[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4617 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4617

 To amend the Freedom for Russia and Emerging Eurasian Democracies and 
     Open Markets Support Act of 1992 to repeal the restriction on 
                       assistance to Azerbaijan.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 21, 1994

  Mr. Penny introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Freedom for Russia and Emerging Eurasian Democracies and 
     Open Markets Support Act of 1992 to repeal the restriction on 
                       assistance to Azerbaijan.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Freedom Support Amendment Act of 
1994''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) since 1991, tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians and 
        Azeris have died as a result of a conflict in the Nagorno-
        Karabakh region, which had been a part of Azerbaijan since 
        1923;
            (2) the United Nations estimates that there are currently 
        over 1,000,000 refugees in Azerbaijan;
            (3) 85 percent of the people of Azerbaijan currently live 
        in poverty;
            (4) ethnic Armenian forces currently control the Nagorno-
        Karabakh region, as well as 25 percent of Azerbaijan;
            (5) Armenia is currently preventing trade from reaching 
        Nakhichevan, a part of Azerbaijan which is separated from the 
        rest of the country by Armenian territory;
            (6) in 1993, the United Nations Security Council condemned 
        offensive military action by ethnic Armenian forces outside of 
        the Nagorno-Karabakh region through Resolutions 822, 853, 874, 
        and 884;
            (7) in 1992, the Congress passed the Freedom for Russia and 
        Emerging Eurasian Democracies and Open Markets Support Act of 
        1992 to provide assistance to the independent states of the 
        former Soviet Union;
            (8) section 907 of such Act prohibits all United States 
        assistance, including humanitarian and medical assistance, to 
        the Government of Azerbaijan because that Government had cut 
        off trade and taken other offensive uses of force against 
        ethnic Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the early 
        1990s; and
            (9) since the passage of such Act, the military and 
        humanitarian situation in Armenia and Azerbaijan has changed 
        considerably and aggressive activities are no longer limited to 
        one side or the other in this conflict.

SEC. 3. REPEAL OF RESTRICTION ON ASSISTANCE TO AZERBAIJAN.

    (a) Repeal.--Section 907 of the Freedom for Russia and Emerging 
Eurasian Democracies and Open Markets Support Act of 1992 (22 U.S.C. 
5812 note; relating to the restriction on assistance to Azerbaijan) is 
hereby repealed.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--The table of contents in section 2 of 
such Act is amended by striking the item relating to section 907.

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