[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 100 (Monday, June 19, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8607-S8609]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                                 BOSNIA

  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I noted a short while ago that three or 
four of my colleagues were addressing themselves to the most recent 
events in the former Yugoslavia. I myself wanted to take this occasion 
to do the same, because the events there, which have been 
heartbreaking, tragic, frustrating, and infuriating in various degrees 
for the last 3 years, seem to only get more so.
  I rise today, as I have on numerous occasions over the past years to 
talk about the tragedy which continues to unfold in Bosnia. There seems 
to be no end to the suffering of innocent people in that war-torn land. 
No end to the senseless murder of women and children in once-beautiful 
cities like Sarajevo. I saw a news clip this weekend; in the midst of 
the firing on the city that went on, the flowers come up--remembrances 
of times that were better there. Even today, as people have to go to 
rivers running through the town to try to get some water with which to 
wash themselves, perhaps to boil it for drinking water or for cooking. 
No end to the outrageous, illegal, and fundamentally immoral conduct of 
international outlaws who are operating under the banner of the Bosnian 
Serbs from their headquarters in Pale. No end to the humiliation of the 
United Nations and to the brave soldiers wearing the blue hats of 
UNPROFOR who are beleaguered in every spot where they have been 
stationed in Bosnia. No end to the chaos, confusion, and indecisiveness 
of the international community which has allowed this situation to 
deteriorate to its current, tragic, pathetic low point. Regrettably, 
U.S. policy has been part of this sad story.
  Mr. President, the headlines of today's New York Times highlight the 
depths to which the policies of the West have fallen--``Captives Free, 
U.N. Gives Up Effort to Shield Sarajevo.''
  So what has happened here? International outlaws--the Serbs--seize 
U.N. soldiers--peacekeepers, supposedly, wearing the blue helmets, 
noncombatants--seize them as hostages. And what is their reward? Their 
reward is that the United Nations ceases to enforce a U.N. resolution 
which compelled U.N. forces to protect Sarajevo and other safe areas in 
Bosnia. In other words, internationally, at least in Bosnia, crime does 
pay. The most outrageous, inhumane crime.
  And of course, the seizing of the U.N. personnel was not the worst of 
it. Capt. [[Page S 8608]] Scott O'Grady has become quite justifiably 
and, thank God, a national hero for his courage, for his steadfastness, 
his extraordinary resourcefulness, for the skill of the American 
marines who came to his aid, for the effectiveness of American 
technology that, combined with his bravery, created the circumstance in 
which he could be liberated, could be saved. But, Mr. President, let us 
not forget what happened. Captain O'Grady, was on a patrolling mission, 
not a hostile mission. He was on a mission to enforce a U.N. resolution 
that there be a no fly zone over Bosnia, that fixed-wing aircraft not 
fly. And he was shot down in a hostile act by Serbian missiles. And 
even after those days of eating grass and bugs to keep himself alive, 
covering himself face-down in the dirt so that the Serbian soldiers 
walking by would not find him, finally he gets the message out, and 
those two CH-53E Super Stallions come in with the Marines to rescue 
this American hero, and what happens? They are fired on by the Serbs--
really an act of war. The domestic equivalent to this would be, what 
would happen if criminals in a city in our country seized police who 
were walking or riding on a routine mission, and then when other police 
came to take them out, fired on those other police. What would our 
reaction be? We would go in with all we had to get them out; we would 
feel that we had an obligation in the interest of law to punish them. 
What happens here? Nothing. The Serbs got away with it.
  So this is the headline, ``Captives Free, U.N. Gives Up Effort to 
Shield Sarajevo.'' The captives obviously are the U.N. peacekeepers who 
were held as hostages for these past weeks. While their return marks 
the end of one more crisis in Bosnia, it also demonstrates all too 
clearly why the U.N. forces should no longer be on the ground in 
Bosnia. There is no peace for these supposed peacekeepers to keep. 
Barely equipped for self-defense and left in positions where they are 
continuously vulnerable to Serb humiliation and manipulation, these men 
do not lack for individual courage, but their hands have been tied by 
Orwellian U.N. policies where appeasement of the Bosnian Serbs is seen 
as a virtue and self-defense by the United Nations is seen as a vice. 
And so the last of these so-called peacekeepers have been returned from 
their illegal and immoral imprisonment. But at what price?
  Apparently in exchange for the release of these hostages, the United 
Nations has now withdrawn from all of the heavy weapons-collection 
sites around Sarajevo and withdrawn into the city. And now, they too 
can become targets once again of the wanton Serb artillery, rocket, 
mortar, and sniper fire that lands on Sarajevo. It is precisely this 
Serb use of civilians, hospitals, apartment buildings, schools, and 
playgrounds for target practice which yesterday cost another 7 people 
their lives and wounded 10 others, I gather, seeking water, at the very 
time the U.N. hostages were being released. Many of these people were 
elderly Sarajevans standing in line for water--water that has become 
ever scarcer as the Serb stranglehold on Sarajevo continues unabated. 
And what is the understanding that is worked out between the United 
Nations and the Serb positions from which the artillery came? Only that 
they allow the water to be turned on again.
  And so the ultimatum which the United Nations issued early last year 
to protect the people of Sarajevo has now gone the way of all of the 
United Nations' efforts in Bosnia--it has been trampled under the heel 
of the Serbian indifference, the Serbian flouting, the Serbian 
disregard--I cannot find a noun strong enough for what I feel--of the 
rule of law and the conduct of civilized States at the end of the 20th 
century. This follows aggression. This follows genocidal acts against 
people singled out only because of religion, in this case Moslem. Two 
hundred thousand dead, two million refugees taken from their homes, 
increasingly under the cover of a U.N. mission that was supposed to 
bring peace, but has not brought any of it and has, unfortunately, 
increased the suffering. The top U.N. official in Bosnia, Yasushi 
Akashi, has now declared that UNPROFOR will adhere strictly to 
peacekeeping principles; thus, the use of force will, apparently, no 
longer be considered by the United Nations. In fact, Mr. Akashi 
indicated last week, 10 days ago, that the United Nations would only 
act when they had Serb permission to do so. Mr. Akashi, I say to you 
that it is time to wake up and look around at the ashes of what once 
was a multiethnic society in Bosnia--there is no peace to keep. Why is 
UNPROFOR remaining in Bosnia to perform a mission which by definition 
cannot be performed there?
 It is as if these courageous, but ill-fated soldiers wearing the U.N. 
uniform had been thrown in by the nations that control the United 
Nations as a kind of stop-gap measure to answer the question, ``What 
are you doing to stop the aggression and slaughter and genocide in 
Bosnia?'' And so the peacekeepers have been thrown in, where there is 
no peace, without the capacity to defend themselves, bringing 
humiliation on the United Nations and on the rule of law and civility 
in international relations. It is time for the U.N. leadership and the 
heads of the countries with forces in the UNPROFOR to acknowledge that 
in spite of everything else that has gone on, it is time for UNPROFOR 
to get out. The UNPROFOR mission should be terminated de jure as well 
as de facto, because de facto, it is over, it does not stand for 
anything, it is not helping anyone, as the events of the past week 
coming right down to yesterday, show. With the withdrawal of UNPROFOR, 
the international community will again have the opportunity to act to 
lift the immoral arms embargo of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an embargo 
that has left one side with heavy weapons, the other side ill prepared 
to defend families and country. If other countries will not go along 
with what is perhaps the last, best hope not only for the people of 
Bosnia but for the rule of law, for the standards of international 
opposition to aggression and genocide, then the United States, I hope, 
will lift it unilaterally, without delay. But, of course, if the United 
Nations is out, the traditional excuse, rationalization of our allies 
in NATO for not supporting a lifting of the embargo, which is that it 
might lead to the seizing of hostages, will be eliminated. Hostages 
have been taken. With the United Nations out, there will be no more 
hostages to take. To deny the legitimate Government of Bosnia the right 
to defend its sovereignty and the lives of its people is simply wrong.

  Mr. President, last week Prime Minister Silajdzic of Bosnia and 
Herzegovina was in Washington. Many of us had the chance to hear him, 
to meet with him. I must say, I have seen him several times here in 
Washington. I have never seen him so grim. I have never seen him so 
frustrated. I have never seen him so deeply concerned, depressed about 
the suffering which his people continue to endure without hope of that 
assistance that they continue to feel and pray for is just around the 
corner, particularly from the United States of America, the last, best 
hope for people who suffer as the Bosnians have.
  I have also never seen Prime Minister Silajdzic so determined that 
Bosnia will continue to fight for its rights as a sovereign state. 
Because no one else will come to their aid. If they are not for 
themselves, literally, who else will be? And if not now, when? The 
Prime Minister made clear once again that he does not want American 
soldiers on Bosnian soil. He wants to have the ability--the weaponry--
for the brave Bosnians to fight their own fight. What they seek is the 
right to obtain those weapons which will enable them to defend 
themselves against those who have committed aggression and genocide 
against them.
  Time has been running out for the people of Bosnia for too long now. 
The United Nations has not been willing or able to stop the bloodshed. 
It is time for the United Nations to step aside. What is left is for 
the people of Bosnia to fight their own fight with our assistance: at 
least with us untying their hands, which we have tied behind their 
backs by the continued imposition of this embargo, which originated at 
a time when the State of Bosnia did not exist, as an attempt to avoid 
the expansion of war by keeping arms out of the area. But it is the 
Serbs in Belgrade who control most of the war-fighting industrial 
capacity that was Yugoslavia's. It is the Bosnians who are left to 
fight tanks with light arms. [[Page S 8609]] Mr. President, the 
grotesque advantages that have been given to the aggressor here, as we 
continue to declare a kind of neutrality which amounts to immorality, 
defies all standards of decency and international law. The time is at 
hand for us finally to answer the call for help which has been coming, 
but has been unanswered, from Bosnia for too long. I hope that my 
colleagues in both parties in this chamber will be able to play a 
leadership role in supporting, encouraging, as rapidly as possible, the 
withdrawal of the U.N. forces from Bosnia, the lifting of the arms 
embargo, and the selective use of Allied air power to protect not just 
the sovereignty of a nation, Bosnia, that has been invaded by a 
neighbor, but to protect the rule of law, in Europe and throughout the 
world. In that, we here continue to have a vital national interest.
  I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Gramm). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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