[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 116 (Tuesday, July 18, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10225-S10226]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 BOSNIA

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, following whatever disposition of regulatory 
reform, we will take up the resolution on Bosnia. We were visited today 
by Secretary of State Christopher and General Shalikashvili, and they 
made their pitch about how bad the Dole-Lieberman resolution would be 
on Bosnia, as far as lifting the arms embargo.
  Somebody asked the question, if it is so bad, what is so good about 
what is happening in Bosnia now? Obviously, we did not have an answer. 
There is not any answer.
  Today I received from Lady Margaret Thatcher a letter which I think 
is probably the best summation I have read about Bosnia and the tragedy 
there. I placed a copy on everyone's desk, but I will read it for the 
record.
  The letter is as follows:
                                                     July 18, 1995
       Dear Senator Dole: I am writing to express my very strong 
     support for your attempt to have the arms embargo against 
     Bosnia lifted.
       I know that you and all members of the United States Senate 
     share my horror at the crimes against humanity now being 
     perpetrated by the Serbs in Bosnia. The UN and NATO have 
     failed to enforce the Security Council Resolutions which 
     authorized the use of force to defend the safe havens and to 
     get humanitarian assistance through. The safe havens were 
     never safe; now they are falling to Serb assault. Murder, 
     ethnic cleansing, mass rape and torture are the legacy of the 
     policy of the last three years to the people of Bosnia. It 
     has failed utterly. We owe it to the victims at last and at 
     least to have the weapons to defend themselves--since we 
     ourselves are not willing to defend them.
       The arms embargo was always morally wrong. Significantly, 
     it was imposed on the (then formally intact but fragmenting) 
     former Yugoslavia at that regime's own behest. It was then, 
     quite unjustly and possibly illegally, applied to the 
     successor states. Its effect--and, as regards the Surbs, its 
     intention--was to ensure that the proponents of a Greater 
     Serbia, who inherited the great bulk of the Yugoslav army's 
     equipment, enjoyed overwhelming military superiority in their 
     aggression. It is worth recalling that the democratically 
     elected, multi-faith and multi-ethnic Bosnian Government 
     never asked for a single UN soldier to be sent. It did ask 
     for the arms required to defend its own people against a 
     ruthless aggressor. That request was repeatedly denied, in 
     spite of the wishes of the US administration and of most 
     leading American politicians.
       There is no point now in listing the failures of military 
     policy which subsequently occurred. Suffice it to say that, 
     instead of succeeding in enforcing the mandates the UN 
     Security Council gave them, UNPROFOR became potential and 
     then actual hostages. Airpower was never seriously employed 
     either. The oft repeated arguments against lifting the arms 
     embargo--that if it occurred UN troops would be at risk, that 
     the enclaves like Srebrenica would fall, that the Serbs would 
     abandon all restraint--have all now been proved worthless. 
     For all these things have happened and the arms embargo still 
     applies.
       Two arguments are, however, still advanced by those who 
     wish to keep the arms embargo in place. Each is demonstrably 
     false.
       First, it is said that lifting the arms embargo would 
     prolong the war in Bosnia. This is, of course, a morally 
     repulsive argument, for it implies that all we should care 
     about it a quick end to the conflict without regard to the 
     justice or otherwise of its outcome. But in any case it is 
     based on the false assumption that the Serbs are bound to 
     win. Over the last year the Bosnian army has grown much 
     stronger and the Bosnian Serbs weaker. The Bosnian army has, 
     with its Croat allies, been winning back crucial territory, 
     while desertion and poor morale are badly affecting the over-
     extended Serb forces. What the Bosnian government lacks 
     however are the tanks and artillery needed to hold the 
     territory won and force the Serbs to negotiate. This lack of 
     equipment is directly the result of the arms embargo. Because 
     of it the war is being prolonged and the casualties are 
     higher. Lifting the arms embargo would thus shorten not 
     lengthen the war.
       Second, it is said that lifting the arms embargo would lead 
     to rifts within the UN Security Council and NATO. But are 
     there not rifts already? And are these themselves not the 
     result of pursuing a failed policy involving large risks to 
     outside countries ground troops, rather than arming and 
     training the victims to repel the aggressor? American 
     leadership is vital to bring order out of the present chaos. 
     No country must be allowed to veto the action required to end 
     the present catastrophe. And if American leadership is truly 
     evident along the lines of the policy which you and your 
     colleagues are advancing I do not believe that any country 
     will actually try to obstruct it.
       The West has already waited too long. Time is now terribly 
     short. All those who care about peace and justice for the 
     tragic victims of aggression in the former Yugoslavia now 
     have their eyes fixed on the actions of the US Senate. I 
     hope, trust and pray that your initiative to have the arms 
     embargo against Bosnia lifted succeeds. It will bring new 
     hope to those who are suffering so much.
       With warm regards,
           Yours Sincerely,
                                              Margaret Thatcher.  

  Mr. President, having read the letter, I think it says it all. I know 
the administration has said we will finally have a policy. It will not 
be business as usual. After 30 months, we will do something.
  No one is talking about committing American ground troops. In fact, 
just the opposite. Lifting the arms embargo keeps America out of any 
engagement. It seems to me that is something that should have been done 
a long time ago. We have waited almost a year. A year ago August we had 
our last vote on this important issue. Mr. President, 58 out of 100 
Senators voted to lift the embargo--Democrats and Republicans, 
bipartisan.
  This is not an initiative by Senator Dole or Senator Lieberman, 
though we are working together. This is an initiative of the U.S. 
Senate, in a bipartisan way, to address a very serious problem.
  The President has made two promises. One, to commit 25,000 American 
forces, if, in fact, there is a peace settlement, to keep the peace. 
More recently, commit 25,000 Americans to extricate members of the U.N. 
protection forces in case of withdrawal.
  I am advised by the Bosnian Foreign Minister today that only 30 U.N. 
protection force members are in occupied Serb territory today. And he 
asked the question, why would it take 25,000 Americans to extricate 30 
members of the U.N. protection forces? He says very clearly that there 
will be no interference on the part of Muslims with any withdrawal of 
U.N. protection forces. 

[[Page S 10226]]

  No question about it, this matter is very, very important. It is very 
serious, as Secretary of State Christopher told Members today at noon. 
It has been serious if you are the ones doing the dying--or even the 
killing. But one side has done nearly all the dying, and one side has 
done nearly all the killing.
  Those doing the dying do not have tanks or heavy weapons or artillery 
to defend themselves. They have rifles. In many cases they surrendered 
their heavy weapons because they were told they would be safe in these 
safe havens. So they surrendered their heavy weapons, their only means 
to defend themselves, and notified, in the case of Zepa, Medjedja, 
Gorazde, that the safe havens--that Lady Thatcher points out in the 
letter were never safe--and now they are falling to Serb assault.
  This debate will begin, if not today, hopefully tomorrow. I hope we 
will have broad bipartisan support, unanimous support. I know the 
Secretary of State told Members at the Democratic policy lunch today 
that timing is everything, ``This is a terrible time to bring up this 
resolution.''
  We have been told that at every turn. It is always a bad time. We 
thought, ourselves, it was a bad time to bring up the resolution, when 
you had U.N. Protection Forces chained to poles and held as hostages so 
there would be no more air strikes, and used as human shields. So we 
deferred consideration of the resolution. And we have waited and waited 
and waited, hoping something good might happen. But nothing good has 
happened.
  Again, the Foreign Minister of Bosnia, who will be here, I guess, for 
several days, and has met with a number of Senators in both parties, 
indicates clearly that the U.N. Protection Forces should go.
  So I hope in the next 24 hours we will be able to move to the 
resolution. I hope my colleagues on this side will listen carefully to 
many on this side who are cosponsoring this resolution, and colleagues 
on the other side will listen carefully to Senator Lieberman and others 
who will be leading the effort. The point I wish to make is this is not 
a partisan effort. It is not an effort aimed at President Clinton. I 
complained--or criticized the Bosnian policy during the Bush 
administration. So it is not something that we have discovered because 
we now have a Democrat in the White House.
  So for 30 months, many of us originally supported Candidate Clinton, 
who said we ought to lift the arms embargo and have air strikes. We 
supported him. I remember meeting in the White House in 1993, in the 
spring, and we were talking about lifting the arms embargo. Most of us 
there supported the President's desire at that time to lift the arms 
embargo.
  Then, for some reason--it has never been fully understood by this 
Senator--it just sort of went off the radar screen. Bosnia was 
forgotten. It is as though the President never said anything about 
Bosnia, never said anything about lifting the arms embargo. Then we 
were told a year ago, in April, if we would just wait--and there was a 
resolution offered by the then Democratic leader, Senator Mitchell, and 
Senator Nunn, that they would go to the United Nations and make a plea 
that the British and the French also lift the arms embargo. That was 
one way to stall any action on the other resolution.
  The trouble is, they had never gone to the United Nations and asked 
for that, asked that the embargo be lifted. So we are back. We believe 
it is critical. We believe it is crucial. If anybody has any doubts, 
watch the television tonight, read the paper in the morning.
  Again, to make it very clear to some who always feel it is going to 
Americanize the war, we have already Americanized the war. Scott 
O'Grady is an American, last time I checked. And he was shot down 
because we had not been notified that there were SAM sites in the area.
  So American pilots are part of NATO. Lifting the arms embargo, 
removing the U.N. Protection Forces--and I commend the bravery and 
courage of all those who are engaged in the U.N. Protection Forces. But 
the problem is, they cannot protect themselves and they cannot protect 
the safe havens and they act as a buffer for the aggressors, the Serbs. 
Whether they intend it or not, they have been, in effect, an ally of 
the aggressors. And many of us do not believe that was ever intended.
  Again, let me make a distinction between the Serb people and 
Milosevic and Karadzic and some of the others who are dedicated to 
ethnic cleansing, murder, butchery--whatever it takes to eliminate 
Bosnian Moslems. I know the Serb people are just as tired of the 
fighting, and the mothers are just as tired of sending their sons to 
face possible death, as anybody on the other side.
  So we are going to be on the Bosnian resolution. I hope, on the 
matter of timing, it seems to me the best thing that could happen for 
this administration is for the Senate to pass with a big, big vote, our 
resolution. That would give the President and the Secretary of State or 
whomever they designate to negotiate with the British and the French 
and others a great deal of leverage. Because at that point they could 
say, ``The Senate has acted. The House has acted. It is time to go. It 
is time to go.''
  Then we would turn the fighting over to the parties who are directly 
involved. Give the Bosnians a chance. They are a member of the United 
Nations. They are an independent nation. They have lost--70 percent of 
their land has been taken; 70 percent. And we are saying, ``Oh, wait. 
Wait. We want to wait a while.'' Will we wait until 80 percent is 
taken?
  All they want is a right they believe they are entitled to, which we 
believe in this country is an inherent right, the right of self 
defense. They would hope for the same as a nation, the right of self 
defense as a nation.
  In my view, they are entitled to that right. I think most of us agree 
they are entitled to that right. Take a look at the casualty figures. 
Who has been doing the dying? Who has been doing the killing? Who has 
been involved in that? I must say, in some cases it is probably hard to 
differentiate, because there has been a lot of treachery and tragedy on 
all sides. But for the most part, there is no question about who the 
aggressors have been. I just believe it is time for us to stand up.
  This is a moral issue, one that should have been addressed a long 
time ago. It can be addressed without committing American forces. All 
we need to do is say we are going to lift the arms embargo and as an 
independent nation you are going to have a right to defend yourself--
which does not seem to me to be a very difficult decision. We are not 
going to defend them. If we lift the embargo, it is not we defending 
them. If we lift the embargo, you defend yourself.
  So I hope my colleagues will be prepared for debate on this very 
important issue, and that we can take final action before the week is 
out.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Abraham). The Senator from Wisconsin.

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