hearing transcript (pdf - 690 kb) - House Foreign Affairs Committee ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

24 Mr. HANFORD. Thank you for all of your work and your staff’s work. I know this has been a long labor of love for you guys. I did want to say quickly to Congressman Smith on Uzbekistan, I have met recently with the Foreign Minister and pressed even the torture issue with that. It is gut wrenching and it has got to stop. Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Pitts. Ambassador, following up on what Joe was talking about, the designation of CPC countries, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended that Burma, North Korea, India, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam as countries of particular concern. Could you elaborate, given the egregious violations committed by these governments on which you expect to designate as CPC countries, and would your recommendation be that all be so designated? What considerations will be used to reach that final designation, and what should we expect to happen with—as Mr. Pitts had pointed out, that is of great concern to our Subcommittee, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan? Mr. HANFORD. Well, the Commission is doing its job here, and doing it well. When we were writing the bill and creating the Commission, that was what we intended. And when we created the CPC designation, we intended it for this very sort of purpose. And I am pleased that the countries that have already been named have been named, because when we were negotiating the bill one wondered if any country would be named. But indeed they have been. That was with the previous Administration. But they went on to name some. And this last year, yet another country, North Korea, was added to the list. The practice that I have come in to at the State Department is to have the report come out, and then to use the report as the factual basis for making a determination. As you might imagine, the process in the State Department on something like this is a many-stepped process. And so typically what has happened in the past is that the Ambassador-at-Large makes the recommendations to the Secretary of State several weeks after the report comes out, based on the latest information that is in the report. Now, we have been working on this. We have been looking over candidates. There are going to be some tough calls. We are struggling with what advances religious freedom most profitably in some of these countries. Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. If I can interrupt you just to ask you a second question on the implementation of the act. Do you feel as if the International Religious Freedom Act has been implemented appropriately given that none of the countries designated as countries of particular concern have been subjected to the actions under the act? Do you believe that the spirit and the letter of the CPC designation is being implemented and will you commit to addressing the situation and ensure that these violator governments receive a strong message, followed by action, that the U.S. Government will not tolerate these terrible violations of religious freedom? VerDate May 01 2002 14:37 Dec 19, 2002 Jkt 082261 PO 00000 Frm 00028 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 F:\WORK\IOHR\100902\82261 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL
25 Mr. HANFORD. In the dark of night, as we were negotiating the International Religious Freedom Act, one of the things which the Administration at that time—you know, we needed to move this forward. The bill passed—it was the last vote in the Senate before Congress shut down that year, the last substitute vote. Then it was run over to the House, and in the last half an hour or something it was voted on here. Fortunately, we hung tough and came up with a good tough bill. But one thing that needed to be allowed was for the Administration to be able to double hat or double designate existing sanctions on human rights. If you have a country like Sudan, where we are already sanctioning on human rights, and sanctioning the daylights out of them, what more can you do in some cases was the argument. And what has happened is that over the first 3 years of implementation, indeed sanctions in accordance with the act have been put into place. They have utilized existing human rights sanctions and designated those also under the IRF Act. What this means is that if one country is being designated for torture under another U.S. Law, and they clean up their act on torture, but now that sanction is also imposed for religious freedom, that sanction isn’t going to be removed. They are going to remain under that sanction until they change on religious freedom. Now, the point has been made by the Commission and others, wouldn’t it be good to come up with some distinct sanctions or distinct actions prompted only by the religious freedom actions or some more creative options. And the legislation gives us a number of options, including binding agreements, commensurate action. I think that is a good suggestion. Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. And we will now have another round. We will try to keep it to 5 minutes. Mr. Smith. Mr. SMITH. Thank you. I would hope that we would use sanctions, in addition to, rather than looking at double hatting. When we wrote the law, especially on this side of the Capitol, our hope was that more remedies and penalties would be available. I think the number was 14 in all. And hopefully they will be used to the fullest extent. There was a serious concern that many of us had with the incoming Administration that your job would have been double hatted with the Assistant Secretary for DRL, which all of us vigorously opposed when we heard that rumor. Maybe it was just a rumor, but I think it was beyond that. Certainly there are other ways of trying to compel a better record on the part of these countries. So please use all of the tools, and recommend that to your colleagues at the State Department and the President. Very quickly, you briefly mentioned Uzbekistan. I too will submit a number of written questions, because there are so many countries, and I hope the press doesn’t take from this that when certain countries aren’t mentioned that it indicates a lack of interest and concern. This could be a day long or 2 day long hearing because we have many, many concerns, all of us here. I recently chaired a Helsinki Commission hearing on Georgia. My good friend Mr. Pitts was there. We raised a number of questions about the mob attacks instituted by defrocked priests, mostly VerDate May 01 2002 14:37 Dec 19, 2002 Jkt 082261 PO 00000 Frm 00029 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 F:\WORK\IOHR\100902\82261 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL
Page 1 and 2: AN EVALUATION OF THE ANNUAL REPORT
Page 3 and 4: C O N T E N T S WITNESSES John Hanf
Page 5 and 6: AN EVALUATION OF THE ANNUAL REPORT
Page 7 and 8: 3 of the suffering they, their fami
Page 9 and 10: 5 freedom in the context of threats
Page 11 and 12: 7 Mr. Smith. Mr. SMITH. Thank you v
Page 13 and 14: 9 PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORAB
Page 15 and 16: 11 Hindu extremists. And the graphi
Page 17 and 18: 13 Ambassador HANFORD. I am going t
Page 19 and 20: 15 International Religious Freedom.
Page 21 and 22: 17 Finally, religion-based terroris
Page 23 and 24: 19 Falun Gong, especially with this
Page 25 and 26: 21 it is easier for us to sort of g
Page 27: 23 The expressions of concern have
Page 31 and 32: 27 across. And, of course, there wa
Page 33 and 34: 29 would publicly condemn the killi
Page 35 and 36: 31 Andrei Sakharov Foundation, Huma
Page 37 and 38: 33 carried out in many cases. Priva
Page 39 and 40: 35 of these countries continue to c
Page 41 and 42: 37 ward all religions and their fol
Page 43 and 44: 39 The Commission agrees with Ambas
Page 45 and 46: 41 Is it systemic? Is it organized,
Page 47 and 48: 43 has lectured at the American Cen
Page 49 and 50: 45 My younger brother, Yunus Sidik,
Page 51 and 52: 47 Chinese government. This is the
Page 53 and 54: 49 In China, it is almost a crime b
Page 55 and 56: 51 I am very happy that you have pr
Page 57 and 58: 53 Brahmanical forces mask the trut
Page 59 and 60: 55 10. The Hindutva organizations a
Page 61 and 62: 57 Number six. Rabwah, the spiritua
Page 63 and 64: 59 hours ago. I have been following
Page 65 and 66: 61 firmed when their bodies were re
Page 67 and 68: 63 contradiction to the Constitutio
Page 69 and 70: 65 Human rights reports state that
Page 71 and 72: 67 and subject to closed hearings.
Page 73 and 74: 69 an outstanding job of protecting
Page 75 and 76: 71 Mr. RAJ. About this report. I am
Page 77 and 78: 73 Mr. PITTS. How has the governmen
Page 79 and 80:
75 Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. And
Page 81 and 82:
A P P E N D I X MATERIAL SUBMITTED
Page 83 and 84:
79 barring access to one’s own ch
Page 85 and 86:
81 ernment, which is led by the Hin
Page 87 and 88:
83 whether privately or publicly, w
Page 89 and 90:
85 tory acts, largely because the n
Page 91 and 92:
87 rights. The Constitution does no
Page 93 and 94:
89 Commission holds public hearings
Page 95:
91 12. In testimony provided to thi
show all

hearing transcript (pdf - 690 kb) - House Foreign Affairs Committee ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?