[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 113 (Monday, July 29, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H8620-H8621]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         WAR CRIMES ACT OF 1996

  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass 
the bill (H.R. 3680) to amend title 18, United States Code, to carry 
out the international obligations of the United States under the Geneva 
Conventions to provide criminal penalties for certain war crimes.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 3680

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``War Crimes Act of 1996''.

     SEC. 2. CRIMINAL PENALTIES FOR CERTAIN WAR CRIMES.

       (a) In General.--Title 18, United States Code, is amended 
     by inserting after chapter 117 the following:

                       ``CHAPTER 118--WAR CRIMES

``Sec.
``2401. War crimes.

     ``Sec. 2401. War crimes

       ``(a) Offense.--Whoever, whether inside or outside the 
     United States, commits a grave breach of the Geneva 
     Conventions, in any of the circumstances described in 
     subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned 
     for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results 
     to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death.
       ``(b) Circumstances.--The circumstances referred to in 
     subsection (a) are that the person committing such breach or 
     the victim of such breach is a member of the armed forces of 
     the United States or a national of the United States (as 
     defined in section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality 
     Act).
       ``(c) Definitions.--As used in this section, the term 
     `grave breach of the Geneva Conventions' means conduct 
     defined as a grave breach in any of the international 
     conventions relating to the laws of warfare signed at Geneva 
     12 August 1949 or any protocol to any such convention, to 
     which the United States is a party.''
       (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of chapters for part I 
     of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting 
     after the item relating to chapter 117 the following new 
     item:

``118. War crimes...........................................2401''.....

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Texas [Mr. Smith] and the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Scott] each will 
control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Smith].


                             General Leave

  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks 
on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Texas?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3680 is designed to implement the Geneva 
conventions for the protection of victims of war. Our colleague, the 
gentleman from North Carolina, Walter Jones, should be commended for 
introducing this bill and for his dedication to such a worthy goal.

                              {time}  1445

  Mr. Speaker, the Geneva Conventions of 1949 codified rules of conduct 
for military forces to which we have long adhered. In 1955 Deputy Under 
Secretary of State Robert Murphy testified to the Senate that--

       The Geneva Conventions are another long step forward 
     towards mitigating the severity of war on its helpless 
     victims. They reflect enlightened practices as carried out by 
     the United States and other civilized countries, and they 
     represent largely what the United States would do, whether or 
     not a party to the Conventions. Our own conduct has served to 
     establish higher standards and we can only benefit by having 
     them incorporated in a stronger body of wartime law.

  Mr. Speaker, the United States ratified the Conventions in 1955. 
However, Congress has never passed implementing legislation.
  The Conventions state that signatory countries are to enact penal 
legislation punishing what are called grave breaches, actions such as 
the deliberate killing of prisoners of war, the subjecting of prisoners 
to biological experiments, the willful infliction of great suffering or 
serious injury on civilians in occupied territory.
  While offenses covering grave breaches can in certain instances be 
prosecutable under present Federal law, even if they occur overseas, 
there are a great number of instances in which no prosecution is 
possible. Such nonprosecutable crimes might include situations where 
American prisoners of war are killed, or forced to serve in the Army of 
their captors, or American doctors on missions of mercy in foreign war 
zones are kidnapped or murdered. War crimes are not a thing of the 
past, and Americans can all too easily fall victim to them.
  H.R. 3680 was introduced in order to implement the Geneva 
Conventions. It prescribes severe criminal penalties for anyone 
convicted of committing, whether inside or outside the United States, a 
grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, where the victim or the 
perpetrator is a member of our Armed Forces. In future conflicts H.R. 
3680 may very well deter acts against Americans that violate the laws 
of war.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I 
reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. SCOTT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman from Texas has fully explained, H.R. 
3680 implements this country's international

[[Page H8621]]

obligation under the Geneva Convention which were ratified by the 
United States in 1955 to protect the victims of war by providing 
criminal penalties for certain war crimes. Mr. Speaker, this has never 
been formally enacted by statute, and the bill accomplishes this 
oversight.
  Mr. Speaker, I will not be supporting the legislation because it 
contains a new provision for the death penalty, but I can say that the 
bill enjoys broad-based support on this side of the aisle.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the gentleman 
from Virginia, for his comments, and I yield such time as he may 
consume to the gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. Walter Jones, my 
colleague and friend, and the author of the legislation we are 
discussing right now.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding 
time to me.
  Before I begin, I want to take a moment to thank Chairman Smith and 
his subcommittee counsel, George Fishman, for their hard work and 
efforts to bring this important legislation to the floor today for 
consideration.
  Mr. Speaker, now more than ever, we are sending our men and women to 
serve in hostile lands, and the specter of war crimes, looms over 
almost every U.S. military action abroad. As a member of the House 
National Security Committee, we have the responsibility of providing 
these service men and women with the best training and equipment 
available.
  But this Congress should not stop there. We must ensure that we also 
protect the rights of all Americans who are defending the interests of 
our country abroad.
  While it is difficult to believe, in the absence of a military 
commission or an international criminal tribunal, the United States 
currently has no means, by which we can try and prosecute perpetrators 
of war crimes in our courts. The Geneva Convention of 1949 granted the 
authority to prosecute individuals for committing ``grave breaches'' of 
the Geneva Convention, however, the authority was not self-enacting. 
The Geneva Convention directed each of the participating countries to 
enact implementing legislation. The United States never did.
  Today, it would be possible, to find a known war criminal vacationing 
in our country, unconcerned with being punished for his crime. A 
modern-day Adolf Hitler, could move to the United States without worry, 
as he could not be found guilty in our courts of committing a war 
crime. We could extradite him or deport him, but we could not try him 
in America as a war criminal.
  It is for these reasons that I have introduced H.R. 3680, the War 
Crimes Act of 1996. H.R. 3680 will give the United States the legal 
authority to try and prosecute the perpetrators of war crimes against 
American citizens. Additionally, those Americans prosecuted will have 
available all the procedural protections of the American justice 
system.
  I drafted this bill late last year, shortly after I met a gentleman 
by the name of Capt. Mike Cronin who spent time as an uninvited guest 
of the ``Hanoi Hilton.'' While serving in Vietnam as an A-6 pilot, Mr. 
Cronin was shot down and taken prisoner of war. For 6 years he lived in 
a cage. When he returned, he realized that while he and many others had 
witnessed war crimes being committed, no justice could be found within 
the U.S. court system because we had not yet enacted implementing 
legislation of the Geneva Convention.
  It is for Mike Cronin, and the many others like him who were 
persecuted, that I have fought to bring this legislation to the floor 
today. While the bill is not retroactive, it can ensure that any future 
victims of war crimes will be given the protection of the U.S. courts. 
This is a strong bipartisan bill, which will rectify the existing 
discrepancy between our Nation's intolerance for war crimes and our 
inability to prosecute war criminals.
  Once again, I would like to thank this body, Chairman Smith, Chairman 
Hyde, and Ranking Member Conyers for their support. Passage of the War 
Crimes Act of 1996 is a long overdue step in the right direction.
  Mr. SCOTT. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, 
and I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Calvert). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Smith] that the House suspend 
the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3680.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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