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



URGING CONGRESS AND THE ADMINISTRATION TO RESTORE PEACE IN SIERRA LEONE

  (Mr. HALL of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share with this 
Congress a story of a young girl who was maimed by thugs in Sierra 
Leone. These are some of the kids that testified before the Congress 
last week.
  Bintu Amara, who is in this picture, who is 9 years old, watched 
rebels chop off her leg last year. They did it to terrorize everyone 
who sees her, and remind all the world that they will stop at nothing 
in their bid to control the country's diamond mines.
  Bintu did not say much at the special hearing that the gentleman from 
California (Chairman Royce) held last week, but she did tell this 
Congress that she wants very much to go to school. That is not likely 
to happen, I am sad to report. Today, diamonds will earn $37 million 
for rebel armies, like the one that did this to Bintu. Tomorrow they 
will earn another $37 million, and so on.
  I urge this Congress and this administration to do something about 
this, not in a year, not some day, but today. Americans buy two-thirds 
of the world's diamonds. They would be horrified to know that this is 
where their money goes.
  We owe it to them, we owe it to Bintu, to do something about this 
tragedy.

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