Political Quotes

“I was in my office, I saw the debate that was taking place, and I wanted to make a comment in strong support of the Kennedy amendment. I had the opportunity, as the gentleman from Rhode Island [Mr. Kennedy] did at Christmastime, I visited East Timor in January of this year. Members ought to know Bishop Belo, who got the Nobel Peace Prize because of the nomination of the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hall] and others in the Congress. We visited Bishop Belo. On the Island of East Timor, there have been over 200,000 people killed in the last 20 years. If Members were to extrapolate that to the United States, I do not know what that would mean, would it mean 60 million killed or something like that? It is an unbelievable amount. We met with Bishop Belo. We also were followed by the military and their people, but we went out in the field and talked to a number of people. We went to the Santa Cruz Cemetery, where the massacre took place. For Members who did not follow that massacre, the Indonesian army opened up fire and in cold blood killed these people at the Santa Cruz Cemetery. We also talked to young people. First, they were afraid to speak, then we got close to them. They started to talk and told us they were afraid. The very nights we were there at 2 o'clock in the morning the Indonesian military would come into their homes and take the young people away. They would not allow them to be visited by their moms and dads.”