9702 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS March 30, 1977 INTERNATIONAL BANKS Inter-American Development Bank for a term Jerry Joseph Jasinowski, of the District of of five years; and United States Governor of Columbia, to be an Assistant Secretary of W. Michael Blumenthal, of Michigan, to be the Asian Development Bank and United Commerce. United States Governor of the International States Governor of the African Development The above nominations were approved sub­ Monetary Fund for a term of five years and Fund. ject to the nominees' commitments to re­ United States Governor of the International DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE spond to requests to appear and testify be­ Bank for Reconstruction and Development Sidney Harman, of New York, to be Under fore any duly constituted committee of the for a term of five years; a Governor of the Secretary of Commerce. Senate. EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARA­ and the arts. Their folklore is considered mitment to majority rule and human rights TION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE one of the richest and most colorful of in Africa. BYELORUSSIAN DEMOCRATIC RE­ Eastern Europe. They are wrong. What the United States PUBLIC will demonstrate, rather, is that it is trag­ It is appropriate, therefore, on the an­ ically shortsighted and dismayingly hypo­ niversary of the Byelorussian Declara­ critical. For the most likely effects of the tion of Independence to commemorate American decision to reinstate the ban HON. CHARLES W. WHALEN, JR. the spirit of this freedom loving people against Rhodesian chrome will be to OF OHIO and to reaffirm our belief in the prin­ strengthen the leftist movement in Africa IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ciples of self-determination so that peo·· and to show that Congress and the Carter ples everywhere should have the right administration are brazenly selective in sup­ Wednesday, March 30, 1977 to decide their futures. porting the cause of human rights. Mr. WHALEN. Mr. Speaker, in this The purpose of the U.N. embargo against year when much consideration is given Rhodesia is to hasten the collapse of the to human, national and religious rights white government in Salisbury and to pro­ RHODESIA TEST CASE TO HUMAN mote black control. Since whites constitute in our foreign policy, I would like to note only a tiny minority of that country's popu­ that March 25 marked the anniversary RIGHTS lation, a white-dominated government is of the Declaration of Independence of perceived by its critics to be inherently the Byelorussian Democratic Republic, evil, while a black government supposedly proclaimed 59 years ago in Minsk. Un­ HON. HARRY F. BYRD. JR. would mean democratic "majority rule" and fortunately, for that small nation and OF VIRGINIA a greater respect for "human rights." By helping to destroy the existing Rhodesian the world, the independence of Byelorus­ IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STAT:ES sia lasted only 10 months before it was regime, the United States will prove, we are Wednesday, March 30, 1977 led to believe, that it is on the side of the overwhelmed by the Soviet Army. Let us angels. take this occasion to remember that we Mr. HARRY F. BYRD, JR. Mr. Presi­ Such grotesque thinking totally ignores Americans enjoy the principles of free­ dent, for many years United States for­ reality. And it makes a mockery of morality, dom and democracy that so many others eign policy neglected the continent of in the name of which the United States gov­ have been long denied. Africa. Now, the press of events has ernment adopts its new policy. A land of brave and determined peo­ forced renewed attention to that im­ It is absurd to equate black rule in pre­ ple, Byelorussia has long been a pawn portant region. dominantly black nations with majority rule, both in many internal and external pow­ for few of the black governments in black The Carter administration has chosen African countries are even faintly demo­ er games. Integrated within the Russian Rhodesia as the test case to demon­ cratic. Some, as the whole world knows, are Empire in the late 18th century, Byelo­ strate America's commitment to human cruelly despotic, savagely suppressing human russia was known as the "northwest rights and majority rule in Africa. rights and extinguishing the lives of those pr-0vinces." She bravely declared her in­ Through a reimposition of an embargo citizens who dare protest too loudly. Many dependence on March 25, 1918 while un­ on chrome, the Carter administration of Africa's governments are pro-Communist, der Austro-German occupation during seeks to place itself on the side of as are some of the strongest guerrilla forces the First World War. At the end of the morality and justice. in Rhodesia. Human rights certainly do not war, the nation was split between the flourish under communism, but it is com­ I believe that such reasoning repre­ munism that might profit most from the col­ Poles and the Russians until less than a sents skewed logic and instead, that, lapse of the white Rhodesian government. year after declaring her independence, reimposition of the embargo demon­ Morally, a policy that fails to treat all she was forcibly incorporated into the strates the hypocracy of the United regimes that violate human rights alike is Soviet Union as the Byelorussian Soviet States in selectively applying its moral indefensible, but that is precisely the kind Socialist Republic. rectitude. of policy that the United States has now During World War II, Byelorussia was To quote from an editorial in the decided to pursue. Aside from Rhodesia, the seized by Nazi Germany for 3 years be­ March 17 Richmonrl Times-Dispatch: two major suppliers of chrome are the Soviet ginning in June of 1941. The Nazis tried Union and South Africa. It would be difficult Morally, a policy that fails to treat all if not impossible to name a more flagrant to restore Byelorussian nationalism and regimes that violate human rights alike is violator of human rights and a more callous attempted to remodel everything Soviet indefensible, but that is precisely the kind brutalizer of the human spirit than Russia, during this period. When the Russians of policy that the United States has now and South Africa's restrictions against its regained control, they in turn reversed decided to pursue. non-white citizens are visible to the entire this process. By the end of World War This editorial goes on to discuss the world. But in voting to repeal the Byrd II several million Byelorussians had per­ illogic of current U.S. policy. I believe amendment, Congress rejected proposals to ished, and the Soviets had usurped full extend the ban to Russian and South every individual concerned with this African chrome. power. issue should have the benefit of this It is significant to note that in 1973 Moreover, even as it prepares to punish the Soviet Government threatened again editorial. Rhodesia for its alleged offenses against I ask unanimous consent that the text humanity, the United States government is the integrity of this brave people by es­ of this editorial be printed in ExtensL:ns showing increasing interest in reestablishing tablishing new administrative partitions of Remarks. trade ties with the Cuban dictatorship of of the country. Yet the Byelorussian peo­ There being no objection, the editorial Fidel Castro, that ardent champion of de­ ple remained strong and resisted the So­ mocracy who shows his devotion to human viet attempt to dilute them into a homo­ was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, rights by sending his critics to prison or to geneous Russian nation. While the land as follows: the gallows. Castro's government is respon­ they work is not well suited for agri­ RESTORING THE BAN sible for much of the turmoil that has culture, Byelorussians produce such im­ Urged on by President Carter, Congress shaken Latin America in recent years, and portant crops as potatoes, flax, wheat, has repealed the Byrd amendment, which his troops are making trouble in Africa, authorized the United States to import where they are serving as surrogates of rye and barley. Urban industries have chrome from Rhodesia despite a United Na­ Russia. begun especially in farm related produc­ tions trade ban against that country. By If the United States is so dedicated to tion. agreeing now to comply with the embargo, human rights that it cannot trade with In addition, Byelorussians have man­ critiCs of the amendment argue, the United Rhodesia with a clear conscience, how could aged to excel in many areas of education States will dramatically confirm its com- it trade with the Soviet Union? Or even Ma'rch 30, 1977 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 9703 consider trading with Castro's Cuba? Are treatment of Americans abroad. Its impact trend," says Faisal Beshlr, Saudi Arabia's Congress and the Carter administration for varies from country to country, but lt has deputy minister of planning. "I recognize the human rights or simply against the white been estimated that the U.S. income tax right o! your government to pass any laws government of Rhodesia? paid by an American in the Middle East which lt wants. But in this case it ls America The Byrd amendment was sponsored by may rise by thousands of dollars. Often the which will suffer, not us. There are many Vlrginl Sen. Harry F. Byrd, Jr., who was tax wlll exceed the tax he would have paid other countries who are only too happy to motivated both by a desire for fairness in had he stayed in the U.S. at the same salary replace America in supplying us with the American foreign policy and by a concern for but without those large, and taxable, allow­ things we need." Most countries don't t.o.x the nation's security.