[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 59 (Wednesday, April 22, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2311-S2312]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CHEMICAL WEAPONS
Mr. REID. Mr. President, yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of a
heinous and violent event that has tragically changed the world. On
April 21, 1915, near the beginning of World War I, the German Army
introduced to the world large-scale chemical weapons. That gas swept
the battlefield. People died and suffered enduring pain, and those who
survived, with rare exception, suffered the rest of their lives.
The Kaiser's army released tons of chlorine gas, nearly devastating
the Allied line in Belgium. Europe would never be the same. The world
would never be the same.
The use of poisonous gas proliferated during World War I, bringing
death and devastation to members of the military and civilians.
Following World War I, nations joined to support the Geneva Protocol of
1925, declaring that chemical weapons were so barbaric, so evil that
they should be prohibited from use.
The use of chemical weapons has continued. The world will never
forget the atrocities perpetrated by Hitler during World War II, as
Nazi Germany used chemicals in the genocide of millions of Jews. During
the Nazi regime, at the beginning of it, five men--one name started
with S, one started with A, one started with R, I, and N--invented
sarin gas. The world will not forget the atrocities perpetrated by the
Hitler regime during World War II as Nazi Germany used chemicals in the
genocide of millions--millions--of Jews.
The Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s was another terrible instance of
lethal gasses being deployed as a tool of warfare. In 1988, Saddam
Hussein unleashed a chemical arsenal on his own people, killing
thousands of Kurds. Those pictures are available to see. The people are
indiscriminately lying there--old men, old women, middle aged people,
and babies. The world witnessed these events in horror and decided
international action was absolutely necessary again. In 1992, the
Chemical Weapons Convention was adopted in Geneva. The Chemical Weapons
Convention outlaws the production, stockpile, and use of chemical
weapons and requires their destruction. I voted for that ratification
with pleasure. I voted for ratification--which was ratified here in the
Senate--of the convention to do something more about these chemical
weapons.
But in spite of other efforts, the use of chemical weapons endures.
One hundred years have passed since that fateful date in Belgium, and
the world has yet to end the evil of those poisons. Today, Bashar al-
Assad and his regime and forces loyal to him in Syria are responsible
for horrific violence that violates basic decency. It violates
international laws of war and has shocked the global conscience.
It is no secret that Assad has repeatedly used chemical weapons
against the Syrian people and the country over which he dictates. Even
after Syria was compelled to accede to the convention--the Chemical
Weapons Convention in 2013--there is clear evidence that Assad has
continued to reign terror over his own people by using barrel bombs
filled with chlorine to indiscriminately wreak havoc.
We are reminded of this all the time. I do not usually watch ``60
Minutes.'' It is a good program, but I usually have other things to do.
But I watched because of the promotion on Sunday evening about
something they were going to do on ``60 Minutes.'' They had graphic
pictures that had never been shown before of what this evil person who
runs this country of Syria did to his own people.
Sadly, in addition to the use of chemical weapons, the Assad regime
has carried out all manner of atrocities throughout the course of the
4-year civil war in Syria. As we speak, about 400,000 Syrians have been
killed. He is responsible for the vast majority of those deaths. That
does not take into consideration the millions of people who have been
displaced.
The regime has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity,
including starvation, systematic murder, torture, rape, sexual violence
and
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enforced disappearance. If there were ever, ever something that is
evil, bad, wrong, it is what he has done. The action of the Assad
regime has resulted in the deaths--as I indicated--of countless
innocent civilians and has sewn discord and disarray across the regime.
Yet Assad has repeatedly lied to the world about using chemical
weapons. He loves to get on these shows. The U.S. journalists go over
there, and he sits there before us talking all of these lies about what
he has not done. There are dead people--hundreds of thousands of them
there. There are barrel bombs, cluster bombs. He targets civilians. He
starves them, demonstrating again and again what a terrible person he
is and someone who cannot be believed about anything he says.
I am going to submit a Senate resolution condemning the actions of
the Assad regime and its military forces for these crimes they have
carried out against humanity. This legislation will express the Senate
support for the referral of these evil acts that Assad has perpetrated
and that have also been perpetrated by other Syrian officials and of
course by the military leaders to an appropriate international tribune.
Also, I have to say, it turns my stomach to hear people talk about
making a peace deal in Syria and having Assad be a part of that deal.
How could we do that? This resolution will make clear the Senate's
opposition to any role for Bashar al-Assad in any final settlement of
that civil war. I am confident my Senate colleagues will join me in
condemning the Assad regime and its unthinkable campaign of evil
against its own people.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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