William Helms: “on top of the mayhem and slaughter in New York and at the Pentagon in Washington last September, a travesty against…”

“on top of the mayhem and slaughter in New York and at the Pentagon in Washington last September, a travesty against democracy occurred, again, in Belarus. Aleksandr Lukashenka, the dictator controlling this country, stole through intimidation and repression, the presidential elections that took place on September 9. Tragic as the events in our own country were and as serious an undertaking as the war against terrorism will continue to be, we must not overlook the brutality and injustice of a regime such as the one led by Lukashenka, especially in the heart of Europe. For this reason, I am introducing today the Belarus Democracy Act of 2001, the purpose of which is to support the people in Belarus who are struggling, often at great peril to their lives, to revive democracy, and to reconsolidate their country's declining independence and sovereignty. Democracy has been crushed in Belarus by a fanatical dictatorship that can only be described as a brutal throwback to the Soviet era.”