Political Quotes

“I would like to speak to an unrelated issue but one which has been of great concern to me for some time and to many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle; that is, the situation in Darfur. Last week, the United Nations Commission on Inquiry was expected to issue its report on the Darfur situation in Sudan. Public releases have now been delayed until the beginning of February. That is unfortunate given the urgency of the crisis on the ground. It is one more delay among so many that have cost lives and delayed justice. What media attention the Commission's report receives may focus on the question of genocide. That question revolves around whether the tens of thousands of killings, the systematic rapes, the destruction and bombing of villages, the burning of fields, and the poisoning of wells in Darfur constitutes genocide. I believe it does. Congress has called it genocide in a resolution which we passed on a bipartisan basis last year. President Bush has called it genocide. The use of that word is significant. President Clinton--and I supported so many parts of his administration--made a serious mistake in foreign policy in not referring to Rwanda as a genocide.”