[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 40 (Tuesday, April 8, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H1331]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



           THE STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM IN BURMA AND AFGHANISTAN

  (Mr. ROHRABACHER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I have been involved with many various 
groups of people who are struggling for their freedom in different 
parts of the world. Tonight, I would like to mention two of them. One 
is the people of Burma. The people of Burma are still under the heels 
of a despotic regime. Let me note that those people in Burma are led by 
a nobel laureate named Aung San Suu Kyi. Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the 
true heroes of our day. I would hope that as the American people hear 
about the issue of patents, which I just described, that they will 
realize that there are some people, no matter how brutal a regime, that 
are still willing to trade and do business with countries and 
governments like that in Burma. That government and the Burmese people 
are separated by a wide difference in the sense that one is the 
oppressed and one is the oppressor.
  We set our policies, and as Americans we should always be identifying 
with the people who are the oppressed people and not those people who 
are the oppressors. This is important for our trade policies as well as 
our personal and political policies.
  The other country I would like to mention is Afghanistan, where the 
Taliban movement is in control of three-quarters of the country. There 
is a king of Afghanistan in exile in Italy today who could and offers a 
positive alternative to the chaos and somewhat repressive nature of 
those individuals or other individuals seeking power in Afghanistan. I 
would hope that the people of Afghanistan can someday free themselves 
from the tyranny of chaos that has gripped them since the Russians 
invaded their country back in 1979-80.
  So tonight, as part of my message, I would hope that people in Burma 
and the people of Afghanistan who have struggled so long and hard for 
their liberty understand that while we are here on the House floor 
debating issues like the patent law and other laws that really impact 
us greatly in the United States of America, that we also understand 
that America is a shining light of hope for the people of the world, 
whether they are oppressed people in Burma or in Afghanistan or 
elsewhere, and that in Afghanistan, where there is a chance for the 
king to bring about a new era, that the United States Government backs 
him and helps to end the cold war which was put to an end by the 
strength and freedom of the Afghan people.

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