Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, today's hearing marks the first time that I have had the honor to present to Congress the Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. I submit these 1998 reports proudly, in accordance with a prime statutory responsibility given by the Foreign Assistance Act to the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, which I have headed since November. In 1977, shortly before these reports were first issued, President Carter gave their rationale in his inaugural address: “Because we are free,” he said, “we can never be indifferent to the fate of freedom elsewhere.”