Dick Durbin: “1,000 people died there yesterday, 1,000 people will die there today, 1,000 more will die tomorrow and the day after…”

“1,000 people died there yesterday, 1,000 people will die there today, 1,000 more will die tomorrow and the day after that, and then the next day for as long as we can possibly imagine. I am speaking of Darfur, Sudan. In that region of the world this year, 300,000 people may be dead; 1½ million people in Sudan are homeless. Villages have been decimated, women have been systematically raped, crops have been destroyed, and wells have been poisoned with human corpses. This is genocide. Let us not mince words. It demands action. The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide requires signatories, including the United States of America, to prevent and punish acts that are 'committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial or religious group.' That is exactly what is taking place in Sudan today. We in the United States have to join with civilized nations around the world to stop the genocide in Darfur because we have failed sometimes before. We failed knowingly time and time again in the 20th century. Ten years ago we failed the people of Rwanda. Samantha Power is the author of a book which I have read, a book which haunts and inspires me.…”