Trent Franks: “Mr. Speaker, I stand tonight with these distinguished Members in support of House Concurrent Resolution 467, declaring…”

“Mr. Speaker, I stand tonight with these distinguished Members in support of House Concurrent Resolution 467, declaring genocide in Darfur, Sudan. To date an estimated 30,000 civilians have been murdered, more than 130,000 have been forced from their homes and have fled to neighboring Chad, and more than 1 million people have been internally displaced. If the international community fails to act, what awaits these people is a terrible season of prolonged suffering and painful death. Even now, mothers who have traveled miles fleeing their husbands' murderers are watching their children starve. They are helpless to end the violence. We are not. We must act. We cannot wait until thousands more have died. Mr. Speaker, the good news is that we can prevent the loss of life. There is a way that our actions can matter. We have seen the faces of women holding their emaciated babies to their chest with tears streaming down their faces, and we have seen the photos of burned-out villages. What is reflected in the eyes of these women is at once utter relief at having found the camp and unimaginable grief in the tragic and needless losses they have endured. Some of them bear the physical scars of beatings and branding, but many more of them bear the emotional scars of brutal rape by the evil Janjaweed militias.”