Text 4381, 301 rader
Skriven 2007-04-18 23:32:04 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (070418) for Wed, 2007 Apr 18
===================================================

===========================================================================
President Bush Visits the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
===========================================================================

For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary April 18, 2007

President Bush Visits the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Museum Washington, D.C.

˙ Video (Windows) ˙˙Presidential Remarks
˙˙Audio

˙˙˙˙˙ Fact Sheet: Stop the Genocide in Darfur ˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Africa

10:32 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. Thank you all very much. I
appreciate your hospitality, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much for the fine
job you're doing. I am honored to have just taken a tour of this important
museum with Sara Bloomfield, who arguably is one of the best museum
directors in the country -- (applause) -- particularly if you can put up
with the board of directors that I've named. (Laughter.)

I thank you all for serving. I appreciate you taking on this important
assignment. My friends on the board will tell you that I hold the Holocaust
Museum dear to my heart. You will hear me express my appreciation for the
work that is being done here, and I mean it sincerely.

I thank very much Elie Wiesel for joining us. He is a -- he's a big figure
in the life of the world, as he should be. He speaks with moral clarity.
And I can't thank you enough for being a leader of talking about what is
right. And I'm honored to be in your presence. (Applause.)

I am traveling with some members of my administration, starting with the
Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. Thank you for being here. (Applause.)
Presidential Special Envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios. (Applause.) And the
newly-minted, or newly sworn in U.N. Ambassador Zal Khalilzad. Mr.
Ambassador, thanks for coming. (Applause.)

I want to thank the members of Congress who have joined us, appreciate you
taking time. I thank the members of the diplomatic community who have
joined us. I'm honored that you are here. I thank the survivors of the
Holocaust who have graced us with your presence. (Applause.)

We meet at a time of sorrow for our nation. Our flags fly at half-mast in
memory of 32 souls whose lives were taken at Virginia Tech on Monday
morning. That day we saw horror, but we also saw acts of quiet courage. We
saw this courage in a teacher named Liviu Librescu. With the gunman set to
enter his class, this brave professor blocked the door with his body while
his students fled to safety. On the Day of Remembrance, this Holocaust
survivor gave his own life so that others might live. And this morning we
honor his memory, and we take strength from his example.

This is a place devoted to memory. Inside this building are etched the
words of the Prophet Isaiah: "You are my witness." As part of this witness,
these walls show how one of the world's most advanced nations embraced a
policy aimed at the annihilation of the Jewish people. These walls help
restore the humanity of the millions who were loaded into trains and
murdered by men who considered themselves cultured. And these walls remind
us that the Holocaust was not inevitable -- it was allowed to gather
strength and force only because of the world's weakness and appeasement in
the face of evil.

Today we call what happened "genocide." But when the Holocaust started,
this word did not yet exist. In a 1941 radio address, Churchill spoke of
the horrors the Nazis were visiting on innocent civilians in Russia. He
said, "We are in the presence of a crime without a name." It is an apt
description of the evil that followed the swastika. Mankind had long
experience with savagery and slaughter before. Yet in places such as
Auschwitz and Dachau and Buchenwald, the world saw something new and
terrible: the state-sanctioned extermination of a people -- carried out
with a chilling industrial efficiency of a so-called modern nation.

Some may be tempted to ask: Why have a museum dedicated to such a dark
subject? The men and women who built this museum will tell you: Because
evil is not just a chapter in history -- it is a reality in the human
heart. So this museum serves as a living reminder of what happens when good
and decent people avert their eyes from hatred and murder. It honors those
who died by serving as the conscience for those who live. And it reminds us
that the words "never again" do not refer to the past -- they refer to the
future.

You who are survivors know why the Holocaust must be taught to every
generation. You who lost your families to the gas chambers of Europe watch
as Jewish cemeteries and synagogues across that continent are defaced and
defiled. You who bear the tattoos of death camps hear the leader of Iran
declare that the Holocaust is a "myth." You who have found refuge in a
Jewish homeland know that tyrants and terrorists have vowed to wipe it from
the map. And you who have survived evil know that the only way to defeat it
is to look it in the face, and not back down.

It is evil we are now seeing in Sudan -- and we're not going to back down.
For 22 years, Sudan was plagued by a civil war between the north and south
that claimed more than 2 million lives. That war came to an end in January
2005, when Sudan's government and rebels in the south signed a
comprehensive peace agreement that the United States helped to broker.
Under this historic accord, Sudan established a Government of National
Unity that includes a First Vice President and other cabinet members from
the country's south. It also established a government for Southern Sudan
that the United States is providing with aid and other assistance.

Unfortunately, just as peace was coming to the south, another conflict
broke out in the west -- where rebel groups in Darfur attacked government
outposts. To fight this rebellion, the government in Khartoum unleashed a
horse-mounted militia called the Janjaweed, which carried out systematic
assaults against innocent civilians.

The human toll has been staggering. More than 200,000 people have died from
the conflict -- or from the malnutrition and disease that have spread in
its wake. And more than 2 million people have been forced from their homes
and villages into camps both inside and outside their country.

Ending the violence in Darfur requires better security for the people of
Darfur; it requires progress toward political reconciliation. Today, more
than 7,000 African Union troops have been deployed to Darfur and they serve
courageously. But the problem is the area they patrol is the size of Texas
-- 7,000 people is not enough to provide the security the people of Darfur
need. Ultimately the violence will continue until Sudan's government and
the rebel groups reach a political settlement that includes traditional
community leaders, representatives of civil society, and African and Arab
tribes in the region.

This museum cannot stop the violence. But through your good work, you're
making it impossible for the world to turn a blind eye. Earlier I saw an
exhibit that puts faces on the millions of men, women, and children who
have been killed or driven into the desert. I also saw an interesting new
venture that you've arranged with Google Earth. As a result of this
partnership, millions of Internet users around the world will be able to
zoom in and see satellite images of the burnt-out villages and mosques and
schools. No one who sees these pictures can doubt that genocide is the only
word for what is happening in Darfur -- and that we have a moral obligation
to stop it.

The United States is helping to lead this effort. Last May, I announced an
agreement for Darfur that we helped broker between the Sudanese government
and the largest rebel group. It's a positive agreement. It gave us some
sense of optimism that we could help stop the genocide. Under this
agreement, Sudan's government promised to disarm the Janjaweed and punish
all those who violate the cease-fire. The main rebel group agreed to
withdraw into specified areas.

In August, the United Nations followed up this agreement with a new
Security Council resolution. This resolution authorized the U.N. Mission in
Sudan to extend its forces to Darfur -- and to transform the existing AU
forces into a larger, better equipped U.N. peacekeeping mission. The U.N.
recognized there were not enough forces in Darfur to bring security and
peace.

In November, the United Nations, the African Union, the EU, the Arab
League, the government of Sudan, the United States, and 12 other nations
reached another important agreement at a meeting in Addis Ababa. This
agreement strengthened the terms of the cease-fire; it re-energized the
political process and called for a joint U.N.-AU peacekeeping force to go
into action, a force that would be nearly three times the size of the
existing AU force.

These are all good agreements. They represent a clear plan to end the
conflict. And if implemented, they would allow the people of Darfur to
return home to their villages safely, and begin to rebuild their lives in
peace.

Unfortunately, these agreements have been routinely violated. Sudan's
government has moved arms to Darfur, conducted bombing raids on villages,
they've used military vehicles and aircraft that are painted white -- which
makes them look like those deployed by humanitarian agencies and
peacekeeping forces.

Many rebel groups have also pursued violence instead of peace. The groups
who have not signed onto last May's peace accord have splintered, and
they're roaming the Darfur countryside pillaging and stealing at will. They
have killed civilians, they've plundered vehicles and plundered supplies
from international aid workers, they've added to the lawlessness. The
government in Khartoum has been unable to control the problem -- and they
made it even worse last fall with a failed military campaign designed to
crush the groups.

While there is now a temporary lull in the fighting between the government
and militias and rebel groups, millions of displaced people remain highly
vulnerable to attack. The increased lawlessness and instability has made it
difficult for aid workers to deliver relief to those who need it -- some
organizations have been forced to evacuate their staff for safety reasons.
Once again, the consequences are being borne by defenseless men, women and
children. That is the story being told here at the Holocaust Museum, and I
appreciate what you're doing.

The brutal treatment of innocent civilians in Darfur is unacceptable -- it
is unacceptable to me, it is unacceptable to Americans, it's unacceptable
to the United Nations -- at least, that's what they've said. This status
quo must not continue.

Just this week, Sudan's government reached an agreement with the United
Nations to allow 3,000 U.N. troops and their equipment into the country to
support the AU force. The world has heard these promises from Sudan before.
President Bashir's record has been to promise cooperation while finding new
ways to subvert and obstruct the U.N.'s efforts to bring peace to his
country. The time for promises is over -- President Bashir must act.

The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, is now in
discussions with President Bashir to get the government of Sudan to meet
all its commitments. President Bashir should take the last chance by
responding to the Secretary General's efforts -- and to meet the just
demands of the international community. He must follow through on the
deployment of the U.N. support forces. He must allow the deployment of the
full, joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force -- and take every
necessary step to facilitate its deployment. He must end support for the
Janjaweed, he must reach out to the rebel leaders, and allow humanitarian
aid to reach the people of Darfur. And he must stop his pattern of
obstruction once and for all.

I have made a decision to allow the Secretary General more time to pursue
his diplomacy. However, if President Bashir does not fulfill the steps I
outlined above in a short period of time, my administration will take the
following steps:

First, the Department of the Treasury will tighten U.S. economic sanctions
on Sudan. This new effort will allow the United States to enforce more
aggressively existing sanctions against Sudan's government, by blocking any
of its dollar transactions within the U.S. financial system. As part of
this effort, the Treasury Department will add 29 companies owned or
controlled by the government of Sudan to its list of Specially Designated
Nationals. This designation will bar these companies from the U.S.
financial system -- and make it a crime for U.S. -- American companies and
individuals to willfully do business with them.

Second, we will also target sanctions against individuals responsible for
the violence. These sanctions will isolate designated individuals by
cutting them off from the U.S. financial system, preventing them from doing
business with any American citizen or company, and calling the world's
attention to their crimes.

Third, I will direct the Secretary of State to prepare a new United Nations
Security Council resolution. This resolution will apply new sanctions
against the government of Sudan -- and against individuals found to be
violating human rights or obstructing the peace process. It will impose an
expanded embargo on arms sales to the government of Sudan. It will prohibit
Sudan's government from conducting any offensive military flights over
Darfur. It will strengthen our ability to monitor and report any
violations. And in the next days, we will begin consulting with other
Security Council members on the terms of such a resolution.

If Sudan's obstruction continues despite these measures, we will also
consider other options. Last week, I sent Deputy Secretary of State
Negroponte to the region. He informed Sudan's government and rebel groups
that our patience is limited, that we care deeply about the human condition
in Darfur, that it matters to the United States that people are suffering.
I have spoken in the past about the need to end Sudan's use of military
aircraft to attack innocent civilians. We're also are looking at what steps
the international community could take to deny Sudan's government the
ability to fly its military aircraft over Darfur. And if we do not begin to
see signs of good faith and commitments, we will hear calls for even
sterner measures.

The situation doesn't have to come to that. I urge the United Nations
Security Council and the African Union and all members of the international
community to stand behind the Addis Ababa framework and reject efforts to
obstruct its implementation. The world needs to act. If President Bashir
does not meet his obligations to the United States of America, we'll act.
(Applause.)

As we continue to pressure the government of Sudan to meet its commitments,
we will continue our engagement in support of the people of Darfur. My
administration is increasing support for the Transitional Darfur Regional
Authority -- it's an interim authority designed to help the people of
Darfur improve local government and build foundations for a healthy
economy. We are increasing support for Sudan's First Vice President and the
United Nations and African Union special envoys, who are working to bring
the rebel groups together and get them to sign on to the peace process.

We're continuing our humanitarian assistance to the people of Darfur. Since
2005, the United States has devoted more than $2 billion to humanitarian
relief and development -- and I thank the American people for their
generosity. We'll continue to bring relief to the people of Darfur. We'll
continue to insist that rebel groups and the Sudanese government allow
international workers to deliver this relief to the people who depend on
it.

All of the people in this room and people in this country have a vital role
to play. Everyone ought to raise their voice. We ought to continue to
demand that the genocide in Sudan be stopped.

During my tour of the Darfur exhibits this morning, I was shown a photo of
a one-year-old girl who had been shot as her mother fled the Janjaweed.
Although the mother had tried to protect her baby, it was to no avail. When
the photo was taken, an observer nearby began to shout: "This is what they
do! This is what happens here! Now you know! Now you see!"

Thanks to the efforts of people in this room, the world knows and the world
sees. And now the world must act.

Thank you. (Applause.)

END

10:54 A.M. EDT

===========================================================================
Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/04/20070418.html

 * Origin: (1:3634/12)