[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2706]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               LIBYA'S BLATANT DISREGARD FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

  (Mr. PUTNAM asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Speaker, as the United Nations charges towards 
irrelevance, we have this latest news that Libya has been selected to 
become Chair of the United Nations Commission on Rights.
  Libya continues to be a blatant violator of human rights and remains 
on our own State Department's list of state sponsors of terror. Libya's 
totalitarian regime under Muammar Qadhafi has been a leading state 
sponsor of terrorism, including on November 13 the German court which 
convicted a Libyan national for the bombing in 1986 of the La Belle 
disco in Berlin; and the court further declared that there was clear 
evidence of responsibility of the Libyan Government for the bombing. 
Additionally, Libya was responsible for the explosion of Pan American 
Airline Flight 103 that crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 
passengers and crew and 11 citizens on the ground.
  To add insult to injury in this latest mockery of the United Nations, 
Iraq is in line to chair the United Nations Conference on Disarmament 
later this year.
  Mr. Speaker, the world needs a credible spokesman for human rights 
and democratic values. The ascension of Libya to chair this body and 
the ascension of Iraq to chair the Conference on Disarmament make a 
further mockery of the Commission and the entire United Nations.

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