Political Quotes

“today I come to the floor to share my very deep disappointment with the Clinton administration for not appointing a special envoy for Sudan. Those of us who listened to the news yesterday saw that the President appointed a special envoy, a former colleague of ours, Bill Gray, former Congressman from Pennsylvania from Philadelphia, to be a special envoy to Haiti. That is fine, Mr. Speaker. We commend him for appointing Mr. Gray, and we would hope and pray that Mr. Gray is successful in bringing an end to the violence that is taking place with the dictatorship in Haiti. Having said that, Mr. Speaker, we wonder why President Clinton has been negligent for not appointing a special envoy to Sudan. Nine months ago, Mr. Speaker, and countless thousands of lives ago, I first wrote the President urging the immediate appointment of a high profile envoy to address the worsening crisis in Sudan. As many people know, Mr. Speaker, in Sudan in the last 10 years, 1.4 million people have died of famine and starvation and have been killed in the fight that has taken place in southern Sudan. In southern Sudan we have black Christians who are being persecuted for their faith, and yet we get very little response from the West.”