Chris Smith: “First of all, let me thank Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen for her leadership in bringing this bill to the floor today…”

“First of all, let me thank Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen for her leadership in bringing this bill to the floor today, the majority leader and the Speaker for scheduling it, and to Howard Berman for his strong support of it as well and his very eloquent statement just a moment ago. {time} 1830 Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 515, the Belarus Democracy and Human Rights Act of 2011. The bill demonstrates our strong and sustained promotion of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law in Belarus through targeted sanctions against this brutal dictatorship of Alexander Lukashenko. H.R. 515 reinforces earlier law, the Belarus Democracy Act of 2004 and the Belarus Democracy Reauthorization Act of 2006, both of which passed the House and Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support and were signed into law. This legislation is timely and necessary. The fraudulent December 19 elections in 2010 in Belarus and the ongoing crackdown on democracy activists and independent journalists by the Lukashenko dictatorship underscore the need for democracy-promoting legislation. Immediately after the election, the government responded to peaceful protests against electoral fraud with savage mass beatings and large-scale detentions--over 700 people.…”