[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 21420]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                              {time}  1030

                           EAST TIMOR CRISIS

  (Ms. McKINNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. McKINNEY. Mr. Speaker, it is Rwanda all over again. Thousands of 
people are being murdered in East Timor while the international 
community dawdles. I applaud the Australian government for volunteering 
its forces to peacekeeping efforts long before our own country 
recognized the need for action.
  In a brutal takeover of East Timor over 20 years ago sanctioned by 
the United States, the people of East Timor have been subjected to an 
ethnic cleansing of one-third of the entire indigenous population. All 
the while the U.S. and Australian Armed Forces provided training to the 
very units that are on the rampage right now. Yet again, the U.S. 
Government has blood on its hands.
  We apologize for Rwanda after letting 1 million innocents die. We 
apologize for Guatemala after condoning the brutal murders of even U.S. 
citizens. When will we apologize for East Timor, when it is too late?
  Mr. Speaker, the time to act is now. The administration should stop 
dawdling and start packing to save the lives of the innocent East Timor 
people. What is taking this administration so long to get it right?

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