The Cuba resolution, passed by voice vote, urges the administration to seek international condemnation of the Castro government at an upcoming meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva. It denounces recent suppression of political dissidents and demands that the Cuban government release all political prisoners, legalize political parties and schedule free elections.
``The U.S. Congress cannot be silent on this issue and will not tolerate the abuses inflicted by the Castro regime on its own citizens,'' said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.
In a 421-0 vote, the House also criticized the anti-Semitic statements made in recent months by Communist Party members and nationalists in Russia's Duma, or parliament. It praised Russian President Boris Yeltsin and other Russian government officials who have condemned such statements.
And the House, by a 429-1 vote, marked the 20th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act, the benchmark of U.S. non-governmental relations with Taiwan after U.S.-China relations were formed in 1979, by warning China not to make military threats against Taiwan.
``It is important for all to know, especially for Beijing to know when making its foreign policy calculations, that when it comes to U.S. relations with Taiwan there has been no weakening in our resolve to help the Taiwanese,'' said Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., chairman of the House International Relations subcommittee on Asia.
The family planning resolution, passed by voice vote, expresses the sense of Congress that international family planning programs should be completely voluntary and avoid numerical targets.
The sponsor, Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., said it would send a strong message before a United Nations conference on population this June that the United States will support only those programs that are ``truly voluntary.''
All the resolutions are non-binding.
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press