Brad Miller: “I also rise to support this legislation to treat the monstrous Bashir regime in the Sudan like the pariah it deserves to…”

“I also rise to support this legislation to treat the monstrous Bashir regime in the Sudan like the pariah it deserves to be. I also visited the Sudan in April as a member of a congressional delegation led by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Ms. Lee, the author of this important legislation was a member of that delegation, as was Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, who just spoke a few minutes ago. I returned from the Sudan even more convinced that we must not waiver in our effort to end the genocide in Darfur. The Bashir regime, just last week, again rejected a draft United Nations resolution to deploy a joint peacekeeping force to use all necessary means to end the violence in Darfur, to end the killing, to secure order. The Bashir regime has repeatedly called an international force an affront to their sovereignty. The Bashir regime has forfeited their sovereignty, their claim to sovereignty, by committing genocide, by sponsoring genocide against their own people. In the last 4 years, 400,000 to 450,000 people have been killed in Darfur; 2.5 million people have abandoned their homes to seek refuge from the violence; 4 million rely on food assistance. The Bashir regime's claim of sovereignty is a flimsy legalism in the face of the atrocities in Darfur. This legislation will hold up for public shame the companies that invest in the Sudan or conduct business with the Sudan that will seek profits, even in the face of the genocide in Darfur.”