[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 123 (Thursday, July 27, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10774-S10775]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   LIFTING THE ARMS EMBARGO IN BOSNIA

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I want, for a brief moment, to comment 
about the vote yesterday on lifting the arms embargo on Bosnia. I did 
not speak at great length on the issue, but I was enormously troubled 
by it. We have voted on this a number of times in the past, and I have 
always resisted lifting the arms embargo, not because I did not want it 
to be lifted; I did, but I felt it inappropriate for us to do so 
unilaterally.
  Yesterday, finally, I decided to vote to lift the embargo. As I said, 
I was enormously troubled by that vote. It was a difficult decision to 
make. But I felt it was a necessary decision to make. We cannot, it 
seems to me, sit by week after week and month after month and watch 
what is happening in Bosnia to innocent victims of that war. This is a 
war in which one side is heavily armed and the other side is prevented 
from getting sufficient arms to defend themselves. And I believe that 
we are doing something that represents the right course in that region 
of the world.
  It is true, I think, that lifting the arms embargo will mean more 
arms in the region and perhaps an acceleration of the war. That may be 
true. But it is also true today that the Serbian army is marching in 
Bosnia, and it is moving into safe havens where the Bosnian Moslems 
have turned in their heavy weapons. When somebody says, ``Why did the 
people not defend themselves?'' it is because they could not get 
weapons with which to do so.
  It is clear that the United Nations and UNPROFOR could not keep the 
peace. It is hard to keep peace where peace does not exist. You 
presumably can keep the peace if you have peace. But there is no peace 
in Bosnia. 

[[Page S 10775]]

  The question, it seems to me, posed to us yesterday, finally, was, if 
our allies and the United States cannot and will not be able to provide 
protection for these Bosnian Moslems, should we not finally decide to 
give them the weapons with which to protect themselves? To say ``yes'' 
to that and do something unilaterally, we may very well anger our 
allies. That is not a wise course. Our allies are important to us. 
After all, the United States does not have troops on the ground in 
Bosnia. We have chosen not to want to do that. I support that decision. 
I think we should not move American troops to Bosnia.
  But other countries have. Young men and women from around the world, 
especially young men from Great Britain, young men from the Ukraine, 
young men from France, young men from the Netherlands have been on the 
ground in Bosnia risking their lives. And it is difficult for us to say 
to our allies, because they have put their troops in harm's way, to say 
to them, ``Your opinion does not matter to us; you are wrong.'' That is 
a difficult thing for us to do.
  Lifting the embargo may, it seems to me, provide the kind of impetus 
that could fracture very important relationships that we have. Yet this 
is not just a geopolitical discussion. This is not some political 
intrigue or dialog between us and the rest of NATO. This is about 
whether families in Bosnia has the right to defend themselves against 
aggressors who are heavily armed.
  I told my colleagues once previously that some months ago I was 
watching on television a story of a young Bosnian woman who had been 
critically injured with some 21 shrapnel wounds and lay in the hospital 
in critical condition for some long while. The attack that gave her 
these critical wounds killed both her parents, spared her brother, but 
critically wounded her. The story I saw about this young woman moved me 
so much that I sought to find a way to bring this young woman to 
America. I am pleased to say she is now in our country. She was granted 
humanitarian relief. She has been allowed to join her brother in this 
country.
  The day that I met her airplane at Dulles Airport, I will never 
forget what she said about our country. This young woman, living by 
herself in a single room, reading by candlelight at night, having lost 
both of her parents killed in a mortar attack, and her brother having 
been able to flee, had not herself been given the opportunity to leave 
as well and come to our country.
  With tears in her eyes, she described the horror that was visited 
upon so many families in her country. She talked of the hope with which 
she viewed our country, the feelings that she had about being able to 
live where there was not daily shelling and was not the risk of death 
and mayhem all around her.
  It is probably difficult for any of us in our country to understand 
the daily life of those whose lives are at risk in Bosnia. Nobody in 
this country can, it seems to me, look at the carnage that exists and 
the horror visited upon these people and say, with good conscience, 
that it does not matter. It matters to the world. It must matter to us. 
We must find ways, all of us, in the world to care when these things 
occur and to find ways to try to dampen the fires of war and to try to 
snuff out the horrors visited upon innocent people all around the 
world.
  I have voted from time to time to send American troops into various 
parts of the world. I have voted to help fund exercises to respond to 
various troubles in the world. You cannot take a look at a famine in 
parts of Africa, where 2 million people risk death, and say it does not 
matter. You cannot hear somebody who comes back from Africa and says, 
``I watched 40-year-old women routinely climb trees to try to pick 
leaves off trees because it was the only thing to eat,'' and say, 
``That just does not matter. That is halfway around the world, and I do 
not care.''
  We must, as a country, care about these things. We must care about 
the starvation that exists in parts of Africa. We must care about the 
killing and carnage that exists in Bosnia. That does not mean that we 
are the world's policeman and must send troops everywhere, but it does 
mean that we have a responsibility, with others around the world, to 
try to respond to the winds of hunger that kill 45,000 people a day in 
this world.
  And so we must respond to the ravages of war that threaten so many 
men, women, and children in Bosnia. I must say the vote yesterday was a 
very troubling vote for me because I have previously voted not to lift 
the arms embargo. But there comes a time when there is no choice. We 
must, it seems to me, in good conscience, give the Bosnian Moslems the 
opportunity and means with which to defend themselves against the 
terror of this war.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  

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