PRINTER'S NO. 3834
No. 725 Session of 2004
INTRODUCED BY WASHINGTON, MYERS, WHEATLEY, PALLONE, BISHOP,
BEBKO-JONES, BELARDI, BELFANTI, CORRIGAN, CREIGHTON, CURRY,
FABRIZIO, FAIRCHILD, FORCIER, FRANKEL, GABIG, GEIST, GEORGE,
GINGRICH, GOODMAN, HARHAI, HERSHEY, JAMES, LAUGHLIN, LEDERER,
MANN, MUSTIO, PHILLIPS, READSHAW, ROEBUCK, ROSS, RUBLEY,
SCHRODER, B. SMITH, TANGRETTI, TIGUE, WALKO, WOJNAROSKI,
YOUNGBLOOD AND PISTELLA, MAY 11, 2004
INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35,
MAY 11, 2004
A RESOLUTION
1 Memorializing the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan conflict in
2 memory of Rwandese genocide victims and in recognition of
3 genocide survivors and other innocents who bore witness to
4 the atrocities in Rwanda in the spring of 1994.
5 WHEREAS, On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying Rwandan President
6 Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira was
7 shot down over the Rwandan capital, Kigali, and the next day
8 Rwandan soldiers murdered Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe
9 Uwinlingiyimana and ten Belgian peacekeepers; and
10 WHEREAS, A genocidal civil war between Tutsi rebels and the
11 Hutu-dominated government in Rwanda which ensued through July
12 resulted in the premeditated killing by Hutu soldiers, officers
13 and militiamen of 800,000 Rwandans, including three-quarters of
14 Rwanda's Tutsi population as well as politically moderate Hutus
15 and other unarmed civilians; and
16 WHEREAS, The Rwandan government and the international
1 community continue to confront intertribal and ethnic tensions,
2 the turmoil and destruction of civil war and genocide, the
3 displacement of civilians and the ordered withdrawal of
4 peacekeepers from Rwanda ten years ago; and
5 WHEREAS, Mass human rights violations carried out at that
6 time have caused continuing pain for Rwandese civilians who were
7 maimed, raped, orphaned or otherwise victimized or scarred by
8 the atrocities and have haunted war-affected peacekeepers and
9 other persons who tried to aid victims; and
10 WHEREAS, Military trials and national trials for genocide and
11 crimes against humanity were conducted in Rwanda beginning in
12 December 1996; and
13 WHEREAS, The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was
14 established in 1994 to prosecute persons responsible for the
15 atrocities and violations of international humanitarian law,
16 provide justice to victims and promote reconciliation and the
17 rule of law; and
18 WHEREAS, Created by the United Nations and its member states
19 and based in Arusha, Tanzania, the tribunal delivered the first-
20 ever verdict on the crime of genocide by an international court;
21 therefore be it
22 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives memorialize the
23 10th anniversary of the Rwandan conflict in memory of the
24 hundreds of thousands of people who died, in recognition of the
25 toll of insecurity and the suffering and displacement of
26 survivors and witnesses and in condemnation of the grave human
27 rights abuses inflicted by rival tribes in abrogation of
28 international law.
D14L82SFL/20040H0725R3834 - 2 -