[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.

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