[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 27 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 27

 To express the sense of the Senate regarding the 1944 deportation of 
      the Chechen people to central Asia, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 15, 2001

Mr. Helms submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 To express the sense of the Senate regarding the 1944 deportation of 
      the Chechen people to central Asia, and for other purposes.

Whereas for more than 200 years, the Chechen people have resisted the efforts of 
        the Russian government to drive them from their land and to deny them 
        their own culture;
Whereas beginning on February 23, 1944, nearly 500,000 Chechen civilians from 
        the northern Caucasus were arrested en masse and forced onto trains for 
        deportation to central Asia;
Whereas tens of thousands of Chechens, mainly women, children, and the elderly, 
        died en route to central Asia;
Whereas mass killings and the use of poisons against the Chechen people 
        accompanied the deportation;
Whereas the Chechen deportees were not given food, housing, or medical attention 
        upon their arrival in central Asia;
Whereas the Soviet Union actively attempted to suppress expressions of Chechen 
        culture, including language, architecture, literature, music, and 
        familial relations during the exile of the Chechen people;
Whereas it is generally accepted that more than one-third of the Chechen 
        population died in transit during the deportation or while living in 
        exile in central Asia;
Whereas the deportation order was not repealed until 1957;
Whereas the Chechens who returned to Chechnya found their homes and land taken 
        over by new residents who violently opposed the Chechen return; and
Whereas neither the Soviet Union, nor its successor, the Russian Federation, has 
        ever accepted full responsibility for the brutalities inflicted upon the 
        Chechen people: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) the United States should commemorate the 57th 
        anniversary of the brutal deportation of the Chechen people 
        from their native land;
            (2) the current war in Chechnya should be viewed within the 
        historical context of repeated abuses suffered by the Chechen 
        people at the hands of the Russian state;
            (3) the United States Government should make every effort 
        to alleviate the suffering of the Chechen people; and
            (4) it is in the interests of the United States, the 
        Russian Federation, Chechnya, and the international community 
        to find an immediate, peaceful, and political solution to the 
        war in Chechnya.
                                 <all>