TITLE: Statement from Hearing on State Department Human Rights Reports

AUTHOR: Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney

PUB:

DATE: March 7, 2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jocco Baccus (404) 377-6900 March 7, 2001 "We place as much importance on what is NOT written in these pages as we do on what is written." 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. Thank You. END top