[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 167 (Monday, November 9, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11292-S11293]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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   SENATE RESOLUTION 345--DEPLORING THE RAPE AND ASSAULT OF WOMEN IN 
             GUINEA AND THE KILLING OF POLITICAL PROTESTERS

  Mrs. BOXER (for herself, Ms. Collins, Mrs. Gillibrand, Ms. Stabenow, 
Mrs. Shaheen, Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Hutchison, Ms. Landrieu, Mrs. 
Feinstein, Ms. Snowe, Ms. Mikulski, and Mrs. McCaskill) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations:

                              S. Res. 345

       Whereas, on December 23, 2008, a group of military officers 
     calling itself the National Council for Democracy and 
     Development (referred to in this preamble as the ``CNDD'') 
     seized power in a coup in Guinea, installed as interim 
     President Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, and promised to hold 
     elections;
       Whereas, on September 28, 2009, tens of thousands of 
     unarmed opposition protesters met in and around an outdoor 
     stadium to protest statements made by Captain Camara that he 
     may run for president, after he said that he would not;
       Whereas government security forces killed at least 157 
     demonstrators, after opening fire on the crowd, and 
     brutalized and raped dozens of women openly in public;
       Whereas, according to Human Rights Watch, these killings 
     and assaults were part of a ``premeditated massacre'' in 
     which the ``level, frequency, and brutality of sexual 
     violence that took place at and after the protests strongly 
     suggests that it was part of a systematic attempt to 
     terrorize and humiliate the opposition, not just random acts 
     by rogue soldiers'';
       Whereas, according to the humanitarian organization CARE, 
     ``What happened in Guinea is an outrage--and a stark reminder 
     of a larger epidemic of violence against women and girls 
     around the world.'';
       Whereas members of the United Nations Security Council 
     condemned ``the violence that caused reportedly more than 150 
     deaths and hundreds of wounded and other blatant violations 
     of human rights including rapes in public streets in broad 
     day light, and violence that led to the arrest of opposition 
     party leaders'';
       Whereas the United Nations High Commissioner for Human 
     Rights characterized the events as a ``blood bath'' and 
     stated that they ``must not become part of the fabric of 
     impunity that has enveloped Guinea for decades'';
       Whereas Amnesty International reports that violence against 
     women knows few bounds, and that ``in armed conflicts, 
     countless women and girls are raped and sexually abused by 
     security forces and opposition groups as an act of war, and 
     often face additional violence in refugee camps. Government 
     sponsored violence also exists in peacetime, with women 
     assaulted while in police custody, in prison, and at the 
     hands of any number of state actors.'' and that ``violence 
     against women is a violation of human rights that cannot be 
     justified by any political, religious, or cultural claim''; 
     and
       Whereas, on October 16, 2009, United Nations Secretary-
     General Ban Ki-moon announced the creation of an 
     international commission of inquiry to investigate the 
     events: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) deplores the rape and assault of women and the killing 
     of political protestors in Guinea, and calls for an immediate 
     cessation of violence, including gender-based violence and 
     targeted killings by security forces;
       (2) strongly supports efforts by the United Nations 
     Security Council's commission of inquiry into the violence, 
     and calls for Captain Moussa Dadis Camara and the National 
     Council for Democracy and Development to abide by their 
     pledge to cooperate with the commission;
       (3) urges the identification and prosecution, by the 
     appropriate authorities, of those responsible for 
     orchestrating or carrying out the violence in Guinea;
       (4) urges President Barack Obama, in coordination with 
     leaders from the European Union and the African Union, to 
     seriously consider punitive measures that could be taken 
     against senior officials in Guinea found to be complicit in 
     the violence, in particular the atrocities perpetrated 
     against women and other gross human rights violations; and
       (5) encourages President Obama to remain actively engaged 
     in the political situation in Guinea, to continue to convey 
     that the blatant abuse of women will not be tolerated, and to 
     continue supporting the efforts of the appointed facilitator, 
     President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, to pave a way 
     forward to credible elections.

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