[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 107 (Friday, August 5, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 5, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                                 BOSNIA

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I compliment the distinguished Senator 
from Texas for those very strong statements. I had stated earlier my 
intention to seek recognition very briefly to comment on two subjects.
  One of them is the Bosnian situation, and I compliment the Republican 
leader, Senator Dole, for what he has done on this issue in advancing 
the cause of lifting the arms embargo so Bosnia may defend itself. And 
from the tone of the debate this afternoon and from the number of 
Senators who have stated their intention to shift votes, I think we are 
on the brink of having an affirmative Senate vote to lift the arms 
embargo on Bosnia.
  I have supported the leadership of Senator Dole on this issue in the 
past because I think it is important to let Bosnia defend itself. The 
events of the past several days show the Bosnian Serbs are unwilling to 
respond in a reasonable way and the atrocities in Bosnia can be dealt 
with only by lifting the arms embargo.
  There is a problem which I have spoken of before about the unilateral 
action by the United States, that it will be preferable to have 
multilateral action because it is important to have joint action by 
many nations on issues which are vital to the United States. But if we 
press ahead with congressional leadership and a congressional 
initiative, I think we can have greater action out of the 
administration and we will see, with the leadership from the Senate, 
that there may well be multilateral action. But that is the fair thing 
to do and I hope we will proceed in that direction.

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