[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 61 (Wednesday, May 11, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H3163]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            SEEKING JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF SYRIAN OPPRESSION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, today I wish to call the attention of 
the Members to the important cause of defending the human rights of the 
Syrian people and holding the Syrian regime accountable for the most 
deplorable actions against its citizens.
  Syria is an oppressor state in every sense. It brutally stifles its 
political dissidents and minority groups. It denies its ordinary 
citizens freedom of religion, of conscience and belief. It seeks to 
silence its people by preventing them from exercising their right of 
free speech. It discriminates against women, condoning violence and 
sexual assault against them.
  The police continue to detain people arbitrarily, placing them in 
prisons and torturing them, using methods that seem to herald back to 
the return of the Middle Ages, stretching prisoners on racks or 
fracturing their spines on wheels.
  Since 1963, Syria has ruled under emergency law, using the hollow 
excuse of Israel being a threat, and using that to suppress freedom, 
diversity of opinion, and equality between religions and between sexes.
  About 600 Lebanese detainees have been languishing in Syrian jails 
since 1989. Those who have managed to escape bring harrowing stories 
with them that they have told to the international human rights 
community. They must be released immediately.
  In an event that defies comprehension, in 1982, Rifaat al-Assad, the 
brother of then dictator Hafez al-Assad, turned his Soviet-made guns 
against the Syrian city of Hama. When the dust settled approximately a 
week later, the death toll of innocent civilians had reached 30,000 
people.
  The perpetrators of this massacre, including Rifaat al-Assad, who 
resides in Marbella, Spain, have received no punishment and live amid 
absolute luxury. Their comfortable lifestyle is an affront to the 
Syrian people and to all of humanity.
  Another of the perpetrators to be held accountable is Ghazi Kanaan. 
He headed the military intelligence unit responsible for clearing the 
way for the massacre at Hama. He also later became the Syrian top 
intelligence man in Lebanon and reportedly built all of the 
intelligence units responsible for killing Lebanese Christians and 
imprisoning many other innocent Lebanese.
  Bahjat Suleiman is the head of Unit 251 in the General Directorate of 
the Intelligence Services. Some of the crimes against the Syrian people 
were detailed in H. Con. Res. 18. This resolution, which I authored, 
was overwhelmingly adopted by my colleagues in the House, clearly 
illustrating our body's commitment to holding the Syrian dictatorship 
accountable for the systematic attacks against the Syrian population.
  Inaction on our part is not an option. The cost of failing to address 
this grim reality sooner can be measured by the rising number of Syrian 
and Lebanese men and women that the Syrian Government has killed or 
tortured.
  Today, the Syrian people, the dissidents and the peaceful opposition 
leaders, are poised to act. They are demanding that the Syrian 
Government release all prisoners of conscience and that it allow for 
the winds of reform to sweep through its corrupt system. U.S. policy 
must support the Syrian people, its dissidents, human rights activists, 
and pro-democracy advocates so that they, too, could free themselves 
from the shackles of tyrannical rule.
  In that vein, I recently introduced the Lebanon and Syria Liberation 
Act that contains provisions calling for the establishment of a program 
of assistance to pro-democracy advocates and opposition groups in Syria 
and Lebanon. It also establishes a program to develop independent 
broadcasts into Syria and Lebanon to help promote freedom and democracy 
in both countries.
  The act sends a message to the Syrian Government that the United 
States will not stand for its unacceptable behavior in violation of all 
moral and legal standards. This legislation, with its concrete measures 
to punish the Syrian regime, clearly demonstrates to the Syrian people 
that America stands with them in their efforts to free themselves from 
the shackles of tyranny and to help them build an open society based on 
democratic values and principles.
  We must honor the brave men and women of Syria by acting to defend 
their right to live as free men and women. We must begin by ensuring 
that the Syrian regime and its leaders are made to pay for their crimes 
against the Syrian people. We must support efforts to seek justice for 
the victims of Syrian oppression.

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