[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 150 (Friday, October 29, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13567-S13568]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   SENATE RESOLUTION 209--EXPRESSING CONCERN OVER INTERFERENCE WITH 
  FREEDOM OF THE PRESS AND THE INDEPENDENCE OF JUDICIAL AND ELECTORAL 
                          INSTITUTIONS IN PERU

  Mr. HELMS (for himself, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Coverdell, Mr. Dodd, Mr. 
DeWine, and Mr. Jeffords) submitted the following resolution; which was 
referred

[[Page S13568]]

to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 209

       Whereas the independence of Peru's legislative and judicial 
     branches has been brought into question by the May 29, 1997, 
     dismissal of 3 Constitutional Tribunal magistrates;
       Whereas Peru's National Council of Magistrates and the 
     National Election Board have been manipulated by President 
     Alberto Fujimori and his allies so he can seek a third term 
     in office;
       Whereas the Department of State's Country Report on Human 
     Rights Practices for 1998, dated February 26, 1999, 
     concludes, with respect to Peru, that ``government 
     intelligence agents allegedly orchestrated a campaign of 
     spurious attacks by the tabloid press against a handful of 
     publishers and investigative journalists in the strongly pro-
     opposition daily La Republica and the other print outlets and 
     electronic media'';
       Whereas the Department of State's Country Report on Human 
     Rights Practices for 1997, dated January 30, 1998, states 
     that Channel 2 television station reporters in Peru 
     ``revealed torture by Army Intelligence Service Officers'' 
     and ``the systematic wiretapping of journalists, government 
     officials, and opposition politicians'';
       Whereas on July 13, 1997, Peruvian immigration authorities 
     revoked the Peruvian citizenship of Baruch Ivcher, the 
     Israeli-born owner of the Channel 2 television station; and
       Whereas Baruch Ivcher subsequently lost control of Channel 
     2 under an interpretation of a law that provides that a 
     foreigner may not own a media organization, causing the 
     Department of State's Report on Human Rights Practices for 
     1998 to report that ``threats and harassment continued 
     against Baruch Ivcher and some of his former journalists and 
     administrative staff...In September Ivcher and several of his 
     staff involved in his other nonmedia businesses were charged 
     with customs fraud. The Courts sentenced Ivcher in absentia 
     to 12 years' imprisonment and his secretary to 3 years in 
     prison. Other persons from his former television station, who 
     resigned in protest in 1997 when the station was taken away, 
     also have had various charges leveled against them and 
     complain of telephone threats and surveillance by persons in 
     unmarked cars'': Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved,

     SECTION 1. SENSE OF THE SENATE ON ANTIDEMOCRATIC MEASURES BY 
                   THE GOVERNMENT OF PERU.

       It is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) the erosion of the independence of judicial and 
     electoral branches of the Government of Peru and the blatant 
     intimidation of journalists in Peru are matters of serious 
     concern to the Unites States;
       (2) efforts by any person or political movement in Peru to 
     undermine that country's constitutional order for personal or 
     political gain are inconsistent with the standard of 
     representative democracy in the Western Hemisphere;
       (3) the Government of the United States supports the effort 
     of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to report on 
     the pattern of threats to democracy, freedom of the press, 
     and judicial independence by the Government of Peru; and
       (4) systematic abuse of the rule of law and threats to 
     democracy in Peru could undermine the confidence of foreign 
     investors in, as well as the credit worthiness of, Peru.

     SEC. 2. TRANSMITTAL OF RESOLUTION.

       The Secretary of the Senate shall transmit a copy of this 
     resolution to the Secretary of State with the request that 
     the Secretary further transmit such copy to the Secretary 
     General of the Organization of the American States, the 
     President of the Inter-American Development Bank, and the 
     President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and 
     Development.

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