[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 67 (Wednesday, April 25, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H3571-H3573]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                GENOCIDE AWARENESS AND PREVENTION MONTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Missouri 
(Mrs. Wagner) for 30 minutes.


                             General Leave

  Mrs. WAGNER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and to include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Missouri?
  There was no objection.
  Mrs. WAGNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in honor of Genocide Awareness and 
Prevention Month. Today we remember the millions of victims of genocide 
throughout history, and we recommit to working toward the day when 
genocide and mass-atrocity crimes are not only inconceivable, Mr. 
Speaker, but they are nonexistent.
  April marks the commemorations of some of the worst genocides in 
history, including the Holocaust and Rwandan, Cambodian, and Armenian 
genocides. Time and again, senseless bloodshed has ended innocent lives 
and fractured families and livelihoods.
  My hometown, St. Louis, is home to the largest Bosnian community 
outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This community has shaped what the 
city looks and feels like. It has added great cultural diversity to the 
city, immense intellectual capital, thriving small businesses, and a 
strong religious presence.
  Two decades ago, members of our Bosnian community were refugees. In 
1995, Orthodox Serbs, under the command of General Ratko Mladic, 
initiated a horrific ethnic cleansing campaign against majority Muslim 
Bosniaks. The escalating bloodshed forced 130,000 Bosnian refugees to 
seek new lives in the United States. Thousands were murdered in 
Srebrenica. Today I wish to honor these brave men and women.
  The resilience of our Bosnian neighbors has enriched our city, and 
their courage inspires me. It has inspired me to seek change. Tomorrow 
I am offering an amendment to the State Department Authorization Act of 
2018 asking the administration to study countries at risk of genocide 
and mass-atrocity crimes and craft training regimens for U.S. Foreign 
Service officers.
  Should this bill become law, America's diplomats will have the know-
how to respond to those conflicts on the ground and act before violence 
spirals out of control. Most importantly, this amendment establishes 
that the official policy of the United States of America is to regard 
the prevention of genocide and atrocity crimes as a core national 
security interest.

  However, this is just one step in the right direction. The U.S. 
Government must improve how it responds to conflicts. Last April, I 
introduced the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act to 
improve U.S. efforts to prevent mass-atrocity crimes, named after the 
courageous Auschwitz survivor. The legislation honors the legacy of 
Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and his life work to fight evil around the 
world.
  Mr. Wiesel was just 15 years old when the Nazis deported him and his 
family to Auschwitz. He was the only member of his family to survive. 
Having witnessed the near total destruction of his people, he spent his 
life defending the persecuted. In his honor, we fight to rectify 
injustice and protect the most vulnerable in our society and across the 
globe.
  As Mr. Wiesel understood so well, the true horror of genocide is that 
it is preventable, and the U.S. Government has the tools to effect real 
change. The Elie Wiesel Act would affirm the mission of the United 
States Atrocities Prevention Board and its work to coordinate 
prevention and response efforts. It would also authorize the Complex 
Crisis Fund to support agile, efficient responses to unforeseen crises 
overseas.
  This time, when America says ``never again,'' our actions will 
reinforce our platitudes and our words. I thank the Chair, Mr. Speaker, 
and I thank all of my colleagues who share in this fight.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 
McGovern).
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, the 
gentlewoman from Missouri, for her leadership. I am honored to join her 
and other distinguished colleagues this evening in recognition of 
Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month.
  Preventing genocide and mass atrocities is a moral imperative that 
deserves to be at the very top of our priority list. Mass atrocities 
are large-scale, deliberate attacks against civilian populations. They 
include genocide but also crimes against humanity, war crimes, and 
ethnic cleansing.
  After the Holocaust--the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored 
persecution and murder of 6 million Jews and members of other 
persecuted groups by the Nazi regime and its collaborators between 1941 
and 1945--people all around the world vowed to never again stand by in 
the face of genocide; but since then, mass atrocities, including 
genocide, have been committed in Indonesia, Cambodia, Guatemala, East 
Timor, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sudan, and South Sudan, among 
other places. Hundreds of thousands of people have been murdered, 
tortured, disappeared, or suffered sexual violence; and millions more 
have been forced to flee with profound humanitarian, political, and 
national security consequences.
  I don't believe the world's failure to prevent atrocities is because 
no one cares. In this era of instant communication powered by social 
media, most people I meet have seen and passionately condemn the 
ongoing atrocities in Syria and elsewhere. Nor is it because no one 
knows what is happening. Many, many people warned us for years about 
the potential for genocide against the Rohingya in Burma.
  The problem is that we have not been very good at turning knowledge 
and moral indignation into action to prevent a bad situation from 
worsening. We must do better. We must do more. This year, in the Tom 
Lantos Human Rights Commission, which I co-chair along with my 
colleague Congressman Randy Hultgren, we are looking at the tools we 
have as U.S. policymakers to prevent mass atrocities and asking how we 
can strengthen them.
  We are asking what it would mean to institutionalize an atrocity 
prevention's lens so we don't wait until it is so late and the problem 
is so big that all we can do is lament the immorality and the 
inhumanity and then provide humanitarian aid to the victims and 
survivors. As we undertake this effort, we know that there is a lot of 
good work already underway in both Chambers of Congress and on both 
sides of the aisle to find new ways forward.
  One example is H.R. 3030, the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities 
Prevention Act of 2017, led by Representative Ann Wagner and 
cosponsored by both myself and Representative Hultgren. We also 
recognize that government officials cannot do this work alone. We need 
civil society, in all its diversity, to help us. We need community 
associations, churches, synagogues, mosques, schools, and businesses to 
take a stand against hate speech, to teach and live tolerance, to 
document and denounce human rights violations, to open their hearts to 
reconciliation based on justice. We need to get to the point where our 
societies recognize and honor every person's innate human dignity.
  And I want to take this opportunity to salute one of the many 
organizations that are doing just this kind of work. STAND is a 
student-led movement to end mass atrocities and genocide by organizing 
and educating their peers and communities. I first met student leaders 
of STAND in 2005 and 2006, when they were part of the national movement 
that brought the genocide happening in Darfur, Sudan, to public 
awareness. They were my teachers during that time.
  Tonight, representatives of STAND are here listening to this debate. 
They push us to do better, and I thank them for their commitment and 
their vision.
  Mr. Speaker, mass atrocities are human rights violations on a grand 
scale. We must find new strategies to prevent them from happening and 
more effective strategies to interrupt and stop them at the very 
earliest stages, should they begin to unfold.
  Mr. Speaker, all of us in this Chamber, all of us in this country, 
need to do more, because I believe, if the United States of America 
stands for anything, we stand for human rights. We need to be better. 
We need to be more effective in preventing these mass atrocities and 
these genocides.

[[Page H3572]]

  So I am very proud to stand with my colleagues in these efforts. I 
want to thank the gentlewoman from Missouri for her incredible 
leadership, and I am honored to participate in this Special Order with 
her.
  Mrs. WAGNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts 
(Mr. McGovern) for his outstanding words and his support, his support 
and that of Representative Randy Hultgren on sponsoring and 
cosponsoring with me my piece of legislation, the Elie Wiesel Genocide 
and Atrocities Prevention Act.
  This truly is an issue that is not just about human rights and giving 
voice to the voiceless and speaking for the most vulnerable in our 
society; it is about human dignity across our globe.

                              {time}  1830

  It is about the U.S. responding to these conflicts in the way that 
only we can and should do and provide the kind of moral authority and 
support to do so through both our Congress and through our foreign 
service officers and others who are working across the globe. So I 
thank the gentleman for his fine words.
  I now yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Tenney).
  Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Ann Wagner for 
yielding. She is a wonderful inspiration to me as a new Member.
  I also want to thank Congressman McGovern for his comments.
  This is really important that she is hosting tonight's Special Order 
on genocide awareness and prevention.
  During the month of April, we joined together to honor victims and 
survivors to educate the public about genocide--it is hard to believe 
it is happening in our time--and to advocate for the prevention of 
future atrocities.
  In the past 150 years, tens of millions of men, women, and children 
have lost their lives during brutal genocides and mass atrocities. 
Millions have been tortured, raped, and forced from their homes. Some 
of the darkest moments in world history have occurred, oddly enough, in 
the month of April.
  In April 1933, the Nazi Party began its boycott of Jewish-owned 
businesses. This marked the beginning of a campaign of hatred that led 
to the murder of 6 million Jews.
  My district is home to thousands of refugees from the former 
Yugoslavia. I have a long history with Yugoslavia. I began my study of 
the country of Yugoslavia in 1981 when I first participated as a 
student, a college student from Colgate University, in a semester 
abroad, and we traveled throughout the entire Yugoslavia and all the 
different principalities and republics. It was a spectacular and 
beautiful country, and it sparked a lifelong interest for me in this 
region.
  I completely fell in love with the country and was fascinated by the 
people who were there who survived conquests, whether it was from the 
Ottoman Empire to being part of so many other parts of human history. 
They were also victims during the Nazi invasion, as well, during World 
War II.
  I had the lucky opportunity to graduate from college and work as a 
foreign correspondent in the Press and Cultural Office of the former 
Yugoslav Consulate in New York. I also worked, at that time, alongside 
with ABC Sports during the Winter Olympics held in Sarajevo in 1984.
  The war in Yugoslavia was a tragic saga in the history of human 
experience, especially for me, with my long history and love of the 
country and the people who inhabited this part of world.
  I worked with people from the consulate, from all the republics and 
autonomous provinces from the former Yugoslavia. It just seemed 
unthinkable to me that this human genocide could occur in a region of 
the world which had experienced many occupying forces due to its very 
unique, very important geopolitical, strategic location in the world.
  Yugoslavia was always known as the gateway between East and West, the 
place where you could get from Europe through Yugoslavia to, 
eventually, the Middle East along the Mediterranean. This region had 
diverse culture, religion, and people from all parts of Europe and the 
Middle East, and the world all united together for centuries, actually, 
living alongside each other with different values. Certainly, they had 
their differences.
  But sadly, unfortunately, after all this history of unrest, the war 
in Yugoslavia eventually elicited the worst in humankind and was 
witness to one of the most horrific genocides in our generation against 
Bosnian citizens.
  To the Bosnian community, April, again, marks 26 years since the 
beginning of the siege in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The horrific period of 
violence lasted for over 3\1/2\ years and was the longest siege in 
modern warfare. All told, over 10,000 people, including 1,500 children, 
were killed in Sarajevo during the siege.
  In 1995, the worst massacre within Europe since World War II took 
place. The Srebrenica massacre killed more than 8,000 Bosnian boys and 
men during the Bosnian War.
  In addition to these horrific killings, more than 20,000 civilians 
were expelled from the area. Many of these Bosnian refugees immigrated 
to my region. We are thrilled to have them.
  It is just worth noting that my son was actually a student in the 
afterschool program at the Jewish Community Center in my area. The 
Jewish Community Center was actually instrumental in helping to find 
safe refuge in our community for these Bosnian Muslims who were 
suffering from this unconscionable genocide and atrocities against 
them.
  I think it was the solidarity and the sympathy and the understanding, 
the true understanding of genocide that our Jewish citizens recognized 
in our region, and we are grateful to them. And we are also grateful to 
the Bosnian community for the decision to have so many wonderful 
Bosnian families visit our city and now remain as citizens. They 
provided the same ingenuity and the entrepreneurship and the vibrancy 
and the creativity that I remembered during my days of studying this 
very special part of the world.
  I am especially grateful to them for enabling me to sustain the bond 
that developed between me, my family, who have all traveled to that 
part of the world, and this amazing group of people for the past 37 
years of my life. It has become almost a vocation for me, just my study 
of Serbo-Croatian and my study of this region.
  As we mark these tragedies of the past, we must not overlook what is 
taking place in the present. I just want to mention a little bit about 
my city, Utica, New York.
  It has been recognized as one of the friendly cities to refugees. The 
Utica City School District now has over 42 languages spoken, and so we 
have a number of people coming from war-torn areas where, very 
graciously and also very generously, our communities have accepted them 
and provided them a home.

  I want to just highlight one of the communities that is in our region 
as well, and those are the people from Myanmar, where over 700,000 
Rohingya people have fled the Rakhine State in the face of expulsions 
and violent persecution at the hands of government forces.
  In Syria, Bashar al-Assad's military butchers its own citizens and 
uses chemical weapons without regard for international law.
  Under this dark cloud of atrocities and massive human rights 
violations, both present and past, I just want to join with my 
colleagues today in remembering these and remembering to ensure that 
these lessons are never forgotten, but more important, if we could only 
make sure they are never repeated.
  I sincerely thank my colleague, Congresswoman Ann Wagner, for her 
great leadership on this issue, her tenacity and her courage and her 
continued fight to try to help these people who are the most needy, who 
have just been victimized in our society and across our country and our 
world. I thank her for including me tonight.
  It is very special for me to especially recognize the Bosnians. It 
has been such a long part of my history, and my heart and my sympathy 
go to these wonderful people who suffered unfairly.
  I just want to say thank you again to Mrs. Wagner for her great 
leadership on this issue.
  Mrs. WAGNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her kind words.
  The gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Tenney) is also a leader in this 
cause and this effort that is really about, as we said, human dignity 
and human rights across this world.

[[Page H3573]]

  We want a day when no longer are these refugees suffering, whether it 
is in Syria. On the day that President Macron addressed a joint session 
here in this very Chamber, the President of the People's Republic of 
France, that stood with the United States, along with the United 
Kingdom, in the bombings against Syria that were targeted against those 
who had been barrel-bombed and victimized and murdered by the Assad 
regime in Syria.
  We share a common bond with the Bosnian community. We both have very 
large Bosnian communities, many of whom started out as refugees some 20 
years ago. Now, as I said, the cultural diversity, the business, the 
religious presence has been just wonderful to see flourish in a 
district like Missouri's Second Congressional District, so I recognize 
the common bond that we have there.
  I thank Ms. Tenney for participating in this Special Order that goes 
to the heart of genocide and mass atrocities across our globe. I know 
that the people of Ms. Tenney's district in New York are also 
appreciative of all she does there to represent them and those who are 
the most vulnerable in our society, so I thank the gentlewoman from New 
York.
  I now yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot).
  Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Missouri for 
yielding.
  It is Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month, and the gentlewoman 
from Missouri (Mrs. Wagner) has been a leader in speaking out on this 
critical issue for many years now, and we appreciate her leadership on 
that.
  As a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I have had 
the opportunity to advocate for global human rights issues for many 
years. Tonight, I want to condemn a genocide that has been happening 
before our eyes: the genocide against the Rohingya in Rakhine State, 
Burma.
  Last September, the Burmese military began a so-called clearing 
operation, allegedly in response to some insurgent attacks. In reality, 
this was just an excuse for a massive and barbaric campaign to forcibly 
remove the Rohingya from Burma altogether and erase their memory from 
the Rakhine State once and for all, resulting in over 700,000 Rohingya, 
many of whom are children, fleeing Burma for Bangladesh. This has 
needlessly left Bangladesh and the world with one of the worst 
humanitarian crises that the world faces today.
  While these numbers are truly shocking, as we learn more about the 
crimes committed by the Burmese military, there can be no doubt that 
this is, in fact, genocide.
  When the Rohingya arrived in Bangladesh, they told story after story 
of the crimes that they had witnessed and that they had personally 
suffered: widespread killings, mass graves, rapes, and other 
unspeakable horrors and injuries. These atrocities have been confirmed 
by many people who had no ax to grind here or anything, So this is 
something that the world must see and must believe.
  In addition, hundreds of villages have been burned and others have 
been simply bulldozed in a clear attempt to prevent the Rohingya from 
ever returning. Together, these heinous acts are a deliberate attempt 
to irreparably harm the Rohingya. This is absolutely genocide.
  Together with Mr. Engel and Mr. Crowley, our colleagues here in the 
House, I have helped to lead the House's efforts to address this 
crisis. With our passage of H. Con. Res 90, the House unequivocally 
condemned the Burmese military's atrocious actions, but more serious 
action is still needed.
  Burma's constitution allows the Burmese military to control much of 
the government, and civilian leadership has taken virtually no real 
steps to address this violence. That is why I joined again with Mr. 
Engel and Mr. Crowley to introduce the BURMA Act, which applies tough, 
targeted sanctions on the individuals involved in leading this 
genocide. I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this legislation and then, 
ultimately, of course, to vote for it when the time comes.
  As we remember the victims of all genocides this month, we must work 
to adequately address one which is unfolding right before our eyes, 
right before the world's eyes right now. So, again, I want to thank the 
gentlewoman from Missouri for calling this particular action to the 
attention of our colleagues and the attention of the world, but also 
other genocides and other atrocities that have occurred across the 
globe. She is truly a leader, and we are lucky to have her doing that 
in Congress on an everyday basis, but also, in particular, this 
evening.

  Mrs. WAGNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
Chabot) for his kind words. He is a leader and a senior member of our 
House Foreign Affairs Committee, and I also have the privilege of 
serving on it.
  It is an honor to have Congressman Chabot here at this Special Order 
during Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month to give voice to those 
millions of victims and to say we live for a time when this is 
nonexistent in society.
  I look forward, Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, to offering my amendment to 
the State Department Authorization Act of 2018, asking the 
administration to study countries at risk of genocide and mass atrocity 
crimes and crafting the kind of training regimens for U.S. foreign 
service officers that are so very important.
  I look forward to the time when my piece of legislation, the Elie 
Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act, will, Mr. Speaker, be 
signed into law. It will improve the U.S. efforts to prevent mass 
atrocity crimes, and I think we all, in this Chamber, on a bipartisan 
level, Mr. Speaker, continue to hope and, more importantly, to work 
towards a time when America says, ``Never again,'' and our actions 
reinforce our words.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for coming out. I thank those 
advocates on the Friends Committee on National Legislation's stand. 
Together we remember the Carl Wilkens Fellowship and so many others 
that stand with the victims of genocide and mass atrocities. It is an 
honor to be with my colleagues here tonight and with the advocacy 
groups that stand for the millions that say, ``Never again.''
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________