[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 310 Engrossed in House (EH)]

H. Res. 310

                In the House of Representatives, U. S.,

                                                          July 8, 2015.
Whereas July 2015 will mark 20 years since the genocide at Srebrenica in Bosnia 
        and Herzegovina;
Whereas beginning in April 1992, aggression and ethnic cleansing perpetrated by 
        Bosnian Serb forces resulted in a massive influx of Bosniaks seeking 
        protection in Srebrenica and its environs, which the United Nations 
        Security Council designated a ``safe area'' within the Srebrenica 
        enclave in Resolution 819 on April 16, 1993, under the protection of the 
        United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR);
Whereas the UNPROFOR presence in Srebrenica consisted of a Dutch peacekeeping 
        battalion, with representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner 
        for Refugees, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the 
        humanitarian medical aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors 
        Without Borders) helping to provide humanitarian relief to the displaced 
        population living in conditions of massive overcrowding, destitution, 
        and disease;
Whereas early in 1995, an intensified blockade of the enclave by Bosnian Serb 
        forces deprived the entire population of humanitarian aid and outside 
        communication and contact, and effectively reduced the ability of the 
        Dutch peacekeeping battalion to deter aggression or otherwise respond 
        effectively to a deteriorating situation;
Whereas beginning on July 6, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces attacked UNPROFOR 
        outposts, seized control of the isolated enclave, held captured Dutch 
        soldiers hostage and, after skirmishes with local defenders, took 
        control of the town of Srebrenica on July 11, 1995;
Whereas an estimated one-third of the population of Srebrenica at the time, 
        including a relatively small number of soldiers, attempted to pass 
        through the lines of Bosnian Serb forces to the relative safety of 
        Bosnian-government controlled territory, but many were killed by patrols 
        and ambushes;
Whereas the remaining population sought protection with the Dutch peacekeeping 
        battalion at its headquarters in the village of Potocari north of 
        Srebrenica, but many of these individuals were with seeming randomness 
        seized by Bosnian Serb forces to be beaten, raped, or executed;
Whereas Bosnian Serb forces deported women, children, and the elderly in buses, 
        but held over 8,000 primarily Bosniak men and boys at collection points 
        and sites in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina under their control, 
        and then summarily executed these captives and buried them in mass 
        graves;
Whereas Bosnian Serb forces, hoping to conceal evidence of the massacre at 
        Srebrenica, subsequently moved corpses from initial mass grave sites to 
        many secondary sites scattered throughout parts of eastern Bosnia and 
        Herzegovina under their control;
Whereas the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) deserves 
        recognition for its assistance to the relevant institutions in Bosnia 
        and Herzegovina in accounting for close to 90 percent of those 
        individuals reported missing from Srebrenica, despite active attempts to 
        conceal evidence of the massacre, through the careful excavation of mass 
        graves sites and subsequent DNA analysis which confirmed the true extent 
        of the massacre;
Whereas the massacre at Srebrenica was among the worst of many atrocities to 
        occur in the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina from April 1992 to 
        November 1995, during which the policies of aggression and ethnic 
        cleansing pursued by Bosnian Serb forces with the direct support of the 
        Serbian regime of Slobodan Milosevic and its followers ultimately led to 
        the displacement of more than 2 million people, more than 100,000 
        killed, tens of thousands raped or otherwise tortured and abused, 
        including at concentration camps in the Prijedor area, with the innocent 
        civilians of Sarajevo and other urban centers repeatedly subjected to 
        traumatic shelling and sniper attacks;
Whereas in addition to being the primary victims at Srebrenica, individuals with 
        Bosniak heritage comprise the vast majority of the victims during the 
        conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole, especially among the 
        civilian population;
Whereas Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the 
        Crime of Genocide defines genocide as ``any of the following acts 
        committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, 
        ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) killing members of the 
        group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the 
        group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life 
        calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; 
        (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and 
        (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group'';
Whereas, on May 25, 1993, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 
        827 establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for the former 
        Yugoslavia (ICTY), based in The Hague, the Netherlands, and charging the 
        ICTY with responsibility for investigating and prosecuting individuals 
        suspected of committing war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, 
        and grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions on the territory of 
        the former Yugoslavia since 1991;
Whereas the ICTY, along with courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as in 
        Serbia, have indicted and in most cases convicted approximately three 
        dozen individuals at various levels of responsibility for grave breaches 
        of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, violations of the laws or customs of 
        war, crimes against humanity, genocide, and complicity in genocide 
        associated with the massacre at Srebrenica, most notably Radovan 
        Karadzic and Ratko Mladic whose trials are ongoing;
Whereas both the ICTY and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have ruled 
        that the actions of Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica in July 1995 
        constitute genocide;
Whereas House Resolution 199, passed on June 27, 2005, expressed the sense of 
        the House of Representatives that the aggression and ethnic cleansing 
        committed by Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina meets the terms 
        defining genocide according to the 1949 Genocide Convention;
Whereas the United Nations has largely acknowledged its failure to fulfill its 
        responsibility to take actions and make decisions that could have 
        deterred the assault on Srebrenica and prevented the subsequent genocide 
        from occurring;
Whereas some prominent Serbian and Bosnian Serb officials, among others, have 
        denied or at least refused to acknowledge that the massacre at 
        Srebrenica constituted a genocide, or have sought otherwise to 
        trivialize the extent and importance of the massacre; and
Whereas the international community, including the United States, has continued 
        to provide personnel and resources, including through direct military 
        intervention, to prevent further aggression and ethnic cleansing, to 
        negotiate the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and 
        Herzegovina (initialed in Dayton, Ohio, on November 21, 1995, and signed 
        in Paris on December 14, 1995), and to help ensure its fullest 
        implementation, including cooperation with the International Criminal 
        Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia as well as reconciliation among all 
        of Bosnia and Herzegovina's citizens: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) affirms that the policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing as 
        implemented by Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995 
        meet the terms defining the crime of genocide in Article 2 of the 
        Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide;
            (2) condemns statements that deny or question that the massacre at 
        Srebrenica constituted a genocide;
            (3) urges the Atrocities Prevention Board, a United States 
        interagency committee established by the Administration in 2012, to 
        study the lessons of Srebrenica and issue informed guidance on how to 
        prevent similar incidents from recurring in the future, paying 
        particular regard to troubled countries including but not limited to 
        Syria, the Central African Republic, and Burundi;
            (4) encourages the United States to maintain and reaffirm its policy 
        of supporting the independence and territorial integrity of Bosnia and 
        Herzegovina, peace and stability in southeastern Europe as a whole, and 
        the right of all people living in the region, regardless of national, 
        racial, ethnic, or religious background, to return to their homes and 
        enjoy the benefits of democratic institutions, the rule of law, and 
        economic opportunity, as well as to know the fate of missing relatives 
        and friends;
            (5) recognizes the achievement of the International Commission for 
        Missing Persons (ICMP) in accounting for those missing in conflicts or 
        natural disasters around the world and believes that the ICMP deserves 
        justified recognition for its assistance to Bosnia and Herzegovina and 
        its relevant institutions in accounting for approximately 90 percent of 
        those reported missing after the Srebrenica massacre and 70 percent of 
        those reported missing during the whole of the conflict in Bosnia and 
        Herzegovina;
            (6) welcomes the arrest and transfer to the International Criminal 
        Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) of all persons indicted for 
        war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and grave breaches of the 
        1949 Geneva Conventions, particularly those of Radovan Karadzic and 
        Ratko Mladic, which has helped strengthen peace and encouraged 
        reconciliation between the countries of the region and their citizens;
            (7) asserts that it is in the national interest of the United States 
        that those individuals who are responsible for these crimes and breaches 
        should continue to be held accountable for their actions, and that the 
        work of the ICTY therefore warrants continued support until all trials 
        and appeals have been completed; and
            (8) honors the thousands of innocent people killed or executed at 
        Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina in July 1995, along with all 
        individuals who were victimized during the conflict and genocide in 
        Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995, as well as foreign nationals, 
        including United States citizens, and those individuals in Serbia, 
        Bosnia and Herzegovina, and other countries of the region who risked and 
        in some cases lost their lives during their brave defense of human 
        rights and fundamental freedoms, and advocacy of respect for ethnic 
        identity without discrimination.
            Attest:

                                                                          Clerk.