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Mr. D'AMATO (for himself, Mr. Campbell, Mr. Kempthorne, Mr. Abraham, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Graham, Mr. Reid, and Mr. Feingold) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:
Whereas Fascist and Communist dictatorships have caused immeasurable human suffering and loss, degrading not only every conceivable human right, but the human spirit itself;
Whereas the villainy of communism was dedicated, in particular, to the organized and systematic destruction of private property ownership;
Whereas the wrongful and illegal confiscation of property perpetrated by Fascist and Communist regimes was often specifically designed to victimize people because of their religion, national or social origin, or expressed opposition to the regimes which repressed them;
Whereas Fascists and Communists often obtained possession of properties confiscated from the victims of the systems they actively supported;
Whereas Jewish individuals and communities were often twice victimized, first by the Nazis and their collaborators and then by the subsequent Communist regimes;
Whereas churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious properties were also destroyed or confiscated as a means of breaking the spiritual devotion and allegiance of religious adherents;
Whereas Fascists, Nazis, and Communists have used foreign financial institutions to launder and hold wrongfully and illegally confiscated property and convert it to their own personal use;
Whereas some foreign financial institutions violated their fiduciary duty to their customers by converting to their own use financial assets belonging to Holocaust victims while denying heirs access to these assets;
Whereas refugees from communism, in addition to being wrongly stripped of their private property, were often forced to relinquish their citizenship in order to protect themselves and their families from reprisals by the Communists who ruled their countries;
Whereas the participating states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have agreed to give full recognition and protection to all types of property, including private property, as well as the right to prompt, just, and effective compensation in the event private property is taken for public use;
Whereas the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the Caucasus and Central Asia, have entered a post-Communist period of transition and democratic development, and many countries have begun the difficult and wrenching process of trying to right the past wrongs of previous totalitarian regimes;
Whereas restrictions which require those whose properties have been wrongly plundered by Nazi or Communist regimes to reside in or have the citizenship of the country from which they now seek restitution or compensation are arbitrary and discriminatory in violation of international law; and
Whereas the rule of law and democratic norms require that the activity of governments and their administrative agencies be exercised in accordance with the laws passed by their parliaments or legislatures and such laws themselves must be consistent with international human rights standards: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring). That the Congress--
(1) welcomes the efforts of many post-Communist countries to address the complex and difficult question of the status of plundered properties;
(2) urges countries which have not already done so to return plundered properties to their rightful owners or, as an alternative, pay compensation, in accordance with principles of justice and in a manner that is just, transparent, and fair;
(3) calls for the urgent return of property formerly belonging to Jewish communities as a means of redressing the particularly compelling problems of aging and destitute survivors of the Holocaust;
(4) calls on the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and any other country with restrictions which require those whose properties have been wrongly plundered by Nazi or Communist regimes to reside in or have the citizenship of the country from which they now seek restitution or compensation to remove such restrictions from their restitution or compensation laws;
(5) calls upon foreign financial institutions, and the states having legal authority over their operation, that possess wrongfully and illegally property confiscated from Holocaust victims, from residents of former Warsaw Pact states who were forbidden by Communist law from obtaining restitution of such property, and from states that were occupied by Nazi, Fascist, or Communist forces, to assist and to cooperate fully with efforts to restore this property to its rightful owners; and
(6) urges post-Communist countries to pass and effectively implement laws that provide for restitution of, or compensation for, plundered property.
Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, at the close of last Congress, I submitted a concurrent resolution addressing property claims issues in Central and Eastern Europe. Representative Christopher H. Smith, the cochairman of the Commission, submitted an identical resolution in the House. Today, we are resubmitting this measure, and are joined by all the members of the Helsinki Commission as original cosponsors.
Mr. President, I wish I could report to you that there has been improvement in this area since our concurrent resolution was submitted last September. Regrettably, there has not. Let me give you just two examples of the kinds of cases that moved me to submit this concurrent resolution.
In 1991, Latvia passed a restitution law after regaining its independence from the Soviet empire. This law raised the hope that those forced from their homes by the 1940 Soviet invasion, and kept out by a 50-year occupation, would finally be able to return. And this is what Eso Anton Benjamins thought, too, when in 1995 a Latvian municipal court ordered that the current occupants of the Benjamins' family home vacate the property.
Unfortunately, the current occupant is none other than the Russian Ambassador to Latvia. The Russian Government has refused to move its representative from the private property of Mr. Benjamins, notwithstanding the Latvian court's legal order to do so, and the Latvian authorities have not evicted them.
In the Czech Republic, things are not much better. Under laws adopted after the Velvet Revolution, Susan Benda is theoretically eligible for the restitution of her family property, which had been confiscated by the Nazis but which her family had been unable to reclaim at the end of World War II. Notwithstanding this eligibility under the law and the Czech Government's purported intention to restore Jewish properties that had been seized by the Nazis, the Czech Ministry of Finance has arbitrarily imposed onerous and burdensome conditions for restitution which appear to be designed to defeat the intent of the law.
So while Czech officials may tell us they have properly addressed this issue, those seeking the return of wrongfully confiscated property in Prague find that an entirely different reality awaits them.
I am also deeply troubled by recent reports that some $50 million may have been embezzled from the funds received by Ukraine from Germany for the victims of Nazi prosecution. It is imperative that the Ukrainian Government make an investigation into this matter an urgent priority. Not only must this money be found and returned to the rightful recipients, but immediate measures should be taken to ensure that this cannot happen again.
Americans who came to this country to escape persecution are discovering that, in many Central and East European countries, they are once again being penalized, this time by discriminatory laws that restrict restitution or compensation to those who currently hold the citizenship of or residency in the country in question. This is the case in the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia.
Mr. President, this status quo cannot continue. I know it is not possible to turn back the clock completely or erase the wrongs that have been done. I commend the many emerging democracies attempting to address this complex issue, acting on both a moral obligation to redress past wrongs and a desire to underscore the differences between their new and old systems of government. But more can and should be done--and this resolution calls for concrete steps. It deserves our support, and the victims of past wrongs in this region deserve our help.
I urge my colleagues to join with me and the other cosponsors of this concurrent resolution in pressing for a fair, just, and timely property restitution and compensation process so that the victims of the Holocaust and subsequent Communist oppression are not denied what is rightfully theirs.
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