[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 157 (Sunday, November 9, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H10540-H10543]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXPRESSING CONCERN FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN AFGHANISTAN
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree
to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 156) expressing concern for
the continued deterioration of human rights in Afghanistan and
emphasizing the need for a peaceful political settlement in that
country, as amended.
The Clerk read as follows:
H. Con. Res. 156
Whereas Congress recognizes that the legacy of civil
conflict in Afghanistan during the last 17 years has had a
devastating effect on the civilian population in that
country, killing 2,000,000 people and displacing more than
7,000,000, and has had a particularly negative impact on the
rights and security of women and girls;
Whereas the Department of State's Country Reports on Human
Practices for 1996 states: ``Serious human rights violations
continue to occur [. . .] political killings, torture, rape,
arbitrary detention, looting, abductions and kidnappings for
ransom were committed by armed units, local commanders and
rogue individuals.'';
Whereas the Afghan combatants are responsible for numerous
abhorrent human rights abuses, including the rape, sexual
abuse, torture, abduction, and persecution of women and
girls;
Whereas drug proliferation has increased in Afghanistan;
Whereas Congress is disturbed by the upsurge of reported
human rights abuses in Afghanistan, including extreme
restrictions placed on women and girls;
Whereas safe haven has been provided to suspected
terrorists and terrorist camps may be allowed to operate in
Afghanistan;
Whereas Afghanistan is a sovereign nation and must work to
solve its internal disputes; and
Whereas Afghanistan and the United States recognize
international human rights conventions, such as the Universal
Declaration on Human Rights, which espouse respect for basic
human rights of all individuals without regard to race,
religion, ethnicity, or gender: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring),
SECTION 1. DECLARATION OF POLICY.
The Congress hereby--
(1) deplores the violations of international humanitarian
law in Afghanistan and raises concern over the reported cases
of stoning, public executions, and street beatings;
(2) condemns the targeted discrimination against women and
girls and expresses deep concern regarding the prohibition of
employment and education for women and girls;
(3) urges the Taliban and all other parties in Afghanistan
to cease providing safe haven to suspected terrorists or
permitting Afghan territory to be used for terrorist
training; and
(4) takes note of the continued armed conflict in
Afghanistan, affirms the need for peace negotiations and
expresses hope that the Afghan parties will agree to a cease-
fire throughout the country.
SEC. 2. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that the President--
(1) should continue to monitor the human rights situation
in Afghanistan and should call for adherence by all factions
in Afghanistan to international humanitarian law;
(2) should call for an end to the systematic discrimination
and harassment of women and girls in Afghanistan;
(3) should encourage efforts to procure a durable peace in
Afghanistan and should support the efforts of the United
Nations Special Envoy Secretary General Lakhdar
[[Page H10541]]
Brahimi to assist in brokering a peaceful resolution to years
of conflict;
(4) should call upon all countries with influence to use
their influence on the contending factions to end the
fighting and come to the negotiating table, abide by
internationally recognized norms of behavior, cease human
rights violations, end provision of safe haven to terrorists
and close terrorist training camps, and reverse
discriminatory policies against women and girls;
(5) should call upon all nations to cease providing
financial assistance, arms, and other kinds of support to the
militaries or political organizations of any factions in
Afghanistan; and
(6) should support efforts by Afghan individuals to
establish a cessation of hostilities and a transitional
mulitparty government leading to freedom, respect for human
rights, and free and fair elections.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
California [Mr. Rohrabacher] and the gentleman from Minnesota [Mr.
Luther] each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California [Mr. Rohrabacher].
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
New York [Mr. Gilman], the chairman of the Committee on International
Relations and someone who has given us great inspiration to stand up
for the higher ideals that America stands for.
(Mr. GILMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this
time. Mr. Speaker, I want to commend the sponsors of this resolution,
the gentleman from Nebraska [Mr. Bereuter], the gentleman from
California [Mr. Berman], the gentleman from California [Mr.
Rohrabacher], and especially the gentlewoman from New York [Mrs.
Maloney] for her excellent work in crafting this proposal.
The deterioration of human rights in Afghanistan, especially its
impact on women, is very distressing. Large areas of Afghanistan that
are now under the Taliban rule are being run by men whose thinking is
medieval. Regrettably, the State Department has done little to end the
fighting that has led to the current problems in Afghanistan.
Two weeks ago, the gentleman from California [Mr. Rohrabacher] did
what the State Department could not or cared not to do. He brought
together in Istanbul almost all of the leaders in the different Afghan
groups so that some sort of a national reconciliation process could
begin. The gentleman from California then arranged for them to come to
Washington so that our Committee on International Relations could meet
with them to learn firsthand about that historic productive meeting.
House Concurrent Resolution 156 will assist us in the peace process.
I urge my colleagues to support this resolution. I want to commend the
gentleman from California [Mr. Rohrabacher] for his continuing efforts
in trying to bring peace to Afghanistan.
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, more than a million Afghans died and 5 million became
refugees during the battle that was a turning point in the Cold War.
They brought down the Soviet empire. Their courage and sacrifice reaped
a harvest of peace and plenty for the Western world. However, in
Afghanistan, the war never ended. The social and political fabric of
that ancient culture remains in chaos. People today in Afghanistan are
dying from both violence and starvation. House Concurrent Resolution
156 introduced by the gentlewoman from New York [Mrs. Maloney] urges
the President to, No. 1, monitor and condemn ongoing violations of
human rights caused by the fanatical Taliban movement who controls
about two-thirds of the country as well as abuses by the other factions
and other militias. It especially calls attention to the brutal and
systematic discrimination that the Taliban have imposed on women and
children in Afghanistan.
In addition, this bill requests that the President should call upon
the government of Pakistan to suspend military and political support of
the Taliban and to use its influence with the Taliban to end the abuses
that we have been describing tonight. It urges the President to support
international efforts intended to create a peaceful resolution to the
ongoing conflict in Afghanistan that would ultimately include free and
fair elections and the return of human and civil rights for all the
people of Afghanistan. Stability in Afghanistan is the key to peace and
prosperity in Central Asia. The extremists of the Taliban movement are
responsible for the ongoing suffering of the Afghan people, and they
pose a great threat of fundamentalist violence in neighboring
countries, especially in Pakistan, and their extremism permits Iran to
have a greater role in the region.
The Taliban currently provides a haven for terrorists such as Ben
Ladin of Saudi Arabia, and the training of terrorist organizations now
operating in Egypt, the Balkans and the Philippines. According to both
the United Nations and the United States Drug Enforcement Agency, they
have turned Afghanistan into the world's leading opium producer. The
Taliban's war effort is funded by opium profits. According to the
United States and international sources, almost all the opium
production and processing being conducted in Afghanistan is in the
provinces controlled by the Taliban, especially near their stronghold
in Kandahar. According to the United Nations Drug Control Program, in
1997, Afghanistan produced a record 3,000 tons of opium. That is a 25
percent increase over the 1996 production. In 1996, the Taliban imposed
10 percent tax on all opium produced in Afghanistan which, according to
experts of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency and the CIA,
amounts to at least $100 million. That is drug money that they are
making which comes straight from the drug producers to the pockets of
the Taliban.
During the last 10 years, I have had extensive discussions with all
factions of Afghanistan as well as ordinary Afghan citizens. Although
not spelled out in this legislation before us, I believe it is time for
this administration to support recent resolutions by Afghans of all
ethnic groups that emphasize that the key to ending the conflict in
Afghanistan is the return of King Zahir Shah. As the symbolic head of
an interim government, Zahir Shah could remake civil government, form a
coalition government of national unity which would represent all
factions. This reconciliation government would be responsible to
prepare national democratic elections in which the people of
Afghanistan would choose their own leaders and democracy.
I can assure my colleagues tonight the people of Afghanistan are not
fanatics, but they are devout in their religious faith. Most Muslims
are embarrassed by the Taliban. But if we would help the true believers
in Islam in Afghanistan regain a democratic government, it would lead
to peace and it would lead to a restoration of human rights. King Zahir
Shah offers that alternative.
Although it is not in this resolution, we hope that the President
would follow through and do what he can to bring peace and democracy,
which are synonymous in Afghanistan.
House Concurrent resolution 156 urges the President to support the
internal Afghan peace process. It is especially timely, as Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright will be departing for South Asia next week,
that she express a new administration policy that would compel all
neighboring countries involved in supporting the Taliban to immediately
stop.
Mr. Speaker, we owe a tremendous debt to the people of Afghanistan.
It was not our mighty armies in Europe that stopped the Soviet empire
from expanding. It was not our missiles, it was not the great
expenditure of defense. Yes, they were necessary at the time in order
to deter war with the Soviet empire. But it was a group of Muslims on
the plains of Afghanistan that courageously stood up and said, you will
not impose your atheistic system on us, you will not dominate our
country, and with great courage and dying in the hundreds of thousands
stood firm against Soviet aggression and broke the will of the Soviet
bosses to conquer the world. We owe a great deal to these heroic
people. It is sad and tragic that fanatics have taken over their
country. It is time for the United States to reach out and do what we
can to promote democracy and human rights in Afghanistan. We owe it to
them not to forget them. If we do, if we
[[Page H10542]]
forget the chaos that continues and the bloodshed and we refuse to pay
our debt to the people of Afghanistan, in the end it will come back and
hurt us. There will be no stability in Central Asia as long as the
chaos and killing continues in Afghanistan.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LUTHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the
gentlewoman from New York [Mrs. Maloney], the original sponsor of the
resolution.
{time} 2100
Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for
yielding this time to me, and I thank the gentleman from New York [Mr.
Gilman] for bringing this legislation forward under the suspension
calendar, and I thank the gentleman from California [Mr. Rohrabacher]
for his leadership not only on this legislation, but really his ongoing
efforts for many years to bring peace and democracy to Afghanistan.
A woman living in Afghanistan may not work, attend school, be
photographed or appear in public without a garment covering their
entire body. They must wear a mesh mask over their eyes, they must not
speak directly to a man. Certainly there is no possibility of a woman
speaking out against these human rights abuses in a public forum as I
am now.
That is why we must speak for them, and that is why we must pass this
resolution which condemns the continued deterioration of women's rights
in that country.
More than a year ago the Taliban, a fundamentalist Islamic militia
group, overthrew the government of Afghanistan. Women and young girls
have borne the brunt of that takeover. The Taliban has not just
stripped women of their human rights, they have made women targets for
criminal abuse.
Just 2 months ago a 16-year-old girl was stoned to death because she
was traveling with a man who was not a member of her family. Just last
week one of my constituents, who is a refugee from Afghanistan, told me
that her 13-year-old niece was shot dead in the street for going to
school. Women are routinely raped and abused. They are persecuted for
the smallest infraction; for example, allowing their ankles to be
exposed or appearing in a photograph.
Women cannot receive proper emergency medical care. I read recently
of the case of one woman who had been severely burned. She was refused
treatment because it was against the Taliban law for her to remove her
clothing for treatment.
Women are not permitted to work. At one time women made up a large
part of the work force. Now many hospitals and schools are closed for
lack of employees. The war in Afghanistan has left many women widows.
If they cannot work, how are they to support themselves and their
children? Many are starving to death.
Perhaps the abuse that makes me the most sad is the idea that young
girls, young women, are not permitted to go to school. What does it say
about the future of this country? How can women recover from years of
abuse and forced ignorance?
I urge my colleagues to vote for House Resolution 156. We must speak
out for these women who are being so horribly abused because they
cannot speak out for themselves.
I would also like to add my words of encouragement to Madeleine
Albright, who will be traveling to this region and encouraging other
surrounding countries to speak out against the Taliban.
Mr. LUTHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I support this resolution, and I urge its speedy
adoption this evening.
This resolution represents a constructive effort to deal with a very
serious problem. Afghanistan and its people have suffered through
foreign invasions, civil war and widespread human rights abuses
virtually nonstop for nearly 20 years. Today outrageous human rights
violations continue to occur, especially against the women and girls of
that country. We in America must take every opportunity we have to deal
with that and to put an end to those abuses of human dignity and
international law.
The Afghan people who so courageously fought a key battle or conflict
in the Cold War deserve to live a life of peace without the kind of
abuse that is occurring today. I therefore urge the Members of this
body to support this resolution which simply restates the simple truth
of what is occurring there today and makes us and our country stand
with the people against these abuses.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the remainder of my time.
General Leave
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 days within which to revise and extend their remarks
on this measure.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Lazio of New York). Is there objection
to the request of the gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
(Mr. ROHRABACHER asked and was given permission to revise and extend
his remarks.)
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Finally in closing, Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that
we have this resolution tonight, and I would hope that those
governments in Central Asia and around Afghanistan focus on what we are
trying to do in the United States tonight. Tonight we are taking the
first steps towards reinvolving ourselves in a part of the world that
the United States walked away from 10 years ago.
When the Soviet Union was finally defeated in Afghanistan and the
last Soviet tanks went across the bridge back into what was then the
Soviet Union, the United States breathed a sigh of relief, and we
believed that the fighting there would be over very quickly and
shortly. Instead, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, the war in
Afghanistan which brought peace and prosperity to the Western world,
continues in Afghanistan. Today we spend $100 billion a year less on
defense because these scraggly, ill-equipped, brave and courageous men
in Afghanistan stood up to Soviet tanks and air power, and because they
did, the Soviet role to keep control of what they held in the Soviet
empire and to expand that empire was broken.
Yes, today we are able to spend those hundreds of billions of
dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars that we are not spending on
defense, we are able to bring that out of our deficit spending. We are
able to spend that on education, we are able to spend that on making
our own lives, an infrastructure, making the lives of our country
better so that our children live better lives.
But what has happened in Afghanistan during that time period as we
have enjoyed this era of goodwill in the United States? What has
happened there, as the gentlewoman from New York [Mrs. Maloney] has
suggested, a horrible darkness of oppression has come down on half of
their population. Women in Afghanistan are oppressed and treated just
as, and I hate to use this example, but the fact is the Taliban are to
the women of Afghanistan and the women of the world what Hitler was to
the Jews of the world in the 1930's. The Taliban and their philosophy
would rally people to repress women and children in their society. We
heard examples of that tonight.
What else is happening in Afghanistan? Every day a child, if not many
children, are blown to bits, their legs are blown off because of
landmines that are planted by the millions, and many of those landmines
came from the United States of America. Many of them were given by us
to the various factions during the war to defeat the Russians. But yet
those children are still being blown apart, and chaos still rules the
day.
In Afghanistan the Taliban militias still fight northern power groups
that do not agree with their brand of Islam and refuse to be dominated
by a Pushtu versus a Tajik, and the killing goes on and on. It goes on
for one reason, because we in the United States, the new superpower
that supposedly is going to be the force for power and good in this
world, have totally walked away from these people to whom we owe so
much, people who permitted us to be spending tens of billions of
dollars on our education rather than on defense, people who helped
bring down the Soviet empire, thus making it no longer necessary for us
to spend money on missiles so we could spend it instead on
[[Page H10543]]
health care and education and infrastructure and bringing down our
level of deficit spending.
This resolution tonight underscores that America will no longer close
our eyes, that this Congress is no longer closing its eyes to the
repression of women and children in Afghanistan, the killing and the
maiming of children in Afghanistan, the ongoing chaos.
No. 1, that is the moral position to take, and that is what this
resolution says; but, No. 2, let us remember the practical end of it.
And I found a funny thing in my years in public service: When we do
something, when we ignore the moral course of action, we also are going
down a road of something that is not practical. There is a relationship
between a practical policy and a moral policy. If we walk away from
these people and let them fend for themselves with this brutality and
tyranny, with maiming of their children and the repression of their
women, what will happen? The chaos will continue in Afghanistan, and I
can assure all of my friends here today, all of my friends here today,
that Central Asia, which should become an intricate part of the
economic system of the world will eventually be engulfed in that same
chaos.
Pakistan, who has been a pillar, a pillar of stability in South Asia,
our friend will go under, because if we permit the fanaticism of the
Taliban to go on, it will bring down Pakistan just as billions of
dollars of drug money going into the hands of narcoterrorists in
Afghanistan, in a chaotic Afghanistan, will eventually wreak havoc in
the United States. It has already caused the lives of American
servicemen and people to be lost. A terrorist trained in Afghanistan
helped blow up a building which housed our military people in Saudi
Arabia. There was an assassination attempt on the Pope. They found out
that the terrorist who was going to assassinate the Pope was trained in
Afghanistan.
We cannot let this go on, because not only is it immoral to let this
go on, but practically speaking, if we do it, it will come back and
hurt us.
There are many ways that we can try to reach peace. Having been
involved in this process, I believe King Zahir Shah, the king in exile,
who is a moderate leader of his people, a moderate Muslim leader, a
devout Muslim, but not a fanatic, will bring back sanity to his
country. Zahir Shah has pledged to his people to restore civil
government, rebuild the infrastructure and create the basis for
democratic elections. And in democratic elections I believe the courage
and the honor of the Afghan people will come out over the fanaticism of
the Taliban. I have no doubt about that.
And I would like to close with a short story. Many people in this
body do not know right after I was elected what I did. Many of my
friends and colleagues after they got elected the very first time took
off and went golfing or went swimming or went hiking and just got away
from it all because the first election is usually the hardest election
for this body. I made a pledge to my friends in Afghanistan, because I
worked with them when I worked in the White House, that when I left,
when I left the White House, if I had a chance and if the battle in
Afghanistan was still going on, that I would join them in their
struggle.
So I had 2 months between the time that I was elected and the time
that I would be sworn in as a Congressman, and I knew that that was the
only time that I would be free again like that for the rest of my life,
or at least the rest of my time when I would be elected in Congress. So
I disappeared, and I ended up with a mujahedin unit in Afghanistan
fighting in the battle of Jalalabad, which was then under siege. And as
I hiked toward this battle, which was one of the most strenuous hikes,
I might add, that I have ever made in my entire life, and it was just
beyond any endurance that I could ever do today, but a young Afghan
boy, it was a full moon, and the artillery shells were exploding in the
distance and lighting up the skies, and it was about 15 mujahedin with
me armed with AK-47s and RPGs, just lightly armed, and a young boy who
was probably 17 years old ran up besides me, AK-47 slung over his
shoulder, and said, ``You come from America.''
And I said, ``Yes.''
He said, ``You are in politics in America.''
And I said, ``Yes, I am.''
He said, ``Are you a donkey or an elephant?''
Here is a young man, 17 years old, fighting for his country, fighting
for our country, fighting for the people of the West, fighting for his
religion, a brave and courageous young man, and I said ``What do you
want to do when this is all over?''
{time} 2115
He says ``I want to build things. I would like to be an architect.''
I do not know if that young man survived the battle. I do not know if
he did or not. But I know if he is given his chance, he will rebuild
his country. I know he is a brave and courageous young person who
believed so much in the United States that he knew the symbols of our
political structure. He wanted democracy for his own country, but when
the Soviets were defeated, we walked away.
Let us reestablish this commitment to the Afghan people, at the very
least, to reach out and provide some leadership, to help them attain
their own democracy, and, if they obtain democracy, perhaps through
some support and guidance from their former king, it will be just as
their struggle against communism, a benefit to us as well.
So tonight that is what this resolution is all about. I would ask my
colleagues to join me in taking this moral stand and repaying this
sacred debt to the people of Afghanistan.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Lazio of New York). All time has
expired.
The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from
California [Mr. Rohrabacher] that the House suspend the rules and agree
to the concurrent resolution, House Concurrent Resolution 156, as
amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor
thereof) the rules were suspended, and the concurrent resolution, as
amended, was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________