Chris Smith: “This amendment is about stopping genocide, Mr. Chairman, the deliberate and systematic attempt to eliminate an entire…”

“This amendment is about stopping genocide, Mr. Chairman, the deliberate and systematic attempt to eliminate an entire people in southern Sudan, by cutting off the flow of U.S. dollars to entities that are making genocide possible. The whole world knows, Mr. Chairman, that the Khartoum regime routinely bombs schools and hospitals, and uses enslavement, mass rape, and starvation as weapons of war against black Christians and animists in the south. The good news, until 1997, was that the south was likely to win its independence and an end to the bloodshed. However, then Khartoum got foreign companies from China, Malaysia, and even Canada to develop oil fields and build a pipeline. The equation is simple: By selling oil to the west, Khartoum can buy an army that can destroy the south and is destroying the south. We all know that the devastation is absolutely numbing and frightful. Two million people have been killed. Millions more have been wounded, and over 4 million people have been displaced. Oil revenues have enabled the government to double spending on its war machine since 1998.”