[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 120 (Monday, July 24, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10534-S10535]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE CHILDREN OF BOSNIA

  Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, I think it is fairly clear that we are 
heading toward some kind of a military climax in the Bosnian situation. 
Precisely what is going to happen I do not know. None of us knows. But 
there is likely to be more bloodshed in the immediate future, and I 
hope not a continuation of the constant agony and bloodshed that we 
have seen these past few years since 1991.
  I have a citizen from Illinois by the name of Al Booth who says we 
took children out of Germany, Austria, and England in the very 
difficult years prior to and during World War II, saved a great many 
people, and that we ought to be doing something to save the children of 
Bosnia today.
  It is not simple. I have talked to Bosnian officials. My office has 
talked to the International Red Cross people. The Red Cross people said 
if you had taken them out by bus or by any kind of vehicle or by plane, 
and the plane is shot, there would be substantial criticism. There are 
at least some in the Bosnian Government who feel that to take the 
children out almost means you are sending a signal that the Government 
cannot continue, that it is going to collapse. It is a difficult 
situation.
  At this point I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a 
letter from Al Booth that was printed in the Chicago Tribune about this 
situation.
  There being no objection, the letter was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

               [From the Chicago Tribune, June 19, 1995]

                           Bosnia's Children

       Chicago.--The children of Bosnia should not be allowed to 
     become the slaughtered innocent victims of the intensified 
     fighting.
       In 1937 a kindertransport was organized in Germany, before 
     Hitler closed the door, when the British government made 
     10,000 visas available for German children. Seven thousand 
     children were rescued--75 percent Jewish and 25 percent 
     Christian. (Only 1,000 children arrived in the U.S. from 
     Germany--with parents, relatives or alone--in 1938 and 1939.)
       Several European countries are organized to accept refugee 
     children. There they would be closer to home. These countries 
     are very experienced on matters relating to refugees.
       The UN is in the best position to organize the transfer of 
     children of any ethnic group out of Bosnia. To do so at this 
     time would certainly make it plain to those forces attacking 
     the ``safe havens'' that at long last the NATO countries and 
     the U.S. wish to put an end to using snipers to kill children 
     and mortars to kill civilians. The Air Force would be there 
     to protect the children.
       We may not be able to stop ethnic violence or expanded 
     civil wars, but we should be able, at this moment, to take 
     the initiative to remove children and women.
       A kindertransport program is long overdue in Bosnia. Those 
     children who came out of Germany and Austria left their 
     parents behind, and almost all never saw their parents again. 
     We have a better chance of that not happening this time, but 
     we must get the children out of Bosnia now, before they 
     become orphans and victims.

                                                     Al Booth,

                                                        President,
                                   International Music Foundation.
  Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, in response to that letter, he received a 
letter from the consul general of France. Let me just read two 
paragraphs from this letter. The consul general read Al Booth's letter 
in the Chicago Tribune:

       In addition to its participation in the organization of an 
     air shuttle in Sarajevo and the creation of a central 
     pharmacy in Bihac, the French Government evacuated more than 
     200 Bosnian children between 1993 and 1994.
       Furthermore, a private association called ``Equilibre,'' 
     with the support of our Regional Councils, organized in 
     November 92 the temporary evacuation of 1045 mothers and 
     children. This operation was repeated in 1994 for 1000 
     children and their mothers.

  For a total of 2,045.

       This time the operation concentrated on the children whose 
     health was failing and who could not have spent the winter in 
     Bosnia.

  He says these operations would not have been possible without the 
support of the French Government in particular regarding the retention 
of temporary permits for the accompanying adults.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the letter of 
the French Consul General.
  There being no objection, the letter was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                   Consulat General de France,

                                       Chicago, IL, July 11, 1995.
     Mr. Al Booth,
     International Music Foundation, Chicago, IL.
       Dear Mr. Booth: I read with much interest your letter 
     published in the Chicago Tribune of June 19, 1995, and sent a 
     copy to the French Foreign Ministry, who have provided me 
     with the following information.
       In addition to its participation in the organization of an 
     air shuttle in Sarajevo and the creation of a central 
     pharmacy in Bihac, the French Government evacuated more than 
     200 Bosnian children between 1993 and 1994.
       Furthermore, a private association called ``Equilibre'', 
     with the support of our Regional Councils, organized in 
     November '92 the temporary evacuation of 1045 mothers and 
     children. This operation was repeated in 1994 for 1,000 
     children and their mothers. This time the operation 
     concentrated on the children whose health was failing and who 
     could not have spent the winter in Bosnia.

[[Page S10535]]

       These operations would not have been possible without the 
     support of the French Government, in particular regarding the 
     obtention of temporary permits for the accompanying adults.
       I hope that this information answers, at least in part, 
     your concerns which we entirely share about the fate of the 
     children (and other members of the civilian population) who 
     are caught up in the daily horrors of the war in Bosnia-
     Herzegovina.
       With best regards,
                                                    Gerard Dumont,
                                                   Consul General.

  Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, I do not know if anything can be done. But 
I think we ought to do everything we can to save these children, if 
possible, in this horrible, horrible situation in which they find 
themselves. Obviously, these would only be volunteers.
  Let me say for those who have fears of the religious implications, 
because these are mostly Moslem children, though not entirely. There 
are a number of Bosnian families in the United States as well as in 
Western Europe who, I am sure, would be willing to take these 
children--not all of them obviously, but many of them would--so that 
they could be raised in homes where there is a Bosnian culture and a 
Moslem background. So the religious factor should not be a barrier to 
going ahead.
  Again, Mr. President, I do not have any good answer. But I do think 
this idea of somehow saving these children, or as many of them as we 
can, is just a sound, simple, humanitarian thing to do. I hope that 
somehow we can do something.

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