[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 149 (Thursday, December 1, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: December 1, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        THE BLOOD BATH IN BIHAC

  Mr. RIEGLE. Mr. President, the blood bath in Bihac, a so-called safe 
haven, highlights the utter failure of the international community to 
confront the aggression and genocide which has ravaged Bosnia and 
Herzegovina for the past 3 years. There is a growing chorus of those 
calling for further concessions to bring the Serbs back to the 
negotiating table.
  Mr. President, the score is a familiar one dating back to the 1930's 
when another dictator sought to carve up a neighboring country in the 
name of ethnic unity. This theme was first played out in Munich in 
1938. It is simply entitled appeasement.
  Precious time has been lost over the past 2\1/2\ years as diplomats 
have shuttled to Belgrade and Pale coddling up to the very individuals 
responsible for the carnage in Bosnia. Precious little time remains.
  The international community, through its timidity, has allowed the 
situation in Bosnia to deteriorate to its current low. Some have tried 
to pin blame on the Bosnians themselves for having tried to stand up in 
the face of continued aggression. This is a sad and frightening 
endorsement of the principle that ``might makes right.''
  The current crisis demands immediate and forceful action. Inaction at 
this critical juncture will have grave consequences for the United 
Nations, NATO and, most importantly at this point, for the people of 
Bosnia and Herzegovina. Failure to act, and act with meaningful air 
strikes, will effectively seal the fate of the Bosnians. Winston 
Churchill's phrase ``a small nation thrown to the wolves'' fits all too 
well in the case of Bosnia.
  The international community has failed to come to grips with the fact 
thatthe current military imbalance in the region precludes stability 
there. The United Nations and NATO have been rendered effectively 
impotent by the failure of the world's strongest alliance to stand up 
to a bunch of two-bit thugs. In the name of peacekeeping the United 
Nations, and in particular the members of the Security Council, have 
accepted humiliation after humiliation. Subordination of NATO 
operations in Bosnia to the United Nations has given the Russians a 
virtual veto over NATO action in this regard. Mr. President, Russian 
nationalists and the Russian military would take great delight in the 
weakening of the alliance. In the process NATO has been placed in an 
untenable and embarrassing position.
  One administration official is quoted as saying ``we are favoring 
NATO unity over what we have long believed the course in Bosnia ought 
to be.'' NATO unity? Unity to what end? What good is this unity if the 
very principles upon which the world's greatest alliance was built are 
rendered meaningless?
  Former British Defense Minister Sir John Nott on just last Saturday 
accused his own government of appeasing the Bosnian Serbs. He said:

       The British, principal appeasers in this thing * * * should 
     detach ourselves from the French and Russians and try to get 
     back together with the Americans and come to some serious 
     Anglo-American solution to this problem.

  Former Prime Minister Thatcher, in a statement released yesterday, 
warned that ``effective action must be taken now to help the people of 
Bihac and the sovereign State of Bosnia by air strikes against missile 
sites, artillery positions and other military targets.''
  I am told, and I have not seen the quote, that Chancellor Kuhl of 
Germany has also come out to something similar that former Prime 
Minister Thatcher is quoted as saying: ``Forceful action is 
imperative.''
  Foolhardy attempts to lure the Serbs back to the negotiating table 
will only further fuel Serbian demands.
  Emboldened by their repeated ability to cow the United Nations and 
NATO into submission, it is absurd to think that the Serbs will desist 
in pursuing their ultimate objective: creation of a ``Greater Serbia.''
  Appeasement will not work. It will only fan the flames of the fire of 
extreme nationalism, ignited by Slobodan Milosevic, which threatens to 
consume all of Bosnia. Unless he is challenged there is nothing to stop 
the Bosnian Serb commander, General Mladic, from pursuing his recently 
expressed conviction that ``borders are drawn with blood.''
  Mr. President, if the precedent continues, Europe will not be what it 
is planned to be and what it can be.
  It needs help. These people need help. So does Europe.

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