[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 172 (Thursday, November 2, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2109-E2111]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO SIMON PELMAN

                                 ______


                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, November 2, 1995

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, as each of us moves down the roadway of life 
to our golden years, it is comforting to know that there are caregivers 
and service providers who specialize in attending to the needs of the 
senior population. Simon Pelman is such a person.
  For over 20 years, he has devoted his time, talents and energy to 
bettering the lives of the elderly. He has been instrumental in raising 
the standards of care in nursing homes throughout the State of New 
York. Beginning with Greenpark Care Center, a 400-bed long-term care 
facility, Simon has always endeavored to care for his elderly clients 
with the utmost of devotion and respect. His zeal to be efficient and 
considerate is clearly evidenced by his pursuit of two master's degrees 
in geriatrics. As a matter of fact, he has also received prestigious 
quality of life awards for his service.
  Very active politically, Simon has utilized his abilities to assist 
people in the community, particularly as the district representative on 
the legislative committee of the New York State Health Facilities 
Association. He is also very active in promoting the needs of the 
learning disabled, and has been recognized by the board of education. I 
am delighted to salute Mr. Pelman for his impressive and important 
work.

[[Page E 2110]]


           ERITREA RAISES ITS FLAG IN WASHINGTON, DC TOMORROW

                                 ______


                            HON. DAN BURTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, November 2, 1995

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the Embassy of the State 
of Eritrea will raise its flag in Washington, DC, for the first time. 
This is a momentous occasion. The Eritrean people won their long 
struggle for freedom in 1991, and declared independence in 1993, after 
a referendum.
  The people of Eritrea have earned the admiration of the entire world 
for their perseverance, commitment, and dedication. They are an 
inspiration to us all, and it is an honor for our country to have the 
Eritrean flag flying in our Capital. I would like to salute President 
Issaias Afwerki, Foreign Minister Petros Solomon, Ambassador Amdemicael 
Kahsai, and the entire Eritrean nation on this happy day.
  I commend to the attention of my colleagues an article in the 
Washington Times based on an interview with President Issaias. In it, 
he boldly calls for increasing self-sufficiency and development of 
resources in Africa, and emphasizes the limited utility and 
effectiveness of foreign aid. I hope that we can all pay close 
attention to these wise words.
  I also wish to highlight the recent cooperation in the medical field 
between Eritrea and Israel as reported in Eritrea Profile. The health 
minister of Israel, Dr. Ephraim Sneh, recently visited Eritrea and 
signed an agreement to provide incubators for Eritrean hospitals. 
Israel has an exemplary recorded of International cooperation and I 
hope that this particular relationship is able to expand.
  Finally, I wish to insert into the Record an article from the 
Economist about the problem of Sudanese subversion in the Horn of 
Africa, and Eritrea's courageous response.

              [From the Washington Times, Sept. 25, 1995]

         Struggling Eritrea Agrees U.S. Should Cut Foreign Aid

                           (By Terry Leonard)

       Asmara, Eritrea.--U.S. lawmakers intent on cutting foreign 
     aid have unlikely allies in this small, poor nation that 
     receives more of it per person than any other country in 
     Africa.
       ``Aid is used and abused, so why not cut it?'' President 
     Isaias Afewerki said in an interview. ``We favor the new 
     American approach to reconsider aid.''
       He said the country must not depend on aid to survive. ``If 
     we here have faith in foreign aid as the maker and breaker of 
     Eritrea, then that is the end of Eritrea.''
       Eritrea, Africa's newest country, is determined to avoid 
     the same trap that has mired so many African nations in debt 
     and dependence on foreign handouts.
       ``We believe we need aid. But we don't believe aid can 
     solve our problems,'' Mr. Afewerki said.
       The country desperately needs help as it emerges from 30 
     years of devastating war that finally brought independence 
     from Ethiopia in 1993. But Mr. Afewerki and other government 
     leaders say they would like to see aid limited to projects 
     that promote development and not rely on handouts.
       ``The effective use of aid is to free society from any 
     dependence on outside sources,'' the president said.
       Eritrea was the most industrialized country in Africa 
     before war took its toll. Now the economy and the 
     infrastructure are in shambles. Average life expectancy is 46 
     years. Annual per capita income is less than $150.
       Two-thirds of Eritrea's 3 million people rely on food aid. 
     Although most citizens make their living from agriculture, 
     only 25 percent of the land is arable, and only about 10 
     percent of that is under cultivation.
       This year, the U.S. government has promised Eritrea $13.2 
     million in development aid and $6.2 million in direct food 
     aid. Under expected reductions for next year, development 
     assistance is to fall to $9.6 million and direct food aid to 
     just over $4 million.
       Saleh Meky, Eritrea's U.S.-educated minister of marine 
     resources, said he does not believe Eritrea will suffer from 
     the reduction.
       He said the United States is giving his ministry computers 
     and teaching his people how to use them to determine the 
     sustainable yield from Eritrea's bountiful fishing grounds in 
     the Red Sea. They were virtually untouched during the three 
     decades of war.
       America provides up to 30 percent of Eritrea's food aid and 
     is spending $2.3 million to help analyze food security 
     problems and develop strategies to solve them.
       Overall, American contributions amount to only about 5 
     percent of the total bilateral aid to Eritrea, officials 
     said.
       U.S. aid is improving the woefully inadequate primary 
     health care system in an effort to make the work force 
     healthier and more productive. Washington proposes to spend 
     $3.7 million on that project next year and on support for 
     family planning. The birthrate here of 6.8 children per woman 
     threatens to double the population in 23 years.
       The United States also intends to spend $1.5 million 
     helping the government transform the state-controlled economy 
     into one dominated by private business.
       Although U.S. lawmakers are still wrangling over which 
     programs will be eliminated or reduced, reductions to all aid 
     programs are expected to average more than 30 percent.
       Eritrean, officials have not said how they intend to make 
     up the difference except that they want to become self-
     reliant.
       ``We get lots of offers of technical aid. Experts of all 
     sorts, many of which have no use,'' said Nerayo Teklemichael, 
     director of the Eritrean Relief and Rehabilitation Agency. 
     ``We need projects that eventually will make us self-reliant 
     in food. We must have more food, and we must cultivate more 
     land for food.''
                                                                    ____


                  President Receives Israeli Minister

       President Isaias Afwerki yesterday held talks with Israeli 
     Minister of Health, Dr. Ephraim Sneh, who is on a working 
     visit to Eritrea. During the meeting, the President and Mr. 
     Sneh said both sides will work towards developing Eritrean-
     Israeli cooperation in the health sector.
       On August 10, the Israeli Minister handed over, on behalf 
     of his ministry, two modern incubators donated to the 
     maternity section of Asmara's Mekane Hiwot Hospital. He also 
     visited different sections of the hospital. The director of 
     the Maternity Section of the hospital, Dr. Abdu Mahmoud Taha, 
     said the donation will facilitate the work of the section, 
     besides easing the shortage of equipment. An average of 15 
     mothers are admitted to the maternity section a day, while 25 
     others are examined in the clinic under its administration.
       Dr. Sneh arrived in Asmara on Thursday.
                                                                    ____


                  [From the Economist, Oct. 14, 1995]

                         We Won't Take Any More

       Eritrea has at last lost patience with the Islamist 
     government in Sudan. Relations between the 2\1/2\-year-old 
     state and its far larger neighbour have worsened rapidly this 
     year. Now President Issaias Afwerki has told The Economist 
     flatly: ``We are out to see that this government is not there 
     any more. We are not trying to pressure them to talk to us, 
     or to behave in a more constructive way. We will give weapons 
     to anyone committed to overthrowing them.''
       Bold words, maybe rash ones, you might think, from a much 
     smaller country. So why, exactly? Mr. Issaias accuses the 
     Sudanese of trying to destabilize the whole region. They 
     stand widely accused of trying to murder Egypt's president, 
     Hosni Mubarak, while he was visiting Ethiopia in June this 
     year for an Organisation of African Unity meeting. Mr. 
     Issaias says they have kept fighting going in Somalia, by 
     backing certain factions. And Eritrea itself is vulnerable. 
     Its populations is almost evenly divided between Christians 
     and Muslims. In fighting to break free from Ethiopia, the 
     Eritreans overcame these differences. But with 450,000 
     Eritreans still refugees in Sudan, the government fears 
     infiltration of armed fundamentalists across its western 
     border.
       Relations have not always been bad. Mr. Issaias's Eritrean 
     People's Liberation Front used Sudan as a rear base in its 
     long struggle for independence. It had a political office in 
     Khartoum, and used Port Sudan for bringing in supplies. It 
     worked closely with certain Sudanese officers; one of them, 
     Abdul Aziz Khalid, now in opposition to his own government, 
     is active these days in Sudanese opposition circles in 
     Eritrea. And in his early months of power the Eritrean 
     president thought he could handle the men in Khartoum through 
     diplomacy.
       Now, says Mr. Issaias, he regrets the time wasted in trying 
     to talk to them: ``We have tried to develop some kind of 
     partnership. But our goodwill has been abused. We have done 
     enough, and it's not going to work.'' Late last year Eritrea 
     cut diplomatic ties, and in June it publicly hosted a meeting 
     of all Sudanese opposition movements under the umbrella of 
     the (Sudanese) National Democratic Alliance, which has been 
     allowed to broadcast calls for revolt from a radio station in 
     Eritrea.
       Who will he arm and with what? Mr. Issaias isn't saying. 
     Possible recipients of his bounty include the northern 
     political parties, now banned in Sudan, as well as the Sudan 
     People's Liberation Army, a mainly southern movement which 
     has been riven by splits and defections in the past three 
     years. ``But we won't give weapons to factions,'' he says. In 
     arming these diverse groups, he is anxious that they do not 
     use his weaponry on each other. He is insisting on a unified 
     political stand. The June meeting of the Sudanese opposition 
     committed all groups--at least in words--to a referendum on 
     self-determination for the south of their country.
       Until now Sudan's neighbours have tried to engage its 
     government in dialogue and bind it into agreements. But, they 
     claim, the regime seems determined to press ahead, spreading 
     its version of Islam throughout the region. There were 
     several attacks on government posts in western Eritrea last 
     year, which were assumed to have been instigated by Sudan. 
     There is also strong evidence that a rebel movement in 
     northern Uganda has recently been armed by the Sudanese. 
     President Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia recently claimed to have 
     evidence that Sudan's security forces had a hand in the 
     attempt to kill Mr. Mubarak; Ethiopia is demanding the 
     extradition of three men whom it believes to have been 
     directly involved. Of Sudan's eastern neighbours, Kenya 
     remains on speaking terms, but even in Nairobi there are 
     doubts about trying to contain Khartoum's ambitions by 
     talking.

[[Page E 2111]]

       Could the Eritreans' open readiness to arm the Sudanese 
     opposition lead to war? It seems unlikely. The two countries' 
     border runs through remote, difficult terrain. And though 
     Eritrea is small, it evidently does not fear open attack. It 
     has an experienced fighting force and plenty of weapons left 
     over from its war of independence.
       As to Sudan, what could worry it more is the risk that 
     Ethiopia might follow the Eritrean example. A cease-fire in 
     Sudan's south has held for six months now, but with the onset 
     of the dry season few expect it to last much longer. If the 
     southern rebels and other groups could operate across the 
     whole of Sudan's eastern border, the regime would be in real 
     trouble.