[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 32 (Wednesday, March 16, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H1529-H1532]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    EXPRESSING CONCERN REGARDING VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS BY SYRIA

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 18) expressing the 
grave concern of Congress regarding the continuing gross violations of 
human rights and civil liberties of the Syrian and Lebanese people by 
the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic, as amended.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                            H. Con. Res. 18

       Whereas the Syrian Arab Republic is governed by an 
     authoritarian regime which continues to commit serious human 
     rights abuses, including the use of torture and arbitrary 
     arrest and detention;
       Whereas the Department of State's Country Reports on Human 
     Rights Practices for 2004 states that Syria's ``human rights 
     record remained poor, and the Government continued to commit 
     numerous, serious abuses'', the government ``significantly 
     restricts freedom of speech and of the press'', ``freedom of 
     assembly does not exist under the law'', and ``the Government 
     restricted freedom of association'';

[[Page H1530]]

       Whereas Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human 
     Rights states that ``Everyone has the right to freedom of 
     opinion and expression. This right includes freedom to hold 
     opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart 
     information and ideas through any media and regardless of 
     frontiers.'';
       Whereas Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human 
     Rights states that ``Everyone has the right to freedom of 
     peaceful assembly and association.'';
       Whereas Syria's September 2001 press law permits the 
     government to arbitrarily deny or revoke publishing licenses 
     for vague reasons and compels media to submit all material to 
     government censors;
       Whereas Syrian authorities have arrested, or, in the case 
     of foreigners, expelled journalists for writing critically 
     about Syria's policies;
       Whereas Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have 
     reported that the security forces of Syria are targeting 
     emerging Syrian human rights organizations, as well as their 
     attorneys, in an apparent attempt to intimidate those 
     organizations;
       Whereas, on March 8, 2004, Syrian security forces arrested 
     more than 30 human rights dissidents and civilians at a sit-
     in in front of the parliament;
       Whereas a United States diplomat who was watching the 
     peaceful demonstrations was also arrested and held for an 
     hour in what the United States called an unacceptable 
     violation of diplomatic practice and which the United States 
     protested ``in the strongest terms'';
       Whereas Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human 
     Rights states that ``All are equal before the law and are 
     entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of 
     the law.'';
       Whereas the criminal law of Syria provides for reduced 
     sentences in cases of ``honor'' killings, and spousal rape is 
     not illegal;
       Whereas the infringement by Syria on human rights and civil 
     liberties extends into the Lebanese Republic, which it 
     continues to occupy in violation of United Nations Security 
     Council resolutions;
       Whereas hundreds of Lebanese civilians are believed to have 
     been killed or ``disappeared'' by Syrian occupation forces or 
     its secret police;
       Whereas hundreds of Kurdish civilians were injured or 
     killed in clashes with the Syrian authorities in March 2004 
     in Qamishli, a city in northeastern Syria, and Syrian 
     security forces arrested and tortured Syrian Kurdish 
     civilians from the town of Al-Malikiyah on January 9, 2005;
       Whereas Syrian authorities continue their harassment of 
     Aktham Naisse, Syria's leading human rights activist, 
     President, and founding member of the Committees for the 
     Defense of Democratic Liberties and Human Rights in Syria, 
     and the 2005 winner of the Martin Ennals Award for Human 
     Rights Defenders, one of the most prestigious awards in the 
     global human rights community, by charging him with spreading 
     false information, forming an underground association with 
     links to international human rights groups, and opposing the 
     Baath Party;
       Whereas, in November 2004, upon his release from prison, 
     Kamal Labwani, a 48-year-old physician in Syria, stated that 
     there are at least 400 political prisoners in Syria, 100 of 
     whom have been jailed for at least 20 years;
       Whereas Mr. Labwani urged ``all defenders of freedom and 
     human rights, whether individuals, associations, or bodies, 
     or international, Arab, or local organizations to participate 
     with us in this campaign to call for the immediate release of 
     all political prisoners and detainees of opinion and 
     conscience'';
       Whereas, in November 2004, Syrian journalist Louai Hussein 
     was banned from writing by the Syrian Interior Ministry's 
     political security office;
       Whereas, in November 2004, the arrest in Germany of a 
     Syrian embassy official for espionage and issuing threats 
     against the Syrian opposition in Europe is evidence of a 
     campaign reportedly launched by Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, 
     aimed at intimidating the regime's opposition abroad;
       Whereas thousands of Syrian citizens, along with their 
     families, children, and grandchildren, live outside their 
     country in forced exile, solely because of their political 
     views, or because of the views of members of their families; 
     and
       Whereas human rights and democracy groups in Syria have 
     sponsored a petition urging greater freedoms and the release 
     of all political prisoners: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
     concurring), That Congress--
       (1) condemns the consistent pattern of gross violations of 
     internationally recognized human rights by the Government of 
     the Syrian Arab Republic;
       (2) calls on the international community to adopt a 
     resolution at the upcoming session of the United Nations 
     Commission on Human Rights which details the dismal human 
     rights record of Syria;
       (3) expresses its support for the people of Syria in their 
     daily struggle for freedom, respect for human rights and 
     civil liberties, democratic self-governance, and the 
     establishment of the rule of law;
       (4) encourages the President and the Secretary of State to 
     reach out to dissidents, human rights activists, and the 
     nonviolent democratic opposition in Syria, and to assist them 
     in their efforts; and
       (5) urges the adoption and pursuit of these and other 
     policies to seek a democratic government in Syria that will--
       (A) bring freedom and democracy to the people of Syria;
       (B) cease the illegal occupation by Syria of the Lebanese 
     Republic;
       (C) abandon support for terrorism;
       (D) not pursue research, development, acquisition, 
     production, transfer, or deployment of biological, chemical, 
     or nuclear weapons, will provide credible assurances that 
     such behavior will not be undertaken in the future, and will 
     agree to allow United Nations and other international 
     observers to verify such assurances; and
       (E) live in peace and security with the international 
     community.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Smith) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith).
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume. I want to thank the leadership for bringing up this 
resolution.
  H. Con. Res. 18, Mr. Speaker, addresses the continued gross 
violations of human rights committed by the Syrian regime. The 
terrorist regime in Damascus is one that not only supports and 
facilitates terrorist attacks against innocent civilians throughout the 
world but also engages in a widespread campaign of terror and human 
rights suppression among its own people.
  According to the most recent State Department Country Reports on 
Human Rights Practices, the government of Syria continues to commit 
numerous serious abuses and remains with a poor record on human rights 
overall. Any activity by human rights activists and organizations is 
stifled and activists are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, tortured 
or even forced into exile, only to be harassed and intimidated in exile 
as well.
  Domestic human rights groups cannot exist legally. According to a 
recent world report by Human Rights Watch, the dictatorship of Syria 
strictly limits freedom of expression, association and assembly and 
treats ethnic minority Kurds as second-class citizens. The government 
has a long record of arbitrary arrests, systematic torture, prolonged 
detention of suspects and grossly unfair trials. Women face 
discrimination and have little means for full redress when they become 
victims of rape or domestic violence.
  However, Syria's deplorable human rights record is not limited to its 
immediate borders. The repressive apparatus also extends into 
neighboring Lebanon, which has been a captive nation for 25 years. 
Hundreds of free-thinking Lebanese civilians are believed to have been 
killed or disappeared because of Syrian occupation forces throughout 
these years. U.S. policy must support the Syrian people. It must 
support its dissidents, human rights activists, and the pro-democracy 
advocates so that they, too, can free themselves from the shackles of 
tyrannical rule.
  This resolution also addresses, Mr. Speaker, two overarching vital 
U.S. national security requirements regarding the Syrian regime; that 
is, that Syria must immediately and unconditionally cease its support 
for terrorism and its development of unconventional weapons and 
advanced missile capabilities.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to support this important resolution to 
express U.S. support for those in Syria and Lebanon who continue to 
toil for freedom and democracy, and ensure the regime in Damascus that 
we will continue to increase the pressure until these goals are met.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I rise in strong support of this resolution. I want to commend my 
friend from New Jersey for his leadership on this issue. The resolution 
before the House supports the people of Syria who live under a violent 
and repressive regime. The last Congress, this body passed the Syria 
Accountability Act with 297 cosponsors. That bill primarily addressed 
Syria's behavior in the Middle East, including its sponsorship of 
terrorist groups and its continuing occupation of Lebanon. This 
resolution, Mr. Speaker, focuses on Syria's domestic misbehavior for 
which Damascus must also be held fully accountable. After all, nobody 
has suffered more from the brutality of the

[[Page H1531]]

Syrian government than the Syrian people.
  According to the State Department's annual human rights report 
released recently, Syria continues to commit egregious human rights 
abuses, including torture, arbitrary detentions of political prisoners 
without trial, censorship and harassment of journalists, protections 
for spouse-rapists, and light sentences for so-called honor killings. 
According to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, Syria is 
engaged in an unceasing campaign to harass and intimidate human rights 
organizations.
  In recent days, the world has focused on Syria's outrages against the 
Lebanese people and, indeed, another resolution we are considering 
today deals directly with that issue. But, Mr. Speaker, we cannot 
credibly say we favor political reform in the Middle East if we ignore 
Syria's depredations against its own citizens.
  Syria is certainly, and I quote, one of the world's most repressive 
regimes, as the United Nations Commission on Human Rights has 
indicated. Accordingly, it is important that this Congress be on record 
not merely in condemning the Syrian government for its actions against 
its neighbors but, more importantly, to express our support for the 
Syrian people in their struggle to achieve the kind of government they 
deserve.
  When I met with Syrian President Assad in Damascus, I urged him to 
change his government's behavior at home and abroad so that Syria could 
rejoin the ranks of the civilized world. This resolution is one result 
of his failure to heed that advice.
  Mr. Speaker, a Syria that is accountable to world standards and 
norms, a Syria that respects its own citizens and no longer occupies 
Lebanon or supports terrorism against Israel must be a central goal of 
our project of reforming the Middle East. In the long run, a Middle 
East in which people are stakeholders in public life offers the 
greatest hope for peace and safety in the region and beyond.
  I urge all of my colleagues to support H. Con. Res. 18.
  Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to yield such time as he may consume to 
my friend and colleague, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer), a 
distinguished member of the Committee on International Relations.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy in 
permitting me to speak on this resolution and his leadership in 
bringing it forward. I am going to support the resolution. I, too, am 
troubled by what we have seen with the Syrian government. I am 
heartened by some activities in the Middle East. I think there is some 
real progress. But I would step back for a moment and ask us to reflect 
on something that has been happening that does not reflect so well on 
our government.
  Just moments ago, the House overwhelmingly approved an amendment 
advanced by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey) and me that 
dealt with making sure that money that we approved in the supplemental 
was not used to torture suspects of terrorism. We have this sense, and 
it is one that the people I represent feel very strongly about, that we 
have a responsibility and an obligation as the world's oldest democracy 
to be upholding our standards of rule of law, of due process. We have 
made torture illegal not just because people are concerned that it is 
an immoral practice, we do so because it is not a good way to get 
useful information.
  Dictatorships torture indiscriminately, but it is not a way, as the 
Intelligence Community well understands, that we get good information 
upon which to base activities that may put our men and women at risk 
and to protect United States interests. Furthermore, we do not torture 
suspects of terror because if we do so, then any information that is 
gathered from that process taints any potential case and we cannot 
bring people to justice in a court of law.
  Last but not least, we do not torture because we want a standard 
established where we can use our moral authority to make sure that 
Americans abroad are protected, whether they are in uniform or they are 
civilians.
  There are a variety of moral, practical reasons why we are against 
torture. Yet I would note that there are too many press accounts for us 
to ignore, too many reports from nongovernmental organizations that the 
United States is participating in and condoning torture on behalf of 
prisoners that we have taken to other countries. There is a famous case 
that now the Canadian government wants investigated where the United 
States kidnapped a Canadian citizen and rendered this person to Syria 
where he was tortured. We have called for this Congress to get on top 
of what is, I am afraid, an emerging scandal, where we use 
extraordinary rendition, where we kidnap and transport people, where 
there is not effective oversight, where Congress does not know what is 
going on, where there are people who are not being held accountable, 
where there are problems that we have seen with people who have been in 
custody of the CIA and some of the American prisons that we have had in 
Afghanistan and Iraq.

                              {time}  1230

  We, as a Congress, need to be doing our job because we do not believe 
in torture; it is illegal; it is against international conventions; it 
is against the interests of the United States. And I must re-emphasize 
the irony when we come forward with a resolution that points out the 
problems, legitimate problems, the abuses in Syria, and then it appears 
as though the United States is willing to offer up people to countries 
like Syria, where we thought they are in fact going to be tortured.
  Mr. Speaker, I would hope that Congress gets ahead of this issue, 
that Congress does its job to investigate these widespread reports that 
are coming through now our own legal system, that are coming through 
the media, that are coming from nongovernmental organizations, that we 
exercise our oversight to make sure that we have our own house in 
order. There should be no prospect that we are on one hand going to be 
a Congress that condemns torture and abuse of human rights in Syria, 
and on the other hand we are going to look the other way when we may be 
offering up people who are suspects, not convicted of anything, to be 
turned over to the hands of these same torturers.
  I would sincerely hope that we will have activity on the part of all 
of us to make sure the many committees in Congress do their job to 
provide this oversight and that we are not relying on the media, 
nongovernmental organizations, and what trickles through the legal 
system to do a job that we should be doing.
  Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, while I rise in support of this 
resolution, I do so with serious concerns.
  Torture is a crime and a vile human rights abuse. Syria should be 
condemned in the strongest possible terms for committing acts of 
torture against detainees and prisoners. This is why I support the 
resolution. Yet, the fact that our government has sent detainees to 
Syria knowing that these individuals would be tortured and abused is 
morally repugnant and violates international, as well as U.S., law.
  The practice of extraordinary rendition--our government's practice of 
outsourcing torture to countries like Syria must also be condemned, 
repudiated and immediately ordered stopped by President Bush. Human 
Rights Watch, which is frequently cited as an authoritative source in 
this resolution, has stated that the U.S. policy of ``denouncing 
torture in Syria, and then handing over prisoners to Syrian torturers 
sends the ultimate mixed message.''
  Syria is a notorious violator of human rights that should be 
condemned. The hypocrisy of our government using Syrian torturers as a 
subcontractor to immorally and illegally commit human rights abuses is 
shamefully absent from this resolution.
  Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Con. Res. 18 
to express Congress' concern about the treatment of the Syrian and 
Lebanese people by the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic. I want 
to thank my colleagues from Florida and New York for introducing this 
resolution and bringing it to the floor today.
  Earlier this body considered H. Con. Res. 32, which expresses support 
for the liberation movement in Lebanon. Now, under this second 
resolution, we take into consideration the effect of Syrian rule of its 
own people. The Syrian Arab Republic is governed by an authoritarian 
regime which continues to commit serious human rights abuses, including 
the use of torture, arbitrary arrest, and detention.
  Within Syria both freedom of speech and freedom of the press has 
repressed through systematic intimidation. Syrians are prohibited to 
publicly assembling in order to express discontent of any kind. 
Political prisoners are

[[Page H1532]]

known to have been held in detainment for up to twenty years. Ruling 
authorities continue to allow honor killings. In the North, Syrian 
forces have attacked unarmed Kurd populations with live ammunition. 
Human rights organizations working in opposition these injustices are 
targeted by Syrian authorities with intimidation tactics.
  The Syrian government's treatment of its people can no longer be 
tolerated. I encourage my colleagues to pass the resolution in question 
and in doing so condemn the Syrian government's gross human rights 
violations upon its own people and support the Syrian people's struggle 
for a free and democratic government.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, we have no further requests for 
time, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, we have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of our time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) that the House 
suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res. 
18, as amended.
  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.

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