Joe Biden – A Champion for Darfur

I was excited to hear that Barack Obama picked Joe Biden as his running mate. Biden has been a great advocate to end the genocide in Darfur. He is one of the few members of the Senate who has actually been to Darfur. According to darfurscores.org, he was “instrumental in passing the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act in 2006.”

This past April, he chaired a Foreign Relations Committee hearing on “The continuing crisis in Darfur.” Below is his opening statement.

For five years, the people of Darfur have suffered death, deprivation and destruction. Government forces, janjaweed militia, and rebel groups have all preyed upon civilians and the aid workers trying to help them. When the United Nations finally assumed joint control of the peacekeeping mission, hopes rose that it would make a real difference to the people of Darfur. Those hopes have not yet been fulfilled. I truly want to know: why not and what will we do to change this?

DarfurScores.org gives him an A+ on Darfur. For those curious, Obama too gets an A+. John McCain on the other hand gets a C.

Look up the Darfur score of your legislator.

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UPDATE: Michael Crowley at The New Republic has a source that told him that Biden, after ending his primary campaign “vowed that he would use his Senate Foreign Relations Committee perch to hound a president Clinton or Obama into real action on Darfur.”

This is very encouraging. I’m really pleased with the Democratic ticket this year. We need this kind of leadership in the world to live up to “never again”. I wonder who John McCain will pick as his running mate…