[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10568]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         SYRIA'S BLOODY SPRING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Schiff) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, there are moments in the lives of nations 
when the existing order is suddenly revealed as bereft of legitimacy 
and no longer viable. The wave of unrest spreading across the Arab 
world, touched off by the self-immolation of a Tunisian fruit vendor 
tired of petty humiliation by corrupt governments, has exposed the rot 
of decades of caprice, corruption, and incompetence. That this one 
man's desperate act could lead to the downfall of the governments of 
Tunisia, Egypt, and perhaps Yemen is testament to the pent up 
frustration of millions of people who were denied the basic rights and 
economic opportunity that we take for granted here in the West.
  But it is in Syria, where the future of the Arab Spring seemingly 
hangs in the balance and where the security services have acted with 
the least restraint and maximum violence. Like marauding armies of old, 
select units of military and security services troops have been moving 
from city to city in a quest to quash the ever-spreading demonstrations 
that have become a feature of life in Syria.
  Deraa, a town of some 75,000 lying near the border with Jordan, has 
emerged as one of the centers of the Syrian uprising against the 40 
years of rule by the Assad family. Army and security forces have 
repeatedly assaulted the town and surrounding villages, killing 
hundreds of civilians and arresting anyone suspected of taking part in 
demonstrations against the regime. On April 29 in the village of Jiza, 
the Syrian secret police rounded up anybody it thought was involved 
with the protests, including Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, who had gone to 
watch the demonstration with other members of his family.
  For a month, Hamza's family waited for him to return, worried but 
hopeful that he would be released unharmed. It was not to be. On May 
30, Hamza's mutilated body was returned to them. He had been tortured, 
subjected to repeated electric shocks, and whipped with cables. His 
eyes were swollen and black, and there were identical bullet wounds 
where he had been apparently shot through both arms, the bullets 
lodging in his belly. On Hamza's chest was a deep, dark burn mark. His 
neck was broken, and parts of his body were cut off. Hamza Ali al-
Khateeb was 13 years old. Video of the boy's shattered body has been 
seen by millions on television and the Internet.
  Hamza, like the Tunisian fruit vendor who set himself alight, has 
become a symbol to his countrymen and the world of the depravity and 
illegitimacy of a regime that would torture its own children to death.
  Our ability to bring additional economic pressure on Syria is 
limited. Its economy is already under immense strain. It is small, 
weak, and isolated. Political pressure, in the form of a U.N. security 
resolution condemning the violence and crackdown, has been blocked by 
Russia and China. And there is dread over what will happen when Assad 
falls, given the internal divisions between Sunni and Shia, Muslim and 
Alawi, Christian and Druze. The confessional and sectarian splits are 
as pronounced as in Lebanon, the potential for large scale violence as 
great as Iraq.
  The dangers are real, but the promise of what began in Tunisia and is 
now materializing in Egypt and elsewhere is also real. People of 
courage can determine their own destiny, and it need not be one of 
hereditary dictatorship, kleptocracy, or lack of opportunity and 
stagnation. In the Arab world, as elsewhere, people should be free to 
choose their own government to represent them and to chart peace with 
their neighbors.
  To conclude otherwise means that we relegate tens of millions of 
people to suffer the capricious ruthlessness of their despots for 
generation after generation, or that we are willing to trade the 
illusion of stability for the harsh reality of their suffering. That is 
not the choice we made for ourselves 235 years ago, and it is not one 
that we should presume to make for others.
  Bashar Assad is a ruthless tyrant whose time has passed and who 
clings to power only by virtue of brutal force. Our role and that of 
the international community should be to work with Syrian opposition 
figures and others to advance a negotiated transition to a new Syrian 
Government that will represent all Syrians and prevent the trading in 
of one set of thugs for another. The Arab Spring cannot be allowed to 
fail because of brutal repression, the specter of religious fanaticism, 
a fear of the unknown, or the cynicism born of unmet expectations. The 
region's many millions must have the freedom to write a new chapter for 
themselves and their posterity.
  In this, the younger Assad has taken a page from his father, who 
unleashed his troops in 1982 to suppress a revolt by the Muslim 
Brotherhood in the city of Hama, an offensive that may have cost as 
many as 20,000 civilian lives. Indeed, history may be repeating itself 
as Hama has become a focus of both anti-government activity on the one 
hand, and the use of extreme violence by the Assad government on the 
other.
  For American policymakers, Syria presents a collection of overlapping 
and sometimes contradictory challenges. Like his father, President 
Assad has repeatedly tantalized the United States and the west with the 
possibility of a new opening, but he has never followed through. 
Syria's illegal and clandestine nuclear program, its alliance with Iran 
and its meddling in Lebanon, a policy that culminated in the 2005 
murder of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, form a compelling case 
that the Syrian people and the world would be better off with a new 
leader in Damascus.

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