[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 99 (Wednesday, July 22, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H6076]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        HUMANITARIAN DE-MINING IN WESTERN SAHARA MUST START NOW

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of 165,000 refugees 
living in the middle of the harsh Western Sahara Desert. Just last week 
I returned from a visit to these refugees. I was deeply impressed with 
the strength and determination these people showed in their ability to 
survive in the midst of such a harsh environment.
  The Sahrawi people are in refugee camps because of a 20-year 
territorial dispute with Morocco over the land known as Western Sahara. 
The conflict ended with an agreement that the United Nations 
peacekeeping force, called MINURSO, will conduct a free, fair and 
transparent referendum.
  Unfortunately, as I saw last week, according to the July 10 report 
from Kofi Annan to the UN Security Council, Morocco continues to 
obstruct this process by denying the Swedish de-mining contingent the 
use of their equipment to carry out their task to remove the hundreds 
of thousands, and perhaps millions of land mines, that have been placed 
in Western Sahara.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge the Kingdom of Morocco to review its position as 
requested by the UN so the process agreed to by both parties can 
continue and the lives of innocent civilians be spared by permitting 
the team to de-mine the area.

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