[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 54 (Thursday, March 23, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S4518]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                         THE NATION OF BELARUS

 Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, I rise today to express my 
continued support for the nation of Belarus and its citizens on the 
upcoming 77th anniversary of the creation of their great country.
  On March 25, 1918, in the final months of World War I, the nation of 
Belarus was founded. Shortly after the war ended, the Red Army of the 
Soviet Union seized Belarus, beginning Belarus' long hard battle 
against Soviet communism. During World War II 25 percent of Belarus' 
population was obliterated while fighting the Axis Powers of Germany 
and Italy. Untold numbers died at the hands of the Soviets as well.
  For over 70 years the Belarusan people were forced to live under the 
iron fist of Communist rule. The Communist-led Soviet Union held no 
regard for the lives of any of its citizens, and the brutal Soviet 
dictators routinely incarcerated or shot anyone not conforming to their 
rule.
  Then in 1990 the years of enslavement for Belarus came to an end as 
Belarusan freedom fighters issued a declaration of sovereignty, 
detailing their goal to become a neutral, nonnuclear state. On December 
25, 1991, the United States recognized independent Belarus as a 
sovereign nation, allowing the people of Belarus to hold their heads 
high once again.
  The end of one exhausting journey signifies the beginning of another. 
The people of Belarus must now fight to maintain their right to liberty 
and territorial sovereignty. Extremists within the current Russian 
regime are once again attempting to control Belarus through unfair 
economic and military treaties. This attempt to destroy the natural 
rights of the people of Belarus, a people who fought and overcame one 
of the most oppressive regimes in the history of man, must not be 
allowed to occur.
  Mr. President, I want the Belarusan people, both in Belarus and here 
in the United States of America to know that I stand with them in their 
fight to maintain the right to freedom and self-determination that was 
denied them for so long.


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