[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 42 (Monday, April 18, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: April 18, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
CONCERNING THE EMANCIPATION OF THE IRANIAN BAHA'I COMMUNITY
Mr. GEJDENSON. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to
the Senate concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 31) concerning the
emancipation of the Iranian Baha'i community.
The Clerk read as follows:
S. Con. Res. 31
Whereas in 1982, 1984, 1988, 1990, and 1992, the Congress,
by concurrent resolution, declared that it holds the
Government of Iran responsible for upholding the rights of
all its nationals, including members of the Baha'i Faith,
Iran's largest religious minority;
Whereas in such resolutions and in numerous other appeals,
the Congress condemned the Government of Iran's religious
persecution of the Baha'i community, including the execution
of more than 200 Baha'is, the imprisonment of additional
thousands, and other repressive and discriminatory actions
against Baha'is based solely upon their religious beliefs;
Whereas in 1992, the Government of Iran summarily executed
a leading member of the Baha'i community, arrested and
imprisoned several other Baha'is, condemned two Baha'i
prisoners to death on account of their religion, and
confiscated individual Baha'is' homes and personal properties
in several cities;
Whereas the Government of Iran continues to deny the Baha'i
community the right to organize, to elect its leaders, to
hold community property for worship or assembly, to operate
religious schools and to conduct other normal religious
community activities; and
Whereas on February 22, 1993, the United Nations Commission
on Human Rights published a formerly confidential Iranian
government document constituting a blueprint for the
destruction of the Baha'i community, which document reveals
that these repressive actions are the result of a deliberate
policy designed and approved by the highest officials of the
Government of Iran: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives
concurring), That the Congress--
(1) continues to hold the government of Iran responsible
for upholding the rights of all its nationals, including
members of the Baha'i community, in a manner consistent with
Iran's obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and other international agreements guaranteeing the
civil and political rights of its citizens;
(2) condemns the repressive anti-Baha'i policy adopted by
the Government of Iran, as set forth in a confidential
official document which explicitly states that Baha'is shall
be denied access to education and employment, and that the
government's policy is to deal with Baha'is ``in such a way
that their progress and development are blocked'';
(3) expresses concern that individual Baha'is continue to
suffer from severely repressive and discriminatory government
actions, solely on account of their religion; and that the
Baha'i community continues to be denied legal recognition and
the basic rights to organize, elect its leaders, educate its
youth, and conduct the normal activities of a law-abiding
religious community;
(4) urges the Government of Iran to extend to the Baha'i
community the rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and the international covenants on human
rights, including the freedom of thought, conscience, and
religious, and equal protection of the law; and
(5) calls upon the President to continue--
(A) to emphasize that the United States regards the human
rights practices of the Government of Iran, particularly its
treatment of the Baha'i community and other religious
minorities, as a significant factor in the development of the
United States Government's relations with the Government of
Iran;
(B) to urge the Government of Iran to emancipate the Baha'i
community by granting those rights guaranteed by the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the international
covenants on human rights; and
(C) to encourage other governments to continue to appeal to
the Government of Iran, and to cooperate with other
governments and international organizations, including the
United Nations and its agencies, in efforts to protect the
religious rights of the Baha'is and other minorities through
joint appeals to the Government of Iran and through other
appropriate actions.
Sec. 2. The Secretary of the Senate shall transmit a copy
of this concurrent resolution to the President.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Connecticut [Mr. Gejdenson] will be recognized for 20 minutes, and the
gentleman from New York [Mr. Gilman] will be recognized for 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Gejdenson].
Mr. GEJDENSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
(Mr. GEJDENSON asked and was given permission to revise and extend
his remarks.)
Mr. GEJDENSON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend the gentleman
from New York [Mr. Gilman], the gentleman from California [Mr. Lantos],
and the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Porter] for bringing this
important resolution to the attention of the House.
This resolution states that the Congress continues to hold the
Government of Iran responsible for upholding the rights of all
nationals, including members of the Baha'i community, consistent with
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international
agreements; condemns the repressive policies adopted by the Government
of Iran toward members of the Baha'i community; and calls on the
President to emphasize the human rights practices of the Government of
Iran as a significant factor in the development of United States
relations with that Government.
Mr. Speaker, the horrendous treatment of the Baha'i community by the
Government of Iran has been addressed by this House before. We need to
condemn this outrageous treatment at every opportunity.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
(Mr. GILMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, Senate Concurrent Resolution 31, concerning
the emancipation of the Iranian Baha'i community, is the latest in a
series of resolutions concerning the continuing repression of the
Baha'i community in Iran that have been adopted by the Congress since
1982. This resolution allows us once again to express our outrage and
revulsion with regard to the brutal and systematic denial of one of the
most basic of human freedoms--freedom of conscience--which has been
denied by the Mullahs of Iran.
Each time we consider these resolutions it seems that there has been
a new twist added to the outrages Iranian authorities have perpetrated
against their own citizens. During the past year, we received
disturbing reports from Iran on the continued repression of the Baha'i
community. We learned that the Tehran authorities have destroyed
gravesites located in the principal Baha'i cemetery in Tehran. Bodies
have been removed to unknown destinations, and grave markers have been
sold to construction firms to be used as ordinary building stones. The
municipal authorities reportedly intend to build a cultural center on
the site of the cemetery.
These acts are consistent with guidelines detailed in a secret
Iranian Government plan which came to light last year which calls for
suppression of the Baha'i community in Iran and the destruction of its
cultural roots. It is frighteningly similar to Hitler's plans for
dealing with the Jewish community in Germany.
The desecration of the Baha'i cemetery in Tehran is not only a
despicable attempt by the Iranian Government to add to the misery of
the living by denying to their loved ones interred at this site the
respect that all civilized peoples accord to the dead, but an attempt
to obliterate the heritage of the Baha'i and all traces of their
culture which originated in Iran.
The United States has spoken out consistently and repeatedly on
Iran's continued brutal repression of the Baha'i. In its latest Human
Rights Report, the State Department includes Iran among the few
countries that are the very worst abusers of the rights of their own
citizens in the world. We owe it to the victims of these repressive
regimes to continue to raise this issue in international human rights
forums, and to press those governments that conduct commerce and
diplomatic relations with the Government of Iran to use their influence
and speak out against these outrages.
Resolutions of the Congress, such as the one we now consider,
representing the clear voice of the American people, are an invaluable
tool for our diplomats in bodies such as the U.N. Human Right
Commission. I hope my colleagues on this Committee will join me in
supporting Senate Concurrent Resolution 31, which is identical to House
Concurrent Resolution 124.
Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the distinguished
gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Porter] who, along with the distinguished
cochair of the Human Rights Caucus, the gentleman from California [Mr.
Lantos], has worked to keep this issue alive before the Congress.
{time} 1830
(Mr. PORTER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my very able colleague, a leader on
human rights issues throughout all of his service in the Congress, for
yielding to me.
Mr. Speaker, as the sponsor of House Concurrent Resolution 124, I
would like to thank the gentleman from New York [Mr. Gilman], the
gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Hamilton], and the gentleman from
Connecticut [Mr. Gejdenson], for their support in bringing this
measure, Senate Concurrent Resolution 31, to the floor of the House.
Senate Concurrent Resolution 31, the Baha'i Community Emancipation
Resolution, condemns the Government of Iran for denying the 300,000
strong Baha'i community their basic human rights. Since the
fundamentalist Islamic regime took power in 1979, Mr. Speaker, hundreds
of Baha'is, the largest religious minority in Iran, have been executed,
and thousands have been imprisoned because of their religion. Many have
disappeared or been kidnapped.
Because the regime does not recognized the Baha'i faith, calling it a
conspiracy and a heresy, tens of thousands of Baha'is are deprived of
jobs, housing, school, and other social services in Iran.
Intolerance, Mr. Speaker, religious, ethnic, sexual, and racial, has
been the hallmark of far too much of our world with the end of the cold
war, motivation for strife in many places where the cold war previously
had kept such intolerance in check.
Iran in particularly, since it turned away from moderation and
modernization toward fundamentalism, has become a paradigm of
intolerance.
What if the United States were to follow Iran's model and declare
Islam, not nearly so old as either Christianity or Judaism, as the
Iranians have declared Baha'ism, a heresy, and therefore all Moslems
heretics, to be discriminated against at will by the government and by
private citizens alike in our country? Mr. Speaker, what a disaster
that would be.
Intolerance is the trail of the backward, the ignorant, and the
insecure. In Iran, intolerance of Baha'is, people who threaten no one,
who accede to legitimate civil authority wherever they define, reside,
defines not the Baha'is, but the Iranian fundamentalists for what they
are.
Mr. Speaker, the Baha'i religion is in fact founded upon the nine
dominant religions of the world, including, of course, Islam, and draws
on the best of all of them as the basis of its faith. What irony there
is in the fact that the Iranians, in the name of Islam, repress
Baha'is, who in reality respect and revere their religion more than the
Iranians do.
While in the mid-1980's diplomatic pressure and negative publicity
forced the Iranian leadership to lessen the severity of their grievous
official campaign against the Baha'is, there are disturbing signals
that the repression of the Baha'is has increased greatly in this past
year.
Last summer the Baha'i cemetery in Iran was desecrated by local
officials, who decided to build a community center on the site of
Baha'i graves, a particularly reprehensible and unseemly act.
In September two Iranians were found guilty of murdering a Baha'i,
but did not face retribution because their victim was a member of the
Baha'i community, a nonrecognized religious sect.
As recently as last December, three Baha'is were condemned to death
because of apostasy or of being unprivileged infidels at war with the
Moslem nation.
A year ago an official government document obtained in Iran confirmed
for the first time that the ongoing persecution of the Baha'i community
has been a calculated policy, written and approved by Iran's highest
officials.
This document reveals that the official Iranian policy is to repress
Baha'is at every opportunity, while maintaining plausible deniability.
While it says they will not be expelled or arrested without reason,
it makes evident that the Iranian Government's intent is to isolate,
persecute, and ultimately destroy the Baha'is in Iran.
The resolution that we are considering today condemns the document's
plan to confront and destroy Baha'i cultural roots outside of Iran,
something that is tantamount to a program of cultural genocide.
The response of the United States and civilized world to this
document must be clear: So long as it continues its calculated
persecution of the Baha'is and rejects basic human rights, Iran will
continue to be ostracized from the community of nations.
These revelations mean that any discussion of Iran renewing ties with
the West is completely out of the question. The Congressional Human
Rights Caucus, which I cochair along with my colleague, the gentleman
from California [Mr. Lantos], has written to parliamentarians in
countries around the world to urge them to condemn the Iranian
Government for its repressive practices. The overwhelming positive
responses we have received from those parliamentarians demonstrate the
concern about the rights of the Baha'is transcend languages, cultures
and borders.
We, Mr. Speaker, each of us, must tell the world of the official
planned, premeditated oppression which the Iranian Government inflicts
upon its own people, particularly upon the Baha'is. Iran must continue
to be ostracized from the community of nations until its conduct can
begin to approach a respect for the basic rights of each human being to
live, worship, and speak according to the dictates of his or her own
conscience.
With the passage of this resolution today, Congress will once again
go on record in support of the basic rights of the Baha'i people and
other religious minorities in Iran. I urge the adoption of the
resolution.
Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his eloquent
remarks. He has been a longstanding fighter for human rights throughout
his career, and particularly as cochairman of the Human Rights Caucus.
Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time and yield back the
balance of my time.
Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time and I
yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Miller of California). The question is
on the motion offered by the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr.
Gejdenson], that the House suspend the rules and concur in the Senate
concurrent resolution, S. Con. Res. 31.
The question was taken.
Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the provisions of clause 5, rule
I, and the Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this
motion will be postponed until Tuesday, April 19, 1994.
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