[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 679 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 679

  Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the 
 continuing effects of the genocide, crimes against humanity, and war 
                   crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 25, 2007

 Mr. Smith of New Jersey submitted the following resolution; which was 
              referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the 
 continuing effects of the genocide, crimes against humanity, and war 
                   crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Whereas H. Res. 199 and S. Res. 134 (109th Congress) resolved that from April 
        1992 to November 1995, Serb forces committed aggression and genocide 
        against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its population, with 
        the direct support from authorities in Serbia and Montenegro;
Whereas the perpetrators and the supporters of the aggression and genocide, 
        including the Yugoslav People's Army and its Ministry of Interior, the 
        Army of Republika Srpska, the Police of Republika Srpska, and other 
        regular and paramilitary forces under Serb control, intended to destroy, 
        through slaughter, rape, torture, and expulsion, the unique multiethnic 
        culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina woven through a thousand years of 
        tolerance, respect, mutual trust, and dignified coexistence of all of 
        Bosnia and Herzegovina's ethnically and religiously diverse citizens;
Whereas the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has 
        found numerous Serb political and military officials guilty of 
        committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of 
        genocide against the non-Serb population of the Republic of Bosnia and 
        Herzegovina;
Whereas the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in its judgment of February 
        26, 2007, ruled that the execution of more than 7,000 civilians in and 
        around Srebrenica in July 1995 by the institutions of the then self-
        styled Republika Srpska entity, and in particular its army and police, 
        was a crime of genocide, as defined by the Convention on the Prevention 
        and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide;
Whereas Srebrenica and other areas of eastern Bosnia from which the victims of 
        genocide hail continues to be under the jurisdiction of the Republika 
        Srpska entity and its institutions, especially the Police of Republika 
        Srpska, that committed genocide;
Whereas the ICJ also ruled that Serbia had violated the Convention on the 
        Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by failing to prevent 
        the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina and punish its perpetrators;
Whereas the ICJ's judgment declares that significant sections of the documents 
        detailing the proceedings of the Supreme Defense Council of the Federal 
        Republic of Yugoslavia (later Serbia and Montenegro) were redacted and 
        therefore not available to the ICJ at the time of that judgment;
Whereas the findings of the RS Srebrenica Commission report unequivocally stated 
        that Republic of Srpska's Interior Ministry (i.e. the Police of 
        Republika Srpska) has ``failed to provide specific data on several 
        hundred individuals deployed in Srebrenica in July 1995 under the direct 
        or indirect auspices of the RS'';
Whereas the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina 
        concluded that the Srebrenica Commission ``must complete the list of 
        names, currently standing at 892, of those implicated in the Genocide 
        who are currently employed in BH or Republic of Srpska institutions, and 
        forward a completed list to the BH Prosecutor and to the ICTY.'';
Whereas all countries are obliged not to recognize as lawful the situation 
        created by the crime of aggression and the crime of genocide, as well as 
        to cooperate in the application of measures designed to eliminate the 
        consequences of such crimes;
Whereas the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina 
        (commonly referred to as the ``Dayton Peace Accords''), that was made 
        possible through the strong leadership of the United States, ended the 
        aggression, genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity against 
        the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its non-Serb population, but 
        it failed to achieve its intended goal of reversing the effects of those 
        crimes;
Whereas due to the failure to ensure sustainable return of refugees and 
        displaced persons to their homes of origins, as guaranteed by Annex VII 
        of the Dayton Peace Accords, the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina 
        (Annex IV of the Dayton Peace Accords) has evolved into an ethno-
        territorial arrangement that now institutionalizes the results of the 
        genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Bosnia and 
        Herzegovina;
Whereas one of the most ominous of the ethno-territorial provisions of this 
        Constitution is an entity voting mechanism, which allows a small number 
        of Serb deputies from Republika Srpska in the Parliament of Bosnia and 
        Herzegovina, constituting less than one-quarter of the Parliament, to 
        block any proposed legislation or decision;
Whereas the entity voting mechanism has been used to block various crucial 
        State-level legislation, including the proposed changes to the 
        Citizenship Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina which in its current form 
        threatens to permanently deny over 500,000 Bosnians their Bosnian 
        citizenship, effectively continuing the project of genocide and ethnic 
        cleansing;
Whereas 300,000 Bosnian-Americans live in the United States as fully engaged 
        citizens with a significant potential to further strengthen the ties 
        between the United States and Bosnia and Herzegovina;
Whereas the political leadership of the Republika Srpska entity has continuously 
        blocked all attempts to move beyond the ethno-territorial basis of the 
        Dayton Constitution and create a fully democratic and functioning system 
        of government, as has been demonstrated by, among other things, the 
        Republika Srpska entity's unwillingness to agree to the reform of the 
        police force structures within Bosnia and Herzegovina in line with the 
        standards demanded by the European Union;
Whereas Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that the people of Bosnia 
        and Herzegovina need ``a stronger energetic state capable of advancing 
        the public good'' and pledged that the United States will remain a 
        dedicated partner to Bosnia and Herzegovina as it moves toward further 
        Euro-Atlantic integration;
Whereas Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns has 
        unequivocally stated that the Dayton Peace Accords ``cannot be the way 
        that the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina organize themselves for the 
        next ten years'' and that ``it is time for [the people of] Bosnia and 
        Herzegovina ... to go beyond the Dayton Accords and to build a modern 
        constitutional state'';
Whereas the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of 
        Europe have recently adopted Resolutions calling for an in-depth reform 
        of the Dayton constitutional arrangements, and particularly for the 
        reduction and elimination of the entity voting mechanism;
Whereas there continues to be, within Republika Srpska ethnic exclusivity, which 
        has effectively discouraged and prevented the return of the ethnically-
        cleansed non-Serb population to this region of Bosnia and Herzegovina; 
        and
Whereas the constitutional arrangements of Bosnia and Herzegovina must satisfy 
        the interests of all of its people by guaranteeing full civil, cultural, 
        individual, and religious rights to all citizens of Bosnia and 
        Herzegovina, and promoting the integration of the entire region of 
        Southeast Europe into the Euro-Atlantic political and security 
        structures: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That--
            (1) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that--
                    (A) Bosnia and Herzegovina should begin the process 
                of adopting a new constitution that is based on civic 
                representation and that fully eliminates the ethno-
                territorial arrangements which reflect and 
                institutionalize the effects of the genocide, war 
                crimes, and crimes against humanity committed in Bosnia 
                and Herzegovina;
                    (B) the new constitution should advance the 
                principles of civic democracy, full equality of 
                citizens, tolerance and protection of all ethnic 
                groups, and should reflect the highest standards of 
                individual human rights and liberties;
                    (C) the new constitution should eliminate the 
                ethnic power-sharing principles that reflect the ethnic 
                divisions imposed by the perpetrators of the genocide, 
                crimes against humanity, and war crimes;
                    (D) the new constitution must restructure the 
                ethno-territorial organization of Bosnia and 
                Herzegovina and eliminate its division into entities, 
                cantons, and municipalities with a view to creating a 
                single, unified economic space and increasing 
                efficiency and sustainability of the country and its 
                governing apparatus;
                    (E) the entity voting mechanism, which has proved 
                to be a serious obstacle to the functioning of Bosnia 
                and Herzegovina's Parliament, must be eliminated;
                    (F) Srebrenica and other areas of eastern Bosnia 
                should be placed under the exclusive jurisdiction of 
                the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to 
                ensure that the situation created by genocide is not 
                recognized as lawful;
                    (G) the police reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina 
                must create a single police structure, replacing entity 
                police forces with a single police at the state level, 
                and in particular eliminating the Police of the 
                Republika Srpska entity, which was identified in the 
                ICJ judgment as one of the institutions of Republika 
                Srpska that participated in the commission of the crime 
                of genocide;
                    (H) the Republika Srpska entity cannot persist 
                under its current name which represents the ethnically-
                exclusive political philosophy of its founders and 
                which perpetuates the effects of the genocide and 
                ethnic cleansing;
                    (I) Serbia must immediately honor its international 
                legal obligations towards Bosnia and Herzegovina, 
                stemming from the Convention on the Prevention and the 
                Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the ICJ 
                judgment, by immediately apprehending and transferring 
                to the ICTY all individuals indicted for participating 
                in the commission of the crime of genocide, 
                particularly Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic; and
                    (J) it is in the national interest of the United 
                States that all individuals who are responsible for war 
                crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity in Bosnia 
                and Herzegovina should be held accountable for their 
                actions, and the Republika Srpska entity, Serbia, and 
                Montenegro must therefore fully cooperate with the 
                ICTY;
            (2) the United States reaffirms its strongest support for 
        the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of 
        Bosnia and Herzegovina, and supports the transformation of 
        Bosnia and Herzegovina into a state with governmental 
        institutions commensurate with EU and NATO membership, as this 
        will ensure a lasting peace and greater prosperity for all of 
        the people and states of the entire region; and
            (3) the House of Representatives calls for an immediate, 
        refocused, and concentrated diplomatic effort by the United 
        States to achieve the objectives stated in this Resolution in 
        order to achieve definitive success in reversing the effects of 
        genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina and building a modern, 
        functional, self-sustainable, and a fully democratic state.
                                 <all>