Speech #930243841

Mr. President. in response to a letter written by the Senator from Massachusetts on March 13. the State Department sent a point by point response to a series of 12 recommendations contained in a study mission report which was submitted to his subcommittee on refugees. While the State Department response to Senator KENNEDYS report had a number of disconcerting statements. I believe the most troubling of all was the response to the subcommittee recommendation on the problem of political prisoners. In spite of all of the documentation which has continued to come out of South Vietnam on the issue of political prisoners. the State Department said that it "cannot agree with the study missions assertion that the record is clear that political prisoners exist in South Vietnam." In spite of the fact that nearly every international humanitarian organization in existence today attests to the fact that the Thieu government now holds thousands of political prisoners. our own State Department has chosen. for political reasons. to deny that they exist.