[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19152]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY MUST ACT NOW TO HELP THE PEOPLE OF BURMA

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, our State Department should urge, as all of 
us should, the U.N. Security Council to immediately address the ongoing 
conflict in Burma. Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains 
disappeared, and the military junta will not disclose her whereabouts.
  The so-called Burmese State Peace and Development Council, the SPDC, 
which is their name for the military junta, uses slave labor, child 
soldiers, and mass rape campaigns against the people, the exact 
opposite of bringing peace and development to Burma. Yet the SPDC is 
now lobbying surrounding governments to gain support for its rule.
  The Prime Minister of Thailand has created a road map for peace in 
Burma, but the plan leaves the brutal dictatorship in power.
  What will it take for the international community to act? How many 
political prisoners must be tortured and ethnic villagers brutally 
raped and then murdered? How long must somebody be held incommunicado 
before strong, decisive action against the SPDC is taken?
  Mr. Speaker, the international community must act now to help the 
people of Burma.

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