[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 147 (Monday, October 1, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12373-S12374]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 BURMA

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, for the past week the world watched the 
people of Burma rise up against the oppressive regime that rules that 
country.
  Then, the tyrannical junta that has held power for some 40 years, the 
State Peace and Development Council, brought out its soldiers and it 
brought out its guns. They arrested, brutalized, and killed many who 
bravely stood up to the misrule of this junta.
  So while last week the streets were filled with brave monks adorned 
in saffron robes demonstrating for freedom, today those same streets 
are occupied by uniformed thugs and lined with barbed-wire barricades. 
For now the people of Burma have largely fallen silent. But the silence 
in Burma is a deafening one that we can still hear. Even if the 
freedom-loving people of Burma had been temporarily quieted, the rest 
of us can still lend our voices to their cause.
  Earlier today, Senator Kerry and I introduced a sense-of-the-Senate 
resolution condemning the SPDC for its brutality in snuffing out these 
cries for

[[Page S12374]]

freedom. We have already been joined by scores of our colleagues on 
both sides of the aisle, and I know we will be joined by many more. The 
House of Representatives is slated to pass a similar measure later this 
week. In this way, the entire Congress of the United States will be 
able to speak, when the Burmese citizen, the Buddhist monk, the 
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi herself are forced to be silent.
  I urge all of my colleagues to join me and join Senator Kerry on this 
resolution.
  I yield the floor.

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