Darfur Accountability Act Passes the Senate Unanimously

[Kire]

Corzine measure on Darfur passes Senate
By DONNA DE LA CRUZ

April 21, 2005, 5:42 PM EDT

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a measure sponsored by Sen. Jon Corzine demanding that the genocide in the war-ravaged Darfur region in Sudan be stopped. The Senate also approved a Corzine amendment adding $90 million for humanitarian aid to the region.

"We will continue to raise this issue until the killings stop," said Corzine, D-N.J. "Today's milestone brings us closer to that goal."

Corzine, along with Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, has spearheaded measures regarding Darfur in the Senate. Corzine said his interest in Darfur is one everyone should share.

"If we are committed to saying never again with regard to the killing fields of Cambodia or the genocide of Rwanda, or even the kinds of actions that took place in World War II, we need to react to what is happening now," Corzine said. "We can't have a review of our actions and history showing that we stood on the sidelines when we could have taken a stand on a moral issue."

Corzine visited Darfur last year and plans to go to the region again next week.

More: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--corzine-darfur0421apr21,0,3421817.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey

The Senator has posted a diary on Daily Kos on this issue.

What the Darfur Accountability Act Means
by Senator Jon Corzine


Fri Apr 22nd, 2005 at 12:32:34 PDT

I want to share with you an excellent piece of news. The Darfur Accountability Act has just passed the Senate as part of the supplemental appropriations bill. The act is a bipartisan piece of legislation designed to stop the genocide occurring in the Sudan. There is a larger significance attached to this bill, but first I want to talk a little about what this act does and how we might think about genocide.

Genocide is an inconceivable crime. You can try to wrap your head around it, but the sheer cruelty of exterminating a people and culture is so alien to what we know that it is nearly impossible to render it real. The struggle to even call the crime genocide shows this. Historically, the strategy of genocidal perpetrators is to deny the crime by ridiculing the idea of genocide itself. Surely no one would do this, they argue, and it's hard not to believe them. Who could be so cruel? Yet the logic of mass slaughter exists, and is aided by aparthy masquerading as disbelief. The act of the global community in naming the situation in the Sudan as genocide is therefore a large victory. Still, even when genocide is considered, the crime is so big, so morally horrific, that it seems unconquerable and unstoppable, looking like a tangle of warring parties instead of an assymetrical slaughter of the innocent. This bill - and the action of my Senate colleagues - is beginning to overcome this inexcusable attitude that has prevented effective action against genocide many times this century.

One big myth about genocide is that it is unstoppable. The reality is that those committing this genocide could be stopped with a relatively modest intervention, and deterred by the threat of real sanctions.

More: http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/4/22/153235/245

The Darfur Accountability Act does the following:

• Reconfirms that genocide is occurring in Darfur.
  
• Calls for a new UN Security Council resolution with sanctions against the Government of Sudan.
  
• Establishes targeted U.S. sanctions against those responsible for crimes against humanity;
  
• Calls for a U.S. diplomatic campaign at the highest levels to achieve an effective U.N Security resolution and stop the genocide in Darfur.
  
• Calls for an extension of the current arms embargo to cover the
• Government of Sudan.
  
• Calls for accelerated assistance to the African Union mission in Darfur and an expansion of the size and mandate of the mission necessary to protect civilians.
  
• Calls for an expansion of the mandate of the United Nations
• Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) to include the protection of civilians throughout Sudan, including in Darfur, and an increase in the size of UNMIS.
  
• Calls for a military no-fly zone in Darfur.
  
• Calls for a Presidential Envoy for Sudan.
  

More: http://www.politicsnj.com/corzine042105a.htm