[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 115 (Wednesday, September 8, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H7890]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  THE BARBAROUS OPPRESSION OF THE PEOPLE OF EAST TIMOR IS INTOLERABLE

  (Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, the government of 
Indonesia should be made to understand the terrible consequences it 
will pay if it continues the barbarous oppression of the people of East 
Timor. It is simply intolerable for the world to stand by and allow 
people to be slaughtered wantonly because they express their democratic 
right to claim their independence.
  I have spent a great deal of my time as a Member here on matters 
involving the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. I want to 
serve notice now, I know I speak for many of my colleagues who have 
similarly worked on those issues, that if the IMF and the World Bank do 
not immediately tell the Indonesian government that all aid will be 
suspended until order and peace are restored to East Timor, then they 
will have grave difficulty when they come here again for financial 
assistance. We will not be party to the funding of slaughter.
  To those who say we must withhold, let us look at Serbia and Kosovo. 
The moral case for an international force intervening in East Timor is 
as great as the moral case was in Kosovo, and the legal case is 
greater. We ignored Serbia's claim of sovereignty over Kosovo and gave 
in to the moral imperative to save people.
  In Indonesia, the government in power held a referendum. 
Overwhelmingly, in the face of great intimidation, the brave people of 
East Timor voted for independence. That gives us an even stronger right 
to send a multinational force in there, so the Indonesian government 
must cease. The international funding agencies must cut off aid if they 
do not; and, if there is the need, an international force must go in, 
lest we show the world that we consider human rights to be a matter for 
Europeans only.
  The people of East Timor have a strong moral claim on our assistance.

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