On the recordMay 18, 2017
Mr. Speaker, recent State Department revelations show that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad continues inflicting atrocities on his own people. The discovery of a crematorium at Saydnaya military prison will only make it more difficult to account for the thousands detained and executed by Assad. According to numerous nongovernmental organizations, the Assad regime has abducted and detained between 65,000 and 117,000 people between 2011 and 2015. Credible reports have the regime executing up to 50 people daily. Assad uses the excuse of fighting terrorism to justify this gross campaign of inhumanity against innocent civilians. We know he has used mass graves and crematoriums to dispose of the corpses of the murdered. The savagery must stop. I am proud to represent many Syrian Americans in Charleston, West Virginia. I urge my colleagues to join me in publicly condemning the atrocities committed by the Syrian regime of President Assad. Syrians deserve to be safe and free. ____________________





