[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.
____________________