[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 98 (Monday, July 25, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                            MORNING BUSINESS

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                         BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the changed 
situation in the ongoing catastrophe in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to 
propose a resolute course of action for this Government and its allies.
  In the latest chapter of the Balkan tragedy, the ``contact group'' in 
Geneva made up of the United States, France, the United Kingdom, 
Germany, and Russia has forced the embattled Bosnian Republic to accept 
a plan that calls for its demise as a multinational and multireligious 
society. Meanwhile, last week the Bosnian Serbs, hoping to split the 
contact group, formally accepted the plan but attached conditions that 
make their acceptance a sham.
  Their divide-and-conquer strategy seems already to have borne fruit. 
The first reaction of Russian Foreign Minister Kozyrev was that the 
Bosnian Serbs had taken a positive attitude in Geneva and that, 
therefore, further negotiations are possible.
  None of this is surprising. The contract group's plan is 
fundamentally flawed in concept and, moreover, if enacted, would 
threaten to drag American troops into a Balkan quagmire. We can, and 
must, do better. The best alternative is ``lift and strike,'' the 
policy which I have consistently advocated since the genocidal 
dimensions of the Bosnian war became clear.
  Mr. President, the map upon which the Geneva plan is based would 
carve Bosnia up, leaving the Moslem-Croat Federation barely 51 percent 
of its land and awarding the Serbian aggressors the remaining 49 
percent.
  Ever since the Bosnian horrors commenced, they have been clinically 
described as a ``difficult diplomatic problem'' by the foreign 
ministries of the great powers. I regret to say that our Government, in 
collusion with its traditional European allies and with its new-found 
friend in the Kremlin, has gone back on its pledge not to pressure the 
principal sufferers in this bloody conflict into accepting a suicidal 
diktat.
  The Serbs want, of course, to hold onto the 72 percent of Bosnia that 
they have conquered and ``ethnically cleansed'' as a result of a near-
monopoly on heavy weaponry, thanks to the one-sided arms embargo 
imposed by the United Nations. During the past 10 days, even as their 
negotiators were complaining about alleged wrongs being done them, the 
Bosnian Serbs were unleashing new waves of terror in several locations 
against defenseless Moslem and Croat civilians. Their ultimate aim is a 
state, purged of non-Serbs, which could then unite with Belgrade and 
fulfill the plan of Nationalist-Communist strongman Milosevic for a 
greater Serbia.
  In a sense, Mr. President, the Bosnian Serbs by their greed have done 
us a favor. No informed observer of the Balkans seriously believes that 
either party has the slightest intention of honoring an imposed peace 
any more than they have honored dozens of cease-fires solemnly agreed 
to in the past. Yet, a more convincing formal Bosnian Government and 
Bosnian Serb mutual acquiescence to the crude pressure tactics in 
Geneva might have served as a justification for our deploying ground 
troops to Bosnia to enforce this paper peace agreement. We might soon 
have had thousands of American ground troops at risk in the role of 
apartheid cops.
  Now, the Bosnian Serbs' refusal to buy into the Geneva map--refusal 
to settle for huge, ill-gotten territorial gains, even if not the whole 
of their booty--has convinced, I trust, the Administration and our 
Western allies of the futility of imposing a diktat, calling it an 
agreement, and then sending in blue-helmet peace-keepers to enforce a 
bogus peace.
  Mr. President, there is a more realistic and effective policy to move 
the warring parties in Bosnia toward a genuine settlement, without 
rewarding Serbian aggression.
  For more than 2 years, I have put forward as this preferred option 
lift and strike--lifting the arms embargo on the Bosnians to allow them 
the elemental right to defend themselves, and concurrently using 
American-led NATO air power to strike at the Serbs whenever they attack 
U.N.-designated safe havens or humanitarian convoys. Under this policy, 
No U.S. ground troops, other than a small number of forward air 
controllers, would be needed.
  Regarding the embargo, 3\1/2\ weeks ago an amendment unilaterally to 
lift the arms embargo against Bosnia unfortunately failed in this House 
by only one vote. Mr. President, I earnestly hope that it will pass the 
conference committee later this summer, particularly in view of the 
Bosnian Serbs' newest demonstration of sly obduracy. If the Congress 
does act, the Clinton administration would be well advised to reassert 
American leadership in NATO by inducing our allies to be on the right 
side of history and allow the Bosnians the wherewithal to fight for 
their own survival.
  So much for the lift issue. Until now, the strike component of lift 
and strike has been stymied by two factors related to United Nations. 
First, the airstrikes have been repeatedly frustrated by the senior 
U.N. civilian official in the Balkans, who is more concerned that his 
organization maintain an impartial stance than in punishing brazen 
Serbian violations.
  Second, the presence of U.N. peace-keeping troops on the ground has 
unwittingly provided cover for the Serbian aggressors.
  The French, British, Dutch, Canadian, Spanish, and Belgian U.N. blue 
helmet soldiers, while protecting innocent civilians and facilitating 
the delivery of humanitarian goods, have nonetheless predictably been 
reduced to virtual hostages by the better armed Serbian bully boys. 
Paris, London, and the other capitals, therefore, have been afraid to 
allow the lift and strike policy necessary to thwart Serbian 
aggression, and Washington has reluctantly gone along.
  Now that the Bosnian Serbs have given up any pretense of willingness 
to make peace with honor, we should immediately persuade our allies:
  First, that the economic sanctions against Serbia, the Bosnian Serbs' 
patron, must be tightened;
  Second, that the unjust arms embargo against the Bosnian Government 
must be lifted in order to allow them to exercise their legitimate 
right of self-defense;
  Third, that we must vigorously enforce the no-fly zones in Bosnia, 
which have heretofore largely been ignored;
  Fourth, that U.N.-guaranteed safe havens must be extended to 
encompass more civilians and be backed up by more draconian use of air 
power; and
  Fifth, that in the manifest absence of peace, the allied peace 
keepers may have to prepare for an orderly withdrawal.
  Mr. President, if we undertake these measures to call the aggressor's 
bluff, we may yet be able to bring a genuine peace to Bosnia on the 
basis of equity.

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