2006年VOA标准英语-US Senator Plans Revised Legislation on Darfur

By Dan Robinson
Washington
09 September 2006 

outskirts1 of Thabit, North Darfur" src="/upimg/allimg/070418/1430550.jpg" width="211" border="0" /> Rwandan soldier guard on the outskirts of Thabit, North Darfur

Influential² lawmakers are expressing concern about the situation in Darfur, where a massing of Sudanese government forces has raised fears of new conflict. One key Republican says he still hopes the Senate will approve revised legislation aimed at putting pressure on Khartoum, as lawmakers urge President Bush to appoint a special envoy³ for Sudan to help avert⁴ further deterioration⁵ in Darfur.

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House and Senate Republicans and Democrats⁷ have been closely monitoring the deteriorating⁸ situation in Darfur with alarm.

This week, Democratic Senator Joseph Biden, the ranking Democrat⁶ on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, drew applause during a speech at Washington's National Press Club when he compared the situation in Darfur with other world trouble spots that required the use of military force by the United States.

"Civilized⁹ societies have a responsibility to protect innocents and to prevent catastrophic events. That is why force was necessary in Bosnia, and why I was the first one to call for its use. That's why force was necessary in Kosovo. That's why force was necessary in Afghanistan. And I would argue respectively, that is why force is necessary in Darfur right now," he said.

Senator Biden is sponsoring a bipartisan resolution urging President Bush to take steps to gather international support to establish a no-fly zone in Darfur to head off new Sudan government attacks from the air on civilians¹⁰.

The measure also urges the international community to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions on the government in Khartoum, repeats a call for President Bush to appoint a Special Envoy for Sudan, and urges a special session of the UN Human Rights Council to address Darfur.

Earlier this year, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation called the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act.

It extends a range of sanctions on Sudan until Khartoum takes concrete steps to disarm¹¹ government-backed Arab militia¹² blamed for killing¹³ and displacing thousands of civilians.

However, with only three weeks remaining in the congressional session, the Senate has not yet taken up the broader legislation.

The matter came up during a recent hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as Democrat Chris Dodd urged Senator Richard Lugar to hold a hearing on Darfur.

"I'm just wondering if at some point the chairman might consider in the time remaining for us here to maybe even have a public hearing on Darfur. I am deeply alarmed as I think everyone is at the deteriorating condition(s) there [and] the reluctance¹⁴ of the United Nations to step forward," said Dodd.

"It is certainly very timely and I share the senator's concern," replied Lugar.

Senator Lugar has signed on to the separate non-binding resolution sponsored by Senator Biden who says the world must make clear that it will not allow Khartoum to reject the deployment¹⁵ of a U.N. force.

However, on Friday Lugar was forced to issue a clarification on the status of overall Darfur legislation in response to a published report [in The Hill newspaper] which quoted unidentified sources as complaining he was stalling progress on the bill.

The senator blames delay on disagreements over a single sentence in the Darfur legislation relating to divestment campaigns by individual countries. Keeping the language, he says, would be bad public policy and doom¹⁶ the bill in the Senate.

He adds what he calls shifting circumstances in Sudan complicated efforts to craft the legislation, asserting that action by Congress might have interfered¹⁷ with a difficult implementation¹⁸ of the May peace accord for Darfur.

On Monday, Senator Lugar plans to introduce a new version of the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, without what he calls problematic divestiture¹⁹ language.

The revision, which he says would have a better chance of approval in the Senate as well as House, would also give the State Department new flexibility²⁰ to provide humanitarian²¹ and security-related aid to address the situation in Darfur, and more broadly in southern Sudan.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials appearing at a House hearing tried to assure concerned lawmakers that Washington continues to focus on what Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Erica Barks-Ruggles called a very serious ongoing²² human rights problem in Darfur and the question of a U.N. force.

"The obvious problem that is caused by the AU (African Union) peacekeepers there having their mandate²³ run out soon and the inability of the U.N. peacekeepers go in behind, is a first and foremost concern for our government, and we remain very, very engaged on that and obviously that will have implications on the human rights situation but we will also remain engaged on the very serious human rights situation that is there," he said.

As for U.S. pressure for the new U.N. Human Rights Council or at the Security Council to take up the situation in Darfur, Ruggles was more cautious saying U.S. officials will have to see how things evolve in the next two weeks while consulting with other governments.

1 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

2 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

3 envoy   

n.使节，使者，代表，公使

参考例句：

• Their envoy showed no sign of responding to our proposals.他们的代表对我方的提议毫无回应的迹象。
• The government has not yet appointed an envoy to the area.政府尚未向这一地区派过外交官。

4 avert   

v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等)

参考例句：

• He managed to avert suspicion.他设法避嫌。
• I would do what I could to avert it.我会尽力去避免发生这种情况。

5 deterioration   

n.退化；恶化；变坏

参考例句：

• Mental and physical deterioration both occur naturally with age. 随着年龄的增长，心智和体力自然衰退。
• The car's bodywork was already showing signs of deterioration. 这辆车的车身已经显示出了劣化迹象。

6 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

7 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 deteriorating   

恶化，变坏( deteriorate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The weather conditions are deteriorating. 天气变得越来越糟。
• I was well aware of the bad morale and the deteriorating factories. 我很清楚，大家情绪低落，各个工厂越搞越坏。

9 civilized   

a.有教养的，文雅的

参考例句：

• Racism is abhorrent to a civilized society. 文明社会憎恶种族主义。
• rising crime in our so-called civilized societies 在我们所谓文明社会中日益增多的犯罪行为

10 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

11 disarm   

v.解除武装，回复平常的编制，缓和

参考例句：

• The world has waited 12 years for Iraq to disarm. 全世界等待伊拉克解除武装已有12年之久。
• He has rejected every peaceful opportunity offered to him to disarm.他已经拒绝了所有能和平缴械的机会。

12 militia   

n.民兵，民兵组织

参考例句：

• First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面，其次是民兵。
• There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。

13 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

14 reluctance   

n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿

参考例句：

• The police released Andrew with reluctance.警方勉强把安德鲁放走了。
• He showed the greatest reluctance to make a reply.他表示很不愿意答复。

15 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

16 doom   

n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定

参考例句：

• The report on our economic situation is full of doom and gloom.这份关于我们经济状况的报告充满了令人绝望和沮丧的调子。
• The dictator met his doom after ten years of rule.独裁者统治了十年终于完蛋了。

17 interfered   

v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉

参考例句：

• Complete absorption in sports interfered with his studies. 专注于运动妨碍了他的学业。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I am not going to be interfered with. 我不想别人干扰我的事情。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 implementation   

n.实施，贯彻

参考例句：

• Implementation of the program is now well underway.这一项目的实施现在行情看好。

19 divestiture   

n.剥夺

参考例句：

• The court found divestiture to be necessary in preventing a monopoly.法庭发现在防止垄断方面进行资产剥离是必要的。
• Rapid progress was made in the divestiture of radio paging assets from the P & T sectors and the restructuring on a nationwide basis.全国邮电无线寻呼资产剥离、改制重组工作取得了较大进展。

20 flexibility   

n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性

参考例句：

• Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
• The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。

21 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

22 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

23 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。