House Proceeding 03-11-09 on Mar 11th, 2009 :: 1:46:10 to 1:51:15
Total video length: 2 hours 25 minutes Stream Tools: Stream Overview | Edit Time

Note: MetaVid video transcripts may contain inaccuracies, help us build a more perfect archive

Views:162 Duration: 0:05:05 Discussion

Previous speech:

Next speech:

1:46:06 to 1:46:27( Edit History Discussion )

Christopher H. Smith: to support this resolution and thank my colleagues for giving us this opportunity to do so today. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the speaker of the house yields back the balance of her time. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, mr. speaker. i'm proud to yield four minutes to my good friend from new jersey, mr. smith, the ranking member on the subcommittee on

1:46:10 to 1:51:15( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Christopher H. Smith

1:46:28 to 1:46:48( Edit History Discussion )

Christopher H. Smith: africa and global health. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for four minutes. mr. smith: i would especially like to thank tom lantos, our revered and great and honorable former chairman of the committee who did pioneering work on tibet and really helped bring the dalai lama here in the first

1:46:49 to 1:47:09( Edit History Discussion )

Christopher H. Smith: place and made that very important connection many, many years ago. mr. speaker, 50 years ago today the tibetan people rose up against the tyranny that the chinese communist party was imposing on it. they outnumbered tibetans did not succeed in overthrowing the tyranny. sadly the chinese forces killed

1:47:10 to 1:47:30( Edit History Discussion )

Christopher H. Smith: over 86,000 tibetans and the dalai lama had to leave tibet to lead a government in exile. but i think the tibetans succeeded in doing something else 50 years ago. they put down a spiritual marker. they decided that materially free or not persecuted or not, the tibetan people re going to remain tibetan. and were not going to foresake

1:47:31 to 1:47:53( Edit History Discussion )

Christopher H. Smith: their religious heritage for the mess of ideological and atheistic nonsense the communist offered them. they would preserve their spiritual freedom even in the lou guy. since 1959 every generations of tibetans have taken up that decision. we cannot speak about 1959 without remembering 2008 when

1:47:54 to 1:48:14( Edit History Discussion )

Christopher H. Smith: the chinese government brutally crushed tibetans largely peaceful marking of the 1959 uprising. last year his holiness' special envoy told me and others on the congressional caucus, told me tibet had become quote particularly in the last few weeks in every since an occupied nation. brutally occupied by armed

1:48:15 to 1:48:35( Edit History Discussion )

Christopher H. Smith: forces. this week as our distinguished speaker of the house mentioned, the dalai lama has described the situation in tibet as hell on earth. shockingly and almost laughingly the chinese government shot back today and said, tibet is paradise on earth. well, it was, mr. speaker.

1:48:36 to 1:48:59( Edit History Discussion )

Christopher H. Smith: now it's paradise lost. just as it did in 1959, last year the chinese government ordered its soldiers and police to shoot. the death toll is well over 100. we don't even have any idea how many were wounded. how many were left wounded or dying. in attics and sellars because they knew if they went to a hospital they would simply

1:49:00 to 1:49:22( Edit History Discussion )

Christopher H. Smith: disappear into the chinese lay guy. the chinese government subjected tibetans to mass arrest. they searched whole sections of cities house by hoist. chinese officials admit to over 4,000 arrests. even today thousands of monks are still held under house ar mr. speaker, in 1959, i chaired a congressional hearing in which

1:49:23 to 1:49:43( Edit History Discussion )

Christopher H. Smith: we heard from six survivors of the laogai. one was a tibetan monk who spent 24 years in prison. wh we invited him to come and speak, he brought with him some of the instruments of torture that are routinely employed and used in a horrific manner against men and women in the chinese concentration camps. he told us that many people die

1:49:44 to 1:50:05( Edit History Discussion )

Christopher H. Smith: of starvation. when he brought those instruments, he couldn't even bring them past our capitol police. they stopped him. i had to go down to the entrance and escort him through. at the hearing he held up those electric batons that are used in the mouth and elsewhere, in order to provide electric shocks. while he was giving his

1:50:06 to 1:50:26( Edit History Discussion )

Christopher H. Smith: testimony, he broke down. he held it up and said, this is what went into my mouth as a buddhist monk and into the mouths of other people to shock and to deface. and he has trouble swallowing to this day. he told us about self-tightening handcuffs and held up his wrists and showed us the scars on his body.

1:50:27 to 1:50:48( Edit History Discussion )

Christopher H. Smith: not just on his wrists, but elsewhere as well. he told us how the guards pierced people with bacon nets and -- bacon nets, he also told us every bit of this was routine anlmost mundane. in the face of this he and so many others like them persevered. and the tibetan people at large continue on keeping faith,

1:50:49 to 1:51:11( Edit History Discussion )

Christopher H. Smith: including their -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. ms. ros-lehtinen: an additional minute. mr. smith: including their principle of nonviolence. ey are determined to endure, mr. spea with kindness. and benevolence in charity. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from california.

1:51:12 to 1:51:18( Edit History Discussion )

Christopher H. Smith: the gentleman from california. mr. berman: mr. speaker, i'm