[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 31 (Thursday, February 16, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E385-E386]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


 CAROLINE COX AND CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY INTERNATIONAL BRINGING HOPE TO 
                             THE SUFFERING

                                 ______


                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 16, 1995
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I commend to our colleagues' attention a 
speech given recently by Baroness Caroline Cox, Deputy Speaker of 
Britain's House of Lords, when she received the William Wilberforce 
Award.
  The award, named after the great 19th century political reformer who 
dedicated his career to outlawing the slave trade in England, is given 
to a person who exhibits moral witness and willingness to stand up for 
unpopular causes.
  Lady Cox is a woman with a heart for the suffering, the oppressed, 
and the persecuted. Her work and that of Christian Solidarity 
International, an interdenominational Christian human rights 
organization, has brought hope to thousands. I have travelled with Lady 
Cox and have been a witness to the way she ministers--showing love, 
respect, and compassion equally for the little children and high-level 
government officials. She is a woman who lives out her faith in Jesus 
Christ by doing what He admonishes in Matthew 25:

       When I was hungry you gave me something to eat, I was 
     thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger 
     and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I 
     was in prison and you came to visit me. * * * Whatever you do 
     for the least of these, you also do for me.

  The work of Christian Solidarity International may not be well-known 
to us here, but it is well-known to the Armenians in war-torn Nagorno-
Karabakh who had their pain relieved when CSI brought desperately 
needed medical supplies to the tiny beleaguered enclave. It is well-
known to the thousands of Russian orphans who without the help of CSI 
would have been left in mental institutions devoid of hope for a 
productive future. It is well known to the suffering people in southern 
Sudan whose voice has been heard due to the constant advocacy of 
Baroness Cox and the CSI team. And it is well-known to the Karen 
Christians in Burma who, as I am speaking, are fighting for their lives 
against the military junta that is battling for control in that 
country.
  Baroness Cox responds in faith to bring hope to countless millions. 
She stands up for justice for the persecuted. In the words of Prison 
Fellowship founder Chuck Colson, ``As William Wilberforce was a voice 
for the voiceless and stood against his party and fellow 
Parliamentarians in his campaign to end the slave trade in eighteenth-
century England, so is Baroness Cox. With Christian compassion fused 
with fierce courage, Lady Cox continues to shun mere observation for 
frontline participation.'' William Wilberforce would have been proud.
Wilberforce Award Banquet--Presented by Chuck Colson, Prison Fellowship

       The following speech was given by the Baroness Caroline Cox 
     of Queensbury, Deputy Speaker of Britain's House of Lords, on 
     February 1, 1995 in Washington, DC, during the events 
     surrounding the National Prayer Breakfast, Baroness Cox was 
     honored for her courageous acts and stand for justice on 
     behalf of the suffering and oppressed people of the world. In 
     the words of Chuck Colson: ``As William Wilberforce was a 
     voice for the voiceless and stood against his party and 
     fellow Parliamentarians in his campaign to end the slave 
     trade in eighteenth-century England, so is Baroness Cox. With 
     Christian compassion fused with fierce courage, Lady Cox 
     continues to shun mere observation for frontline 
     participation.''
       Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Guests, Brothers and Sisters in 
     Christ,
       I stand before you this evening filled with deep emotions. 
     First, I feel both humble and proud to be associated with the 
     name of William Wilberforce. Wilberforce used to be described 
     as a ``shrimp''; I feel about the same size as a shrimp in 
     comparison with him and also with the distinguished 
     predecessors who have been honored with the Award in previous 
     years.
       But I am also full of gratitude for the opportunity this 
     occasion gives me to pay tribute to those in Christian 
     Solidarity International (CSI) who make my work possible and, 
     above all, I value the opportunity to honour the suffering 
     people whom it has been our privilege to be with in dark and 
     difficult days--people suffering from oppression, 
     persecution, slavery and attempted genocide.
       I would therefore like to spend some of my allotted time 
     saying a few words about the work of CSI, without whom I 
     would not be here tonight, and then to spend the rest of my 
     time honouring those people whom we try to serve, who always 
     inspire us with their courage, generosity, graciousness, 
     faith and dignity.
       CSI is an interdenominational Christian human rights 
     organization which tries to help victims of repression, 
     regardless of their colour, creed or nationality. But as 
     Christians, we have an additional concern; we are reminded of 
     St. Paul's message to the church in Corinth, that when one 
     part of the body of Christ suffers, all suffer.
       CSI's particular focus is on forgotten peoples in forgotten 
     lands; on places which do not appear on your TV screens or 
     the front pages of newspapers. We try to be with those who 
     feel--and are--forgotten by the rest of the world, including 
     often, by the rest of the Christian church.
       Many of the big humanitarian organizations have to respect 
     political constraints, in order to accomplish their work. 
     This means there are some people who are suffering in 
     repressive regimes whom they cannot help. But we are free to 
     put human rights and humanitarian need before political 
     constraints and to go where others may not. This may involve 
     some unorthodox behavior and some unofficial travel--but it 
     gives us the priceless privilege of, as the British 
     advertisement for a certain brand of lager beer claims, 
     ``Reaching those parts where others cannot reach.''
       Thus it is that CSI has made it possible for us to make 
     several visits, for example, to some of the people of 
     Southern Sudan, many of them have been cut off from other aid 
     organizations by the brutal policies of the fundamentalist 
     Islamic Government in Khartoum. The magnitude of the 
     sufferings of the Sundanese people must rank amongst the 
     greatest in the world today: with perhaps 1.5 million killed 
     and over 5 million displaced by civil war. Many Southerners 
     have been captured and enslaved by Northerners--so I believe 
     the spirit of Wilberforce would be striving for their freedom 
     as much as he strove for those who suffered as slaves in his 
     own day. Just 2 Weeks ago, CSI organized another mission to 
     people so cut off that they had absolutely no medicines; many 
     were literally starving, many were naked and
      very cold as the temperatures fall steeply at night. We took 
     medicines and we plan to return with more urgently needed 
     supplies. We were also able to take with us the exiled 
     Roman Catholic Bishop of El Obeid; I am not a Catholic, 
     but I wish you could have shared with me the happiness of 
     seeing the rejoicing of people who had not seen a Bishop 
     or been able to celebrate mass for 20 years.
       It was CSI who made it possible for me to visit the Karen 
     people of Burma last November, an ethnic minority ferociously 
     persecuted by the SLORC regime. Many have been forced into 
     slave labour, others live as stateless, displaced people, 
     trapped in the jungle. Recently, the SLORC Regime has stepped 
     up its military offensive against the Karen, forcing tens of 
     thousands more to flee as refugees to Thailand, and trapping 
     many more behind their own lines, where capture will mean a 
     fate worse than death.
       It was CSI which reached the Armenian people in January 
     1992, when they were blockaded, besieged, bombarded in their 
     ancient homeland of Nagorno Karabakh, a beautiful part of 
     historic Armenia cruelly relocated by Stalin as an Isolated 
     enclave in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has adopted an explicit 
     policy of ethnic cleansing of the Armenians from Karabakh. 
     Karabakh is a beautiful land with some of the most ancient 
     Christian churches in the world, the Armenians being the 
     first nation to accept Christianity. The Armenians who live 
     there have been fighting for the survival of their families, 
     homes, homeland and their--and our--Christian heritage. It 
     has been a battle against impossible odds, like David and 
     Goliath. 150,000 Armenians are defending their land against 7 
     million-strong Azerbaijan, helped by Turkey and literally 
     thousands of mujahadeen mercenaries. In that bitter January, 
     we found the besieged and blockaded Armenians suffering 
     casualties caused by constant bombardment, without any 
     anesthetics or pain-killing drugs, with only vodka to try to 
     relieve the suffering. Returning to Britain, I could not 
     sleep thinking about their predicament; and it was CSI which, 
     without the requisite money, responded in faith and enabled 
     us to obtain supplies of morphine, cocaine powder (for 
     [[Page E386]] eye injuries), omnopon and fentanyl. The 
     challenge of taking this consignment of drugs, street value 
     incalculable, across Europe to the depths of Karabakh was 
     rather daunting. God sometimes asks us to do strange things: 
     I had to turn myself into an unofficial drug runner! But we 
     were able to return to Karabakh within 12 days with those 
     desperately needed supplies. If anyone would like to know how 
     we did it, I am prepared to tell you the secret, for a 
     contribution to our next consignment to Karabakh-- our 24th--
     when we will be taking a team of Christian volunteers to 
     build a rehabilitation center for amputees, because there are 
     no facilities for artificial limbs in Karabakh, for the 
     hundreds of people, including children, with amputations 
     caused by the war.
       And it was CSI which reached another, different kind of 
     forgotten people: orphans suffering in the Soviet Union. 
     During a Human Rights Conference in Leningrad in 1990, newly 
     elected Russian Deputies asked us to investigate the plight 
     of children taken into care, whom they suspected were 
     incorrectly diagnosed as mentally handicapped or 
     ``oligophrenic''. Once classified, they were shut away in 
     special orphanages, deprived of a proper education, often 
     abused physically and by drugs. As they grew up, they were 
     denied all basic human rights, could not vote or drive, and 
     were forced to work in conditions which were, in effect, 
     slave labour.
       Children who resisted or ran away were sent to psychiatric 
     hospitals, where they were often subjected to torture by 
     drugs. I visited some of these children and returned to 
     Britain full of anguish. Many seemed to be bright, able 
     youngsters, but doomed to lives without hope. I will never 
     forget the pale, haunted faces of Serge and Dmitri, two 
     articulate 14-year-old boys in a grim psychiatric hospital, 
     not mentally ill, but tanked-up with drugs and Dmitri's 
     heart-breaking plea, `Please will you find me a mother? I 
     want to get out of here!''
       It was CSI who again reacted in faith and responded to a 
     request from Russian colleagues who were deeply worried about 
     the situation, by funding a visit by a multidisciplinary team 
     to undertake research in orphanages in Moscow and St. 
     Petersburg. The findings shook the system; over \2/3\ of 
     those classified and treated as ``oligophrenic'' were of 
     average or above average mental ability. We published the 
     findings in a report called ``Trajectories of Despair: 
     Misdiagnosis and Maltreatment of Soviet Orphans.'' This has 
     since been translated into Russian and is serving as a basis 
     for policy reform. Many children previously classified as 
     oligophrenic have now been reclassified and can lead normal 
     lives. We are also trying to establish projects in Moscow, 
     with Russian colleagues, to help change the
      policy of child care throughout the Russian Federation.
       So I would like to emphasize that I am honored to receive 
     this award, not for myself, but on behalf of CSI. I was 
     recently reading a biography of William Wilberforce and was 
     struck by this sentence: ``The man who resembled a shrimp . . 
     . had shown the world that a righteous cause, coupled with 
     determination and motivated by faith in a loving God, can 
     produce miracles.'' (He Freed Britain's Slaves', Charles 
     Ludwig, p. 203.)
       We in CSI always feel so inadequate; we are inadequate. But 
     we hope God can use our efforts. I remember on my way into 
     Burma, I was feeling acutely depressed as I thought, ``What 
     on earth can we do with our meager resources to begin to help 
     the Karen people with their massive problems?'' Then in my 
     morning Bible reading I found the message in Second Kings 
     4:42-44, the Old Testament forerunner of the parable of the 
     loaves and the fishes. A man with 20 loaves of bakery barley 
     bread was told by Elisha to distribute them to feed a crowd 
     of 100 hungry people. In a crisis of confidence, he asked 
     what use they could be among so many; but Elisha replied, 
     ``Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord 
     says: They will eat and have some left over.'' And indeed 
     they did eat and some left over. That message was a comfort. 
     We in CSI hope that God can use our pathetic, meager 
     resources in ways we cannot understand. At times it seems 
     that the message on a notepad given me by my daughter could 
     be our motto, ``I do not believe in miracles, I rely on 
     them.''
       Before I conclude, I wish to pay especial tribute to those 
     whom we have been privileged to meet and to be with in their 
     dark and difficult days. I wish I had longer to tell you 
     about their courage, generosity, graciousness and dignity. A 
     few examples must speak for many more.
       Come with me to Southern Sudan, where the people are dying 
     around us from starvation and disease; those who are still 
     alive are suffering from hunger, thirst, nakedness and the 
     constant fear of attack and enslavement. But despite their 
     suffering, they still smile with the famous Sudanese smile. 
     Join me as the Bishop speaks to his people at mass in what 
     they called their ``cathedral'' under a tamarind tree:

       ``This most beautiful cathedral, not built with human 
     hands, but by nature and by God, is filled with the people of 
     God, and especially with children.
       ``We must tell our brothers and sisters that the people 
     here are still full of hope and that they still smile in 
     spite of suffering and persecution.
       ``Those smiles put us to shame. Your people have suffered 
     slavery, but you are not slaves to the world but children of 
     God, our God who has told us we can call Him ``Abba'' or 
     ``Father''. Christianity gives us liberty; therefore we are 
     no longer slaves but free: children of liberty, freedom and 
     truth. But we live in a bad world. Many of your people have 
     been sold into slavery. But for me that is not to become a 
     slave. Slavery is not a matter of the colour of the skin. The 
     real slave is a person who lives in sin; who does injustice 
     to brothers and sisters; and who kills them. That person is a 
     slave to sin.
       ``Some people feel naked because they have no clothes and 
     they try to cover themselves because of their embarrassment. 
     But this is not real nakedness. True nakedness is to be 
     without love. Therefore to be clothed in love: this is 
     Christianity. It is not a shirt that you can take on or take 
     off; but to wear the faith and love of the Christian faith is 
     as a way of life and witness to it, even to those who do not 
     believe in Christ.
       ``So as we go away, do not think we leave you or forget 
     you. There are still many good people in the world and you 
     will be remembered as people who are closest to God because 
     you are carrying the cross, every day obeying Christ's 
     command to take up His cross and to follow Him. We will pray 
     for you. But prayer without action is dead, as faith without 
     deed is dead. Our love will be in action for you. I came, 
     saw, heard, touched, and I am enriched.''

       Now please come for a brief glimpse of the Christian church 
     amongst the persecuted Karen people of Burma. Just one image: 
     I and my CSI colleagues (a splendidly interdenominational 
     mixture of Pentecostal, Evangelical, Russian Orthodox and 
     myself (Anglican `Unorthodox'), went to worship at the 
     nearest church in the jungle--a Baptist
      church. A Bell was sounding out--a bell made from a Burmese 
     bomb. A modern-day symbol: instead of swords into 
     ploughshares, bombs into bells. But sadly, now, the bombs 
     are raining down on the Karen and they need our prayers as 
     many suffer the afflictions of war, or as slaves inside 
     Burman, or as refugees in Thailand.
       Finally, our Armenian Christian brothers and sisters in 
     Karabakh. Those who have heard me speak before will have 
     heard examples of their faith and their witness to a love 
     which transcends suffering. I only have time for one 
     vignette. At the beginning of the process of attempted ethnic 
     cleansing, Azerbaijan undertook a series of deportations of 
     entire villages. They were brutal operations, in which 
     innocent villagers were rounded up, many were maltreated, 
     some murdered; homes were ransacked; then the people were 
     forcibly driven off their land, unable to take anything with 
     them. After one of these terrible events, at Getashen, a 
     farmer managed to escape into the mountains. On top of a hill 
     there he saw a fruit tree in blossom and looked for solace 
     under this tree; only to find as he approached the tree a 
     little five year old girl hanging from its branches, her tiny 
     body cut in two. As he looked upon the little girl, he swore 
     revenge. Two years later, he and his comrades had the 
     opportunity to take back an Armenian village taken by the 
     Azeris. He now had the opportunity for revenge. With tears 
     steaming down his face, he told me: ``But I couldn't make 
     myself harm a child--I failed and was unable to keep my 
     vow.'' I replied, your reward will be crown of glory. He in 
     turn replied, ``That crown we wear is a crown of thorns.''
       Those whom we are privileged to meet during CSI's ministry 
     are indeed wearing their crown of thorns with great dignity. 
     They suffer from man's inhumanity to man, like those for whom 
     William Wilberforce felt so deeply and for whom he fought so 
     valiantly. These words of the Bishop of Karabakh speak for 
     them all, with their affirmation of faith, their challenge to 
     us, and their magnificent, resounding commitment to that love 
     which must be the hallmark of Christian faith and witness:
       ``The help of God is great and immeasurable when the human 
     heart turns to Him with fervour. Our nation has again begun 
     to find its faith and is praying in churches, cellars and in 
     the field of battle, defending its life and the life of those 
     who are near and dear. It is not only the perpetrators of 
     crime and evil who commit sin, but also those who stand by--
     seeing and knowing--and who do not condemn it or try to avert 
     it. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons 
     of God. We do not hate: we believe in God. If we want God's 
     victory, we must love. Even if there are demonic forces at 
     work, not only in this conflict, but in other parts of the 
     world, we must still love.''
       So, I finish by thanking you for the great honour you have 
     given me, and for the opportunity to honour others who carry 
     forward the spirit of William Wilberforce. May I leave you 
     some lines by John Harriott, SJ, quoted by Max Warren in an 
     article in ``New Fire'' (Winter, 1975, p. 453):
       Let us open the clenched fish and extend the open palm.
       Let us mourn till others are comforted, weep till others 
     laugh.
       Let us be sleepless till all can sleep untroubled.
       Let us be frugal till all are filled.
       Let us give till all have received.
       Let us make no claim till all have had their due.
       Let us be slaves till all are free.
       Let us lay down our lives till all have life abundantly.


       

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