23 July 2007: United Nations -- House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer informally briefed journalists outside the UN Security Council today, giving a update on various global issues before rushing back to Washington for House deliberations and voting. He led a bipartisan Congressional Delegation to Sudan in April. Hoyer and the nine Members of Congress accompanying him met with Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon; Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno; U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad; and the Permanent Representatives to the United Nations from China and Egypt.

 

“Today’s series of meetings at the United Nations was a very productive follow-up to our Congressional Delegation visit to Darfur in April. We traveled to the UN to demonstrate that a resolution to the conflict in Darfur, which has properly been labeled genocide, remains a top bipartisan priority of the U.S. Congress, and that we will continue to urge international action to stop the suffering,” said Hoyer.

 

Representative Brad Miller, a member of the Congressional delegation told reporters, “I think that there is a moral obligation when genocide is happening somewhere in the world to do whatever we can to stop it. The world made a promise 60 years ago that we would not allow genocide to happen ever again and the consequences will be dire if we allow this to continue.”

 

Leaders also covered the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) financial indiscretions, lack of transparency of United Nations internal processes, and protection for so-called “whistle-blowers,” who have allegedly received retribution for speaking out against misdoings.

“We want to ensure that U.S. taxpayer’s funds are always protected,” said one Representative. “We believe that any misuse of power shouldn’t be tolerated and protection of whistle-blowers is extraordinarily important for checks and balances within the UN.”

“I appreciate the UN’s four-pronged approach to addressing the crisis in Darfur, which focuses on reaching a political resolution, continued humanitarian assistance, institution of a robust peacekeeping force, and enhanced development aid. However, we felt it was important to underscore the urgent nature of the crisis—that tens of thousands have been displaced since January, that the killings and gender-based violence continues, and that humanitarian workers are coming under regular violent attack. We also discussed the need to bolster the current African Union forces on the ground, who continue to be under-manned and under-equipped, and have not been paid since February. I was heartened to hear Ban Ki-Moon assert that resolving the humanitarian crisis in Sudan remains his top priority as Secretary General. Indeed, I agree strongly with his comment that finding a resolution to this horrific, sustained conflict is critical to maintaining the UN’s relevance in today’s world,” said Hoyer.

“We do not care about the Sudanese government’s complaints that our efforts are infringing on their sovereignty,” Miller said. “They forfeit their sovereignty when they commit genocide against their own people.”

“Our conversations with Under Secretary-General Guehenno, Ambassador Khalilzad, as well as the Permanent Representatives from China and Egypt—two nations which have a unique ability to influence the Bashir government in Khartoum—were very frank and insightful,” said Hoyer.

“Already in this 110th Congress, the House has passed resolutions calling on China to increase its efforts to stop the genocide in Darfur and calling on the League of Arab States to acknowledge the genocide and to increase efforts to stop it. In the days ahead, we will continue to move forward with the Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act—which was introduced by Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California—which seeks to use economic leverage to address the crisis in Darfur.”

“We must not turn a blind eye to the plight of Darfurians. The entire international community has a responsibility to act to stop genocide,” said Barbara Lee of California.

“As of now, the pace of UN reform remains excruciatingly slow. The Secretariat is hamstrung from the top down by a management structure that is at best obsolete. It is stuffed to the rafters with global civil servants, many of them with outdated skills. And the grouping of states still known as the Non-Aligned Movement—and I wonder what they are non-aligned against this time—has far too much sway in blocking reforms, polluting human rights mechanisms, and bashing the democratic state of Israel,” read a statement from the House of Representatives website.

It continued, “Faced with these frustrating realities, we have two ways to proceed in New York: write the United Nations off as a lost cause, or ratchet up our diplomacy to bring about much-needed reforms. And the choice is simple. As tempting as some might find it to contemplate, we cannot abandon the United Nations. The UN provides vital support to core U.S. foreign policy initiatives in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, and Sudan and a dozen other places. It manages response to transnational threats such as AIDS, avian flu, famine, and refugee crises that no nation, not even one as powerful as the United States, can tackle alone.”