Menendez Amendment for $60MM for Darfur Passes

by: Juan Melli

Wed May 03, 2006 at 12:59:04 PM EDT

Last night, Senator Menendez offered an amendment to a supplemental appropriations bill to provide $60 million to fund a UN peacekeeping operation in Darfur. Today, that amendment passed.

Menendez yesterday stressed that it's time to take action:

â€œAfter the world learned the horrors of the Holocaust, America and the international community vowed â€˜never again,â€™â€ Menendez said. â€œAfter we saw the gruesome slaughter of approximately 800,000 Tutsis in less than 100 days in Rwanda, we said â€˜never again.â€™ â€˜Never againâ€™ is an empty promise if we do not take action to stop the murder of innocent people when we know it is happening.â€

In his statement to the Senate, he noted the role New Jersey has played in focusing attention on Darfur:

In New Jersey, students in middle schools have raised funds for refugees. Young people at colleges have led the movement to divest from Sudan. These are not the leaders of the future; they are the leaders of today.
And I know that as I stand here calling for action, I am not alone. In my home state of New Jersey, high school students started a non-profit organization called Help Darfur Now, which raises awareness and funds for the refugees in Sudan. Newark, New Jersey is the headquarters of the Darfur Rehabilitation Project, a national group started by Sudanese people living in the United States that lobbies for humanitarian aid, intervention, and conflict resolution in Sudan.

There's more that can and should be done to stop the genocide in Darfur, but this is a good start.

Juan Melli :: Menendez Amendment for $60MM for Darfur Passes

Tags: Darfur, sudan, genocide, Bob Menendez, (All Tags)

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Menendez Amendment for $60MM for Darfur Passes | 1 comments

Genocide through the years (0.00 / 0)

A noble and necessary step in the right direction. Although this notion of "Never Again" has seemingly never worked.

There is no doubt that when Senator Menendez speaks of the "horrors of the Holocaust" he is talking about the actions of the Nazi party under Adolf Hitler, but the systemic extermination of a group or class of people is certainly not a 20th Century creation. In the years leading up to WWI, the 20th Century's first major Holocaust was already underway in Armenia & Turkey. Looking back through history a great number of cultures around the world turned to mass murder to solve their problems.

I find it difficult to understand how with one hand our Congress can bang the drums of war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and perhaps even Iran, while at the same time offer a hand of peace and justice to the people in Darfur. Either killing people is an acceptable way of solving problems, or it isn't. The question should not balance on who is doing the killing. If America is going to lead the world there is a more fundamental question of human nature that needs to be addressed.

-- Mitch
ManzellaNews.com