[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 43 (Wednesday, March 8, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E545]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E545]]
               END THE ARMS EMBARGO ON BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

                                 ______


                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 8, 1995
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I am introducing today a bill 
which would terminate the United States arms embargo applicable to the 
Government of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
  The situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina today is dismal. After three 
winters of war, there is still no end in sight. The contact group plan 
of last summer, which had been offered with a 2-week deadline for an 
unconditional response, has been held open indefinitely to the Bosnian 
Serbs to accept. The Bosnians, who accepted the plan on time and 
without condition, have watched the international community 
subsequently ease sanctions on Serbia, despite the fact that it was 
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic that instigated this conflict and 
sustains the aggressors who rejected the plan. The Bosnians have heard 
our Secretary of State explain how the contact group formed to respond 
to the Bosnian conflict is somehow more important than the conflict 
itself, and that preserving NATO is more important than meeting the 
challenges Europe faces today.
  Meanwhile, the Bosnians feel the human suffering and the injustice of 
continuing conflict. That is their reward for working with the 
international community, human suffering, and injustice.
  The problem we now confront in Bosnia-Herzegovina is quite 
straightforward. The Serb militants occupy over 70 percent of Bosnia-
Herzegovina, while the contact group settlement grants the Serbs 49 
percent of the country. Mr. Speaker, the international community has 
absolutely no plan for getting the Serbs to relinquish control of and 
return that one-third of the territory they seized by force.
  Yes, the contact group countries meet with each other, with the 
Bosnians, with the Serb militants. They convene additional conferences 
to bring the sides together. We have seen this for nearly 3 years, a 
farcical display of resolve in contrast to the horrible tragedy on the 
ground. This approach has not worked, and there is no reason to believe 
it will now.
  As many have said from the beginning, a unilateral lifting of the 
arms embargo on Bosnia-Herzegovina is a last option. Until now, the 
international community, including the United States, has not taken 
genuine action to enforce U.N. Security Council resolutions regarding 
Bosnia-Herzegovina, despite having the authority to do so. It has not 
intervened to stop Serb aggression with punitive air strikes or other 
measures, despite the fact that the genocidal nature of this aggression 
should have compelled us legally and morally to do so. And the United 
States has not sought--really and formally sought--a multilateral 
lifting of the arms embargo on Bosnia-Herzegovina, despite that U.N. 
member's inherent right to its own self-defense. Absent these other 
measures, Mr. Speaker, we have no other recourse than at least to lift 
the U.S. arms embargo on Bosnia-Herzegovina.
  Of course, until such time that this bill is passed and its 
provisions go into effect, President Clinton can seek to make the 
lifting of the embargo a multilateral action at the United Nations. He 
can also take other decisive steps to compel the Bosnian Serb militants 
to accept the contact group plan. But time is running out. The present 
course is untenable, and to support its continuation--even implicitly 
by our own inaction--would be irresponsible.
  It is therefore my hope, Mr. Speaker, that the Clinton administration 
will take the time they are now using to defeat congressional efforts 
to lift the embargo, and use it instead to get others to agree to what 
we all would prefer, a multilateral lifting. After all, it was 2 years 
ago last Friday that Secretary of State Christopher, unveiling the 
administration's Bosnia policy, lamented the fact that the West had 
repeatedly missed earlier opportunities to effectively address the 
conflict and prevent it from deepening. The Secretary said: ``Our 
conscience revolts at the idea of passively accepting such brutality. 
It tests our commitment to the nurturing of democracy.'' Recognizing 
the implications of the Bosnian crisis he warned, ``The world's 
response to the violence in the former Yugoslavia is an early and 
crucial test of how it will address the concerns of ethnic and 
religious minorities in the post-cold-war world.''
  One year ago, in the aftermath of the market place massacre in 
Sarajevo, President Clinton himself echoed this view when he said, 
``This century teaches us that America cannot afford to ignore 
conflicts in Europe. And in this case, our Nation has distinct 
interests.'' He concluded, ``While the cold war may be over, the world 
is still full of dangers and the world still looks to America for 
leadership.'' And let us not forget his inaugural address, when he 
vowed that, ``When our vital interests are challenged or the will and 
conscience of the international community is defied, we will act, with 
peaceful diplomacy whenever possible, with force when necessary.''
  Let the Congress be clearly understood, the issue of Bosnia's 
survival is important and must be addressed. It is a bipartisan issue, 
where the most conservative and the most liberal share a common outrage 
over the inhumanity that has been allowed to take place in that 
country.
  This applies as well to the Senate, where Senators Dole and Lieberman 
have already introduced an identical bill. I hope, Mr. Speaker, for the 
opportunity to move on this legislation quickly, and today I am joined 
by the ranking minority member of the Helsinki Commission, Mr. Hoyer, 
Commission members, Mr. Markey, Mr. Wolf, Mr. Cardin, and Mr. Bonior, 
Ms. Molinari, Mr. Royce, Mr. Torricelli, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Moran, 
and Mr. Wynn.


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