Mr. Speaker, I join today with many of my colleagues in strongly supporting HR 3127, the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act of 2006. As a co-sponsor of this measure since July 2005, I am extremely pleased this measure is finally being considered by the full House.

I traveled to Sudan in 1989. I did not know much about the Horn of Africa at the time. But I knew this: 280,000 people starved to death the year before and it was not because there was not enough food. There was a tremendous outpouring of support from people all over the world, and I am proud to say that it came primarily from the United States of America. But that food did not get through to the innocent civilian populations because of this civil war.

I went to Sudan with the late Mickey Leland and the late Bill Emerson and my colleague Gary Ackerman. I watched in awe as Mickey Leland negotiated with the tyrant Sadiq al-Mahdi and with the leader of the SPLA John Garang, and even that unsavory character next door President Mengistu of Ethiopia to create "corridors for peace." He was successful that year. And in the following year, deaths due to starvation dropped dramatically.

But in the time since then, we have focused our attention elsewhere. We have looked away from this tragedy, and the situation today continues to deteriorate.

Over 2 million people have already died over the past two decades due to war-related causes and famine in Sudan and millions more are internally displaced -- more than any other nation on the face of the Earth. And we continue to look the other way.

As we approach the 91st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, we must also recognize that what has been happening in the Darfur region of Sudan is also genocide. On July 22, 2004, the House of Representatives declared that the atrocities occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan are genocide. This bill, HR 3127, also includes this declaration.

We need to get our priorities straight. Let's stop this war and end this human suffering. We can start by passing and implementing the provisions of this important measure, the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act.