Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 100 Part 1.djvu/93

 PUBLIC LAW 99-262—MAR. 21, 1986

100 STAT. 57

Public Law 99-262 99th Congress Joint Resolution To authorize and request the President to issue a proclamation designating March 21, 1986, as "Afghanistan Day", a day to commemorate the struggle of the people of Afghanistan against the occupation of their country by Soviet forces.

Whereas Afghanistan, more than six years after the Soviet invasion, remains a nation occupied and terrorized by over one hundred eighteen thousand Soviet troops; Whereas the continued Soviet occupation of Afghanistan is causing enormous suffering among the people of Afghanistan, as well as the deprivation of their basic right of national sovereignty; Whereas between one-quarter and one-third of Afghanistan's prewar population has been driven into exile, killed, wounded, or internally displaced; Whereas the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan undermines the spirit and intention of the Declaration of Principles of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics signed at Helsinki in 1975; Whereas the puppet regime of Babrak Karmal, installed and maintained by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, has denied the people of Afghanistan their rights to self-determination, in violation of the United Charter; Whereas the United Nations General Assembly has passed seven resolutions calling for "the immediate withdrawal of the foreign troops from Afghanistan"; Whereas on December 13, 1985, the United Nations General Assembly passed an unprecedented resolution on human rights in Afghanistan endorsing the United Nations Special Rapporteur's report demonstrating "gross, massive, and increasing human rights violations in Afghanistan"; Whereas the undaunted resistance of the Afghan freedom fighters against the Soviet occupational forces is an inspiration to the free world; and Whereas the people of Afghanistan observe March 21 as the start of each new year and as a symbol of the nation's rebirth: Now, therefore, be it

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