[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 18 (Friday, February 9, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1175-S1176]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 BOSNIA

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I will take a couple minutes to compliment 
the Senator from Mississippi, the distinguished majority whip presiding 
in the chair at the moment, for the comments just made, both to clear 
the record with respect to what we have been doing in January and 
February and to make a very important point with regard to Medicare. I 
would rather be home now in Arizona where it is over 80 degrees, than 
back here in Washington, DC, but this morning we are working on very 
important immigration reform legislation, which is very important in my 
State, and important to the entire country. Under the leadership of the 
Senator from Wyoming, Senator Simpson, and Senator Hatch, and others I 
think we will be able to get that legislation. It is taking a lot of 
time to put it together in the way we can get it adopted. As a result, 
we have to be here working.
  The other point I want to make relates to a recent trip that I took 
to Bosnia, visiting with NATO officials in Munich, Germany, after that 
trip. As a result of this, I have come to a rather disturbing 
conclusion, and that is, I do not think the NATO forces, the United 
States included, have our act together in anything other than a 
military sense.
  As one would expect, our troops are performing magnificently. We 
defined the mission narrowly: Stop the fighting parties from fighting 
with each other. Once the U.S. military moved in, nobody wanted to mess 
with them. Our troops, well trained, well equipped, well motivated, are 
performing just like all of us would expect them to. It really makes 
you proud to see them performing there, in addition, in a rainy, muddy, 
snowy, icy climate far away from home, where there is no clear-cut idea 
why they are there, but they are doing their mission and doing it well.
  They have the fighting forces separated, and I do not think the 
Bosnians or Serbs or Croats are going to mess with either our forces or 
the British or the French forces and the other nations under their 
command.
  What is not happening is that the European countries are not coming 
together to solve the political problems, the economic problems, the 
rebuilding of the infrastructure, the ensuring that the Bosnian Army is 
well enough equipped and armed to defend itself--all of the things that 
need to occur to make this peace treaty really work are being ignored 
by the Europeans. I know that is a harsh statement to make, but in the 
2 days following our trip to Bosnia, a group of six members of the 
United States Senate, as well as Defense Secretary Perry and other 
United States officials, visited with our European allies and 
repeatedly asked the question: Are you going to help fund the economic 
reconstruction of the country, the infrastructure that needs to be 
rebuilt, if are you going to help 

[[Page S1176]]
get the government back on its feet? Will you lend a hand to us in 
arming the Bosnian Government so it can defend itself when we leave?
  Essentially, we got the cold shoulder. They do not want to talk about 
it. It requires money and requires a commitment.
  They want to pat themselves on the back for the military operation 
which is succeeding well and not get to the hard business of making the 
peace work in Bosnia. My concern with going into Bosnia is not that we 
would not be able to succeed militarily, but this is an insufficient 
commitment on the part of the Europeans to follow through and make 
peace work. That is what we have seen.
  This morning's wire, Mr. President, contains a very disturbing story. 
In an ominous sign from the AP wire story, ``Bosnian Serbs followed 
through today on their threat to sever with the NATO-led peace force 
ties because of the government's arrest of two Serb officers at 
suspected war criminals.''
  They lost all top level contact with the Bosnian Serb Army and the 
ground commander said it was the worst crisis in Bosnia since the peace 
took hold 2 months ago.
  ``The commander, Lt. Gen. Sir Michael Walker, characterized the 
development as an ominous sign and direct breach of the Bosnian peace 
accord.''
  At the same time, I note that the Chairman of the United States Joint 
Chiefs of Staff, John Shalikashvili, urged the Bosnian Government to 
immediately release Serbs against whom there is no evidence of 
participating in war crimes.
  Does that mean the two people arrested are being held? Very unclear. 
There is a total lack of cohesion because there has not been an 
agreement by the NATO allied forces of exactly what we are supposed to 
be doing over there, except keeping the warring sides from fighting 
with each other.
  There is an absolute commitment to leave in the year. The Europeans 
say they will leave when we leave. When we are out of Bosnia next 
October, I can only hope that the Europeans have gotten together and 
have made a stronger commitment than they have so far to help rebuild 
that economy and that government and to deal with the war crimes issue 
and the arming of the Bosnian Government so that when we leave all we 
accomplished will not have been for nothing. I especially have 
reference to one U.S. death and other U.S. casualties.
  I want to be able to say, when this is over with, that they did not 
die in vain. I am afraid if we do not get more cooperation from our 
European allies, that we will not be able to say that, and that will be 
a very, very big shame and a blot on the United States as well as our 
European allies.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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