Excerpt: Mr. WOLF: Mr. Speaker, Friday (12 July 2013) marks three - TopicsExpress

Excerpt: Mr. WOLF: Mr. Speaker, Friday (12 July 2013) marks three years since the International Criminal Court (ICC) released an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Bashir on charges of genocide in Darfur including overseeing acts of torture, the rape of thousands of women, and forced displacement of hundreds of thousands. And yet, almost inexplicably, Bashir continues to travel the globe with virtual impunity thanks in no small part to the Obama administration’s morally bankrupt posture when it comes to the regime in Khartoum. For four months now the position of Sudan Special Envoy has been vacant. This vacancy is symptomatic of a president that has all but forsaken the people of Sudan. Last December a group of prominent Sudan activists and advocates wrote a letter to the administration, which I submit for the Record, expressing their “grave concerns that the current U.S. policy is ineffective at stopping mass atrocities in Sudan.” They urged President Obama, in his second term, to embrace “an urgent shift in the U.S. policy to finally end the humanitarian crises and bring about a just and lasting peace in Sudan.” The letter cited the president’s own words from 2007 when he rightly called the genocide in Darfur a “stain on our souls” and said that “as a president of the United States I don’t intend to abandon people or turn a blind eye to slaughter.” And yet, I can’t help but wonder if the people of Darfur, who have been displaced from their homes and brutalized by violence for ten years now, do in fact feel abandoned by this president and this administration. [Arrest Bashir, Harun, Kushayb & Hussein]