[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 112 (Wednesday, September 20, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1548-E1549]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        VICTIMS OF CIVIL WAR: THE REFUGEES OF COLOMBIA AND PERU

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 20, 2000

  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, earlier today, I chaired a 
Congressional Human Rights Caucus briefing on ``Victims of Civil War: 
The Refugees of Colombia and Peru.'' I would hereby like to share the 
agenda and my opening statement at the hearing with the House for my 
colleagues' information.

 CONGRESSIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CAUCUS--VICTIMS OF CIVIL WAR: THE REFUGEES 
         OF COLOMBIA AND PERU, SEPTEMBER 20, 2000, 10-11:30 AM

       Summary: Pursuant to the request of Congressional Diaz-
     Balart (R-FL), the Congressional Human Rights Caucus convened 
     on September 20, 2000 at 10 AM to examine the causes and 
     ramifications of the Andean refugee crisis and to review U.S. 
     policy in response to this crisis. Caucus Chairmen John 
     Edward Porter (R-IL) and Tom Lantos (D-CA) appointed 
     Congressman Diaz-Balart (R-FL) to chair the briefing. The 
     briefing concluded at 11:45 AM.


                               Witnesses

       Panel I: (1) Ms. Dawn T. Calabia, External Relations, 
     Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; 
     (2) Mr. Julian Hoyos, political asylee from Colombia; and (3) 
     Mr. Jorge Vallejos, refugee/journalist from Peru.
       Panel II: (1) Ms. Nina Serafino, Congressional Research 
     Service (CRS) specialist on Colombia; (2) Ms. Maureen Taft 
     Morales, (CRS) specialist on Peru; (3) Andrew Miller, Acting 
     Advocacy Director for Latin America and the Carribean, 
     Amnesty International USA; and (4) Elisa Massimino, 
     Washington, DC Director, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.
                                 ______
                                 

  Opening Statement of Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Congressional 
 Human Rights Caucus, Briefing on the Victims of Civil War in Colombia 
                      and Peru, September 20, 2000

       Welcome to today's Congressional Human Rights Caucus 
     briefing on the Andean refugees--victims of civil war in 
     Colombia and Peru. I would first like to thank my colleagues, 
     Congressman John Porter and Tom Lantos and their able staffs 
     for supporting me in convening the caucus to address this 
     critical issue. Secondly, I would like to thank my colleagues 
     who are present with us today. Finally I would like to extend 
     my deep appreciation to our witnesses for their participation 
     today and their personal investment of time and, in some 
     cases, travel to help illuminate this issue.
       I have become progressively more interested in this issue 
     in the last few years as I have observed Colombian and 
     Peruvian refugees seeking safe haven in South Florida. Since 
     their arrival during the last two decades, they have enriched 
     South Florida with their talent and their spirit of 
     enterprise. In the last few years, my district office has 
     experienced a great increase in the number of visits from 
     Colombian and Peruvian families. In talking with them about 
     their struggle for freedom and peace, I have learned about 
     their journey and how they have sacrificed greatly to protect 
     their children and loved ones from those who would terrorize 
     them in pursuit of territorial, political, or monetary greed. 
     I have pledged to these families that I will do everything I 
     possibly can to assist them in their effort to remain as 
     residents en route to becoming citizens of the United States.
       I should mention that I will use the term refugee in its 
     inclusive meaning to include those who seek humanitarian 
     protection both before and after entering the United States. 
     Therefore, I include those who seek asylum when they are 
     fortunate enough to escape their persecutors and reach the 
     United States.
       A few points should be noted to provide context to the 
     issue before us. Colombia continues to be engulfed in an 
     intensifying civil war that is no longer confined to rural 
     communities. Moreover, it now affects all regions and social 
     strata of Colombian society. Bogota, the nation's capital, is 
     now daily beset with guerrilla atrocities. Unemployment 
     levels exceeded a staggering 20% in 1999 and on average there 
     were seven kidnappings per day--2,548 per year.
       On August 1, 1999 the Miami Herald Editorial Board noted, 
     ``During the terror campaign of the late 1980's and early 
     1990's, narco cartels bombed malls and jetliners, randomly 
     killing innocent civilians en masse.'' Today, the Herald, the 
     Washington Times, Washington Post and other national 
     newspapers report escalating murders, kidnapings for ransom, 
     and other atrocities committed against civilians and 
     foreigners--increasingly more Americans (executives, 
     journalists, professors, and tourists) are becoming victims.
       Peru experienced equally severe destruction in the 1980's 
     and 1990's at the hands of the Sendero Luminoso (the Shining 
     Path). According to Amnesty International's Annual Report for 
     1990, in October of 1990 alone, the Marxist-terrorist 
     organization killed 350 people. We will hear more from our 
     panels about the grave conflict in Peru and how it forced 
     thousands from their homes.
       As many here recall, in the 1980's and 1990's these severe 
     Marxist-guerrilla atrocities in Colombia and Peru caused 
     thousands of refugees to flee their countries and seek safe 
     haven in the United States and elsewhere in North America. 
     The Colombians and Peruvians pursued asylum claims, but most 
     were obstructed from relief. For example, according to the 
     INS between 1989 and 1997, the cumulative approval rate for 
     Colombians was 15.8% and for Peruvians 24.8%--well below 
     similarly beleaguered countries such as Liberia (45.2%) 
     Ethiopia (50.3%) and Burma (54.8%).
       I have received letters from constituents and interested 
     individuals that are bitterly painful to read because they 
     depict savage brutality, intimidation, and terror, all as 
     means to deprive non-combatants of political freedom, land, 
     personal property, and worst of all their human dignity. One 
     man's father was killed by the Marxist Revolutionary Armed 
     Forces of Colombia (FARC), after repeated beatings and the 
     murder of cattle workers, to confiscate the family's land and 
     other assets. Another letter was from a woman who was 
     involved in grass roots political activity on behalf of the 
     assassinated Presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan in 
     1988. She was assaulted, subjected to death threats, and 
     forced to live in hiding and apart from her mother and 
     children for months at a time. A bomb exploded near her home 
     followed by a phone call that threatened her telling her that 
     the next time it would be her home that was bombed. The door 
     to her house was regularly spray painted with the letters 
     ``FARC''.
       What we will hear today will only provide a brief glimpse 
     of the continuous suffering that the refugees have 
     experienced everyday for years. They have lost loved ones in 
     the conflict. They have been separated from family for years. 
     They have been unable to attend funerals of parents and 
     siblings. The physical and mental anguish of these 
     communities deserve our consideration.
       A nation's strength must be measured not only by its 
     economic or military might, but by the degree in which it 
     helps its neighboring allies. Colombia is a mere three and 
     one-half hours flight from Miami--about the distance between 
     Washington, DC and Denver, Colorado.
       It is my hope that this Congress will look at the record of 
     this meeting today and use it to help craft foreign and 
     immigration policies that work to extend relief to the 
     hardworking and law-abiding Peruvian and Colombian families. 
     I have a proposal (The Andean Adjustment Act, HR 2741), which 
     I will discuss later, to begin this effort and I will

[[Page E1549]]

     continue to work toward its adoption. Thank you. We will now 
     here from Ms. Calabia on behalf of the United Nations High 
     Commissioner for Refugees.

     

                          ____________________