[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 43 (Tuesday, April 19, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                      SERB AGGRESSION AND GENOCIDE

  Mr. DeCONCINI. Mr. President, just when I was beginning to have a 
glimmer of hope that our generally disgraceful policy with respect to 
Serb aggression and genocide was starting to turn around, this weekend 
the United Nations, our NATO allies and the United States carried it to 
a new low. Only a week ago it seemed that maybe, just maybe, we are 
finally willing to stand up to the Serbs. At that time, we took direct 
action, albeit very limited, putting the Serbs on notice that they must 
stop. When they regrouped and called our bluff, however, rather than 
demonstrate the seriousness of our resolve, NATO, the strongest 
security alliance in the world, scrambled in humiliating defeat.
  For more than 2 years and through two administrations and two 
Congresses, we have all allowed the position of the United States both 
as leader of the world's greatest democracy and as the world's only 
superpower to erode to a dangerous and humiliating degree.
  For the past 2 years both former President Bush and now President 
Clinton has chosen to pursue a course of action in which the United 
States went along with the collective decisions taken within the United 
Nations and amongst our NATO allies. At times we were able to influence 
those decisions. For the most part, however, because our attempts were 
so half-hearted and overwhelmingly guided by our insistence on 
multilateralism at all costs, we were simply rebuffed when efforts were 
made to persuade our NATO allies to lift the arms embargo on the 
Bosnian Government.
  Mr. President, I strongly support the adoption of a foreign policy 
which is closely tied to multilateral cooperation whenever that is 
possible. But multilateral cooperation and leadership are not mutually 
exclusive. In fact, such cooperation is only effective when leadership 
is exercised. U.S. interests are closely tied to Europe's stability. We 
have provided critical leadership to Europe in the past and we must do 
so again even if it means standing out in front of our allies in a 
serious crisis.
  Apparently genocide and the brazen landgrab by the Serbs of Bosnia 
and Hercegovina, a sovereign, member state of the United Nations, is 
viewed as having so little effect on the stability of Europe that we 
are willing to allow might to make right and extreme religious bias 
stand undeterred in post-cold war Europe. If the Europeans don't want 
to do much or can't, neither should we, goes the prevailing wisdom.
  I must join my voice, once again, to the many who strongly disagree 
with that view.
  To begin with, like it or not, the national interest of the United 
States is firmly tied to the stability of Europe. Moreover, the United 
States and our NATO allies in Europe are viewed by much of the rest of 
the world as the safeguards of democracy. We cannot and should not 
police the world, but Bosnia has come to symbolize the extent to which 
territorial aggression and genocide will be tolerated in what was to be 
the dawn of a new era grounded in the expansion of democracy in Europe. 
When the NATO countries stand aside and allow such aggression to go 
unchecked, they make a mockery of the democratic principles they 
profess to champion. This sets a dangerous example for fledgling 
democracies just emerging from decades of communist domination.

  For the past 2 years we have been told that the only way to peace is 
through diplomatic means. I agree, but only if the diplomats negotiate 
from a position of credible strength. For the past 2 years we have 
watched parades of diplomats, including our own, shake the hands of 
Serb leaders across polished conference tables while Serb militants in 
the field continue their slaughter, flaunting their contempt for those 
who appease them. Serb militants are today boasting they are going to 
take even more land around the Gorazde area than they have now.
  But this past weekend, Mr. President, the United States and its NATO 
allies crossed a line. We rendered NATO nearly as impotent as the 
United Nations. A NATO plane was shot down, and we did nothing. This 
comes on the heels of repeated hostage-taking by the Serbs of United 
Nations peacekeeping troops--actions which have rarely triggered any of 
the existing United Nations resolutions authorizing the use of force in 
such cases.
  I certainly agree that the downing of the British jet was a jolting 
reminder of the risks involved in any military action. But we must not 
pretend to be serious about taking actions we are not prepared to carry 
through. NATO is far too important to allow it to be toyed with. I, for 
one, seriously question subordinating NATO to the United Nations in 
future crises. The United Nations has time and again in Bosnia allowed 
itself to be humiliated beyond belief. We must not let the same happen 
to NATO.
  Mr. President, as if all of this were not enough of a frightening and 
shameful commentary on the West, we have not even allowed a sovereign 
country, against which genocide is being committed, to defend itself. 
Apparently the articles of the U.N. apply only to a select group of 
member states. The United States is standing by while a horrific 
slaughter rooted in ethnic and religious racism occurs because the 
Europeans have decided that only some people have the right to defend 
themselves. I fear we and our allies will pay a heavy price for 
permitting our respective countries and NATO to be so egregiously 
mocked by Serbian thugs but history will judge us harshly for not 
taking unilateral action, if necessary, to at least help the Bosnian 
people defend themselves. Mr. President at this point, we should be 
bombing the Bosnian Serb political headquarters as well as Serbian 
supply routes and depots within Serbia itself. But I know this is not a 
realistic option politically. I understand consultations are underway 
in the United Nations regarding the use of NATO air strikes to help 
protect other areas of Bosnia. If NATO's actions to date are any 
pattern, I am not hopeful that these will amount to much of a deterrent 
but at least they are something. However, regardless of what else we 
do, we must immediately lift the arms embargo against Bosnia. We have 
no moral right to deny this to the Bosnians. I will be introducing an 
amendment to that effect and urge my colleagues to support it.
  Surely, Congress can find the courage to say enough is enough. The 
American people feel the embargo should be lifted. They understand the 
legitimacy of self defense and the imperative of defending one's 
principles.

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