[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 108 (Monday, July 28, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H5840-H5843]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   CONCERNING THE CRISIS IN CAMBODIA

  Mr. KIM. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the 
resolution (H. Res. 195) concerning the crisis in Cambodia, as amended.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                              H. Res. 195

       Whereas during the 1970s and 1980s Cambodia was wracked by 
     political conflict, civil war, foreign invasion, protracted 
     violence, and a genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge from 
     1975 to 1979;
       Whereas the Paris Agreement on a Comprehensive Political 
     Settlement of the Cambodia Conflict led to the end of 2 
     decades of civil war and genocide in Cambodia, demonstrated 
     the commitment of the Cambodian people to democracy and 
     stability, and established a national constitution 
     guaranteeing fundamental human rights;
       Whereas the 1991 Paris Peace Accords set the stage for a 
     process of political accommodation, national reconciliation, 
     and the founding of a state based on democratic principles;
       Whereas the international donor community contributed more 
     than $3,000,000,000 in an effort to secure peace, democracy, 
     and stability in Cambodia following the Paris Peace Accords 
     and currently provides over 40 percent of the budget of the 
     Cambodian Government;
       Whereas the Cambodian people clearly demonstrated their 
     support of democracy when over 93 percent of eligible 
     Cambodian voters participated in United Nations sponsored 
     elections in 1993;
       Whereas since the 1993 elections, Cambodia has made 
     significant progress, as evidenced by the decision last month 
     of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to extend 
     membership to Cambodia;
       Whereas notwithstanding the notable societal and economic 
     progress since the elections of 1993, concern has 
     increasingly been raised regarding the fragile state of 
     democracy in Cambodia, in particular the quality of the 
     judicial system, which has been described in a United Nations 
     report as thoroughly corrupt; unsolved attacks in 1995 on 
     officials of the Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party; and the 
     unsolved murders of journalists and political activists;
       Whereas tensions within the Cambodian Government have 
     erupted into violence in recent months;
       Whereas on March 30, 1997, 19 Cambodians were killed and 
     more than 100 were wounded in a grenade attack on a peaceful 
     political demonstration in Phnom Penh;
       Whereas preliminary reports by eyewitnesses and reports in 
     Phnom Penh to the FBI of witness intimidation indicate that 
     forces loyal to Hun Sen were involved in the March 30, 1997, 
     grenade attack;
       Whereas in June 1997 fighting erupted in Phnom Penh between 
     military and paramilitary forces loyal to First Prime 
     Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Second Prime Minister 
     Hun Sen;
       Whereas on July 5, 1997, Second Prime Minister Hun Sen 
     deposed the First Prime Minister in a violent military coup 
     d'etat;
       Whereas at least several dozen opposition politicians have 
     died in the custody of Hun Sen's forces, some after being 
     tortured, and hundreds of others have been detained due to 
     their political affiliation;
       Whereas democracy and stability in Cambodia are threatended 
     by the continued use of violence to resolve political 
     differences;
       Whereas internal Cambodian Government reports and 
     investigations by United States drug enforcement agencies 
     have reported that Hun Sen and his forces have received 
     millions of dollars in financial and material support from 
     major international drug dealers; that Hun Sen has publicly 
     threatened violence against any Cambodian official who 
     attempts to arrest alleged drug barons Teng Bumma and Mong 
     Rethy; and in a July 23, 1997, press conference in Cambodia 
     Teng Bunma admitted to providing $1,000,000 to Hun Sen to 
     fund the ongoing coup and is providing his personal fleet of 
     helicopters flown by Russian pilots to ferry Hun Sen's 
     troops to suppress democratic forces in western Cambodia;
       Whereas representatives of the United Nations and the 
     Government of Thailand estimate at least 30,000 Cambodian 
     refugees (including wounded civilians and malnourished 
     children) displaced by the ongoing fighting are massed, 
     without assistance, in northwest Cambodia near the border of 
     Thailand;
       Whereas the administration has suspended assistance to 
     Cambodia for 1 month in response to the deteriorating 
     situation in Cambodia; and
       Whereas the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) 
     has decided to delay indefinitely Cambodian membership: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of 
     Representatives that--
       (1) the forcible assault upon the democratically elected 
     Government of Cambodia is illegal and unacceptable;
       (2) the recent events in Cambodia constitute a military 
     coup against the duly elected democratic Government of 
     Cambodia;
       (3) the authorities in Cambodia should take immediate steps 
     to halt all extralegal violence and to restore fully civil, 
     political, and personal liberties to the Cambodian people, 
     including freedom of the press, speech, and assembly, as well 
     as the right to a democratically elected government;
       (4) the United States should release the report by the 
     Federal Bureau of Investigation concerning the March 30, 
     1997, grenade attack in Phnom Penh;
       (5) the United States should declassify and release all 
     reports by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency related 
     to Cambodia that were compiled between 1994 and the present;
       (6) the United States should press the authorities in 
     Cambodia to investigate fully and impartially all abuses and 
     extralegal actions that have occurred in Cambodia since July 
     4, 1997, and to bring to justice all those responsible for 
     such abuses and extralegal actions;
       (7) the administration should immediately invoke section 
     508 of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related 
     Programs Appropriations Act, 1997 (Public Law 104-208), as it 
     is required to do;
       (8) the United States should urgently request an emergency 
     meeting of the United Nations Security Council to consider 
     all options to restore peace in Cambodia;
       (9) the United States should encourage the Secretary 
     General of the United Nations to expand the monitoring 
     operations of the United Nations Special Representative on 
     Human Rights in Cambodia;
       (10) the United States and the Association of Southeast 
     Asian Nations (ASEAN) should coordinate efforts to restore 
     democracy, stability, and the rule of law in Cambodia;
       (11) direct United States assistance to the Government of 
     Cambodia should continue to be suspended until violence ends, 
     a democratically elected government is reconstituted, 
     necessary steps have been taken to ensure that the election 
     scheduled for 1998 takes place in a free and fair manner, the 
     military is depoliticized, and the judiciary is made 
     independent;
       (12) at least a substantial share of previously 
     appropriated United States assistance to the Government of 
     Cambodia should be redirected to provide humanitarian 
     assistance to refugees and displaced persons in western 
     Cambodia through nongovernmental agencies or through 
     Cambodian civilian, political, or military forces that are 
     opposing the coup; and
       (13) the United States should call for an emergency meeting 
     of the Donors' Consultative Group for Cambodia to encourage 
     the suspension of assistance as part of a multilateral effort 
     to encourage respect for democratic processes, 
     constitutionalism, and the rule of law.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Kim] and the gentleman from American Samoa [Mr. 
Faleomavaega] each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California [Mr. Kim].
  [Mr. KIM asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)


                             General Leave

  Mr. KIM. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks 
on this resolution, House Resolution 195.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. KIM. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, earlier this month the world watched in disbelief as 
violence erupted once again in Cambodia. On July 5, Second Prime 
Minister Hun Sen and his forces loyal to him ousted the democratically 
elected First Prime Minister in a classic coup d'etat.
  The chairman of our committee, the gentleman from New York [Mr. 
Gilman], together with the ranking minority member, the gentleman from 
Indiana [Mr. Hamilton], along with several of their colleagues, 
introduced House Resolution 195 to express our deep concern about the 
tragic events that have unfolded in Cambodia. On behalf of the 
gentleman from New York [Mr. Gilman], the chairman of the committee, 
and I express my appreciation to the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. 
Hamilton] as well as to the gentleman from Nebraska [Mr. Bereuter] and 
the gentleman from California [Mr. Berman],

[[Page H5841]]

the chairman and ranking Democrat respectively on the Subcommittee on 
Asia and the Pacific, in seeing that this resolution was able to move 
to the floor.
  The resolution expresses the sense of the House that the forcible 
change of the democratically elected government in Phnom Penh is 
illegal and unacceptable. The resolution also urges the administration 
to take specific decisive actions to return peace, stability and 
democracy to the Cambodian people.
  We also call upon the Cambodian authorities from all political 
factions to halt the violence and extralegal actions, bring to justice 
those people responsible for the reported abuses and restore all 
personal and civic freedoms to the Cambodian people.
  As the leader of the free world, the United States must take resolute 
action whenever and wherever tyranny threatens to destroy democracy. 
Cambodia has taken a regrettable, but hopefully temporary turn off the 
path to democracy, peace and prosperity. It must not stand idly by 
while liberty is threatened in Southeast Asia.
  I urge my colleagues to support this timely and most important 
resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to commend the gentleman from New York [Mr. 
Gilman], the chairman of the Committee on International Relations, and 
the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Hamilton], the Democratic ranking 
member, for introducing this timely measure concerning the deplorable 
crisis in Cambodia. I also would like to state that I am also an 
original cosponsor of this resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, I wanted to join my colleagues of the Subcommittee on 
Asia and the Pacific, the chairman, the gentleman from Nebraska [Mr. 
Bereuter], the gentleman from California [Mr. Berman], the gentleman 
from Iowa [Mr. Leach], and the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Porter] as 
original cosponsors of this House Resolution 195. Like many of our 
colleagues in Congress and those watching around the world, I was 
shocked, appalled and saddened by the return to violence in Cambodia, a 
small nation still wracked by the scars of the Khmer Rouge genocidal 
killings of a million Cambodians and a civil war that raged for 2 
decades.
  As everyone knows, Mr. Speaker, the co-Prime Minister Mr. Hun Sen has 
ousted Prince Ranariddh from Cambodia's government, destroying the 
fragile democracy brokered by the 1991 Paris Peace Accords. The Paris 
peace plan, backed by the United States, China, the Soviet Union, 
Japan, Vietnam, the Asean countries, France, the United Kingdom, India, 
Australia and other members of the United Nations was designed to bring 
to an end the decades of conflict in Cambodia. Since the Paris 
agreement and the U.N. supervised elections in 1993, Cambodia has 
enjoyed relative peace and prosperity, with an economy expanding at a 
7-percent rate.
  During the last 6 years, the international community has invested 
more than $3 billion to bring about this peace and stability in 
Cambodia. The United States alone has contributed over $300 million, 
increasing foreign assistance to Cambodia to $38.4 million in 1997, 
with an administration request for $38.6 million for fiscal year 1998.
  With the outbreak of violence again in Cambodia where scores of 
Cambodians have been killed, hundreds wounded and executions and 
torture widely used by Hun Sen's forces, it begs the question, Mr. 
Speaker, whether anything has changed in that country and whether the 
international community has achieved anything by the massive investment 
of time and resources in Cambodia.
  Given the serious setbacks to Cambodia's democracy, I support the 
administration's freeze of United States assistance to Cambodia and 
applaud the cutoff and reduction in aid from Germany and Australia.
  As to Japan, Cambodia's top donor of aid, I hope they eventually will 
heed our call for the international community to suspend assistance 
until the return of law and democratic government in Cambodia. With 
foreign aid paying for half of Cambodia's budget, cutting off 
assistance sends the strongest and most effective statement of 
objection to Hun Sen's military rule in Phnom Penh.
  Likewise, the decision of the Asean nations to stop Cambodia's entry 
into Asean this month is an appropriate condemnation of Hun Sen's 
resort to violence.
  I applaud Secretary of State Albright's appointment of Stephen Solarz 
as her special envoy to Cambodia and am confident that our former 
colleague, a greatly respected Asia-Pacific policy expert, shall work 
with Secretary of State Albright and the Asean ministers delegation to 
mediate a political solution to Cambodia's crisis.
  Mr. Speaker, while I am hopeful that these efforts of the 
international community will help in bringing peace and stability back 
to Cambodia, ultimately the matter will have to be decided by the 
Cambodian people themselves. I would hope that we learned that from our 
tragic experience in Vietnam, which resulted from shortsighted United 
States foreign policy. In the end it is the will of the people in the 
country that will determine whether democracy is to prevail.
  Mr. Speaker, I would ask my colleagues to adopt this worthy 
legislation before us, which calls for our Nation and the international 
community to support efforts leading to the resolution of peace, the 
rule of law and the democratic government in Cambodia.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. KIM. I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman 
from California [Ms. Lofgren].
  Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution 
and thank the gentleman from New York [Mr. Gilman] and the original 
cosponsors for introducing this important legislation.
  Several months ago a number of Cambodian emigres, now my 
constituents, approached me with their concerns about Second Prime 
Minister Hun Sen and the fragility of democracy in Cambodia. When I 
asked the State Department about this, I was informed that in their 
view the allegations that had been brought to my attention against Mr. 
Sen were, quote, merely part of the partisan bickering between the 
parties. History, I am sad to say, has now proven my constituents 
correct, certainly more knowledgeable than those in the State 
Department who downplayed the concern.
  This resolution makes it clear that the United States will not 
tolerate the violence that has hit Cambodia or the anti-democratic 
actions of Hun Sen. Mr. Sen's killing spree, directed against those who 
would oppose him or who would seek to bring to light his relations with 
the narcotic trade, has resulted in the murder of hundreds of 
Cambodians.
  Last fall I had the privilege of meeting in San Jose, at home, a 
number of prominent Cambodian ministers, including the Minister of the 
Interior Hou Sok. The Minister of the Interior has now been murdered by 
Hun Sen forces because of the reporting that he did linking Sen to drug 
lords who are, it is reported, bankrolling the new regime and trying to 
turn Cambodia, to quote the Washington Post, into a narco state.
  Mr. Speaker, the rampages in the killing fields of Cambodia have gone 
on for far too long. We must stand firm to prevent history from 
repeating itself yet again. I support the suspension of the assistance 
to Mr. Sen's regime, I support the call for the U.N. Security Action to 
take some action. I strongly support the calls for justice and 
democracy in Cambodia.
  For the sake of the Minister of the Interior who has now been 
murdered and the others who have already died and for the victims of 
torture, I urge my colleagues to support this resolution. I hope this 
marks merely the first of many actions this Congress will take on this 
vital issue. We do know that the Cambodian people love peace and 
democracy. We must support their efforts, and we must not tolerate or 
entertain the notion that Hun Sen, who is the perpetrator of a coup, 
could play a part in democratic Cambodia any more than his predecessor 
Pol Pot could do so.
  Mr. LEACH. Mr. Speaker. I rise in strong support of this important 
and timely resolution. I would just offer a few thoughts on the very 
disturbing recent events in Cambodia.

[[Page H5842]]

  First, there should be no doubt the United States and the 
international community have important interests at stake in Cambodia. 
The United States helped lead the negotiations among the Permanent Five 
members of the U.N. Security Council leading up to the Cambodian peace 
agreement. We did so in order to create a legitimate and 
internationally recognized government, to reduce foreign interference, 
advance regional peace and stability, and avert the return to power of 
the genocidal Khmer Rouge. It remains in the U.S. interest to see that 
those objectives are met.
  Second Prime Minister Hun Sen's coup d'etat in Cambodia--and there 
can be no doubt this was a coup, a sudden and decisive exercise of 
force in politics--and subsequent resort to murder, torture, and 
political intimidation has betrayed the hopes for peace and prosperity 
by the Cambodian people. It has undermined the interests of the United 
States and the broader international community in a politically and 
economically stable Cambodia in which fundamental human rights are 
respected. It has set back Cambodia's efforts to join ASEAN and 
hindered its re-integration into the world community. Vietnam's role, 
if any, in this affair may be troubling for regional stability. The 
coup also raises the specter of civil war. Tragically, it may also very 
well help resuscitate the Khmer Rouge at a moment of maximum peril for 
the movement, when it appeared that its collapse was imminent, and that 
Pol Pot and other senior leaders--evidently now under house arrest--
might be turned over to an international tribunal for crimes against 
humanity.
  Hence it is paramount that the United States, ASEAN, Japan, and other 
parties to the Paris accords promptly engage in a full court press to 
make Hun Sen--and other leaders within the CPP--understand that no 
Cambodian Government will not receive significant international support 
if it uses political intimidation and violence against its opponents. 
Until very recently, I have been less than impressed by the vigor and 
determination that the administration has brought to bear on this 
issue.
  Hun Sen and his colleagues in the CPP, as well as Prince Ranariddh 
and his supporters, need to understand that their mutual 
miscalculations and zero-sum struggle for political supremacy has 
driven a stake in the heart of a Cambodia's economic recovery and 
reconstruction.
  Prior to the recent deterioration in the political and security 
environment, Cambodia's prospects were brighter than at any time in the 
last 25 years. But unless the political process created by the Paris 
accords is sustained, marcroeconomic instability, inflation, heightened 
levels of already widespread corruption, and a substantial decrease in 
aid from bilateral donors as well as the international financial 
institutions are likely to result. Without foreign external assistance, 
foreign investment, or significant revenues from tourism, Cambodia's 
already difficult external debt situation will be exacerbated. In 
short, the Cambodian economy will be seriously set back. These 
consequences need to be very carefully considered by the Hun Sen and 
his colleagues in Phnom Penh.
  The deteriorating situation in Cambodia has occasioned much criticism 
of the U.N. peacekeeping effort in Cambodia. Some of this criticism is 
well-founded, but much of it is not. Perhaps the biggest flaw in the 
U.N. effort was the failure to assert control over the security 
apparatus of Hun Sen in the run up to the election. As to the failure 
to disarm the parties, I would remind Members that disarmament and 
demobilization did not occur because the Khmer Rouge did not live up to 
their obligations. There was no support from any of the countries 
providing peacekeeping troops for a U.N. mandate that encompassed 
forcible disarmament. There was and is no NATO-like coalition that 
could accomplish this task. And while this Member has long favored a 
modest U.N. standing force to fulfill some of these objectives, such a 
force did not then and does not now exist.
  But there is also much to be proud of in what was then an 
unprecedented peacekeeping effort. Over 350,000 refugees were 
repatriated. Over five million Cambodians were registered to vote. 
Despite Khmer Rouge attempts to derail the election, a secret ballot 
was held in which the overwhelming majority of Cambodians exercised 
their right to vote. In the wake of the election an active opposition 
press sprung up, over 100 foreign and indigenous NGO's operated freely 
throughout the country, and the once-feared Khmer Rouge gradually 
diminished as a military force and began to turn in on itself. Despite 
tremendous poverty, and serious human rights and democracy concerns, 
there can be no doubt the people of Cambodia were moving forward toward 
better days and a better life.
  The egregious failure of Cambodia's leaders to pursue the national 
interest instead of self-interest, most particularly on the part of Hun 
Sen, severely jeopardizes the hopes and dreams of the Cambodian people. 
The international community needs to act now to prevent a fait 
accompli, to use its very substantial diplomatic and economic leverage 
to stave off the total collapse of prospects for a peaceful and 
prosperous Cambodia. After 25 years of civil war, genocide, and 
national destruction, the people of Cambodia deserve better.
  Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my strong support 
for the resolution offered by the gentleman from New York, [Mr. Gilman] 
and to urge all Members to give this matter their attention. As an 
original cosponsor of House Resolution 195, I am pleased that the House 
has moved quickly to consider this resolution and to take a firm and 
principled position regarding the violent, anti-democratic coup which 
recently took place in Cambodia.
  In April of this year, I sent a letter to Secretary of State 
Madeleine Albright expressing grave concerns about events that were 
going on in Cambodia at that time. A copy of this letter follows these 
remarks. Second Prime Minister Hun Sen, who gained his position in the 
Cambodian Government not through elections but by threatening violence, 
appeared to be orchestrating a parliamentary coup by attempting to 
split the governing coalition which had won the U.N.-sponsored 1993 
elections. This letter followed an earlier one which seven of my 
colleagues and I sent to the co-prime ministers after the tragic March 
30th grenade attack on Sam Rainsy and the Khmer National Party during a 
peaceful demonstration calling for judicial reform. It was my hope that 
Secretary Albright would visit Cambodia during her trip to the region 
and, in her trademark manner, ``tell it like it is'' when she met with 
Hun Sen and First Prime Minister Ranariddh, urging them to renounce 
political violence and work together to prepare for democratic 
elections in 1998.
  Unfortunately, Secretary Albright's trip to Cambodia never happened 
and, just days after she had been scheduled to visit, Cambodia again 
plunged into armed conflict. This country, which has suffered so much, 
went from euphoria over reports that Pol Pot had been captured and 
might soon be brought to trial, to the despair of another strongman 
taking power through illegitimate means. Cambodia's fragile democracy 
was being dismantled by armed thugs and political assassination. While 
this is an old story for the people of Cambodia, we had hoped it would 
be one that remained in their past.
  The United States and the international community have been implicit 
in allowing this latest tragedy. In 1993, the royalist-led democratic 
coalition decisively won the first elections held in Cambodia, soundly 
defeating Hun Sen's formerly communist Cambodian People's Party. These 
elections were marked by high voter turnout, despite the deadly 
political violence which preceded them. The people of Cambodia spoke 
out strongly in favor of democratic self-government, but the 
international community denied their aspirations by allowing the loser 
of these elections--Hun Sen and the CPP--to threaten and bully its way 
into maintaining a large share of power in the new government. I 
believe this decision was the root cause of this latest assault on 
Cambodian democracy because it sent the message to Hun Sen that we are 
not willing to back up democracy in the face of force, and it was just 
a matter of time before he could discard with impunity the democratic 
structures we were building.
  Now, our Government is preparing to make the same mistake again. 
Since 1993, we have allowed Hun Sen to build a legacy of intimidation 
and corruption, and to strengthen his hold on power, by ignoring 
belligerent and anti-democratic tendencies on his part. Our 
administration has refused to call Hun Sen's power grab by its proper 
name--a coup. They have suspended assistance to Cambodia for 30 days to 
sort things out, but have not yet tied resumption of assistance to the 
restoration of the legitimate government, as the law would if this had 
been declared a coup.
  I welcomed Secretary Albright's strong words to ASEAN over the 
weekend and I hope that this signals a firm resolve to stand with and 
for the people and the democratic forces in Cambodia. That is certainly 
the intention of the Congress by passing this resolution today. This 
resolution lays out a fair and flexible approach to this difficult 
situation by calling for actions which send the right message not only 
to Hun Sen, but also to those others who would choose violence and 
thuggery over democracy and the rule of law. I want to especially 
commend my friend, the chairman of the International Relations 
Committee, for including in this resolution a statement concerning the 
redirection of assistance away from the Cambodian Government to those 
who are in need as a result of this conflict. This is certainly the 
least our Government can do after failing the Cambodian people so 
miserably up to this point.
  I believe that we have a duty to the Cambodian people, perhaps like 
no others, as a result of our involvement in so much that has gone 
wrong in the recent history of the Cambodian state. We owe the people 
of Cambodia

[[Page H5843]]

our moral support and strength. I am hopeful that 1998 will bring free 
and fair elections where the Cambodian people can again express their 
longing for democracy, freedom, and a brighter future. I am also 
hopeful that the international community, led by the United States, 
will give them this opportunity and respect their choices by defending 
them from the threat of violence, rather than giving in to it.
                                    Congress of the United States,


                                     House of Representatives,

                                   Washington, DC, April 23, 1997.
     Secretary Madeleine Albright,
     U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC.
       Dear Madeleine: I am writing to express my grave concerns 
     about recent and emerging events in Cambodia, and to urge 
     that the United States take all appropriate actions to ensure 
     that the situation there does not deteriorate further.
       It is my understanding that the situation in Phnom Penh is 
     extremely tense at this time, and that Hun Sen seems to be 
     attempting to orchestrate some sort of parliamentary coup in 
     an effort to wrest control of the Cambodian government from 
     the present coalition. It is also my understanding that 
     parliamentarians from the FUNCINPEC coalition are currently 
     in hiding at the home of First Prime Minister H.R.H. Prince 
     Ranariddh, and that there are credible reports that FUNCINPEC 
     members have been kidnapped by military units loyal to Hun 
     Sen.
       If accurate, such developments are extremely disturbing, 
     particularly in light of the recent violent attack on Sam 
     Rainsy during a Khmer National Party rally. It would appear 
     that certain parties are refusing to maintain their 
     commitments to the democratic political process, and thereby 
     seriously jeopardizing the very future of the Cambodian 
     nation. I urge the administration in the strongest possible 
     terms to call on the parties to renounce political violence 
     and manipulation, and to use peaceful, democratic means to 
     settle any disputes.
       The United States has invested a great deal in the 
     retrieval of the Cambodian state. Should events continue to 
     unfold as they are presently doing, our efforts would most 
     likely be completely lost. We cannot afford, from a financial 
     or moral perspective, to allow this to happen. I thank you 
     for your attention to this extremely urgent matter, and I 
     would appreciate your keeping me apprised of events and U.S. 
     actions in the wake of this volatile situation.
           Sincerely,
                                               John Edward Porter,
                                               Member of Congress.
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers, so I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Kim] that the House suspend the rules 
and agree to the resolution, House Resolution 195, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the resolution, as amended, was 
agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________