[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 100 (Monday, June 19, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8612-S8613]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  UNITED STATES ROLE REGARDING BOSNIA

  Mr. BUMPERS. Now, Mr. President, I want to make a point on a 
different subject that has been discussed here several times today 
dealing with Bosnia. I heard the distinguished Senator from Georgia, 
Senator Nunn, a moment ago. I must say I thought the Senator made some 
very cogent points about what the United States role should be. [[Page S 
8613]] 
  Even though I have steadfastly opposed the introduction of ground 
forces in Bosnia, I think the British and the French are on fairly 
solid ground when they chastise the United States for trying to tell 
them how to conduct themselves there. And they remind us periodically, 
that we have not been facing the same kind of threat they have. They 
are the ones who have had their troops taken hostage. They are the 
people who have had people killed. We have not.
  If it is determined that we are going to withdraw the UNPROFOR forces 
from Bosnia, then I think the United States has a role to play. I am 
not sure, and I am not prepared today to define it in any detail, but 
certainly in my opinion we have a financial role to play.
  We have been neglecting our dues to the United Nations because there 
is a trend in this country that thinks that somehow or another the 
United Nations is subversive.
  I watched some of that militia hearing the other day. I never heard 
as many cockamamie theories in my life in such a short period of time 
about what a terrible Government we have. I wanted to ask, why is 
everybody in the world scratching and clawing and swimming the ocean to 
try to get here, if it is such a terrible place?
  Back to Bosnia. We have an obligation. We are part of NATO. We are 
part of the United Nations. We have not been nearly as diligent as we 
should be in our commitment to our dues to the United Nations, or 
paying for the peacekeeping operation.
  I think the Senator from New York will be much more familiar with 
this than I am, but as far as I know, the part of our dues we are 
furthest behind on is in the peacekeeping area. Yet we have championed 
all of these peacekeeping operations.
  I spent a day at the United Nations a couple of years ago, and at 
that time I was shocked to find the United Nations has something like--
I hesitate to say--20, 25 peacekeeping operations going on in the world 
right now.
  We only know about the Golan Heights, and Bosnia, and some of the 
more visible areas, but the United Nations has peacekeeping operations 
all over the world, trying to keep people from fighting. A very 
laudable undertaking.
  Let me remind those people who always want to denigrate the United 
Nations and the whole concept of world cooperation that time and again 
on this floor I have applauded President George Bush for going to the 
United Nations and getting that body's approval of Desert Storm and for 
recruiting a lot of the countries in the United Nations to assist in 
that operation. It was essentially a U.S. effort, but we had tremendous 
help from other nations because we were operating as a group of nations 
that the United Nations had endorsed for this operation.
  Now, I have about reached the conclusion. About the time I wrote an 
op-ed piece in my own State newspaper, I read an article by Tom 
Friedman in the New York Times. Tom Friedman had been in Lebanon and 
wrote a magnificent book called ``From Beirut to Jerusalem.'' A 
magnificent book.
  He pointed it out in this New York Times piece last week, that in 
Bosnia, as in Lebanon, we have religion as one of the centrally 
dividing issues--they are not different ethnically.
  It is my understanding during the Ottoman Empire the Turks said to 
the Bosnians, ``You may be blond and blue-eyed but you will be 
Moslem.''
  I can tell the Senator from New York is not agreeing with me on that. 
He is the historian, so it must not have been the Ottoman Empire. It 
may have been later.
  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Will the Senator yield for a question? Sharing his 
great regard for Tom Friedman's comments in this respect, I think the 
Bosnians were of a religious group within the Catholic Church which was 
being excommunicated, and they chose to affiliate with Islam in that 
setting.
  Mr. BUMPERS. I was not quoting Tom Friedman on that point.
  Mr. MOYNIHAN. It was, in a certain sense, a voluntary conversion.
  Mr. BUMPERS. Perhaps so. But his bottom line was when the Serbs and 
the Bosnian Moslems tire of fighting each other, they will reach some 
kind of an accord.
  Mr. MOYNIHAN. And then the United Nations might be able to help.
  Mr. BUMPERS. And while I want to support the foreign policy of the 
President and the Secretary of State, we may very well have reached the 
time--the President made a compelling point the other day in support of 
his position. Everybody says our policy in Bosnia now is an unmitigated 
disaster.
  The President responds by saying, in 1993, I guess it was, 92,000 
people were killed in Bosnia. In 1994, 3,000 were killed. So it is 
difficult to say the policy is an unmitigated disaster when that many 
lives are being saved.
  But there is not any question, the six Bosnian Moslem enclaves, are 
threatened. They are going to starve. Something is going to happen. 
Some of them have not been resupplied in months, and something is going 
to have to give.
  I am almost of the opinion that perhaps we should withdraw. While we 
might not be, as a nation, actively involved in arming Bosnian Moslems, 
other nations are perfectly willing to do that if we can figure out a 
way to get the weapons to them. That does not mean that war is going to 
reach a stalemate. It does not mean the Bosnian Moslems are going to be 
winners ultimately. But at least it would help equalize the sides. The 
thing is totally unfair now to them.
  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. BUMPERS. I will be happy to.
  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Bosnia is a member of the United Nations. It has been 
invaded by another country and in support of an internal dispute. The 
Yugoslavian Army, out of Belgrade, is clearly involved. We now learn 
that it was computers in Belgrade that brought down Captain O'Grady's 
F-16. Under the United Nations Charter it is elemental that Bosnia has 
the right of self-defense. And for the United Nations to impose an arms 
embargo on a member state which has been invaded is to put the charter 
in jeopardy. Would the Senator not agree?
  Mr. BUMPERS. Absolutely. The Senator makes a very, very compelling 
point that I should have started off with.
  So, to allow a member nation to be systematically choked to death 
while other U.N. members, as well as NATO, essentially look on and 
allow it to happen is totally unacceptable. Either we get involved or 
we get out. I doubt very seriously the people of this country would 
stand very long for our entry into the war. I saw a poll last week that 
said 61 percent of the people in this country are now saying they would 
not oppose the introduction of American ground troops in Bosnia. I do 
not happen to be a member of that 61 percent, because I realize what a 
sticky wicket this can be. But I was shocked by that number.
  Mr. President, I found the Senate in a quorum call and I thought I 
would just make these few comments regarding those two issues.
  I thank the Senator for the time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.

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