[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 20663-20664]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 THE UNITED STATES SHOULD TAKE ACTION TO HELP CITIZENS OF SIERRA LEONE

  (Mr. EHLERS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. EHLERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise again today to discuss the abominable 
situation in Africa. We have had over two decades of killings, 
maimings, abductions, and the murder of approximately 1 million 
Africans. Our State Department has done virtually nothing.
  If we compare what has happened in Africa and what has happened in 
Kosovo and Bosnia, where we have sent troops, Bosnia and Kosovo do not 
begin to compare in deaths and human agony with what has happened in 
Africa.
  I am particularly concerned about Sierra Leone, where we now have a 
battle over diamonds. It is not a political battle, it is a battle for 
money, for diamonds, for power. Charles Taylor of Liberia undoubtedly 
is interfering. There is some evidence that Mr. Qaddafi from Libya is 
also interfering, and others from Guinea and other lands. And yet, we 
do nothing. We stand and watch it happen.

[[Page 20664]]

  Last week in a hearing chaired by the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Royce) of the Subcommittee on Africa, we saw the maimed and injured, 
little children whose arms had been chopped off, a terrible, terrible 
sight, and our State Department and our country have done virtually 
nothing.
  It is time for us to rise up and help the citizens of that Nation. I 
ask that we do that.

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