Donald M. Payne: “let me once again thank Mr. Lantos for House Resolution 723, calling on the President to take immediate steps to help…”

“let me once again thank Mr. Lantos for House Resolution 723, calling on the President to take immediate steps to help improve the security situation in Darfur. Let me just say that things are getting worse. Increased rapes, 500 rapes over the summer in one camp alone; renewed attacks; 12 humanitarian workers killed, including two of the last 6 weeks; 26,000 Sudan armed forces headed to the Darfur region for major offensive; renewed aerial bombings; the Darfur Peace Agreement not being held to by the government of Sudan; continued integration of the Janjaweed into the Sudan armed forces. United Nations Security Resolution 1706 says that 17,300 U.N. troops and 3,300 policemen should go into Darfur. I think we should urge the U.N. to fulfill this mandate. President Bush did not ask Aideed to go into Somalia. President Clinton did not ask Milosevic to go into Bosnia. We should not wait for a murderous leader like Bashir to invite us in. We should even create no-fly zones where we would do as we did in Iraq. A no-fly zone means you don't go in and you don't go out. We were able to protect the Kurds in southern Iraq through all those years of the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. We can do the same kind of no-fly zone. You don't use one single human being in a no-fly zone when you use drones and other kinds of sophisticated weaponry. We have to take out some antonovs, destroy some helicopters, and let Bashir know we are not playing.”