Extensions of Remarks

13294 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS June 4, 1979 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS OPPOSITION CONTINUES TO THE addressed the issue of the Peripheral CHILDREN IN SOUTH AFRICA PERIPHERAL CANAL Canal perceptively, recognizing the enor mous threat which this facility repre sents for the entire bay area. This editor HON. DON EDWARDS HON. GEORGE MILLER ial echoes the well deserved criticism of OF CALIFORNIA OF CALIFORNIA the canal throughout northern California IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES and among responsible planners in other Monday, June 4, 1979 Monday, June 4, 1979 regions of the State. e Mr. EDWARDS of California. Mr. The editorial follows: Speaker, particularly poignant in the • Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speak [From the San Francisco Examiner, er, once again the question of whether or Apr. 20, 1979] 1979 U.N. International Year of the not to construct the Peripheral Canal has Child is the abuse of children by South come before the California Legislature. DEAD CANAL PROJECT STIRS AGAIN Africa. Evidence is abundant that chil Some years ago then-Congressman Jerome dren as young as 10 have been placed in As in past years, its proponents-the Waldie, D-Contra Costa County, perhaps the high volume water consumers of south most unrelenting foe ever of the Peripheral solitary confinement. Many have been ern California-are willing to make Canal, celebrated a legislative victory against subjected to torture. "good faith" pledges to the residents of that project by exclaiming, "The canal is The following is reprinted from Am the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and dead. It will not rise again." nesty International's Matchbox, spring the San Francisco Bay area regarding His jubilation was premature, as he has 1979: the future water quality of that critical had good reason to observe in subsequent "WHEREAS MANKIND OWES THE CHILD THE economic and environmental region of developments. BEST IT HAs To GIVE. • • ." the State. The canal has had a checkered history for (Part 2 of a continuing series in Matchbox 15 years. In 1977 the state Senat e "killed" on the 1979 UN International Year of the But increasingly, residents of northern it again, long after Waldie's "victory." Last Child.) California recognize that the water ap August that same scenario was re-enacted. On November 20, 1959, the General As petite of the southern special interests At that time, Gov. Brown, whose dear baby sembly of the United Nations unanimously is insatiable. Their spokesman will this project is, commented that it would adopt ed t he Declaration of the Rights of promise anything in order to secure con "t ake a little more time" to get the canal the Child. The spirit of the document was struction of the Peripheral Canal, know bill through the Legislature. reflected in t he preamble, which said in part, ing full well that any pledges to main Well, it is on the move again. The in "mankind owes the child the best it has to defatigable Southern California legislative give." tain water quality in the bay and the delegation, always a thirst for more Northern Since its founding in 1961, Amnesty In delta can, and in all probability will, be California water, has introduced the canal ternational consistently has received infor overridden at the time of the first bill again, proving to no one's surprise that mation on children who are victims of hu drought. For that reason, among many project never was dead but sleeping. man rights abuses. Many of the same coun others, we would be far wiser to focus But this time the canal emerges with a tries t hat now celebrate the International attention on less costly alternatives and new gimmick attached. Its author, Sen. Year of the Child nonetheless imprison, kid improve management of our water sup Ruben Ayala, D-Chino, has amended his bill nap, t orture and otherwise persecute some o! plies in California rather than peren to merely "authorize" the canal. Thus, shorn t heir children. for the time of its $600 million appropriation, DETENTION OF CHILDREN IN SOUTH AFRICA nially returning to the billion dollar it can be passed by a simple majority vote canal. rather than the two-thirds required of a There is mounting evidence that South money measure. African authorities, in their fight against The project has become so dubious that "communism" and racial unrest (sparked Federal water officials, and many in the But in whatever guise it appears, the canal by the 1976 Soweto disturbance), are detain Congress, have dismissed the notion of concept is hazardous to the health of t he ing large numbers of children for long peri Federal funding of this white elephant. Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San ods of time under security laws. Francisco Bay. It would detour immense Nevertheless, State officials and canal The children are held without parental proponents in the legislature continue to volumes of wat er around the Delta and access and often without parental knowledge transport it south for agricultural purposes of their detention. Children as young as 10 press for its authorization. The latest and to fill the swimming pools of Sout hern scheme would provide for State con have been placed in solitary confinement for Californians. as long as five months, and many have been struction, with an expectation that the The scheme provides for occasional squirts Federal Government would wheel cen subjected to torture. of fresh water to be directed into the Delta. A report by the International Commission tral valley project water through the It is claimed that that would be enough of Jurists, based on information provided by canal for a fee. However, the legislation to flush it clean of salt wat er coming up in the highly reliable South African Institute is so controversial, and the cost of the tidal sweeps from San Francisco Bay, but for Race Relations and the UN Human Rights project so enormous, that the bill's pro the sporadic injections obviously would not Commission Ad Hoc Working Group of Ex ponents are fearful of spelling out its equal the steady wholesome flow t hat Mother perts on Violations of Human Rights in Nature herself now generates. Moreover, in Southern Africa, states that at least 150 true cost. Moreover, the Interior Depart times of water shortage, not even that ment's solicitor, in a letter to me, has al children under 16 years were detained under miserly allotment could be depended on. security laws from September 1976 to April ready indicated his belief that CVP use Users of Delta water in farm, factory and 1977 following the Soweto disturbances. of the canal would constitute an unau kitchen would suffer from the deterioration According to testimony put before the thorized act under existing statutes, and in quality as would the ecology of San Fran UN Ad Hoc Working Group in 1977, "many would therefore require congressional cisco Bay, which just now is beginning to [of the detained children], as young as 10 action. recover from a period of man-made pollution. and 12 , had been held for several months"; The people of California deserves more Thus the issue is of importance not only "dozens of ·children, barely in their teens, serious attention to their long-term to Delta in t erests but to the Bay Area as have been kept in solitary confinement", well. That area needs a spokesman of the and "in one Port Elizabeth trial, one of the water problems than this charade pro same dedication as Jerome Waldie, or his accused turned out to be seven years old." vides. There are many legitimate needs in successors in t hat regard, Assemblyman Dan A South African lawyer who had testified the Central Valley and in southern Cali Boatwright and Congressman George Mlller, recently to the Ad Hoc Working Group re fornia, and we should be spending our on the scene in Contra Costa. cently handled cases involving 91 children time on meeting those needs, without Assembly Speaker Leo McCarthy of San under 16 years old, including children 10, 12 planning projects and stimulating poli Francisco could fill the role brilliantly, but and 13 years, some of whom "had spent five cies which will lead to the desecration of last year, on the bill's defeat, he remarked months in solitary confinement." Most of that he would start "building a case for the these 91 children were subsequently ac one area of the State on behalf of an bill next year." He would receive greater ac quitted after spending up to five months in other. claim among his constituents were he to detent ion and many were used as State wit The San Francisco Examiner recently start building a case against it.e nesses against other children. • This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by the Member on the floor. June 4, 1979 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 13295 According to provisions of security laws, he states in regard to H.R. 3604 that What can be done? Obviously, the first an only the authorities are permitted, access to "Surely, it's at least one answer to be swer is t o boost ot her sources of supply. detainees. Consequently, parents of detained considered" as a means for curbing That includes not only coal and all alterna chlldren often plead in vain for information OPEC's power. tives to oil, but something better than the on their child's whereabouts and on whether ham-handed approaches that have been the child is even alive. The article follows: made to Mexico to a.cq uire a. share of its oil South African press reports in 1976 and CuRBING OPEC's PowER and gas.

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