[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 65 (Friday, April 7, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E866-E868]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


      HELSINKI COMMISSION HEARINGS MARK THIRD YEAR OF WAR IN BOSNIA

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                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, April 7, 1995
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, this week marked the third 
anniversary of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. At this time, in 1992, 
Serb militants in the hills surrounding Sarajevo began their shelling 
of the people of the cosmopolitan and culturally rich Bosnian capital.
  On the one hand, it seems like this war--with the constant, almost 
daily reports of the senseless slaughter of innocent people--has been 
going on forever. On the other hand, when the war began, no one would 
have imagined that it would get as bad as it subsequently did, or that 
we would allow it to continue that way for so long.
  This week, the Helsinki Commission, of which I am chairman, held two 
hearings to note Bosnia's 3-year agony. At the first hearing, we heard 
witnesses explain that this may not even be classified as a war. Yes, 
there are opposing sides, but, instead of direct, military engagements, 
most of the violence can be characterized as a heavily armed group of 
Serb thugs committing genocide against those in Bosnia, and 
particularly the Moslem population.
  Yes, Mr. Speaker, genocide. Our hearing on Tuesday focused on the 
extent to which ethnic cleansing, the destruction of cultural sites, 
and associated war crimes and crimes against humanity constitute 
genocide in Bosnia and other parts of former Yugoslavia. Our witnesses 
included Cherif Bassiouni, a law professor at DePaul University who 
chaired the U.N. War Crimes Commission, who discussed the ethnic 
cleansing that has taken place in the former Yugoslavia, and Bosnia-
Herzegovina in particular. Andras Riedlmayer, a bibliographer at 
Harvard University, followed with a fascinating slide presentation of 
how the reminders of Bosnian Moslem culture--mosques, libraries, and 
historic sites--have been targeted for destruction in an attempt to 
deny the earlier existence of those who were 
[[Page E867]] ethnically cleansed. Roy Gutman of Newsday and author 
David Reiff presented us with first-hand accounts of what happened in 
Bosnia beginning in 1992.
  We learned at the hearing that the atrocities appear to follow such a 
similar pattern, from region to region, that one simply has to conclude 
that they were carried out systematically. These crimes, as they were 
being committed, were at least known to, and perhaps ordered by, the 
Bosnian Serbs and maybe even Serbia's political and military 
leadership.
  A prime example--the eastern Bosnian town of Foca, with its slight 
Moslem majority, was seized by Serb paramilitaries early in the 
conflict under the direction of three of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan 
Karadzic's close associated, Velibor Ostojic, Vojislav Maksimovic, and 
Petar Cancar. The sports hall, located right next to the police 
station, was a rape camp for about 2 months soon thereafter. About 50 
women were subjected to multiple and gang rape night after night. An 
isolated incident, out of the view of Bosnian Serb authorities? Do not 
count on it.
  There is, however, no real smoking gun--like the files left by the 
Nazis documenting the Holocaust--what has happened. The Bosnian Serb 
leadership, and their leaders in Belgrade, made sure there was what 
Professor Bassiouni called ``plausible deniability.'' But, what has 
happened in Bosnia is genocide, without a doubt. The systematic way the 
Bosnian genocide has been carried out, and the openness with which 
concentration and rape camps have operated, leave no question of its 
orchestrated nature. We also learned that the genocide extended into 
Croatia. Each victim has a dramatic and tragic account to relate, but 
the dry statistics--200,000 killed, 800 prison camps with at least 
500,000 prisoners, over 50,000 torture victims, 151 mass graves, and 
over 20,000 rape victims--where sobering in themselves.
  As a result of the hearing, the Helsinki Commission will help ensure 
that all evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity held by the 
United States Government are made available to the International 
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, based in The Hague. We 
will also seek to increase U.S. financial support for the tribunal and 
the prosecutor's office, so that justice is not forfeited due to a lack 
of resources.
  Genocide is directed toward people in a collective sense, but the 
gruesome acts are committed against individuals, moms, dads, sons, and 
daughters, friends and colleagues. I have tried to imagine daily life 
for Bosnians, being forced out of their homes, being publicly and 
repeatedly raped, being tortured in a camp, facing execution in the 
next second, or--perhaps worst of all--watching these things happen to 
loved ones. It is hard for us to imagine what has been the reality for 
the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina for these last 3 years. One year 
before that, people in Croatia faced the same thing.
  There is also the question of who is guilty of these crimes, and who 
is innocent. A recently released CIA report confirmed that Serb 
militants have been responsible for nearly 90 percent of the atrocities 
committed during Yugoslavia's violent breakup. There crimes also were 
most likely to have been orchestrated, in order to carry out a policy 
directed from above.
  This does not translate into the popular notion that the Serbs are an 
evil people. Indeed, in previous decades, others were infected by the 
same evil intentions, and innocent Serbs were at times the victims. 
Similarly, deeds of Serbian political and military leaders, as carried 
out by their militant minions, do not make Serbs collectively guilty. I 
made this point at the hearing for two reasons. First, should we engage 
in the now popular Serb-bashing, we ignore the vulnerability of all 
peoples in this world to fall into the trap of racist ideology that has 
ensnared so many Serbs today. Second, Serbs in the former Yugoslavia 
and around the world, including in the United States, can do no more to 
defend their national heritage than to face squarely what their 
militant brethren have done, to condemn them for actions which cannot 
be justified by history or anything else, and to seek a reconciliation 
between Serbs and their neighbors in the former Yugoslavia. They should 
place the guilt squarely on the Serbian leadership, not share the guilt 
with those leaders.
  Indeed, the hearing noted examples of Serbs of conscience. Professor 
Bassiouni relayed a story of a Bosnian Serb commander who, upon taking 
a new position, released several women being held captive. As his men 
approached the women, hoping to have their last chance to rape them, 
the commander stood in front of the door, with machine gun in hand, and 
warned his own soldiers he would shoot any who dared touch these women 
again. Roy Gutman quoted a recent article in Nasa Borba, a Belgrade-
based Serbian opposition paper, calling the war a senseless and 
``unoriginal
 product of the unbridled Serb view of things,'' and bemoaned that 
Serbs ``are obviously still far away from realizing that they have to 
take certain moral responsibility for evil deeds committed by their 
compatriots in this war.'' Andras Riedlmayer informed the Commission of 
a Serbian architect and former Belgrade mayor who condemned the 
destruction of beautiful cities like Osijek, Vukovar, and Dubrovnik 
simply because that they were not Serbian.

  Mr. Speaker, this hearing on genocide was of critical importance. We 
on the outside have become fatigued by the daily developments there, 
and the endless discussion of policy options. It is perhaps human 
nature that explains why, in the end, we look at Bosnia in terms of 
percentage of territory lost and casualty figures. Similarly, our 
desire is to bring those fighting together--at the negotiating table--
to work out a mutually acceptable compromise. In the meantime, we work 
to get a humanitarian aid convoy to this town or that town, or to 
deploy U.N. peacekeepers here or there, with this or that mandate.
  As admirable as these efforts may be, they miss the central fact that 
what we are confronting here is something inherently evil, a racist 
force so irrational that it cannot be satisfied by a positive gesture. 
Genocide must be condemned, confronted and stopped, not tolerated and 
appeased. Until then, we will continue to see more fighting, more 
death, and more destruction in the Balkans.
  That brings me to the second hearing, which focused on policy 
questions regarding the former Yugoslavia, and specifically issues 
surrounding the international presence there. U.N. peacekeeping efforts 
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Macedonia, and NATO assistance 
to U.N. efforts are of utmost importance, but efforts of other 
organizations merit attention as well.
  Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke appeared before the 
Commission to present the current views of the Clinton administration 
on these missions and the realistic prospects for a just peace. I told 
the Ambassador that one thing the Helsinki Commission has learned at 
its 16 hearings on the former Yugoslavia, since the conflict began 
there in 1991, is that the conflict could have been stopped. Witness 
after witness, with experience on the ground, has told the Helsinki 
Commission that credible military threats continually caused the Serb 
militants to back off and be more cooperative. Had they faced 
international resolve, during the Bush or the early Clinton 
administration, we would not have needed these hearings this week. 
Opportunities were lost, one after another, as our ultimatums were 
revealed only as political bluffs.
  The Commission does not say this only after the fact, as the Monday 
morning quarterback. From the beginning, we called for strong action to 
get humanitarian aid convoys through the lines, no matter what, to stop 
the bombardment of large, vulnerable civilian centers--to stop the war. 
We always met opposition. And now, our Government and those of Europe, 
seem to suggest that damage perpetrated against Bosnia has been so 
great that the reestablishment of a unified, multiethnic state is, at 
best, a dream. Even a 51/49 split, as proposed by the contact group, is 
out of reach. Military options are now riskier. What concerns me is the 
fact that the same officials who now find it too late to act, had other 
excuses when it was not too late. One can conclude that at least some 
of them simply never had the courage to act in the first place, or the 
foresight to see how American interests were affected by all of this.
  To be clear, Mr. Speaker, I do not oppose finding solutions to 
problems at a negotiating table, but the parties involved should be 
given no choice but to find solutions at the table, and not from the 
hills surrounding defenseless Bosnian towns and cities. No parameters 
for acceptable behavior were established and upheld, and negotiations 
continue to be a dismal failure.
  And what frustrates me most is that governments, and European 
governments in particular, are unwilling to acknowledge their 
incredible error, and to change course.
  It was with some regret that I had to express these views before 
Ambassador Holbrooke, who, since becoming Assistant Secretary last 
August, has shown a personal interest in getting something done in the 
Balkans. I highlighted, in particular, the seriousness with which he 
has pursued the development of the Bosnian Federation, which perhaps, 
along with the Sarajevo ultimatum of February 1994, is the most 
innovative and positive effort undertaken by the Clinton administration 
in Bosnia. While I question the viability of the federation absent a 
real response to Serb aggression, I see no choice but to move forward 
with the federation as best we can.
  Ambassador Holbrooke reported that international efforts leading to a 
new peacekeeping mandate in Croatia ``have helped prevent, at least for 
the moment, the wider war we all 
[[Page E868]] feared.'' He expressed disappointment, however, that 
diplomacy has been unable to prevent the likely resumption of the 
tragic conflict in Bosnia. ``I bring you no optimism on Bosnia.'' 
Following Holbrooke, two expert witnesses--John Lampe of the Woodrow 
Wilson Center for International Scholars, and Steve Walker of the 
Action Council for Peace in the Balkans--presented views on various 
policy options. While they disagreed on what to do, they both expressed 
dismay that a full and fair settlement remains so elusive.


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