Printable Version
Darfur: A Challenge To The Conscience Of The World
A CNP Forum With House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi And Olympic Speed-Skater Joey Cheek
March 17, 2006
Summary
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Olympic speed skating champion Joey Cheek addressed the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan at the Center for National Policy on Friday, March 17, 2006. Having recently led a congressional delegation to Sudan and Chad and speaking a day after briefing President Bush in the Oval Office; Pelosi called for greater U.S. action to end the genocide in Darfur, and urged the president to appoint a special U.S. envoy for the Sudan. Olympic gold medalist and Darfur advocate, Joey Cheek joined Pelosi in urging Americans to provide greater support for the people of Darfur.
Transcript
Tim Roemer: Good morning. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Top of the morning to you all. I want to start by recognizing Leader Pelosi and Joey Cheek up here with me, with the Center for National Policy. My Name is Tim Roemer, I'm President at the Center for National Policy and I'm delighted and honored to have our two guests and speakers here today to talk about one of the most important subjects that we could address in the United States, in the United Nations and on the face of the globe: the situation in Darfur.
I know, as I let Congresswoman Pelosi get comfortable here, and Joey Cheek settle in--he's been on a whirlwind since his Olympic victories. I know, you’ve all... been very busy people.
And I, first of all, want to start by telling a story about my five-year-old daughter. I was snuggling in bed with her the other day and she asked me, "Daddy, how was your day?" I said, "Why do you ask that Grace?" And she said, "I hear mommy ask that all the time: ‘How was your day?’" And I said, "It was great. I saw you this morning, snuggling in my bed and I saw your sister at a birthday party with twelve of her friends over. It doesn't get any better than that." And she said, "Daddy, which did you like better, Sarah or me?" I said, "That's not a fair question Grace. I love you both in different ways." And she said, "Daddy, answer the question, which one?" And I said, "Well, Grace that would be like me asking you, who do you love more, your daddy or your mommy?" And she looked at me without blinking an eye and she said, "Well, daddy that's easy. I love mommy more than I love you."
We all make choices in our lives. Some of them are brutal to hear. She made a choice about her mother, that day, and you've made choices today. You've made choices about being here this morning, to talk about a very important issue. You've made a choice on St. Patrick's Day at ten o’clock in the morning to join together, people from around Washington and the religious community, people from great coalitions and organizations on Africa, great people who have been working this issue—not for a day or a week or a month or a year—but three years, trying to get the international community more attentive to this very, very important issue. So, I am honored by your choice here this morning, to join with Leader Pelosi and Joey Cheek.
I also want to thank some people in the audience: our Chairman at the Center for National Policy, Peter Kovler, if you would please stand up. I want to thank you for everything you do. You make so many contributions. Thank you so much.
I know we have people from the religious community here as well. A good friend of mine, Father Daniel Coughlin, at the House of Representatives, the Chaplin from the House of Representatives, the first Catholic Chaplin in the history of the country is here.
Thank you for coming. And Father Charles Antonicelli, with Cardinal McCarrick, right here today. We have Joe Crapa with United States Commission on Religious Freedom. We have Father Bill Dyer with the African Faith and Justice network. We have Rabbi David Saperstein, a good friend of mine, with the Religious Passion Center. And we have another good friend of mine, Reverend Richard Cizik with the National Association of Evangelicals. Very, very delighted to have all of these folks join with us along with all the distinguished guests.
The scale of the tragedy in Darfur is difficult to comprehend. As a 9/11 Commissioner, I often would be confronting people individually, who lost a mother or a father, or a sister or a brother, and there is slowness in your response when somebody tells you they've lost a loved one, like a brother. And there's a hole in your heart. It's difficult to speak to that person to try to let them know how you feel about their loss. We lost 3,000 people on 9/11, and I often go into a room this size and talk with 300 people who have lost loved ones, because on 9/11 we lost 3,000 people.
Imagine if you will, losing 30,000 people, losing 100,000 people, losing 150,000 people… Which are all to our horror probably well over 200,000 people and 2 million displaced, and it continues. These children that you see up here will not perish from some incomprehensible act of God, but instead they will die due to the works of evil men. Over the course of this decade, the government of General Omar El-Bashir has supported and funded the actions of militia whose name will live in infamy; that is the name of the of the Janjaweed. The Janjaweed have carried a systemic and sustained program of rape and removal and massacre against the people of Darfur. The toll has been catastrophic. Hundreds of thousands of villages destroyed, over 200,000 dead, and probably over 2 million displaced. Fear and famine have become the watchwords in Darfur. As the rainy season approaches and hundreds of thousands of people sit in the squalid camps, through isolation from international aid agencies, unable to return home to plant crops, to bury their dead, the situation grows dire.
And the days after the Holocaust, the cry was raised up that gave hope to people and inspiration for the down trodden. Never again. Never again, the international community resolved, would nations stand by and watch genocide sweep away innocent lives. Never again.
After years of systematic killing in Sudan, the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, called the actions of the Janjaweed for what they are. He called them genocide. And since that time the machinery of international law has begun to grind, slowly, slowly, slowly. There is a treaty against genocide and there's an international criminal court and there is a multi-national African Union force on the ground in Darfur that is witnessing the carnage. But that is not enough. Sadly, the work of the Janjaweed and their supporters and the Bashir regime has continued. International action on Darfur is required.
Fortunately, for the people of Darfur and the people of conscience everywhere, a strong American leader has raised up to this issue of Darfur again. That leader's name is Nancy Pelosi. For two decades I've known Nancy Pelosi and served with her in the House of Representatives. Nancy Pelosi is a leader working for the preservation and the dignity of people, for human rights across the globe. And she's an effective leader, an effective legislator. In the late 1980s Nancy Pelosi was one of the first leaders to speak up about what the HIV/AIDS crises was doing to people around the world. She then acted on those convictions and helped create the Ryan White Care Act.
In the halls of Congress, she's also championed the rights for the people of Tibet. She helped bring their plight to the attention of the entire world. In the 1990s, Nancy Pelosi supported strong efforts to end the genocide in Bosnia and Kosovo, and today we are sustaining peace in that region. Nancy Pelosi has put her values into action. Nancy Pelosi has lived up to the ancient injunction, “As you do these things for the least of my brothers and my sisters, you do them for me.” She has answered the call of the international community, “Never Again! Never Again!” Now here with us today to share her account and eye-witness tragedy of what's happening in Darfur, her bipartisan trip to Darfur, my colleague, my friend, our strong leader on this issue of human rights, please give a very, very warm round of applause and thanks to Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Nancy Pelosi: Thank you, Tim. After a day in the refugee camps in Darfur, our bipartisan delegation traveled to Khartoum to meet with the Sudanese Vice President Taha. He asked us, ‘the Sudanese people want to know, why are the Americans so interested in the domestic affairs of Sudan? We know that the Americans are free thinking people,’ he said, ‘but sometimes that free thinking does not create an understanding of the facts in my country.’
As we sat there, he denied what we saw with our very own eyes that day. Refugee children struggling in the oppressive heat without shade, without adequate clothing, sleeping in huts made from USAID food bags stitched together. At night their parents would have to walk for miles to get firewood and water, always under the constant fear of attack. As he spoke, we couldn't help recall the stories of burned villages, kidnapped children, women raped, men tortured and killed. But even in this harm, we saw in the bright and playful eyes of the toddlers, we saw hope. That hope diminished in the haunted eyes of the older children.
I know I speak for everyone in our delegation when I say that we wanted to take every one of these children, these beautiful children home with us. There were so many. The camps we visited shown here had over 100,000 refugees in them. But that's just a fraction, as you mentioned Tim, of the staggering toll of violence in Darfur. According to the United Nations, over 3 million people are in need of assistance; over 2 million people had been displaced from their villages, and nearly 200,000 have been killed and that is a conservative number.
Furthermore, the full extent of the toll is yet to be exacted. Concentrated in camps, where deplorable sanitary conditions exist, you call them squalid, that's almost an upgrade from what we saw. Darfurese are now vulnerable to even more disease as the rainy season, as Tim mentioned, is just two months away. Sicknesses, cholera, and dysentery can take tens of thousands of human lives.
We have seen variations on this “problem from hell” before, most recently in Rwanda. And at that time we said, “Never Again!” Humanitarian disaster in Darfur challenges the conscience of the world. It is the systematic destruction of people, it is genocide. While we were in Khartoum, back at home President Bush reaffirmed that, yes, indeed, it is genocide.
Yesterday members of our bipartisan delegation visited the president at the White House to thank him for his leadership on this issue of Darfur and to report on our trip. At that meeting we strongly recommended the appointment of a U.S. special envoy for the Sudan. That special envoy would signal that bringing peace and stability to Sudan is a priority for the United States. This is necessary to do because we must end the violence. We must bring the parties in conflict to the negotiating table and we must get humanitarian assistance to people who need it.
Essential to stopping the violence is stopping the Janjaweed. After persistent, and I might say diplomatic questioning from Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Vice President Taha finally admitted, after first resisting, finally admitted that the Sudanese government had funded the Janjaweed, but that was in the past. In fact, the U.S. military tells us on our way into the Sudan, that the Janjaweed is an extension of the Sudanese military and that it is engaged in state-sponsored violence. That must end.
The African Union is to be commended for its efforts to protect the Darfurese. We saw the African Union camps where, for the first time for some, were at least able to get one full meal and perhaps some medical attention. Our delegation reported this to U.N. Secretary Kofi Annan the beginning of last week when we met with him upon our return. We went to see him to see how we could work together to end the violence. He told us that much would depend on what would happen last Friday at the African Union. Because their meeting was called, we had hoped to support a request for the U.N. to come in. Instead, because of the persistent lobbying effort of the Sudanese government, they voted to defer that decision until September, but to extend the 7,700 African Union troops present in Darfur. And also they said, there should be . . . they established a goal of a peace agreement by April 30th. Well, that was good. But to wait for the U.N. until September; if that peace is not reached by April 30th will mean more death, more destruction, more genocide. We . . . just to give you a picture of it, as many of you know, the African Union has 7,000 troops in Darfur to cover an area the same of Texas, the state of Texas, the size of the state of Texas. It's very huge. And in fact, with those numbers, in an area that big, the violence will not end. The African Union must be given more mobility, and that they must also be free from restrictions that limit their effectiveness. They must become peacekeepers but first there must be peace.
Last Friday, as I mentioned, they did establish that goal, and achieving that goal requires picking up the pace to get all of the parties to the negotiating table at Abuja, Nigeria. Sudan, as you know, has a model for negotiating peace: a comprehensive peace agreement that was signed to end the civil war between the North and the South. Admittedly fragile, some would say very fragile, it did bring an end to more than 20 years of civil war where 2 1/2 million people were killed and over 2 million people were displaced. Replicating this success for Darfur though, is complicated by the fact that there's division among some of the parties in the resistance movement; two in particular: the Sudanese movement (the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army) and the Justice and Equality Movement. They sometimes have different agendas. All parties, the African Union as a body, the African heads of states individually, and the international community must use their good offices to bring these parties of the conflict together so that the government of Khartoum cannot use their division as an excuse for not coming to the table to negotiate.
In the meantime, it is essential that humanitarian aid gets to the people who need it. Many of you here today are actively involved in that effort and you know what the situation is on the ground. But the United Nations mandate in Darfur is going to run out in March.
Humanitarian workers have been harassed, their convoys have been diverted and even some of the workers have been kidnapped. Humanitarian workers bring no political agenda, or no de-stabilizing intention to Sudan; they carry with them hope and often heft. They must be protected, their supplies must not be diverted, and their volunteers must be respected.
Yesterday, the House voted for President Bush's request in the supplemental bill for $439 million for additional assistance for Darfur, but more is needed and hopefully the United States, as an example, will encourage other countries to donate.
This brings us back to Vice President Taha's question, why is the United States so interested in the Sudan? The answer is that genocide is not a domestic affair of any country. It concerns the world. As our colleague Representative Joe Wilson said to him, ‘Americans care about people.’ Our care is reflected in the work that is being done for the Darfurese across our country, on college campuses, state legislatures, editorial boards, board rooms, and especially in our churches. This care was spurred by our religious communities, in fact, which have taken the lead in the effort.
I salute the many religious leaders, including members of the Save Darfur Coalition who are here today. While traveling in Africa on this very sad mission, our delegation heard that after winning the Olympic Gold Medal, Joey Cheek decided to donate his prize money to ‘Right to Play’ especially for the children of Darfur.
It is an absolute delight that Joey is with us today.
Each day the genocide continues and each day we wait, the hope we saw in the eyes of the youngest children can disintegrate into despair, disease and death. On April 30th, Americans of conscience will come to Washington to echo the call, “Never Again! Never Again!” These citizens will demonstrate on behalf of the people and the children of Darfur, and they will also demonstrate that not only is America great, but America is good. Thank you.
Tim Roemer: Thank you so much Leader Pelosi, and for your presence here and for your convictions, your time to go to Darfur, and your leadership in being so effective in getting things done; we couldn't have anybody more effective on this issue in the halls of Congress.
Before I introduce . . . . Here is our political leader, before I introduce one of our spiritual leaders over here, Joey Cheek; I again want to recognize the Save Darfur Coaltion. I want to salute all your work over the last three years on this issue and continue to challenge you to bring this issue forward to more and more Americans and more and more people in the international community.
I want to thank the Center for National Policy staff: Joy Drucker, our Executive Director; Scott Bates, who works on National Security issues; and in particular, I want to single out Emily Diamond-Falk who has worked on this issue for so long. She has devoted, I think, her life for the last three years to it. Thank you for all your work the last couple weeks, helping us set this event up with Leader Pelosi's office.
I thought and thought about how to introduce this hero, and I use that term very selectively. I was watching the Olympics. Our Olympic team was probably not doing as well as you had hoped in terms of the medals up to that point, and then this individual, Joey Cheek, won a medal, a gold medal and immediately announces that he is doing something kind of silly—skating around an ice rink in tights, it's hard to be taken too seriously—but that he's going to take advantage of what he does to do something really good—and he announces that he's going to turn over $25,000 to $35,000 to help these children.
And I'm sitting there in my chair . . . I don't know what time it was, and it's like watching Michael Jordan hit the game-winning basket or Tiger Woods when he's putting and that ball rolls right up to the lip and it falls down in that cup and you're like ‘Yes! Yes!’ That's how proud I was. I stood up and I went . . . ‘Yes!’ This is what our young people need in this country. He's not focused on himself, he's not worried about being on the front of a Wheaties box, he's worried about children in our global economy.
The world may be flat but his heart is huge and he's reaching out to help other people.
And I have four children that love him, not because he won a gold medal, but because he really lives up to being a hero by helping other people with that fame he achieved in sports. Here is a guy, ladies and gentleman, here is a man, who won a gold medal, has a heart of gold, and is living the ‘Golden Rule.’ Please welcome Joey Cheek.
Joey Cheek: Something to live up to, huh?
And that follows two amazing speeches. I'm just sitting here going I'm going to have to stand up. And what am I going to say compared to the portraits that those two have painted?
My name is Joey Cheek. On one day in February, I had the opportunity to be better than I've ever been at the sport that I love, and I've trained at and competed at for about 16 years. As has been quoted often times, I knew going into the Olympics that if I were to do something great on the field of play, I'd be given an opportunity to stand up and speak for a few minutes; and generally people use those moments to talk about how much work they've done, and how many people have sacrificed for them, both of which are true for anyone who wins an Olympic medal and for many people who never will win an Olympic medal. But I also realized I had a brief moment and, it's turned into a little longer than I thought it would last, but I'm grateful for the opportunity and I hope that I can present myself eloquently and you can maybe shine a light on an area that I felt had not been properly covered in the U.S.
I've been blessed to be able to do what I do, and to be able to travel the world and meet people from all over Europe, from all over Asia, from all over South America, from all over Africa. And I have realized one thing through my travels: regardless of where you come from, that people, in general, are much more similar than they are different. Your background may be very different, your skin color may be different, your hair color, your eye coloring different, but individually, we all want the same things. We want to be able to find somebody we love and grow old with them. We want to be able to start a life and live happy and healthy, productive lives. We want to have children. And if it weren't for a twist of fate, any one of us could have been born in a very different situation.
I was born in the greatest country in the world, the wealthiest country, at the most powerful time in our history. I was able to accomplish what I accomplished because of the sacrifices my mom and dad made, the sacrifices my family made, my friends have made, the contributions of our government and our corporations. It was this pyramid of people that allowed me on that one day to stand on top of the world. I felt like, and still feel, the best way to say thank you to folks is to take that opportunity to help someone else who has not been blessed with the same opportunities that we have.
Physically on that day, I was as perfect as I've ever been. I trained for 16 years, imagining the day I would be able to compete and to step on the field of play and do what I do better than anyone in the world. On that day I was perfect. After it was over, when I got to go and stand in the press conference, not too dissimilar from this one, I felt like I was perfect for the second time because I was able to speak from the heart about something that I really believe in.
As I traveled, the media in Asia and Europe was very different than the media in the U.S. You know, we cover a lot of Britney Spears, which is important . . . . But overseas I found that there were many, many humanitarian presses . . . there were many situations that were covered more extensively overseas. When I came home, I was shocked to find out how few things that were such news overseas were never covered here. The situation in Darfur, of which I have become much more familiar now, even more than when I made the announcement, is one of enormous proportion. I doubt, seriously, if 200,000 or 300,000… we don't even know, because we don't have people on the ground in Sudan, I doubt seriously if 200,000 or 300,000 Europeans had been killed by their neighbors, that it would have gone as unnoticed in the media. That being said, I felt that, for a few seconds that I wanted to speak on a region that had no strategic impact on myself. Why should the U.S. care? Why should I care? I would groan every time I saw athletes or musicians stand up to make a political statement because I figured these guys should stick to what they're good at and now look at me.
I have a picture of myself showing this happening. It's like, I have no strategic interest in the region and the U.S. doesn't, there's minimal resources. If this tragedy had gone on, unabated and no one had covered it, it wouldn't effect . . . it would effect very few people in the United States. But because we are so wealthy, we're so powerful, we're such a great nation, I think it's our moral obligation to stand up for those who are less fortunate than us, and for those who are in a situation where they can't help themselves.
On April 30th, I will be speaking at the Save Darfur Coalition's rally in Washington, D.C. in front of, we hope, tens of thousands of people, and I will try my best to spread this message that there's a situation going on, hundreds of thousands of people killed, more than 2 million people displaced from their homes, women, children, and men, who have, without our intervention, no hope whatsoever.
I have, as often quoted, I've spent the last 16 years of my life competing, ice skating in circles wearing full-body tights—take it how you will—which a hundred years from now, is probably, not going to make much of a difference to anyone. So, I'm very grateful that for a few moments, maybe . . . maybe me being good at skating in circles has given me the opportunity to help someone who is in a situation incomprehensible to most of us. So, thank you for your time and for coming out and watching us each speak, and hopefully we can actually make an impact, we can make a difference and I hope to see all of you guys on April 30th at the rally, and happy St. Pattie's Day.
Tim Roemer: I want to thank Joey Cheek for those wonderful remarks. Joey you were worried about the company of the previous speakers. You certainly outdid me, you're getting a lot closer to Leader Pelosi and the only thing, you'll learn a little bit more from Leader Pelosi, that she's terrific at is Q & A and if we can take some questions and answers--we'll take the questions, hopefully they're not answers from out there and hopefully, they're not long. If you can please not make speeches... We know the passion from people out there. We know how much you care about these issues, but we have more time for Leader Pelosi to answer the question if you make it short and if you have a question or a request for Joey Cheek that would be terrific too.
We have a microphone, right back here. If you'd please form a line at the end of the microphone to ask the questions. And please identify yourselves too, especially if you're with the press. We'd appreciate knowing who you're with and a succinct articulation of your question, if you will. Thank you.
Katherine Maddux: Katherine Maddux from the Voice of America, this is a question for the House Leader. You are very articulate and eloquent about the problem. What have you prepared to do to get a U.N. force in there? Every expert I've ever spoken to says that the AU force simply can't do this and even though they put it off the Bush Administration certainly has lots of say with the Sudanese government, with the North-South agreement... And so my question is are you prepared to pressure the Bush administration to pressure Sudan and the AU to accept a U.N. force?
Nancy Pelosi: Well, before I answer your question, and I will, I want to turn the tables on Tim Roemer. I just wanted to convey to you the . . . all of the sentiment that our delegation saw and felt when we were there, but now I want to say how absolutely honored I am to be at the Center for National Policy. I thank you Chairman Kovler for your leadership, and in terms of Tim Roemer, I served in Congress with many giants in this country, some would vote on both sides of the aisle, but none of them surpasses the integrity and intellect, the imagination and talent of Tim Roemer.
He served in our country and congratulations to the Center for National Policy and to you Tim for this collaboration between the two of you. And thank you for your hospitality today.
When we returned, our delegation visited with Kofi Annan to see what we could do together to make the U.N. presence be a real one in Darfur. As I mentioned, he said, a lot depends on what happens on Friday. The Sudanese government was lobbying very extensively; very, very intensively and extensively against a vote for support of the request for the U.N. to go there. They said that to have that presence there, the presence of the U.N., would be the presence of the U.S. This is the presence of the Europeans, the imperialists, the colonists--they played that anti‑Muslim card . . . you know, anti-Muslim country, they played that card, El Bashir did, it was very irresponsible. There is no question that we can't . . . the U.N. can't be there though, unless the . . . African Union makes the request. So, as I said to the president yesterday, ‘We're politicians, very impatient, the diplomats are diplomats, and they have a different process. We have to bring what might be inconceivable to the AU as the inevitable to us, to shorten the distance between the two. And how can we work together to do that?’ I spoke to President Berlusconi when he was here last week. I said, ‘Mr. Prime Minister, it's so urgent. We had just come back at that point . . . it's so urgent, the children’ . . . and he said, immediately, ‘Italy is ready to help immediately.’ So, I think what we had talked to the president about is, using the good offices of his office... the president of the United States to encourage the president of the African Union and the Secretary General of NATO to understand the urgency of this and to help, because every day that goes by more people die, even though that, and between now and September, it's a long time for the U.N. force to come in. However, if peace is achieved by April 30th, and let's hope and pray that that is possible again, with all the good offices of all of the countries who are concerned about this, then we can stop the violence. But this is a top priority. We went to see the president, we thought for 15 minutes, we were there closer to an hour. He's very engaged in the issue and again, I commend him for his leadership on this issue. I don't think he needs our encouragement, he is there on this issue. But we want to give him our support. We thought that our visit raised the visibility of the issue. The president, on our visit, was asked by others what we thought about it. He again, referred the statement that ‘This is genocide.’ So, I can't express the sense of urgency that we felt any more than the fact that these children will die and they deserve a chance. That's really what the people who are helping take care of the children said, they just need a chance to live and be healthy and we have to give that to them. And if we allow something like this to happen, then we can just indict all of ourselves, and we loose any moral authority to say ‘Never Again!’
Katherine Maddux: Just a quick follow up though: the Bush administration does have leverage with the Sudanese government because they are deeply involved in implementing the CPA, in fact, without the Bush administration, the CPA would have never happened. So, my question to both of you as lawmakers: can't you make the case, when we speak very eloquently, we won't let this happen? But they actually do have some leverage, they can pressure the Sudanese government.
Nancy Pelosi: I think they're trying to use it, but let me be very clear . . . what we wanted to convey to the president . . . the vice president of the Sudan, when we were there, and we've had a very, shall we say, a very diplomatic but forceful conversation with him, is that while we appreciate the cooperation of the government of Sudan in the war on terror, that cooperation is not a license to kill in Darfur. And so, you know what? I believe that the president is trying to use our good offices. But we believe the appointment of a U.S. special envoy to the Sudan would make the signal very clear, this is an issue of the highest priority to the United States.
Katherine Maddux: Thank you
Janet McElligott: My name is Janet McElligott. I'm a task member of the Sudan Human Baseline Assessment which is funded by four bodies of the U.N. and the Canadian government. I have two questions: One is for the Congresswoman and the other is for Joey Cheek. I know. Shall we take Joey first?
Nancy Pelosi: You can have Joey first.
Janet McElligott: This is my tenth year of working in Sudan. I was liaison with the FBI and al-Qaeda case for six and a half years, secretly. I gave like 500 pages of documents to your commission, actually; and I'm a spokesman at the Sudanese Peace Talks and that's why I'm involved in this Baseline Assessment now. I had extra room in my luggage so I called around to see if I could get some donations of soccer balls to take with me to Sudan, and I was way more successful than I thought I was going to be. And I came home last week to find 400 and some soccer balls on my front porch and promises of 4,000 more. I don't have any pumps to pump them up, and I'm trying to figure out a way to pay to get them all there. I have the approval from the Sudanese government to bring them in, cost-free. The DDR will distribute them to camps, Uniroyal and Merchant Tire are the ones who have given them to me, and rubber manufacturers have said, ‘I can have as many thousand as I want.’ But I'm just a regular person who thought, ah, excess baggage? Right?
Joey Cheek: I would like it.
Janet McElligott: Yeah. So, if anybody has any old pumps or needles or patch kits from their kids, exactly. I laughed my head off when I came home and found them on my front porch. Because really, I was just looking for some to put in my suitcase. So now I don't know how to get them all there. But I can get them all through customs, I'm very well known in the Sudan, it's not an issue for me to get any of that stuff in and done.
Joey Cheek: The organization that I donated the winnings I got from USCC is called "Right to Play".
Janet McElligott: Yeah.
Joey Cheek: And their mandate . . . their mission is to use sport and play for children from alien refugee camps across Africa and the Middle East. And that's exactly right up their alley.
Janet McElligott: Will you help me get them there?
Joey Cheek: Absolutely.
Janet McElligott: I mean, I leave Wednesday for my next trip out there. So, I'm just going to go down buy like some pumps and take a box or two.
Joey Cheek: Okay. Well, then . . . .
Janet McElligott: This is something that they said they'd do for me for the next two years.
Joey Cheek: That's a lot of soccer balls.
Janet McElligott: And I also have met with some of the youth leagues around here to see if they'll give me their old uniforms and their old shoes so that I can organize teams out on the camps.
Joey Cheek: The Right To Play has the infrastructure set up to handle all that stuff. And they can help you with all that. And Mary Dixon who is at the New York headquarters has just opened an office in New York, and she's . . .
Janet McElligott: After this, can I call you and ask you for the numbers?
Joey Cheek: Sure. Absolutely.
Janet McElligott: Cool. The second question . . .
Joey Cheek: Is for her?
Janet McElligott: It's for her.
Joey Cheek: That was easy. Thank you. We got a long line waiting.
Janet McElligott: And part of discovery, as we go forward we do this, I've met with the Deputy Prime Minister of Egypt, whose given me briefings on Qaddafi's rules and what's going on in Darfur, and I was surprised that there was no mention of what the Chadians have been involved with through the Zargawa in Darfur. And especially since Chad is at the very bottom of all the lists in the entire world of transparency. And Déby has taken away, as of last week, the guns from his personal security people and he's not ... because he's thinking he's going to be overthrown, but he's very, very closely connected, is what we're finding. We have an interim report coming out in March. And one that will be a bit later, that talks about this. But there's more blame than just Khartoum, and I was wondering if that was something that you looked at or something that you just never even had time to look at?
Nancy Pelosi: Well, one of the members of our delegation came through . . . did not come with us to Darfur because he had been there before, Congressman Donald Payne from New Jersey. He's a long-time Africanist. He knows the issues, he's highly respected on the continent, he is, in fact, my appointment as Democratic leader to the United Nations General Assembly. So, he is very, very connected there. When I was putting my remarks together . . . I wanted to just kind of give you a feel for what we saw and what the conversation was with Taha, but there's so much more to talk about. Arabs versus African, nomad versus farmer, Sharia versus non-Sharia, and the role of Chad. It's a very big issue as to why we are where we are and why it hasn't been resolved since. But I will say this, because you started to comment on this question about Egypt. One year ago I was in Egypt, in March, and visited with President Mubarak, and I asked him about the Sudan and Darfur and what he could do to help to stop the violence. And he said, ‘Oh, don't believe everything you read in the newspapers. It's just about the weather. When there's a drought, they're hungry, when there's a rainy season the food can't get through and looks like there's all these problems, but it's not that way. It's more about the weather than anything else.’ Well, that again, that denial combined with the denial . . . the constant denial of Taha just reinforced how big this problem will be as Taha identifies it as . . . the Khartoum government, an Arab government . . . with the Arab League and the cooperation he gets there and that leverage it gives him when he goes into the African Union. So, this is a big political problem; it's a big humanitarian problem, and it's very complicated. So, I didn't ignore Chad. It's just there's so much more to go into. I think we'll have to have a day on Darfur because this session will just be too short, but I wanted to share my conversation with Mubarak. Every place we go we talk to the head of state about Darfur. So, to make them know how important this is. And if I may, Mr. . . . do I call you Mr. President?
Tim Roemer: No. Just call me Tim, like always.
Nancy Pelosi: Tim. Our delegation, when I said, that we had this forceful conversation, which you should know, is one our delegation, Congressman Joe Wilson, who is a Republican from South Carolina and spoke with great authority about what he thought the president would be willing to do, and we went there in a bipartisan way. Donald Payne, I mentioned his credentials; Maxine Waters, the leader on these issues; Barbara Lee who's led the divestment crusade in America and of course, the champion on the HIV/AIDS issue; George Miller of California, the Chair of our Policy Committee; Jan Schakowsky of Illinois who has been working on this Darfur issue for a long time, constantly going to the U.N. to try to move things along; Mel Watt who is the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus to point out the role that CBC has played on the floor in the Congress of the United States, in our country, on this issue; Congresswoman Kilpatrick of Detroit there with her son, the Mayor of Detroit, who was her official escort on the trip; Micheal Capuano of Massachusetts who is the . . . he's the head of the Darfur Coalition in the Congress, very active one, and yesterday, passed a resolution successfully, to add $50 million to the president's request. This $50 million specifically for the African Union. Did I name everyone? I think I did. Eleven of them, I'm sure I'll hear from them if I haven't gotten through that list. So, everyone there was speaking with authority on the subject that we were there to talk about and we told President Taha about you. About even high school students taking up collections for the children of Darfur and how this issue is very important to the American people, so that he didn't think it was just some politicians coming there to weigh in . . . it's simply . . . I hope we made an impression upon him in that regard. Any other questions?
Tim Roemer: Yes.
Eucharia Mbachu: My name is Eucharia Mbachu. I'm from African News. I want to know, since September 2004, when the then Secretary of State Colin Powell, stated that the genocide was going on in Sudan, why didn't they, the American government send troops at least to go on its own to the peace talks between the Khartoum government and the Sudanese people, like they did in Kosovo, because there are a lot of negotiations going on there, a lot of good intentions going on but nothing is happening. The violence is still there, the kids are still there, the slavery is still there; it's just nothing is being accomplished. We hear a lot of talking, a lot of conferences, a lot of press conferences but nothing is happening. The people are still suffering, they are still being distressed. So, what is the United States going to do, right now, cause the talk is not, it's not working?
Nancy Pelosi: The U.S., and I appreciate your impatience, as I said, as a politician I share it, because we want action and we want it now, and the diplomacy takes a little longer. As the president said to us yesterday, unless the African Union asks for the support of the U.N., makes that request, supports that request, it will be very difficult for anything to happen. The U.S. has supplied the logistical support to the African Union forces, and we have been responsible for well over 60% of the humanitarian assistance that has gone in there. Other countries have been generous as well. So, trying to help keep people alive while you're trying to bring them to the table… but the answer is, is that the AU has to make the request in order for the United Nations and the U.S. to help through the United Nations or NATO to come in.
Eucharia Mbachu: Thank you.
Nancy Pelosi: And hopefully, again, if they don't have peace by April 30th, well, hopefully, they will, and then they can go in as peacekeepers. Because the AU, imagine, while they're there, they're subjected to the same restrictions. For example, there's a curfew, there's a curfew and the AU is subjected to the curfew. How on earth are they going to stop the attacks on people that happen at night if the AU has to stay in with the curfew. Again, with . . . the Sudanese government is acting in a very evil way and again, but they . . . I think their colleagues in the African Union want to give a chance for peace to happen and then have the U.N. come in as a peacekeeping force, not as a fighting force.
Tim Roemer: Can I just answer very quickly too, Leader Pelosi, because this is easy for me because I'm not a sitting member of Congress, and I had a little bit of time yesterday to read through the administration's national strategy for international policy. And I would hope, to your question, that in the future, the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of civilization, can project its strength and its power and its resources, not so much with an emphasis on preemptive power, but on trying to do good in the world and prevent genocide from happening in places like Darfur. So, the United States’ looking at ways to get the U.N. involved, to get NATO troops involved, to consider our own logistical support in that part of the region, I think, is critically important and your question is a very important one. Thank you.
Tiffany Tate: Hello. My name is Tiffany Tate from BET News, and I have two quick questions for Leader Pelosi.
Nancy Pelosi: Before I answer it, I have to say I skipped the most important member of our delegation, Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, who's the newly elected Chair of the entire Democratic Caucus. While we were there, on the continent, he was honored in Liberia at the AME University there. He was honored . . . gave a keynote address there and we both extended invitations to the president of Liberia to come to the United States and speak to the Congress as she . . . she said, ‘Oh, I'm coming in two weeks’ and we were blessed by her presence there but Jim Clyburn was, obviously, a very significant leader in our delegation. Yes ma'am?
Tiffany Tate: You said earlier that the genocide in Darfur is a world-wide concern. Why do you think that it's not a top priority for the average American? What are the consequences and what can we do to help solve that problem?
Nancy Pelosi: One of the things that we can do to help solve that problem is being done by Joey Cheek: using his celebrity and the appeal that he has to talk about this issue will do more than any politicians talking morning, noon and night all over the country because young people pay attention to him, listen to what he says. They are attracted to him. So, we thank Joey Cheek, because this is a real break through in this issue of Darfur. Thank you, Joey.
The word is spreading on college campuses throughout the United States. Yesterday, Thursday, whenever Thursday was… I've lost track of time… the University of California, the entire system voted to divest, this is happening around the country. I have a list of actions in probably 12 states, of state legislatures, and we've brought the issue to the attention of the Sudanese government, that . . . that their important issue for them in trade is an issue that we're looking at in terms of denying access to the United States, so we're trying everything. But it has . . . there is tremendous support; of course, it's not enough, and I think it only is, because people are not aware and that's what we're all trying to do, is to increase the awareness and I think nothing has done more for that than Joey's brave action.
Tiffany Tate: And my second question is, is the CBC supporting your efforts to the full extent that they should?
Nancy Pelosi: Absolutely, they've been in the lead. All the things that we've talked about, we've been talking about on the floor for a number of years and they have taken the lead on it. Each of the members, as well as, as a group. That's why it's so important that Mel Watt, the Chair of the Caucus was there. But I commend them for keeping this issue in the forefront and now the president is, I think, fully engaged. If we can't accomplish anything with that level of cooperation, I mean, let's put it this way, George Bush and I don't agree on . . . well, we disagree on a lot of things . . .
. . . President Bush, let me be respectful. But this is one issue where I have confidence that he is committed to making a difference. He has said, ‘Not on my watch’ and I believe him. And that's what . . . this, you may have thought, this was for St. Patrick's Day, but the state would have it, here we are on St. Patrick's Day with the green bracelet that says ‘Not on my watch--Save Darfur’ and that's what we wear so that everyone remembers; and also if they don't know about it, we can tell that story.
Tiffany Tate: Thank you very much.
Nancy Pelosi: Just keep the drum beat going.
Tim Roemer: One more question, please. I'm not doing a very good job of limiting the questions here so, last question please.
Andrea Koppel: Andrea Koppel, CNN, and I apologize, this question does not have to do with Darfur. I deliberately waited until the end, but this is the only opportunity to ask you a question, Leader Pelosi, about lobbying reform, which a couple of months ago seemed to have had a lot of steam and a lot of enthusiasm. Where do you see things going from here? Do you think it's still possible to enact meaningful lobbying reform?
Nancy Pelosi: Well, it absolutely has to be possible to do that. As you know, the House and Senate Democrats have been working with governors, mayors, state legislators across the country, have rolled out our positive, unified agenda on lobby reform, called ‘Open Government, Honest Leadership.’ And it's absolutely essential that we drain the swamp that has become Washington, D.C. As they say, it was built on a swamp, two centuries, swamp to swamp. And that is something that is very important to us. We must stop the influence of special interests so that the people know that we are here for the people's interest and I think that, to be specific, we are going to try to get our legislation, once again, up on the floor. We would hope that the Republican majority would give us that opportunity. And I'd be happy to talk to you individually, about this some more, but it's very, very important because we can't do what we need to do if our calendar is cluttered by an agenda for the special interest, instead of the public interest. But I want to get back to the issue that brought us together here today.
It's no wonder that the religious community has led the way on this. This really challenges us to what we say that we are God's children, that there's a spark of divinity in every person on earth, that every person is worthy of dignity . . . of the respect that they deserve as God's child. And that we all have a responsibility to each other and I'll tell you, if you saw these children, and Joey said it so well, about where he was born in this great country… and when you go there and you see these children, you think, how did God decide? How did he decide that we would be born in the United States of America and they would be born into this situation of squalor and violence and genocide; how did he decide. Well, when he made the decision he decided that we would have some responsibility there, and I'm very honored by the comment that Tim Roemer made earlier when he talked about the ‘. . . the least of our brethren . . . ‘ the Gospel of Matthew is something that drives many of us in our public service. But I always just end by saying, one of the priests in my district, Father Fordpatedo who is a Franciscan Friar minister, works with poor people every single day, every single day, in San Francisco, homeless, said, Father, why do you never burn out, how do you do this for 50 years, you know, working with poor people? He said, my mother told me that God loves poor people in a very special way so that we must treat them very special. And I thought, let's hope that all of us as parents are conveying that value to our children. In the meantime, we have to save the lives of these children to give them this chance and to do so, we must save Darfur. So I thank you all for letting me give my speech.
Tim Roemer: Thank you all again, for coming in on St. Patrick's Day. Joey Cheek, keep up your great efforts, we're delighted you'll be at the rally in April and encouraging other people to come in the meantime. I hope you get to college campuses. You will be a big hit everywhere, both to get attention on this issue and increase attention. Leader Pelosi, thank you so much for your comments today. More importantly, for your action on this issue. The envoy, the money going through Congress, the ideas here today that are generated, the Center for National Policy is a place that wants to generate action and activity to help solve these kinds of problems. Finally, Thomas Jefferson said, that the United States was the best hope for the world. We've seen this hope come forward from coalitions, religious community people, political leaders, sports leaders. Let's continue these great efforts forward. Let's move forward to make sure that we tackle this problem, save these children, one at a time, every day, and stop the genocide in Darfur. Thank you very much.
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