[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 42 (Tuesday, March 27, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E459-E460]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          PRAISING THE HUMAN RIGHTS PROGRAM AT TRINITY COLLEGE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN B. LARSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 27, 2001

  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend the 
work of the human rights program at Trinity College in Hatford, 
Connecticut for its dedication to increasing awareness of human rights 
injustices around the world and the active role it has taken in the 
campaign against such abuses. Because of the tireless efforts of Maryam 
Elahi, the Director of the program, Trinity College boasts a human 
rights program that is believed to be the only undergraduate 
interdisciplinary human rights program in the United States, 
challenging its students to become active participants in the fight 
against human rights violations around the world. This Friday will mark 
yet another instance of Trinity's dedication.
  On March 30, 2001, the Human Rights Program will be hosting a 
ceremony calling attention to the plight of three teachers being held 
as political prisoners in Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma, 
Ms. Ma Thida Htway, Mr. U Ye Tint, and Ms. Ma Khin Khin Leh. Their 
story has caught the attention of many world leaders including Her 
Majesty, Queen Rania al-Abdulla of Jordan. I am honored to have Queen 
Rania as a guest of the First Congressional District and as the keynote 
speaker of Friday's ceremony.
  The three teachers were arrested in July 1999 with a dozen other 
activists in connection to a march that had been planned commemorating 
the assassination of independence hero General Aung Sand and supporting 
the National League for Democracy (NLD). Ms. Ma Thida Htway, an 
elementary school teacher, was arrested for attempting to organize the 
1999 uprising and creating a human rights movement. Mr. U Ye Tint, a 
private tutor, was helping students of the uprising produce pamphlets. 
Ms. Ma Khin Khin Leh, a nonpolitical, was arrested together with her 
three-year-old daughter, after the Military Intelligence was unable to 
locate her political activist husband. After five days her daughter was 
released; however, Ma Khin Khin Leh sits in an unspecified prison for a 
life sentence. The two others were also sentenced to lengthy prison 
terms in a trial that fell short of the international standards for 
fair trials. All have been brutalized and tortured because of their 
political beliefs. This cannot continue.
  The plight of these three teachers is just one of many human rights 
abuses which occur

[[Page E460]]

everyday. I have joined my distinguished colleagues and co-chairs of 
the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, Mr. Lantos and Mr. Wolf, and 
many of my other colleagues, in a letter to Lieutenant General Khin 
Nyunt, Secretary of the State Peace and Development Council of the 
Union of Myanmar, calling on him to review their cases and release them 
immediately and unconditionally. It is my hope that our efforts will 
generate a victory in the battle for the three teachers; and 
ultimately, have a positive impact on the war against human rights 
abuses.
  Here in the United States, we take for granted the inalienable rights 
afforded to us by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The freedoms 
of speech, expression, and assembly are all rights exercised by 
American citizens everyday. We often forgot these rights, which our 
forefathers fought so vigorously to ensure, are not freedoms enjoyed by 
all citizens of our world. I praise Trinity College for recognizing the 
significance of this international epidemic and urge my colleagues to 
join in the international campaign to combat these horrific violations 
of human rights.

                          ____________________