[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 38 (Tuesday, April 12, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 12, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1210
 
                           TRAGEDY IN ANGOLA

  (Mr. EMERSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute, and to revise and extend his remarks, and include extraneous 
matter.)
  Mr. EMERSON. Mr. Speaker, the chairman of the House Hunger Caucus, 
our distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hall], has 
just returned from a factfinding mission to Angola. This morning, 
Chairman Hall reported to the Hunger Caucus and shared some very 
troubling observations about the plight of that land. He has written a 
brief piece, the Paradox of Suffering in Angola, which appeared in 
today's Christian Science Monitor. It is a trenchant summary of his 
experiences and observations, and I commend it to the reading and to 
the consideration of all of our colleagues.
  The article referred to is as follows:

          [From the Christian Science Monitor, Apr. 12, 1994]

                     Paradox of Suffering in Angola

                           (By Tony P. Hall)

       As civil war approaches its third decade in Angola, a 
     generation of children has been lost. No matter how many 
     sites I visit to urge solutions to humanitarian disasters, it 
     is the images of hungry children that haunt me the most.
       In Angola, the paradox of starving and malnourished 
     children is especially insane. Angola is a green and fertile 
     nation with thousands of miles of temperate Atlantic 
     shoreline and has a vast supply of oil and diamonds. River 
     valleys and rich savannas are made even more valuable by a 
     relatively low population and density rate. There are no 
     desert droughts in Angola. The nation is free of the 
     geographical calamities affecting Somalia and Sudan.
       It is Angola's leaders who perpetuate the senseless tragedy 
     affecting its 3.3 million people.
       I took the Congressional Hunger Caucus and my new 
     nongovernmental organization (NGO), the Congressional Hunger 
     Center, to Angola because of reports from the United States 
     State Department that hundreds were perishing daily from 
     hunger and disease. Thousands of malnourished orphans were 
     scavenging for food in city trash heaps and across mine-
     infested grain fields. I read of children scooping up 
     handfuls of dirt tinged with powdered milk that had sifted 
     from sacks of relief food.
       I found scenes like these in Angola--and something more. 
     Amid the jammed refugee camps, the dusty therapeutic feeding 
     centers, and the putrid marketplaces, I found well equipped 
     and healthy soldiers from both sides of the civil war who 
     were seemingly unmoved by the misery at their feet.
       Even more disturbing than this spectacle is the disgraceful 
     example of personal comfort set by the leaders that the 
     militiamen esteem. A palace-ensconced president and 
     temperamental ministers, preoccupied with political 
     positioning and perpetuating war, bring pain and injustice 
     to their people. Years of destructive conflict in Angola 
     have caused massive displacement, disrupted agricultural 
     production, destroyed infrastructure, and paralyzed the 
     economy.
       Food aid is necessary in Angola, and the international NGOs 
     and multilateral organizations that work there are truly 
     angels of mercy. But this temporary help is not the lasting 
     answer for Angola. Serious international pressure must be 
     leveled on the rulers who ignore cease-fire agreements and 
     continually dash Angola's hope for normalcy. Their jockeying 
     for power, land, oil, and diamonds while children receive 
     inadequate health care, lack basic education, and even 
     starve, is inexcusable.
       The leaders are greedy; further they have enabled the 
     purveyance of weapons--including land mines. Universal 
     condemnation of their actions is essential to ending hunger 
     in Angola.
       The bright news from Angola is the cooperation exhibited by 
     dozens of dedicated NGOs and various offices of the United 
     Nations. Honorable mentions are due to World Vision, the 
     International Committee for the Red Cross, Doctors Without 
     Borders, Concern, Catholic Relief Services, and the Office of 
     Foreign Disaster Assistance.
       I also was impressed by the relatively new UN Department of 
     Humanitarian Affairs, which is responsible for the overall 
     coordination of humanitarian relief to people subsisting 
     under the eyes of warring factions. The World Food Program 
     has proved invaluable in supporting and delivering relief in 
     Angola, and the NGOs have been exemplary in distributing 
     life-saving commodities.
       There appears now to be only one obstacle preventing Angola 
     from moving from relief to rehabilitation--Angola's leaders.

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