[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 45 (Thursday, April 21, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 21, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1150
 
 INTRODUCTION OF RESOLUTION EXPRESSING SENSE OF CONGRESS THAT BOSNIAN 
                          MASSACRE IS GENOCIDE

  (Mr. GILCHREST asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revive and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, at the dedication of the Holocaust 
Museum, the purpose of that dark monument was summed up in two words: 
never again. That museum was supposed to be the concrete symbol of our 
resolve to never repeat the mistakes of the 1930's and the 1940's when 
humanity stood by and watched a genocidal slaughter.
  ``Regional conflict'' is no longer an adequate term to describe the 
situation in Bosnia. The concept of war implies a clash of armed 
factions, where civilian casualties are collateral. In Bosnia, 
civilians are the target of military action, and only one side is 
adequately armed. The sterilized terms which we have used to describe 
the Bosnian bloodbath have made it far too easy for us to respond to 
Bosnia as if it were an academic problem.
  But there is nothing academic about a shattered little girl in 
Gorazde whose house was targeted by Serbian artillery. And that little 
girl will never know or care whether her death was the result of U.N. 
inaction, NATO inaction, or U.S. inaction--the end result is the same, 
and all bystanders are complicit.
  I will soon be introducing a resolution expressing the sense of 
Congress that the Bosnian massacre is genocide as defined by 
international treaty, and should be treated as such. The result of this 
is symbolic, but it is a powerful symbol. There is no longer any 
justification for inaction--deliberation is costing lives. We no longer 
have any reason to believe that Serbian forces will stop while Moslem 
live in eastern Bosnia. In charting a course of action for the Balkans, 
the moral guide for U.S. Foreign Policy can best be described by Ronald 
Reagan's words: ``if not now, when? if not us, who?''

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