[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 168 (Wednesday, November 19, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H11524-H11527]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




HONORING VICTIMS OF CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE THAT TOOK PLACE FROM APRIL 1975 
                            TO JANUARY 1979

  Mr. LEACH. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the 
concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 83) honoring the victims of the 
Cambodian genocide that took place from April 1975 to January 1979.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                            H. Con. Res. 83

       Whereas beginning in April 1975 and ending in January 1979 
     at least 1,700,000 to 3,000,000 people were deliberately and 
     systematically killed in Cambodia in one of the worst human 
     tragedies of the modern era;
       Whereas in 1975, Pol Pot led the Communist guerilla group, 
     the Khmer Rouge, in a large-scale insurgency in Cambodia that 
     resulted in the removal of Cambodians from their homes and 
     into labor camps in an attempt to restructure Khmer society;
       Whereas traditional Khmer culture and society were 
     systematically destroyed, including the destruction of 
     temples, schools, hospitals, and other buildings;
       Whereas families were separated in an attempt by the Khmer 
     Rouge to prevent family formation, many individuals were 
     punished or killed for education, wealth, or sophistication, 
     and doctors, nurses, clergy, teachers, business owners, 
     artisans, city dwellers, and even those individuals who wore 
     glasses were singled out for execution since they were seen 
     as bourgeois or contaminated with Western influence;
       Whereas the Khmer Rouge maintained control by mass public 
     torture, executions, and dismantling of the social order;
       Whereas men, women, and children were sent to labor camps 
     and forced to do strenuous farm work and famine and disease 
     became epidemic while medicine and medical care were non-
     existent;
       Whereas after the Khmer Rouge regime was overthrown in 1979 
     thousands of Cambodians fled on foot to refugee camps in

[[Page H11525]]

     Thailand and many refugees were processed again in other 
     camps in the Philippines and Indonesia;
       Whereas from these refugee camps approximately 145,149 
     Cambodians made their way to the United States between 1975 
     and 1999, with the majority of Cambodians arriving in the 
     early 1980s;
       Whereas these Cambodians were subsequently resettled in 
     communities across the United States;
       Whereas according to United States Bureau of the Census 
     figures for 2000, there are approximately 206,053 Cambodians 
     currently living in the United States;
       Whereas despite their tremendous loss, Cambodians and 
     Cambodian-Americans have shown courage and resiliency;
       Whereas the memory of those Cambodians who were killed 
     during the Cambodian genocide must never be forgotten and the 
     survivors of the Cambodian genocide should be honored;
       Whereas the resettlement of Cambodians reflected the hard 
     work of voluntary agencies through funding by the Federal 
     government, individual citizens, and Federal, State, and 
     local governmental agencies, all working together to assist 
     the new arrivals in adjusting to American society;
       Whereas Cambodian refugees have done much to further 
     successful resettlement in the United States, including 
     through mutual assistance associations organized by 
     previously resettled Southeast Asian refugees to help new 
     refugees through the provision of essential social, 
     psychological, cultural, educational, and economic services; 
     and
       Whereas while remembering and honoring both their 
     traditional culture and their traumatic past, the new 
     generation of Cambodian Americans is contributing to American 
     society in meaningful ways: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
     concurring), That Congress--
       (1) honors the victims of the genocide in Cambodia that 
     took place beginning in April 1975 and ending in January 
     1979; and
       (2) is committed to pursue justice for the victims of the 
     Cambodian genocide.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Iowa (Mr. Leach) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Leach).


                             General Leave

  Mr. LEACH. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on H. Con. Res. 83.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Iowa?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. LEACH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Con. Res. 83, honoring the 
victims of the Cambodian genocide. It is difficult to gain a full 
perspective on historic events, particularly those that are most 
inhumane, such as genocide. Tragically, the 20th century, which was 
marked by advances in medicine and nutrition that raise the prospect of 
nearly doubling the life span of countless people around the globe, 
also was marked by explosions of hatred that mercilessly ended life for 
millions of others. The killing of so many Cambodians under the Khmer 
Rouge in the 1970s stands among the worst of those atrocities.
  In the field of law, there exists the precept of a statute of 
limitations. But for genocide, mankind's greatest crime, such a precept 
cannot be bound merely by time. There also must be accountability. 
While justice and time are interwoven, the preeminent principle is 
justice. To the extent that accountability today is inadequate, 
accountability tomorrow must follow.
  For some, justice for the Cambodian genocide seems a frail prospect, 
given that almost a generation has passed in that country. Indeed, it 
does not lie within our power to construct perfect justice for that, or 
any other, genocide. But as time goes on and mortality places more of 
the perpetrators beyond our reckoning, the most important 
accountability is not necessarily monetary, penal or retributive. The 
march of time underscores the importance of memory. Victims must be 
remembered and civilized peoples of the world must commit themselves to 
ensuring that such horrific circumstances are not repeated within human 
history.
  It is in this context that this resolution assumes its proper 
importance. I would like to commend the gentlewoman from California 
(Ms. Millender-McDonald) for her efforts in introducing H. Con. Res. 
83, which honors the victims of the Cambodian genocide, gives voice to 
our desire for justice, and notes the contributions of Cambodian 
Americans to our own society.
  To some, this resolution may seem unimportant because it principally 
marks an instance of symbolism. I disagree and believe that its power 
derives precisely from its symbolism. This resolution deserves our 
unanimous support.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution. Mr. 
Speaker, first I would like to commend my dear friend and wonderful 
neighbor, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Millender-McDonald) for 
introducing this important resolution. The gentlewoman has shown 
enormous leadership on behalf of Cambodian Americans and her work is 
greatly appreciated by all of us.
  The resolution calls attention to one of the most horrendous chapters 
in contemporary world history. The Cambodian genocide which unfolded 
from April 1975 to January 1979. Mr. Speaker, 3 million Cambodians 
living in cities were forced into the countryside in a brutal and 
bloody effort to reshape Cambodian society. The Khmer Rouge targeted 
these city dwellers for execution, along with anyone else deemed by 
them to be educated, sophisticated or just different.
  By the time the Khmer Rouge was forced from power in 1979, over 1.7 
million Cambodian citizens amounting to over 20 percent of Cambodia's 
population had perished. When a number of us visited Cambodia not long 
ago, the vestiges of this brutal onslaught of innocent men, women and 
children was still profoundly visible. Hundreds of thousands of 
Cambodians had been forced to flee their native lands. Many were living 
in squalid refugee camps in Thailand and other Southeast Asia nations.
  During the 1980s, some 150,000 Cambodians were received by our own 
country as refugees, and they began the long process of rebuilding 
their shattered lives. Cambodians who had lost most of their families 
and been subject to forced labor and torture found new lives here in 
the United States, and they began the difficult process of rebuilding 
their shattered dreams.
  Cambodian Americans now number over 200,000, Mr. Speaker, and they 
are making an enormous contribution to our Nation's economy and to the 
development of our diverse culture. These new Americans continue to 
face many challenges rebuilding their lives in the United States even 
with financial, psychological and educational assistance provided to 
them. With passage of this resolution, we remember the victims of the 
Cambodian genocide, not only those who perished in Cambodia's Killing 
Fields, but those who were left to live with the physical and 
psychological scars inflicted by the hands of the brutal Khmer Rouge.

                              {time}  1100

  The courage and resiliency of these survivors is an inspiration to 
all of us. We cannot undo the massive devastation of the horrendous 4 
years of Cambodia's history. By remembering the victims of the 
Cambodian genocide, however, we do our best to prevent such atrocities 
from ever happening again.
  Mr. Speaker, I strongly support this important resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LEACH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished 
gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher).
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this 
resolution and again thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. 
Millender-McDonald) for proposing it. We share Long Beach, which is the 
home of a large Cambodian exiled community. Let me note the people who 
are exiled in Long Beach and elsewhere in the United States from 
Cambodia are there because they fled terror almost beyond imagination.
  Cambodia was pushed into a regional conflict in the 1960s. They did 
not really choose to do so. Sihanouk, their king, tried to keep that 
country out of that conflict; and eventually, as I say, they were 
pushed into it. And who pushed them? Well, the Vietnamese certainly 
pushed the Cambodians into

[[Page H11526]]

it, but so did the United States of America. While we were looking 
towards protecting our interests in Southeast Asia, we made the 
Cambodians vulnerable to the type of atrocities that cost the lives of 
millions of Cambodians and left so many people exiled in the United 
States and elsewhere throughout the world.
  That conflict was something that we should not forget, and we should 
not forget that during this massacre that followed America's withdrawal 
from Vietnam in Cambodia, where millions of people were imprisoned and 
perhaps up to a million and a half murdered, that those people were 
suffering and going through this situation and America ignored all of 
the pleas. During that time period, we turned our back on something 
that we had pushed them into; and we held our fingers to our ears and 
refused to hear the cries of agony that was coming from the slaughter 
that was taking place there in Cambodia.
  Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge, who, I might add, were the perfect 
communists, they were not working people who just rose up, they were 
well-educated people and well educated in Marxism, Leninism and their 
plans from their Marxist professors in Paris who gave them the ideas of 
what a perfect society would be like. And, of course, to create a 
perfect society they had to slaughter everyone in their society that 
was imperfect by their plan.
  Well, we did not do what was right back in those days. The Cambodians 
suffered. Today we recognize that with this resolution. But we must do 
more than pass a resolution. We must make sure that we are committed to 
democracy in Cambodia. Let us not turn our backs again or put our hands 
over our ears when we hear that things are going wrong in Cambodia.
  Hun Sen, who currently controls the government in Cambodia, was 
himself a member of the Khmer Rouge, was a brigade commander; and if 
there were people slaughtered, there is no doubt he was engaged in it. 
Today, when they attempt to have free elections and organize an 
opposition party to Hun Sen's rule, people get killed. People 
disappear.
  Let us not turn our backs and with this resolution declare that we 
are committed to democracy and to helping the people of Cambodia.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the 
gentleman from California (Ms. Millender-McDonald), my good friend and 
distinguished colleague who is the author of this resolution.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to thank 
the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) and the ranking member, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), for their great leadership and 
their sensitivity in marshaling this piece of legislation to the floor.
  I would like to also thank the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Leach) for 
managing this piece of legislation; and I would like to thank my 
colleague and friend from the area that we both represent, Long Beach, 
for joining in this morning in presenting this resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on my resolution, House Concurrent 
Resolution 83, a bill honoring the victims of the Cambodian genocide. 
Between April, 1975, and January, 1979, up to 3 million Cambodians were 
deliberately and systematically killed in what later became known as 
the Killing Fields. Many more were tortured, starved, and brainwashed 
but survived this horrific period in history.
  In 1975, Pol Pot led the communist guerilla group, the Khmer Rouge, 
in a large-scale insurgency that resulted in the removal of millions of 
Cambodians from their homes and forced them into brutal labor camps. 
Traditional Khmer culture and society were systematically destroyed. 
Temples, schools, hospitals, and other buildings were shattered. 
Families were separated in an attempt by the Khmer Rouge to prevent 
family formation. Many were punished or killed for education, wealth or 
sophistication. Doctors, nurses, clergy, teachers, business owners, 
artisans, city dwellers and even those who wore glasses were singled 
out for execution since they were seen as bourgeois or contaminated 
with western influence.
  The Khmer Rouge maintained control by mass public torture, 
executions, and dismantling the social order. Men, women and children 
were sent to labor camps and forced to do strenuous farm work. They 
were starved, with little food and contaminated drinking water. Famine 
and disease became epidemic, while medicine and medical care were 
nonexistent.
  When the Khmer Rouge regime was overthrown in 1979, thousands of 
Cambodians fled on foot to refugee camps on the Thai border. While war 
continued to rage in their homeland, they waited for up to 12 years to 
be resettled in a third country such as the United States. From the 
refugee camps in Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia, 
approximately 145,000 Cambodians made their way to the United States 
between 1975 and 1999.
  The majority of Cambodians arrived in the early 1980s. With the 
assistance of the Federal Government, State, local and voluntary 
agencies, Cambodians were resettled in communities across the country. 
Mutual assistance associations organized by previously resettled 
southeast Asian refugees helped these newcomers by providing essential 
social, physiological, cultural, educational and economic services.
  I am grateful for the work that these organizations have done to help 
assimilate the many Cambodians that reside in my district and around 
this country. The United Cambodian Community, the Khmer Parent 
Association, the Family and Good Health Association, and the Cambodian 
Chamber of Congress all have played an important role in trying to help 
these refugees find their way and to help them overcome the horrendous 
experiences that they had in their homeland.
  The Cambodian culture and contributions have enriched the American 
landscape. According to U.S. census figures, there are 176,148 
Cambodians currently living in the United States, including almost 
100,000 in the City of Long Beach. I am proud that the largest 
Cambodian population in the United States resides in my district.
  Despite the tremendous loss of family members, homes, and even parts 
of their heritage, Cambodians have shown enormous resiliency. They 
continue in their struggle to fully assimilate themselves into the 
fabric of our society.
  Unfortunately, some Cambodian refugees still suffer severe emotional 
trauma from the cruelties experienced under the Khmer Rouge. An article 
in The New York Times this past Sunday noted the difficulty and the 
adjustment that Cambodian refugees have had to make from forced labor 
to a free society. We must continue to help Cambodian refugees share in 
the American Dream. Passage of this measure is a start in the pursuit 
of justice for the victims of the Cambodian genocide.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge swift passage of this resolution paying tribute 
to the victims of the Cambodian genocide; and I thank the chairman, the 
ranking member, and all who will partake in this resolution.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to 
the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Meehan).
  Mr. MEEHAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding me 
this time, and I thank the chairman of the committee as well as the 
gentlewoman from California, the author of this resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my strong support for House Concurrent 
Resolution 83, a resolution honoring those who were deliberately and 
systematically killed by the Khmer Rouge regime. I want to pay my 
solemn respects to those who lost their lives and to the survivors and 
their loved ones, so many of whom reside in my district and in 
Massachusetts and who carry the scars to this day.
  The Cambodian genocide was one of the darkest chapters in human 
history. In April of 1975, Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge in a brutal 
insurgency against the Cambodian government in an effort to wipe out 
traditional Khmer culture and society. Over the next 4 years, the Khmer 
Rouge orchestrated the calculated destruction of the Cambodian people 
through forced labor, public torture, and death marches.
  Following the overthrow of Khmer Rouge in 1979, hundreds of thousands 
of Cambodians fled the country on foot to refugee camps. I met and 
hired one of those who worked in my Lowell district office. Sarah Kuon 
would tell me of her earliest memories as a child walking along a 
railroad track with

[[Page H11527]]

rocks and bare feet for miles and miles, trying to get to a refugee 
camp.
  Many of these refugees eventually resettled in the United States; and 
I am proud to represent a large and active Cambodian community in and 
around the city of Lowell, Massachusetts, my hometown.
  Cambodian Americans have made invaluable contributions to our 
communities through their spirit, leadership, and strength. I am proud 
that the City of Lowell elected the first Cambodian-American anywhere 
in the United States to public elective office. Rity Uong was elected 
to the Lowell City Council in 1979 in an at-large election. Just 2 
weeks ago, he was reelected to his third term on the city council.
  This resolution represents a small but important step in honoring the 
victims, their survivors, and their descendants by making public and 
vivid the hidden details of the Cambodian genocide. This resolution 
should remind the world not only of the horrors perpetrated by the 
Khmer Rouge but of the horrors of genocide in Europe, Africa, and 
around the world.
  I am honored to add my voice to those of my colleagues today in 
remembering the victims of the Cambodian genocide, and I will continue 
to pursue justice for its victims. We will never forget what happened 
or turn our backs on the truth.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. LEACH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to 
conclude with great thanks to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. 
Millender-McDonald) for her gentility and her civil leadership of this 
very important international human rights issue.
  Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back 
the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Shaw). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Leach) that the House suspend 
the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res. 83.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of 
those present have voted in the affirmative.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.

                          ____________________