[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 18]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 25919]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                       TRIBUTE TO DAVID M. EVANS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 1, 2000

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, on October 4, a man of great knowledge, 
talent and dignity passed away. David Meredith Evans was an officer in 
the Foreign Service, serving his country in that capacity from 1963 
until 1995. He was 64 years of age. I came to know him during his last 
assignment before retiring, when he served as the Senior Adviser on the 
staff of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, better 
known to us as the Helsinki Commission.
  I was Chairman of the Helsinki Commission at the time and relied 
heavily on his expertise in the early 1990s, when the former Soviet 
Union and the countries of East-Central Europe were in a state of 
transition and, in some cases, turmoil. With the Cold War coming to a 
close, it was a challenge for many foreign policy experts to understand 
the new world into which we were heading. David, however, had a keen 
sense of where things were heading, both in terms of the wonderful 
possibilities and of the dangerous obstacles that stood in the way. 
Thanks in large part to him, the Helsinki Commission played a prominent 
role during that period: observing the first multi-party elections 
countries from the Warsaw Pact held in at least four decades; 
organizing congressional delegations to these countries to learn 
firsthand what was happening; attending meetings of what is now the 
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OCSE) to raise 
concerns about human rights violations in particular; and overseeing 
the drafting of Commission reports which helped educate policy-makers 
about what needed to be done.
  David Evans had a strong background in Soviet and East European 
affairs going back to his education at Harvard University and his tours 
at the U.S. embassies in Moscow, Belgrade and Warsaw. He had focused 
considerably on economic and trade issues, and he understood early on 
that the entrepreneurial spirit and free market, not the collectivism 
and central planning of communism, were what the people in these 
countries needed. He further understood that this could not happen 
without the development of democracy, and he became a committed human 
rights advocate. Indeed, the Commission's first encounters with David 
Evans were during OSCE negotiations on economic, scientific and 
environmental questions. Rather than pushing generic ``international 
cooperation'' in these areas, he pushed for improved human contacts 
through developing the tourist industry; he criticized the Soviets for 
taking action against scientists like Andrei Sakharov who expressed 
independent political views; he promoted the right of environmental 
activists in the Soviet Union and East-Central Europe to raise their 
concerns without being punished by the state.
  David also had a particular expertise on Yugoslav affairs, and while 
the violent demise of Yugoslavia beginning in 1991 had a strong affect 
on all of us, it brought him a personal anguish. He spoke the language 
fluently, traveled there frequently with the Commission staff and 
worked tirelessly to make us aware of what was happening and why. He 
was in Sarajevo in March 1992, when the city was first surrounded by 
Serb militants, and got a glimpse of the nightmare that Bosnia and its 
capital would have to endure one month later and the more than three 
years thereafter.
  I worked mostly with David, however, in dealing with the break-up of 
the Soviet Union and the emergence of new countries about which we knew 
little. I can remember mostly his seriousness of purpose combined with 
a good sense of humor. Among other things, he introduced us all to the 
word ``gefuffle,'' his description of a scene of chaotic confrontation 
where people are shouting at each other. And, as I said, he was a man 
of great dignity. He was, for example, generally conservative and 
formal in his attire. Still, he would travel to some of the muddiest, 
dustiest, dilapidated places in Europe without hesitation in order to 
carry out the Helsinki Commission's mandate.
  In the five years he was with the Helsinki Commission, the staff 
truly appreciated his presence and sense of purpose. They could rely on 
him to provide the direction and judgment needed to carry out their 
tasks. They could also count on his support for their efforts to 
promote human rights when those from other branches of government or 
countries sought to minimize human rights in international relations. 
Many of the same staff are still at the Commission, and kept in touch 
with him in his retirement. Indeed, he continued his activism during 
this period, working to preserve country estates and museums throughout 
Russia.
  Along with his wonderful family, friends, fellow foreign service 
officers and Commission staff, I will miss David Evans and will always 
remember and value his advise and presence while at the Helsinki 
Commission. He was, Mr. Speaker, an American who dedicated his life to 
representing his country and the ideals on which it is based, and I am 
grateful to have known him.

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