[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 141 (Tuesday, September 12, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1757]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E 1757]]


                         TRAGEDIES IN CHECHNYA

                                 ______


                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, September 12, 1995
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, while this House was in recess, 
the world learned of a tragic loss. Fred Cuny, disaster relief expert, 
pioneer in modern humanitarian assistance, and American citizen, is now 
presumed by his family to have been murdered in Chechnya. He had 
vanished there some 5 months ago, along with a Russian translator, 
Galena Oleinik, and two Red Cross doctors, Andrei Sereda and Sergei 
Makarov, who had come with him. Their deaths are all the more tragic 
because they were in Chechnya not to help one side or another, but to 
assess the needs of innocent refugees, Chechen and Russian, driven from 
their homes by the conflict.
  The facts of this tragedy are not entirely clear. According to 
information received by the Cuny family, it appears that Fred Cuny and 
his associates were killed by a group of Chechens, but there is 
evidence that Russian authorities in Chechnya may have had a hand in 
the killings. During the course of an investigation into his death, the 
Cuny family took written and spoken testimony that Russian intelligence 
operatives had spread disinformation about the group, alleging that 
Cuny's team was anti-Chechen and associated with the Russian secret 
service. Whether this effort was intended to discredit the team, or had 
more sinister motives, is immaterial. If true, it is an example of the 
callous disregard Russia has shown toward the fat of noncombatants in 
Chechnya, including those who are trying to alleviate human suffering.
  Mr. Speaker, Fred Cuny cared passionately about human rights. After 
his first visit to Chechnya, he wrote an article entitled ``Killing 
Chechnya'' for the New York Review of Books, in which he documented the 
indiscriminate bombing and shelling of residential areas by the Russian 
Army, a barrage that left both Chechen and Russian civilians dead by 
the thousands and homeless by the tens of thousands. Just before he 
departed for his fateful second trip, he met with the staff of the 
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, of which I have the 
honor to serve as chairman, recounting the willful disregard for human 
life that he had found in Chechnya. His words from that meeting about 
the innocent civilians caught up in the fighting--``they're dying like 
flies''--were marked by both frustration and compassion. I would add 
also that Fred Cuny also testified before the Commission earlier with 
regard to his humanitarian efforts in the former Yugoslavia and the 
human suffering in that corner of Europe.
  Fred Cuny's concern for human rights abuses carried him all over the 
world, often at the behest of his country's political and military 
leaders, who many times--most recently, during and after the gulf war, 
and in the former Yugoslavia--employed him as a consultant. The company 
he founded, Intertect Relief and Reconstruction Agency, was devoted to 
finding solutions to humanitarian disaster--solutions that set a new 
precedent for excellence and long-range planning in the field of 
disaster relief. He saved tens of thousands of lives, traveling to some 
of the most dangerous corners of the world, often at enormous personal 
risk.
  Mr. Speaker, I have spoken out strongly against the brutality of the 
war in Chechnya, and its corrosive and potentially destructive effect 
upon the prospect of Russian democracy. I have joined with the 
international community in calling for a cease-fire in Chechnya. One 
month ago, that call was answered. The efforts of the Russians and 
Chechens in establishing and holding to a cease-fire agreement should 
not be overlooked. But neither should the murders of Fred Cuny and his 
team, and neither should Russian and Chechen responsibility for the 
killings, if any exists.
  In his compassion, courage, and ingenuity, Fred Cuny embodied so much 
that we hold valuable in the American spirit. But the deaths of that 
relief team remind us that the horrors against which he had spent his 
life fighting--the slaughter of innocent civilians, the deprivation of 
even the most basic human rights, such as food and shelter, from an 
entire town, the persecution of humanitarian workers--are the tools of 
those who would rule by repression, force, and fear.
  Mr. Speaker, I offer my condolences to the Cuny family, and to the 
families of those who died with him. I hope that Fred Cuny will be 
remembered for his good work, immense courage, and for his honorable 
death. And, I call on both sides, Chechen and Russian, to use the 
current cease-fire to expose and bring to justice those responsible for 
this reprehensible act.


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