[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 108 (Monday, July 21, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H7198]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          PEACEKEEPING AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE FOR LIBERIA

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, in the last 48 hours, the city 
of Monrovia, Liberia, has been overrun with rebels. Women and children 
are fleeing for their lives, and people are dying. Yet our Nation is 
standing by, refusing to act as expeditiously as we should.
   It is important to say to the American people that this is 
distinctive from the issue of war in Iraq where brave young men and 
women every day are on the frontline protecting the interests of the 
United States of America. This is a situation where the Liberian people 
who are well connected with this Nation have asked for peacekeeping and 
humanitarian assistance.

                              {time}  1930

  It is imperative that we join in with the United Nations and the 
organization of West African states as peacekeepers and for 
humanitarian aid to this country. It is imperative that we act now to 
stop the loss of life.
   I too want to ensure that the young men and women who serve in the 
United States military are not put in harm's way. My position on the 
war in Iraq is well known, but this is a different set of 
circumstances. The people of Liberia are begging for our assistance, 
and our assistance is being asked for truly and only as peacekeepers 
and humanitarians.
   I believe it is imperative for the President of the United States, 
the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Defense Department to 
act expeditiously, not only to protect the United States embassy and 
Americans in the United States embassy and in Liberia, but to be a 
friend to Africa, as represented in the last visit by the President of 
the United States, in order to protect the innocent women and children 
and families that are desiring the aid of this Nation in a humanitarian 
and peacekeeping manner.

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