[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 28 (Tuesday, March 15, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 15, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                    COMBATING RACISM AND INTOLERANCE

                                 ______


                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 15, 1994

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, last Thursday, March 10, 13-year-old Zlata 
Filipovic of Sarajevo testified before the Commission on Security and 
Cooperation in Europe. Poised and sincere, she described for us in 
straightforward, simple terms the horrors of a war that has stolen her 
childhood and threatened her future. She told us of the peaceful 
community of multiethnic Sarajevo, and commented sadly that their faith 
in love for one another had proved naive in the face of aggression. She 
told us that before the war, no one thought in terms of Moslem, Croat, 
or Serb--they were Bosnians, Sarajevans, one and all. She said most of 
her friends still saw themselves that way. But for some, she explained, 
for those children who had lost their parents or their siblings, the 
labels mattered now.
  For the sake of Zlata and her friends, for my children, for all 
children, I long for a world in which national or ethnic identity is a 
source of pride but not aggression, a source of belonging but not of 
exclusion. I long for a world that favors compassion and understanding 
over malice and ignorance. How many more children will be taught to 
hate before we, who control their destiny, cry out ``enough.''
  Earlier this month, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights 
passed a resolution to combat racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, racial 
discrimination, and other forms of prejudice. As the international 
president of B'nai B'rith has pointed out, this resolution sends the 
international community a clear message that the United Nations 
condemns hate of any kind. I support this resolution, and agree that 
its message is vital--not just for multilateral institutions and 
diplomats, but for all of us. Let us each resolve to fight 
discrimination now, to fight it as though we were the current targets, 
so that our children will never be tomorrow's victims.

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