[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 76 (Thursday, June 16, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 16, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        DAY OF THE AFRICAN CHILD

                                 ______


                          HON. DONALD M. PAYNE

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 16, 1994

  Mr. PAYNE of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise to note that this day of 
the 16th of June has been declared the ``Day of the African Child'' by 
the Organization of African Unity.
  I am pleased that a celebration of this event is being held at the 
United Nations in New York.
  It is a day that finds its origins in the uprising and massacre of 
school children in Soweto, South Africa.
  It is a day that we pause to remember the plight of children all over 
Africa, and what we as citizens and legislators can do to create a 
better environment for them to grow up in.
  A few weeks ago we passed the Foreign Aid appropriations bill in 
which some 800 million dollars to support the Development Fund for 
Africa was approved. This important part of our foreign aid bill 
provides funds to help the malnourished, the illiterate, and 
impoverished.
  Through foreign aid provided by America and other countries:
  The death rate of children under 5 has been halved since 1960.
  African governments provided safe water and adequate sanitation to an 
additional 120 million people during the 1980's, and now over 80 
percent of the children living in urban areas have access to safe 
water.
  African girls face many obstacles in obtaining an education, but now 
approximately 60 percent of African girls are enrolled in primary 
school, up from 44 percent in the 1970's.
  While there has been progress over the last three decades there were 
several setbacks in the 1980's such as a falling off of school 
enrollment by 7 percent.
  This setback has been largely caused by the increasing civil wars in 
Africa. Most of the nations where these wars occurred such as Liberia, 
Zaire, Angola, Mozambique, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia have been 
victims of our former cold war policy.
  The condition that these countries find themselves in today is 
largely due to our policy of containment of communism in the cold war 
days. As proper as that may have been during that period, the truth is 
these countries are suffering today because of the divisions this 
policy created in their societies.
  Children of Africa have suffered due to this policy, and this should 
concern the American people so that we strive harder to right these 
wrongs.
  As an example of this concern I want to alert the American people to 
the terrible genocide going on in Rwanda. We have all read the accounts 
of thousands of people killed in a conflict triggered by shooting down 
of the plane of President Habyarimana on April 6. Many feel this is an 
ethnic war or tribal conflict. The truth is that this slaughter was 
planned and consciously triggered by a privileged clique of extremist 
political and military leaders who were determined to block political 
reforms that would loosen their exclusive grip on power. The killings 
which unfortunately have turned into the killing of Tutsi people by the 
majority Hutu interium government have not allowed any mercy whatsoever 
to children.
  Thousands have been killed in the most brutal way by hacking away 
arms and limbs. On June 14th milita members of the majority Hutu tribe 
abducted up to 40 children of the minority Tutsis from a church complex 
in the government held part of the Rwandan capital.
  The milita herded them off to almost certain death, a senior United 
Nations officer said.
  In the western part of Rwanda where government forces are fleeing 
from the advancing Tutsi Rwanda Patriotic Front they are killing all 
Tutsi civilians in sight. Special concern is now for several groups of 
majority Hutu Catholic nuns who will not separate from their Tutsi 
sisters and are placing their own lives at risk to protect them.
  My office just received a phone call from Allen Campbell of Air Care 
International who is willing to fly into this dangerous area to rescue 
the nuns because our own Government and international community seems 
unable to stop the killings.
  Won't you help too?
  Please think of the children of Rwanda and in each of the 56 
countries of Africa and help in your own personal way as Mr. Campbell 
is doing.

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