Orrin Hatch: “I rise to speak briefly today about the human rights situation in the Congo, where civil strife and irregularities in…”

“I rise to speak briefly today about the human rights situation in the Congo, where civil strife and irregularities in the recent elections have undermined the process of democratization in that country. I believe that virtually all Members of this body support an active human rights policy abroad. During the last 20 years, the United States has made promotion of human rights a vital dimension of its foreign policy, a development supported by both parties and by four Presidents. We have all welcomed the remarkable developments in the former Soviet bloc in recent years, but we must just as actively work for the advancement of human rights and democracy in the developing world, including Africa. There have been hopeful human rights developments across Africa in recent years. One of those was the 1992 presidential election in Congo, which was won by Pascal Lissouba, a technocrat who formerly served as an adviser to UNESCO. Following the breakup of a coalition government in the National Assembly, Lissouba dissolved the Parliament and called for new elections. The opposition charged that the first round of the elections were fraudulent, with charges and countercharges degenerating into civil strife. Fortunately, mediation efforts by the Organization of African Unity and the President of Gabon succeeded in preventing a full scale of civil war.”