Joe Biden/Floor Statements

“ I am not proposing a third peacekeeping mission be sent to Darfur. I am suggesting that NATO increase the support it is already lending to the African Union with a small number of fully equipped troops to help with command and control, communications, and dissemination of intelligence, on the ground. And I am proposing that these troops stay in Darfur only until the U.N. force has deployed all of its troops. ”

“ Some believe that the crisis in Darfur is over. All the violence, these folks argue, is small scale, and residual in nature. They argue that the African Union successfully halted the killing of innocent civilians. Maybe that is why the administration has no concrete plan to improve the security situation in Darfur until the U.N. can get on the ground. ”

“ What I would say to those who argue that the worst is over is this: over the course of the last 2 years, the government of Sudan and its surrogates killed as many as 400,000 people and drove one third of the population of Darfur off their land. Two million people remain in internally displaced or refugee camps. Attacks continue. It may be true that they are not as systematic as they were 6 months or a year ago, but I submit to you that it is not because the African Union stopped the attacks. ”