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

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against Jehovah’s Witnesses. Right after our hearing there were
three more mob attacks. There was a video, very telling in its depiction,
of people bleeding and getting beaten in the courts where
people who have perpetrated crimes were supposedly going to be
brought to justice. Please touch on that, if you would.
Mr. Tancredo and I met with Madam Picard in France and
talked about her anti-cult law which, you know, uses the pretext
of those who commit violence. They often mention the people who
released the Sarin gas in Tokyo as an example of the cult. Nobody
has any countenance of that kind of organization.
But then they group or cluster into that group, very legitimate
expressions of faith, call them a cult, and thereby subject them to
penalties. In reading your testimony, you indicate that there seems
to be some pause. The law is still on the books. It is already being
cited by Chinese and others as a model type of piece of legislation.
France did a grave disservice to human rights in general, religious
freedom, in particular, when Madam Picard and her cohorts
in the National Assembly passed that law. In our meeting, Tom
will back me up on this, I was appalled by the anti-religious attitude
expressed by that parliamentarian.
The hostility, after the niceties were done away with, after 10 or
15 minutes, came through very, very clear, and I was appalled at
the lack of sensitivity to people of faith.
And I have other questions about Burma. Perhaps you might
want to get to that as well. Burma has gone from bad to worse.
Mr. Pitts mentioned the Karen and others who are being hurt so
severely. What can be done there as well?
I have other questions. Vietnam, Laos, but I do hope that you
will respond in writing to those as well.
Mr. HANFORD. Sure. Do you want me to respond? I just got back
from Vietnam, so we may not have time to talk about that now,
but I would be anxious to talk to you about that.
On Georgia, we—one of our staffers has been there this year.
That is how seriously we are taking that. And we have one of the
staff with our office who left for Burma yesterday and is going to
be there about a week to really try to size up the situation there.
I don’t suspect that they will be removed from the CPC list this
year.
Mr. SMITH. Just on Georgia, we do have a significant aid package
there. Perhaps the other parts of our State Department and on the
military side could look into using that as leverage.
Mr. HANFORD. Right, indeed. The encouragement that we get
from the government of Georgia is that President Shevardnadze
and the Minister of Justice have publicly condemned the violence
of this defrocked Father Basil who keeps fomenting these things.
But we are not seeing the sort of action that we need.
And we are also troubled that there is a new law in the offing
there that could perhaps make matters worse. We have been urging
the government to enforce the laws it already has against violence,
rather than creating a new law which will wind up restricting
religious expression perhaps even worse.
We have, Congressman Smith, through State Department, Congress,
of course, and those at our Embassy, we have told them that
this could affect future aid to Georgia. So that message is getting
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