[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 101 (Thursday, July 28, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 28, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                   TIME TO LIFT THE EMBARGO ON BOSNIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Engel). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Bonior] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, first of all let me commend my colleague, 
the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. McCloskey], who has been consistent and 
courageous about his concern about what is happening in the Balkans, 
and particularly in Bosnia, and thank him for his statement and for 
raising this concern to our colleagues this evening.
  Mr. Speaker, it was exactly 7 weeks ago today that we stood on this 
floor and debated whether or not we should lift the arms embargo to 
Bosnia.
  Seven weeks ago that we debated whether or not we should end the 
genocide. Then, as now, we heard a lot of people argue that we 
shouldn't lift the embargo. That we shouldn't get involved.
  A new cease-fire had been announced that day, they said, and we 
should give the peace process a chance to work. Never mind that the 
Serbs had broken over 30 separate cease-fires before that.
  Never mind that they had made a farce of the whole peace process time 
and time again.
  Never mind that they killed 200,000 Bosnians, systematically raped an 
entire generation of Bosnian women, and left thousands of people to 
starve in mass concentration camps.
  Never mind all that.
  We were told to give them one more chance.
  Well, we gave them that chance, Mr. Speaker.
  We looked the other way one more time.
  And once again, they spit right in our faces.
  Over the past 7 weeks, even though Bosnia has unconditionally 
accepted the terms of peace--the Serbs have made a mockery of the peace 
talks, and rejected offer after offer, compromise after compromise.
  They have broken the cease-fire again and again.
  And just yesterday, Mr. Speaker, Serb forces attacked a 10-truck U.N. 
convoy on the road to Sarajevo and blew up a fuel truck. One British 
soldier was injured and one was killed. And most heinous of all, when 
British and French troops braved the road and tried to recover their 
losses Serb gunners fired on them.
  Let me say that one more time Mr. Speaker: Yesterday, Serb gunners 
opened fire not on Moslems not on Croats but on British and French 
soldiers trying to recover their losses.
  Mr. Speaker, this is an outrage. This is shameful. How can we let 
this happen? I wish I could say I was surprised.
  I wish I could say I never thought this would happen. But the truth 
is, Mr. Speaker, we were warned 7 weeks ago, on the very day the latest 
cease-fire was announced, I stood on this floor and read an ominous 
warning that the Bosnian Serbs had issued.
  Through their news agency, the Bosnian Serb leaders said, and I 
quote,

       The Geneva Agreement is merely a one-month calm before an 
     unprecedented storm and a prelude to total conflict. After 
     that it will become clear to one and all that there is no 
     formula according to which two victors can emerge from this 
     war.

  That's what the Bosnian Serb leaders themselves had to say about 
their cease-fire. And the first clouds of that unprecedented storm are 
beginning to gather right now.
  In fact, earlier today, the Bosnian Serbs issued another statement 
regarding the peace process; another statement just as ominous.
  In a letter to Russian President Boris Yeltsin, the Bosnian Serb 
leaders wrote, and I quote;

       Our acceptance of a peace plan would be the beginning of 
     the end of the Serb people on their territories and a prelude 
     to national suicide. We expect you to understand us.
       We expect you to understand us.

  Well, we understand them Mr. Speaker.
  We understand that they don't want peace, they just want more war.
  We understand that they intend to wreak more mayhem.
  More ethnic cleansing.
  More murder.
  More rape.
  And more torture.
  Mr. Speaker, the United States cannot be a silent partner to this any 
longer.
  It's time to lift the arms embargo.
  It's time to end the genocide.
  And if Serbia keeps hitting targets in Bosnia then targets in Serbia 
itself should blasted right back.
  The only thing that will truly bring the Serbs to the peace table is 
if they see that their force will be met by force and that further 
aggression will get them nowhere.
  Mr. Speaker, the people of Bosnia are not asking us to send in 
troops.
  They are not asking us to defend them.
  They are simply asking for the right to defend themselves.
  And we have no right to deny them that.
  If we don't lift this embargo and at least let the people of Bosnia 
defend themselves then the blood of Bosnia isn't just on the hands of 
the Serbs.
  It's on all of us.

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