who say to me, Grandma, you were in the Congress when people were killed in a genocide in the Sudan, what did you do. That is a question we all have to ask ourselves.
We should pass a resolution today before we leave this Congress that we will act, not just talk about it.
House Debate on House Concurrent Resolution 467:
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, my heartfelt gratitude to all of those who made it possible to bring this bipartisan resolution to the floor tonight, and particularly to my colleague, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne), who has long toiled to make this evening happen and this resolution happen.
Some issues transcend the regular business of this House, the important business of policymaking, and transcend partisan politics, and move into the realm of moral imperative.
The genocide that is occurring at this moment in the Sudan, the murder and the rape of women and girls, even little girls at this moment, is one of those moral imperatives. And if we in this most powerful nation on Earth fail to act when our actions could prevent much, even if not all of the loss of life, then we share in the blame.
I stand here tonight not only as a Member of Congress, but as a Jew and as a grandmother. Each year in the Capitol Rotunda, there is a solemn and inspiring ceremony to mark the Holocaust, the slaughter of 6 million Jews by the Third Reich, and one of the themes of that event is never again. But it did happen again, and the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo) listed the scenes of genocide since World War II, and now in the Sudan. And this House and the other body and the administration have a choice to make: Do we or do we not act to stop it?
Every day that we delay, a minimum of 1,000 people die. We have to make a choice tonight. Before we leave this body for 6 weeks, we need to make a choice. And as a grandmother, I do not want to look into the eyes of my grandchildren who say to me, Grandma, you were here when thousands of people died. What did you do to stop it? I want to be able to say, I did help to stop it. We all need to make that choice.
This resolution is so important, but it is just a first step. The other body needs to act. This administration needs to act. We need to call it what it is and we need to proceed to stop it.