Dick Durbin: “I rise today to talk about what this Congress did to help one of the world's most forgotten yet most deadly…”

“I rise today to talk about what this Congress did to help one of the world's most forgotten yet most deadly conflicts--that in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Former Kansas Senator Sam Brownback invited me to eastern Congo almost 10 years ago and later I returned with Senator Sherrod Brown in 2010. The Democratic Republic of Congo is a nation of breathtaking natural beauty, rich in a vast array of resources. It is also a badly broken country, weak in governance and dominated by relentless poverty, warlords, pillaging soldiers, and horrific, almost incomprehensible, violence. A barbaric civil war spanning more than a decade in Congo is the most lethal conflict since World War II. Eastern Congo is known as the ``Rape Capital of the World.'' In fact, according to the United Nations, regional war and rape leaves an estimated 1,000 or more women assaulted every day in the Congo. That is 12 percent of all Congolese women. I will try to describe the city of Goma in eastern Congo to those who haven't been there. It is almost impossible. Imagine one of the poorest places on Earth, where people are literally starving, where they are facing the scourge of disease, where malaria and AIDS cut short the lives of far too many. Imagine a nearby active volcano. Then superimpose over that the misfortune of ongoing war and unrest that has ravaged the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo for years and resulted in millions of deaths and unspeakable sexual violence.…”