[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 67 (Thursday, May 25, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E860-E861]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              THE PUTIN PATH: ARE HUMAN RIGHTS IN RETREAT?

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 25, 2000

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, two days ago, the Commission on 
Security and Cooperation in Europe, which I am honored to chairman, 
held a hearing entitled ``The Putin Path: Are Human Rights in 
Retreat?'' I was pleased to be joined on the dais by my colleagues on 
the Commission, Co-Chairman Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Senator 
Tim Hutchinson, Ranking House Member Representative Steny Hoyer, and 
Representative Matt Salmon.
  As part of the hearing, the Commission had also planned to feature a 
video-conference with Moscow-based Radio Liberty journalist Andrei 
Babitsky. As Members are aware, Mr. Babitsky was arrested by Russian 
authorities for allegedly ``participating in an armed formation,'' as a 
result of his reporting from besieged Grozny last year. Subsequently, 
as a civilian, Babitsky was ``exchanged'' to Chechen forces in return 
for certain captured Russian military personnel, and is not permitted 
to leave Moscow. Unfortunately, technical problems precluded the 
possibility of the videoconference, but Mr. Babitsky provided a written 
statement for the hearing record. Mr. Babitsky was recently awarded the 
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's prize for journalism, and as head of the 
U.S. Delegation to the OSCE PA, I hope that he will be able to attend 
the award ceremony at the Assembly's annual meeting in Bucharest this 
July.
  Tuesday's hearing was one of a series of hearings the Commission has 
held to examine human rights issues in the States of the Organization 
for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The mandate of the Commission 
is to monitor and encourage compliance with the provisions of the 
Helsinki Accords and successive documents of the OSCE.
  As I have noted on previous occasions, Russia is no longer the 
dictatorial, closed society that it was during the Soviet period, and 
certainly there are countries around the world where human rights are 
in much more perilous straits. I have yet to hear of a working church 
in Russia being destroyed by bulldozers and wrecking cranes, as was the 
case last November in Turkmenistan. And we know that in China religious 
believers of many faiths are thrown in jail for simply desiring to 
worship without government interference.
  Indeed, under the administration of President Yeltsin, human rights 
activists were able to achieve significant gains in making respect for 
human rights, if not a standard, at least a consideration in public 
policy. There is growing concern, however, that Russia's development in 
the area of human rights is taking a turn for the worse under recently-
elected President Vladimir Putin.
  The testimony of Igor Malashenko, First Deputy Chairman of the Board 
of Directors of Media-Most and President of NTV, summarized how their 
offices were the target of the infamous raid by government agents on 
May 11 last. Mr. Malashenko described how the agents carted away 
documents, tapes, computer discs and equipment, and subsequently issued 
``contradictory and unsatisfactory justifications'' for this raid. 
Moreover, he provided extensive information on several other less-
publicized examples of violence and intimidation toward media outlets 
and journalists throughout Russia.
  General William Odom, former director of the National Security 
Agency, and a man of exceptional expertise in things Soviet and 
Russian, noted that Russia is a ``weak state'' and suffers from a lack 
of institutions capable of providing the level of civil society and 
economic development that we had hoped would follow after the collapse 
of the Soviet Union. General Odom also suggested that the United States 
should not treat Russia as a major power, or think that much of 
Russia's internal problems can be solved by ``ventriloquism'' from the 
West.
  Professor Georgi Derluguian of Northwestern University asserted that 
President Putin is the product of the KGB network that survived the 
collapse of the Soviet Union. In order to seek a distraction from the 
Chechen quagmire, suggested Professor Derluguian, Putin will most 
likely launch a massive anti-crime campaign. I would note that when 
Yuri Andropov and his KGB began to assume power in the twilight of the 
Brezhnev regime, part of the crackdown on political dissent at that 
time was under the guise of cracking down on corruption.
  Ms. Rachel Denber, Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia at 
Human Rights Watch, testified that in Grozny, ``the graffiti on the 
walls reads `Welcome to Hell Part Two.' The bombing campaign has turned 
many parts of Chechnya into a wasteland even the most experienced war 
reporters we, have spoken to told us they have never seen anything in 
their careers like the destruction of the capital Grozny.'' Ms. Denber 
also described summary executions of civilians, including the death of 
three generations of one family shot to death in the yard of their own 
home.
  One of the brighter aspects of civil society under President Yeltsin 
was the expansion of NGO activity. However, Professor Sarah Mendelson 
of the Fletcher School of Diplomacy and Law at Tufts University noted 
that there is in Russia today ``an atmosphere that is hostile to civil 
rights activists, and in fact, anyone with opinions that differ from 
the Kremlin's. While ``the treatment of Andrei Babitsky in January and 
February was shocking and disturbing, and the FSB raid on MediaMost in 
May was brazen,'' she testified, this is ``part of a larger pattern of 
harassment that has grown steadily worse over the last year and a 
half.''
  In this connection, I would like to point out another proposal made 
by Professor Mendelson in her testimony. She suggested that President 
Clinton, while in Moscow next month at the Summit with President Putin, 
should meet with activists who are promoting human rights and democracy 
in Russia today. This gesture, she notes, ``would send a signal not 
only to those in Russia who care about democracy but to those in Russia 
who do not.'' I believe this idea is right on target. In fact, Mr. 
Hoyer and I have written to the President noting that this year is the 
twenty-fifth anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Accords. We 
have encouraged the President to meet with the surviving veterans of 
the Soviet-era human rights struggle, and with their contemporary 
colleagues, in both Moscow and in Kyiv, where the President plans to 
meet

[[Page E861]]

with President Kuchma following his Moscow visit.
  I hope that President Clinton will take this advice, as I believe 
such a gesture would give new impetus to the struggle for human rights 
and democracy in two pivotal nations of the international community.
  In closing, I would call attention to a resolution to be introduced 
by our colleague Mr. Lantos and House International Affairs Committee 
Chairman Ben Gilman, regarding the issue of free media in Russia. I am 
pleased to join as an original cosponsor of this resolution, which 
among other provisions, calls upon the President, the Secretary of 
State, and other officials and agencies of the United States Government 
to emphasize to Russian government officials our concern and 
preoccupation that official pressures against the independent media are 
incompatible with democratic norms. I am pleased to co-sponsor this 
resolution, I hope my colleagues will join us, and I hope that 
President Clinton will heed this call when he meets with President 
Putin in Moscow next month.

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