Senator Specter Calls on George W. Bush for Definitive Action in Darfur

Region Needs Peacekeeping Forces, Helicopters to Help End the Genocide

May 22, 2008 -- Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) today sent a letter to President Bush urging him to take definitive action in Darfur. Senator Specter joined with 29 colleagues in the U.S. Senate in appealing to the President to “use all the power of the White House to ensure that (his) legacy includes definitive action in Darfur.”

Rebel vehicles in Sudan: Photo by Andrew Heavens (CC)

Now in its sixth year of crisis, the genocide in Darfur has killed or brutalized hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. The letter calls efforts to bring an end to the violence “insufficient” and cites the lack of peacekeeping forces and military resources as areas for American leadership.

“The 26,000 member UN-African Union peacekeeping team, which was agreed upon last July, has put in place only a third of its forces. In addition to Sudanese obstruction, deployment has been delayed by a shortage of helicopters,” the Members wrote. “It is simply unimaginable that the United States cannot provide, or work with allies to provide, a handful of helicopters to help fully deploy this critical peacekeeping force.”

Senator Specter has been a consistent advocate for stopping the genocide in Darfur. As a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, he has helped to ensure that the U.S. is the largest international donor to address the situation in Darfur. Additionally, Senator Specter has pressed for the deployment of a multinational peacekeeping mission through direct talks with U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon and Sudan’s Ambassador to the U.N., as well as cosponsoring Senate Resolution 276.

Full text of the letter follows. A PDF is attached.

May 22, 2008

President George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. President:

Fourteen years ago the world watched as genocide unfolded in Rwanda. Despite dire warnings and pleas for help, 800,000 people were brutally killed in less than one hundred days. Today the world looks back in painful regret at its failure to take action. Yet, we are likely to face a similarly harsh historical judgment if we do not once and for all take action against the genocide in Darfur.

The crisis in Darfur is now more than five years old. In the time since it began, the world has once again watched a horrific humanitarian crisis unfold. Entire villages have been torched, their populations displaced. Thousands have been raped and tortured. Today, millions are living in sprawling refugee camps, their livelihoods and families having suffered unimaginable consequences. Over the years, you and the Congress have rightly called the actions in Darfur genocide. Both have said we must halt the violence. Yet today, as we enter the sixth year of this crisis, efforts to bring an end to the violence are insufficient. The 26,000 member UN-African Union peacekeeping team, which was agreed upon last July, has put in place only a third of its forces. In addition to Sudanese obstruction, deployment has been delayed by a shortage of helicopters. It is simply unimaginable that the United States cannot provide, or work with allies to provide, a handful of helicopters to help fully deploy this critical peacekeeping force.

Some years after the genocide in Rwanda, President Clinton visited the country and met with families of the many victims. It was an honorable and important decision. He said, “We in the United States and the world community did not do as much as we could have and should have done to try to limit what occurred in Rwanda in 1994.” Later in his life he said that the failure to act in Rwanda was “my great regret in international affairs.” If we turn our backs on Darfur today as we did on the Rwandans in 1994, we too will be left to face the harsh light of history.

We urge you to use all the power of the White House to ensure that your legacy includes definitive action in Darfur.

Source: Senator Arlen Specter

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