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Cong. Cynthia A.
McKinney D•GA4th bios & profiles ¹ ª ² ³ email ¹ ² ³ |
3.7.01 re-elected Ranking Minority Member on
Intl Operations & Human Rights Subcommittee
by Democratic colleagues
on House Intl Relations Committee.
Assumed Ranking Membership as first African American woman in U.S. Congressional history to assume
position of HIRC Ranking Minority.
"In a Congressional District as diverse as Georgia's 4th, the global economy is very close to home,
and an understanding of international politics is very important. My office has worked very hard to strengthen ties to
Africa & the Pacific Rim. We'd love to create jobs at home by encouraging our businesses to think globally.
Furthermore, I will continue my work as a human rights advocate and will use this opportunity to make sure that the
human rights of all people everywhere are guaranteed."
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Thank you Madam Chair:
We are here today to question whether or not the United Nations Commission on Human Rights has lost its course.
Too many times I have found myself, bound by conscience, to speak out against the United Nations and the
countries that set its policies. Too many times, those policies with which I have been forced to disagree have sadly
been set by Washington, DC. The fact that Argentina and France have both issued subpoenas for the attendance
in court of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for the U.S. role in the murderand disappearance of their
citizens is only a harbinger of things to come.
As a matter of policy, our government seems to have routinely done to the poor and people of color abroad what it
has done to the poor and people of color at home. We know too little about decisions that were made in the name
of the United States, decisions that were made for me and for you, yet are now shaken off as merely responses to
the exigencies of the Cold War. Decisions that in some instances led to the overthrow of elected governments, but
in all instances to U.S. support of heinous dictatorships with U.S.taxpayer dollars: like in Indonesia, South Korea,
Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, Ghana, and Congo/Zaire. The Pan-African News Agency cites a report on an alleged
plan by the U.S. and other European countries to dump 29 million tons of toxic waste in 11 African countries. The
materials to be dumped included industrial and chemical wastes, pesticide sludge, radioactive wastes, as well as
other hazardous wastes. I ask you, how can this country dump toxic waste on the poor and consider itself to be a
champion of human rights across the globe?
On the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency website is a document uncovered by Professor Thomas J. Nagy which
discusses how allied forces could block Iraqi efforts to purify its contaminated drinking water and so lead to the full
degradation of the Iraqi water treatment system within six months. Attacking the Iraqi public drinking water supply
flagrantly targets civilians and is a violation of the GenevaConvention and of the fundamental laws of civilized
nations. In contravention of even our own laws, U.S. weapons are used around the world in human rights abuses
as states suppress their own people or their neighbors. Only a few days ago Dick Cheney stated that Israel should
stop using U.S.-built F-16 warplanes against Palestinian targets. In its conduct of foreign policy, my government
has not always taken the high road. The actions launched against Henry Kissinger suggest that other countries will
no longer tolerate the failure of the United States to consider human rights in its actions abroad. But human rights is
not only about foreign policy. Human rights is about domestic policy, too.
When we in this country talk about human rights, those words are usually intoned with an outward vision. We speak
of human rights around the world. However, today, for just a few moments, I want to talk about human rights at
home. On too many occasions, blacks in the United States have felt compelled to step outside of the political and
judicial system in this country and appeal to the global community for the protection of their human rights. On too
many occasions, the United States has failed to protect the human rights of black Americans. And until this issue is
addressed and addressed appropriately, when we speak to others about the failures in their human rights, they see
hypocrisy dripping from our lips as we berate them about the treatment of their citizens.
In 1947, at the dawn of the United Nations' organization, W.E.B. Du Bois registered the UN's first such complaint in
an address entitled, "Petition on Behalf of Negroes." Julian Bond, Chairman of the Board of the NAACP, along with
dozens of civil rights groups and activists during the UN's Jubilee Conference recognized the need still to petition
on behalf of black suffering in the U.S. today. And then again in 1951 Paul Robeson returned to the United Nations
with the first call for reparations entitled "We Call Genocide," which demanded compensatory damages over the
slave trade. In 1967, in response to approximately 150 uprisings--some chose to call them riots--in this country, the
United States Government called on a national commission to conduct a study to determine the cause of this
phenomenon and how to prevent it from continuing. The resulting report is popularly known as the "Kerner Report,"
which stated that the cause of these uprisings was white racism, racism being defined as a belief that race is the
primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a
particular race.
One of the recommendations resulting from this report was that the United States government needed highly
trained intelligence officers to counter the effects and stop the continuance of these uprisings. In the FBI's own
words, its counterintelligence program, then known as COINTELPRO, had as a goal, "to expose, disrupt, misdirect,
discredit, or otherwise neutralize" the activities of black organizations and to prevent black leaders from "gaining
respectability." Why is it that today, in 2001, I can read a headline that states, "Citizens Group Sues Pentagon for
the Release of Surveillance Files on the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?" What does our Pentagon
have to hide? Madam Chair, let me be clear when I say this: racism in this country is a human rights issue. It is an
issue that has permeated every crack and crevice of our society from our playgrounds to the highest levels of our
government.
Today, black federal employees have filed discrimination lawsuits against the Departments of Agriculture, Energy,
State, Treasury, and EPA. Swift and commendable action on the part of then-Secretary of Education Richard Riley,
prevented a full-blown demonstration on the part of that Department's black employees. If blacks inside the U.S.
government receive such treatment, how do you think blacks outside the government are treated? I'll tell you. Our
Department of Justice admits that blacks are more likely than whites to be pulled over by police, imprisoned, and
put to death. And though blacks and whites have about the same rate of drug use, blacks are more likely to be
arrested than whites and are more likely to receive longer prison sentences than whites.
Can we ignore the fact that this country continues to counter the world trend against the death penalty, executing
85 prisoners in 2000, many of whom were mentally impaired as well as those who were under the age of 18 at the
time they committed a crime? Twenty-six of those who were executed were black men. We began this year by
executing a retarded black woman. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the American
Convention on Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child all have provisions that prohibit
anyone under 18 years old at the time of the crime being sentenced to death, and yet we continue to stand in direct
and clear violation of these international treaties.
Government studies on health disparities confirm that blacks are less likely to receive surgery, transplants, and
prescription drugs than whites. Physicians are less likely to prescribe appropriate treatment for blacks than for
whites and black scientists, physicians, and institutions that might prevent or change this are shut out of the funding
stream. A black baby boy born today in Harlem has less chance of reaching age 65 than a baby born in
Bangladesh. I watch every year as the Congressional Black Caucus shrinks while important sections of the Voting
Rights Act will soon expire. And quite frankly, after crippling Supreme Court decisions, there is not much left of
affirmative action to mend.
From August 31st to September 7th of this year, the United Nations will host the World Conference Against
Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa. The United States
and Britain don't want to talk about slavery and its vestiges. Africans and African Americans do. Even as Britain's
streets light up with Asian rage, Britain and the United States would rather not talk about racism. Recently, Human
Rights Watch stated that the United States' being voted out of the UN Commission on Human Rights is a sign that
"people are watching the U.S. very closely." It is my belief that people are indeed watching and we certainlycannot
and will not continue to command respect across the world on the issue of human rights if we do not attend to our
human rights issues here at home. Bobby Kennedy said that we used to be a force for good in the world. And,
indeed we were. What has gone wrong?
On the Memorial of D-Day, June 6th, when we helped bring freedom to Europe, we have been thrown off the UN
Human Rights Commission. I hope this panel today can help to tell me what has gone wrong and what we can do
to return our international standing.
Thank you Madam Chair.
Madam Chair,
This hearing today is vitally important because we have the opportunity to set the record straight as to what has
been happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the last 3 years. We have the opportunity to be able to
draw together the varying investigations and reports of experts who have examined the DRC War and place in the
public record the truth about what Rwanda, Uganda and their rebel allies have done to the people of the DRC. We
have the opportunity to pass judgment on the Clinton legacy and make a finding as to exactly what Madeleine
Albright and her foreign policy team has done to the Great Lakes region.
I think its also important to point out at the outset that the US and Belgium deserve special condemnation for the 37
years of suffering in the DRC because it was their intelligence services who conspired to assist in the murder of the
democratically elected President Patrice Lumumba. The west chose Mobuto to replace him and for next 3
generation's Zaire, as it was then known, was placed in the grip of a corrupt and evil leadership. Despite the mining
of billions of dollars of minerals and other resources DRC was left by Mobuto nearly bankrupt and on the brink of
collapse. The corporations and the western businessmen who traded with Mobuto never once called him to order
instead they celebrated in his fabulous homes and enriched themselves at the expense of the Congolese
people.
Rwanda, Uganda and their rebel allies began a war in August 1998 in the DRC under the claim of fighting the Hutu
interahamwe, the Rwandan militia responsible for much of the killing during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
President Museveni of Uganda and President Kagame of Rwanda have always maintained that by fighting in the
DRC they will defeat the interahamwe and in so doing secure their borders and prevent another Rwandan type
genocide from occurring. They continue to maintain this position until this very day. But this Rwandan/Ugandan
explanation for their invasion of DRC is a lie, it's a bright shining lie.
This is not a noble war about saving civilians from genocide or about protecting democracy from tyranny, instead
this is a war about self-interest and greed. Despite limp and totally ineffective protestations by the United Nations
the world communityhas largely stood idly by and allowed these two men to prosecute what can only be described
as the most vicious, senseless and bloody wars being fought in the world today.
The cost of their actions to the DRC and its people is almost beyond measure.
The scale and savagery of the crimes committed by the Rwandan and Ugandan armies in DRC compares to the
abhorrent actions of the Nazi assault upon Eastern Europe.
The International Rescue Committee has just released a 2001 Survey of the Death Toll in DRC's war. For the 32
month period from August 1998 until the end of March 2001 an estimated 2.5 million civilians have died in the DRC.
Of those 350,000 people have died from violence and 2.2 million have died from disease and malnutrition arising
from the adverse affects of the war on the region. IRC estimates that on average 77,000 civilians have perished
each and every month in the DRC. That's almost 2,500 civilians dying each day for almost the last 3 years.
Compare those numbers with the lost lives in Kuwait 10 years ago and the world's response to Iraqi aggression.
The world sent 350,000 troops to the gulf to defend Kuwait. In 100 days the combined military, naval and air forces
of the Western world had reduced the Iraqi military, one of the world's powerful armies, to a burning hulk. And then
compare DRC's suffering with the 2 thousand lost lives in Kosovo two years ago. The combined airforces of NATO
pounded Belgrade into submission and then indicted Milosevic for war crimes. We all remember how the western
world responded to the Iraqi and Kosovo humanitarian disasters and flooded them with food, medicines, shelter
and other aid.
Madam Chairwoman, I am ashamed to say that the western world has treated DRC like it has treated all the other
African disasters - too little too late. In January 2001 the World Food Program issued a worldwide appeal for $110
million for urgent food aid to Congo. As of May the World Food Program had received less than one third of this
amount. Similarly, UNICEF had asked for $15 million essential drugs and therapeutic feeding center and to date
UNICEF has received less than one tenth of that amount. Incredibly, the principle aid sent by the US to the region
has been in the form of military aid to the warring parties. What we do know is that US Special Forces and US
funded private military companies have been arming and training Rwandan and Ugandan troops to deadly effect. I
think its appalling that the US tax payer should be directly assisting the military efforts of Rwanda and Uganda, the
aggressors in this tragic conflict and who have confirmed by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as
the authors of terrible atrocities against Congolese civilians. Our efforts in Africa have amounted to nothing more
than bank rolling belligerents and mass murders.
What makes this conflict particularly sickening is the role of US and European corporations together with Rwanda
and Uganda in the plunder of DRC's resources. The recent UN Report on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural
Resources from the DRC made a series of important findings. Before going on let me first commend Madam
Safiatou Ba-N'Daw and other UN panelists for their work in preparing the UN Secretary General with a truly first
rate investigative report on the theft of DRC's resources.
The report concluded that "there is a mass scale looting, systemic exploitation of Congo's resources taking place at
an alarming rate by the armies of Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda." For example the report finds that "DARA Great
Lakes Industry of which DARA Forest is a subsidiary is in collusion with the Ministry of Water, Land and Forests of
Uganda to export timber from eastern Congo by falsifying its origins. The countries actively buying this uncertified
timber included USA, China, Belgium, Denmark, Japan, Kenya and Switzerland. In May 2000 DGLI (the parent of
DARA Forest) signed a contract for forest stewardship certification with SmartWood and the rogue Institute for
Ecology and Economy in Oregon in the United States". This program amounted to nothing more than a scheme to
facilitate the certification and extraction of illegally acquired timber from the DRC.
The same large scale theft of DRC's resources has been committed with respect to cobalt, gold, diamonds, coltan,
silver, zinc, uranium and numerous other minerals. Significantly, DRC has some of the world's largest deposits of
Coltan, an important mineral critical for maintaining the electric charge in the computer chip industry. The price of
Coltan varies from $100 to $200,000 a ton varying on quality and availability. Business in Coltan is booming but its
not the Congolese who are getting rich.
Madame Chairwoman, there is an additional and very disturbing report from MISNA, the Catholic News Agency
regarding Rwanda's actions with respect to the theft of DRC's resources. MISNA reported in February this year that
the Rwandan Army is now setting up "concentration camps" in the Numbi area south of Kivu in order to have
sufficient labor on hand to extract Coltan and other precious minerals. It was this enslavement of innocent civilians
and captured prisoners of war that drew some harshest criticisms against the Nazi and Japanese leadership from
the Nuremberg and Tokyo War Crimes Tribunals.
In response to the findings by the UN Special Panel the Rwandans have had the audacity to say that the
Congolese people are benefiting from the mining trade in eastern Congo with improvement in their welfare,
security, health, education and infra-structure. Madame Chairwoman that's almost like saying that the peoples
Eastern Europe who were enslaved in quarries, underground mines and forced to work in dangerous conditions in
automotive and munitions plants benefited from the Nazi occupation of their countries.
Mr. Robert Raun, President of Eagles Wings resources, a US based company which trades in Coltan was reported
to have described the growing trade in east Congo's Coltan as "Capitalism in its purest form." I say it's capitalism
trading in misery.
Madame Chairwoman,
We need to support the recommendations of the Ba-N'Daw UN Special Report on the Illegal Exploitation of the
Natural Resources from the DRC. We need to end all military support for the Rwandan Ugandan military forces.
Our government should publicly condemn the governments of Rwanda and Uganda for their criminal actions in
eastern Congo and we should to demand that an International Tribunal be established in the Great Lakes Region to
investigate and prosecute the violations of international law.
We need to urgently increase US aid to the peoples of Congo and ensure that they receive adequate food, health
care, medicines and shelter. We should call on our allies and the entire international community to join us ending
the conflict in DRC.
I would like to officially say to our very distinguished Chairwoman Ms. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen that I look forward to
working with her in this Congress in a great bipartisan spirit. The world of voiceless people needs us to be
their beacon and to work across party lines to shed light on the many dire conditions around the world. I am
pleased to sit as the Ranking Democrat on this Subcommittee for my Second full Congress of service.
This will be my third hearing as the Ranking Democrat for the purpose of reviewing the State Department Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices and its Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Rights. It is an honor
for us all to be here. I am disappointed that a representative from the State Department is not here to field
questions and inquiries regarding this report. I understand that the previous State Department Administration put a
rule in place that prohibited anyone from appearing on Capitol Hill in any committee or subcommittee IF the
Secretary was to appear that day on Capitol Hill. Therefore, our important work must stop because Secretary
Powell in on the Hill in our full Committee this afternoon. This rule does a disservice to the work that we do up here
on Capitol Hill where we need the input of the State Department on record and I hope the new State Department
will repeal this rule.
So it looks like we'll probably have a love fest up in here, because all of our witnesses today are distinguished in
the work that they do and in their commitment to human rights. I would be remiss if I didn't remind us that it was
under the leadership and bipartisan spirit of this Subcommittee that we were successful in our effort to enact
legislation requiring the State Department to spend at least $12 million per year on the Bureau of Democracy,
Human Rights, and Labor. As you know, this almost doubled the Bureau's budget, but it is still less than one-half of
one per cent of the Department's budget. There is no doubt that the generally high quality of the Bureau of
Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor's work deserves greater funding and more respect. Although the
Department has increased DRL's resources over the last few years, it is still inadequately funded.
There can be no doubt the Human Rights bureau is grossly undervalued compared to bureaus charged with
advancing other concerns. I hope that our Chairwoman feels similarly, and that we can work together, as I did with
the previous Chair, to make sure that the Human Rights Bureau at least is authorized and funded adequately.
I'd also like to express my appreciation to those people not here today who contributed to the production of this
report. As we have mentioned before at this annual hearing, sometimes the simple act of human rights reporting is
difficult and sometimes even dangerous work. This year, the report mentions corporate responsibility, but it doesn't
mention US arms transfers and training. We have laws in place now that require us to focus on the role that US
arms play in the violation of human rights abroad and we should have more corporate accountability. Most
Americans believe US corporations abroad are bound by US law. As we all painfully know, they are not. And in
some cases, they become human rights abusers too. We can no longer ignore these two dimensions when we
discuss the State Department's annual Human Rights Report. And as long as I am on this Subcommittee, we
won't.
US arms transfers to human rights abusers, including private military activity contracted out by the US Government,
and corporate responsibility must be included in future reports. This year's State Department Report at times,
deserves praise for being complete and fair, and at other times, it falls short. We place as much importance on
what is NOT written in these pages as we do on what is written. This year, then, I think the Colombia report is
noteworthy; not only for what it says but for what it omits. The fact that civilian contractors--that would be US
mercenaries--working for private U.S. corporations are carrying out a good deal of the U.S.-funded cooperation with
Colombia's security forces is information that the State and Defense Departments must make public. This
trend is particularly disturbing because it minimizes appropriate Congressional oversight and allows for very little
transparency. The extent of this "outsourcing", including names of corporations involved and the range of roles they
play, is a factor which simply must be reported on in future reports.
Already there have been, I think, three US deaths associated with our outsourced military activities in Colombia and
there are reports that US personnel are actively involved right now in combat against the FARC. The American
people need to know if our people are fighting in a war in Colombia and we don't need the State Department or the
Defense Department hiding behind these private military companies, masking true US operations on the ground in
Colombia. The report fails to mention that political kidnappings run rampant in Colombia, and that the
Afro-Colombian community is hardest hit by this. Luis Gilberto Murillo Urrutia, former Governor of El Choco State in
Colombia, was forced to abandon his political career and seek refuge in the United States following his kidnapping
by paramilitaries and threats on his family. He was the youngest person ever to win a gubernatorial election in his
country. Now in exile in the US, he is an outspoken Afro-Colombian advocate for the environment, the rights of
ethnic groups, and peace in Colombia.
The Honorable Piedad Cordoba Ruiz, exiled Colombian Senator. Ms. Cordoba was a powerful Afro-Colombian
leader who was being mentioned as a possible President for Colombia. Now she is living in exile in Canada
because she was kidnapped and had her life threatened. U.S Military Education is also not mentioned in this
Report. We need a simple and transparent set of rules to govern all our military education programs. The first rule
should be that the United States will not give any assistance whatever to governments that murder their own.
This year's Colombia report is rightfully critical of the Colombian military when it stated that "Members of the
security forces collaborated with paramilitary groups that committed abuses." Based on this report, it is clear
that providing more weapons will do nothing to quell the violence that currently exists.
As Human Rights Watch has noted, the Army has dedicated entire brigades to protecting oil production: the XVIII
Brigade in Arauca, to protect Occidental oil's Cano Limon site, and the XVI Brigade in Casanare, to protect BP's
Cusiana-Cupiagua fields. In the Colombia Workers Rights section of the report, it mentions violence as
an obstacle to joining or engaging in labor efforts. I would say that this is very much of an understatement. Over the
past 15 years, about 3,000 unionists have been killed by gunmen, bombers and other assassins in Colombia.
Colombia is by far one of the most dangerous places on earth to take part in trade union activities.
I was pleased that one of the neutral "peace communities," San Jose de Apartado was mentioned in the report this
year. Afro-Colombians are already caught in the middle of a deadly civil war. My only concern here is why the
Afro-Colombians are not specifically mentioned in the report as a Section 5, "Discrimination Based on Social
Status" human rights violation. Afro Colombians have been among the populations hit hard by the political
violence. Joint paramilitary and Army incursions in the northwest of Colombia in the late 90's caused significant
displacement of many Afro Colombian communities. Furthermore, recent paramilitary activity in the Choco
department has also affected them. Despite advocating for peace and remaining neutral in the conflict, Afro-
Colombians make up as much as 70% of the internally displaced people in Colombia.
Also not mentioned in the report are the English-speaking Afro-Caribbean people of Colombian-controlled St
Andrews Island who face linguistic and religious discrimination. Their economy has been strangled by the US DEA
which suspects the islanders of being drug traffickers, playing into the hands of the Colombians who are
suppressing autonomy calls for St Andrew's. There are a number of other examples of where this report tells only a
chapter of a whole story.
In the case of Sudan the report accurately points out that, "[Sudanese] Government forces pursued a scorched
earth policy aimed at removing populations from around the newly built oil pipeline and other oil production
facilities, which resulted in deaths and serious injuries," but the report fails to mention where the government gets a
significant portion of its funds to develop the oil and hence get the capital to militarize: Talisman Energy Inc., a
Canadian company has invested $1 billion to help the National Islamic Front Government of Sudan to develop
Sudan's oil reserves. Talisman is traded on the US Stock Exchange. So many of its funds come directly from
us.
Recently US-based activists took aim at giant BP Amoco on Feb. 15,, 2001 demanding it divest holdings in China's
largest oil company which is accused of profiting from human rights abuses in Tibet and Sudan. Pro-Tibet
lobbyists and groups which promote ethical investing will file a shareholders resolution at BP's annual general
meeting in April, calling on the firm to dispense with its 2.2 percent stake in PetroChina. Clearly the revenues from
developing nations' oil production will be used to buy ever more deadly weapons. The government of Chad
purchased arms with its new infusion of oil money despite a World Bank rule designed to prevent it.
I appreciate the progress the DRL has made in recognizing and acting on the need to bring corporations and
NGO's together in dialogue. The protests in Seattle were about the trade policies that affect everybody, but in which
everybody doesn't get to participate. From Seattle to Washington, to Davos to Cancun people are taking to the
streets to demand that multinational corporations be held accountable for their impact on the environment, the food
we eat, human rights, and worker rights around the world. A recent Survey by the University of Maryland's program
on International Public Attitudes showed that nearly 90 percent of the American public expect US companies to
follow US environmental and safety standards overseas.
As for the African Great Lakes Region, this year's report also says that there were unconfirmed reports that
Rwandan and Ugandan forces used landmines during the fighting in Kisangani; I wonder what country provided
those landmines. I am deeply disappointed by the Clinton-era failures of US Africa policy. None more devastating
than the US policy to support the invasion of Democratic Republic of Congo by Uganda and Rwanda. Three million
innocent Congolese souls are now dead as a result of that dastardly decision. If the US is to play any honest role at
all on that Continent, it must be as honest broker. Unfortunately, that has not been the history of the US past
on that Continent. Again, I want to thank our witnesses for being here. I also want to thank The State Department
Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor for the effort that they put into this year's report, and I'd like to
acknowledge the work of the many countless "worker bees" at various levels of the State Department
bureaucracy who helped put this document together. I'd like to thank my staff, too, for going through this document
with a thorough and critical eye.
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OCIAL JUSTICE |