*EPF411 02/13/2003
Transcript: Lawmaker Says Burma Must Stop Brutality Against Minorities
(Representative Joseph Pitts decries Burma's campaign of genocide) (230)

Following is the text of Representative Joseph Pitts (Republican of Pennsylvania) February 12 remarks to the House of Representatives from the Congressional Record:

(begin transcript)

BURMA

House of Representatives
February 12, 2003

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the ethnic minorities of Burma, otherwise known as Myanmar. In January, I visited the Thai-Burma border and met with refugees, democracy activists, prisoner-of-conscience groups and others working to help the people of Burma. Sadly, the international community has failed to recognize that there is, under international legal definitions, a campaign of genocide against the ethnic minorities by the ruling SPDC dictatorship in Burma.

We met with victims' groups, land mine victims, orphans, rape victims and others. One little boy I met was an 8-year-old orphan. He had seen both of his parents killed, then he was trafficked over the border into Thailand and there he escaped to the refugee camps. This little boy was so traumatized that he could not even smile. I saw many children like him.

Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Government and the international community must do something to assist the people of Burma and stop the brutality. Otherwise, we will all be responsible for the successful genocide campaign ethnic cleansing going on by the vicious military of the SPDC.

(end transcript)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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