[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 173 (Friday, November 3, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S16652-S16653]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL ON WAR CRIMES

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I have sought recognition today to lend 
my support to a request made by the prosecutor on the International War 
Crimes tribunal on the Bosnian situation, where the International 
tribunal on War Crimes in Bosnia has formally asked the United States 
to make the surrender of the indicted suspects a condition for any 
peace accord.
  As we know, right now in Dayton there are negotiations underway to 
try to resolve the Bosnian conflict. But indictments have already been 
issued for Gen. Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military commander, and 
Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader, on indictments which specify 
their leadership role in the ethnic cleansing and reported massacres 
and organized rapes that marked the first months of the Bosnian war.
  The tribunal prosecutor, the distinguished lawyer Richard J. 
Goldstone, has been pursuing these matters with real diligence, and it 
poses a real test for the international community. Part of the test 
arises because the President of Serbia, President Slobodan Milosevic, 
is involved in these negotiations. He was identified some time ago by 
the then-Secretary of State, Lawrence Eagleburger, as having been 
involved possibly in international war crimes in connection with the 
Bosnian Serbs' ethnic cleansing in the early months of that campaign.
  I am pleased to note that ranking Clinton administration officials 
have committed that there will be no amnesty granted, but I think it is 
very important as a matter of international law that these prosecutions 
go forward and the United States cooperate with these prosecutions.
  For more than a decade, Mr. President, I have urged the formation of 
an international criminal court to deal with crimes such as hostage 
taking, terrorism, and drug dealing where we find that there are people 
in custody who they will not extradite to the United States; for 
example, in Colombia where there are drug leaders and drug criminals 
who ought to be brought to trial, but because of domestic politics in 
Colombia, they are not willing to extradite them to the United States. 
If there were an international criminal court, then I do believe there 
would be a tribunal set up where the political disadvantage of 
extraditing, say, to the United States would not be present.
  And I note today, Mr. President, that there are ceremonies marking 
the tragedy of Pan Am 103, where indictments have been issued for two 
Libyans implicated in the tragedy of Pan Am 103, and the intransigence 
of the Libyan 

[[Page S 16653]]
Government and their leader, Mu'ammar Qadhafi, who is refusing to allow 
those suspects to be tried in the United States or in Scottish or in 
British courts.
  Were we to have an international criminal court, there is at least a 
chance that those individuals would be extradited to be tried in an 
international criminal court. Perhaps if such a court were in 
existence, Qadhafi would find another reason for declining to allow 
that trial to take place, but at least it would provide a possible 
alternative for such a trial.
  The rule of law is indispensable, Mr. President, in a civilized 
society. We have benefited enormously in those countries which do have 
the rule of law. It is a high priority in the United States, obviously, 
with our constitutional rights.
  We should have established an international criminal court a long 
time ago. It has been on the horizon. It has received favorable comment 
from the U.S. Senate and from the House on sense-of-the-Congress 
resolutions. But we ought to be moving to really put it into effect. 
With the Bosnian war crimes tribunal, we have a chance to advance the 
rule of law internationally. So I do hope that we will see to it that 
the request made by the international tribunal on war crimes to have 
the surrender of these indicted suspects be made as a condition to any 
peace accord that will take place.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. SIMPSON addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coverdell). The Chair recognizes the 
Senator from Wyoming.

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