Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: “as we welcome this week the President of Georgia and the architect of the Rose Revolution in that country, it is…”

“as we welcome this week the President of Georgia and the architect of the Rose Revolution in that country, it is critically important that the United States Congress continue to focus on the need to bring about freedom and democracy as antidote to terrorism, to oppression, and instability. Nowhere is this policy more pertinent than in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan today is a vivid example of the need to continue and indeed strengthen this policy in the region. Months of civilian protests and flawed parliamentary elections culminated in the invalidation of those election results by that country's supreme court, the resignation of the entire cabinet, and an end to the 15-year reign of its strongman. This is a clear sign that the winds of democratic change cannot be stopped. The Kyrgyz people certainly took note of the elections in nearby Afghanistan, of Georgia's Rose Revolution and Ukraine's Orange Revolution in November of last year; courageous individuals such as Mr. Edil Baisalov of the president's Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, Kyrgyzstan, who are struggling to exert their rights as citizens and human beings. He will be testifying before the Committee on International Relations tomorrow on how the U.S. can help support those who, like him, toil for freedom around the world. {time} 1730 I assure you that what we do in this body resonates throughout that region. Mr.…”