[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 112 (Friday, July 26, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9003-S9005]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  WAR CRIMES IN THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I rise as in morning business, and 
thank the Chair very much, to say just a few words about an amendment 
to the foreign operations appropriations bill that was adopted earlier 
today, an amendment which I was privileged to offer with a 
distinguished list of colleagues. It was accepted by agreement last 
night without debate, although I did put a statement in the Record at 
that time. It is, I think, an important amendment and statement, a 
sense-of-the-Senate resolution, because it deals with the necessity to 
bring to justice those who have been indicted by the International 
Criminal Tribunal from the former Yugoslavia, which is meeting now in 
The Hague, to bring them to justice because they, as the tribunal has 
said, are perpetrators of gross violations of international law.
  Mr. President, I was stimulated in my desire to say just a few words 
to my colleagues here before we leave for the weekend about this by an 
interview that was in the New York Times this morning with Antonio 
Cassese, an Italian law professor who is the president of the 
International Criminal Tribunal.
  The article begins:

       The Italian law professor who is president of the War 
     Crimes Tribunal here is known for his cheerful nature, his 
     expertise in international law and his even temper. So his 
     public outburst in a quiet hall here the other day was all 
     the more shocking.
       ``Go ahead! Kill, torture, maim! Commit acts of genocide!'' 
     said Antonio Cassese, president of the tribunal, his voice 
     rising, ``You may enjoy impunity!''
       This, he said, was the message that would go ``to military 
     leaders and all dictators'' if the Bosnian Serb leaders 
     indicted for atrocities in the Bosnian war were not brought 
     before the tribunal.

  Mr. President, thanks to my colleagues, the Senate has now spoken 
clearly on this issue. I was honored to be joined by Senators Lugar, 
Biden, Specter, Feinstein, Moynihan, Hatch, Levin, and D'Amato, a 
wonderfully bipartisan group, as cosponsors of this amendment.
  The point is this, as we state in the findings of this resolution: 
The United Nations did create this International Tribunal. A Security 
Council resolution was adopted on May 25, 1993, early in this horrific 
episode, which requires states to cooperate fully with the tribunal. 
The signatories to the Dayton peace accord, signed December 14, 1995, 
have accepted, in article IX of that accord, the obligation ``to 
cooperate in the investigation and prosecution of war crimes and other 
violations of internationally humanitarian law.'' This means all the 
signatories of the accord, including Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, and the 
Republika Srpska.
  In fact, the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was 
accepted as annex 4 to the Dayton peace accord, provides in article IX 
that--

       No person who is serving a sentence imposed by the 
     International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and no 
     person who is under indictment by the tribunal and who has 
     failed to comply with an order to appear before the tribunal, 
     may stand as a candidate or hold any appointive, elective, or 
     other public office in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

  The tribunal has now issued 57 indictments against individuals. It 
continues to investigate gross violations of international laws. 
Specifically, on July 25, 1995, almost 1 year ago to the day, the 
tribunal issued an indictment

[[Page S9004]]

of Radovan Karadzic, President of the Bosnian Serb administration of 
Pale and Ratko Mladic, commander of the Bosnian Serb administration, 
and charged them with genocide, with crimes against humanity.
  This was no opposition politician standing up and making a charge. 
This was an international tribunal which, having heard evidence, 
charged them with genocide, crimes against humanity, violations of the 
law or customs of war and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. All 
of these charges arise from atrocities perpetrated, not against 
soldiers, but against the civilian population throughout Bosnia and 
Herzegovina, as we remember from those painful, frustrating and 
infuriating pictures, and including the taking of U.N. peacekeepers as 
hostages for their use as human shields.

  On November 16, 1995, Karadzic and Mladic were indicted a second time 
by the International Tribunal, this time charged with genocide for the 
killing of up to 6,000 Moslems in Srebrenica, Bosnia, in July 1995.
  The U.N. Security Council, in adopting its own resolution 1022 in 
November of last year, decided that economic sanctions on Yugoslavia 
and Srpska would be reimposed if at any time the High Representative, 
Carl Bildt, or the IFOR commander, soon to be, perhaps already, Admiral 
Lopez, informs the Security Council that either of these two 
Governments, Serbia or the Bosnian Serb Republika Srpska, have failed 
to meet their obligations under the peace agreement.
  The fact is that these two entities have failed to arrest and turn 
over for prosecution indicted war criminals, including Karadzic and 
Mladic. We know where they are, particularly Karadzic. A while ago one 
of these two went to Belgrade for a funeral. Authorities in Serbia knew 
that he was there. Nothing was done to apprehend this indicted war 
criminal.
  Last week, again, in an extraordinary act of public service and 
diplomatic skill, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke convinced Slobodan 
Milosevic, the President of Serbia--for fear of having the reimposition 
of economic sanctions against his country--to use his power to take 
Karadzic out of power, to take him out of the leadership of the Serbian 
Democratic Party, and to remove any chance that he would be a candidate 
for office in the elections.
  It is startling, when you think about it. It is as if at the end of 
the Second World War some leaders of the countries that we fought in 
the Second World War remained in their countries and ran in the first 
postwar elections. It would have so infuriated the public here, 
understandably, that we probably would have done what we are asking 
here, which is to arrest them and bring them to justice.
  But Ambassador Holbrooke did take a step forward. Unfortunately, 
though, these two war criminals remain at large. Just a few weeks ago, 
on July 11, 1996, the International Criminal Tribunal actually issued 
international arrest warrants for Karadzic and Mladic.
  The fact is--and we have heard this from all parties there in Bosnia; 
and it is just common sense as we move forward to the elections there 
on September 14 of this year, which we hope will be the next step in 
rebuilding this country in going back to some form of cooperation among 
the various peoples there--these elections could not go on with any 
credibility were these war criminals at large and, in Karadzic's case, 
actually running a political party, perhaps even at one point thinking 
about running for office himself.
  So now, thanks to Ambassador Holbrooke, we have Karadzic out of 
political office and out of political leadership. But the truth is, he 
should be out of that country. He should be taken to The Hague for 
trial, to be brought to justice.
  That is exactly the intention of the resolution that the Senate has 
now adopted, accepting the principle that the human, but also the 
practical, principle of the apprehension and prosecution of indicted 
war criminals--these two and all others--is essential for peace and 
reconciliation to be achieved and for democracy to be established 
throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  Mr. President, we have sent 20,000 American soldiers to be part of 
the implementation force, the IFOR, that has performed magnificently in 
separating the warring parties and creating a sense of stability. We 
have spent a lot of money in doing that and put some of our finest men 
and women in uniform on the line as part of that process.
  But unless we remove these indicted war criminals, the prospects of 
redeeming the investment of courage and bounty that we have made in 
avoiding broader conflict and ethnic partition in Bosnia will be for 
naught, because the end result, when our troops pull out, will be that 
we will have divided camps again, with no trust, not even the minimal 
elements of trust. So long as these indicted criminals are walking 
around flaunting their freedom, that trust will not be possible, that 
trust that is necessary to rebuild a civil society within Bosnia.
  So this resolution said very clearly, and I am very grateful to my 
colleagues for supporting it, that it is the sense of the Senate that 
the International Criminal Tribunal merits the continued and increased 
U.S. support for its efforts to investigate and bring to justice the 
perpetrators of these gross violations of international law.
  Second, it is the sense of the Senate that the signatories of the 
peace agreement and those nations and organizations participating in 
the Dayton peace agreement and the relevant mandates of the United 
Nations and Security Council must continue to make it an urgent 
priority to bring to justice persons indicted by the International 
Criminal Tribunal.
  Third, it is the sense of the Senate that the President of the United 
States should support the request of the President of the International 
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to reimpose full economic 
sanctions on Serbia and Montenegro and the Republika Srpska in 
accordance with the relevant U.N. Security Council resolution, if 
Serbia and Montenegro and the Bosnian Serb authorities have not 
complied with their obligations under the relevant agreements and 
resolutions to cooperate fully with the International Criminal 
Tribunal.
  Finally, it is the sense of the Senate that all the States in the 
former Yugoslavia should not be admitted to international organizations 
until and unless they have complied with their obligations under the 
Dayton peace agreement and the relevant U.N. Security Council 
resolutions.
  The Senate has said clearly in this resolution now adopted as part of 
the foreign operations appropriations bill that while we take some 
comfort and we have some appreciation for Ambassador Holbrooke for the 
statement that Karadzic has made that he is removing himself from 
politics, this is a small step toward what should be done. We are not 
leaving the field here. We have stated here quite clearly that we will 
not redeem our investment in the end of this war and the reconstruction 
of Bosnia until we settle the moral accounts here, and bring those who 
have been indicted by this very legitimate International Criminal 
Tribunal to justice. Until that happens, we cannot rest. Until that 
happens, there will not be a genuine hope of reconnecting and 
rebuilding this war-torn country.
  Mr. GORTON. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. I am happy to yield to the Senator.
  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I had the privilege of listening to most 
of the remarks of the Senator from Connecticut, and I simply wanted to 
express my agreement with his views and say on this occasion how much I 
admire his dedication to the administration of justice, both here at 
home but, particularly in this connection.
  I can remember even in previous Congresses his frustration, our 
frustration, over the way in which we conducted our relationships with 
Bosnia and the tragedy that has continued there for so many years. His 
position on this resolution, coming through this morning's foreign 
operations appropriations bill I think greatly strengthens it and I 
believe the other Members of the Senate and the people of the country 
owe him a debt of thanks for his dedication to this cause.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Washington very 
much for the very gracious words that mean all the more to me because 
they come from him who I first met in our shared service as attorneys 
general of our respective States.
  The rule of law is the rule of law. It is what separates civilized 
from uncivilized people. It is true not just here for

[[Page S9005]]

us but in countries around the world, and insofar as we fail to bring 
to justice indicted criminals in an international situation like this, 
it is no better than if we failed to bring to justice murderers and 
rapists here in our own communities in the United States. But I mostly 
just thank my friend from Washington for his kind words and also for 
his consistent and very important support of this effort to make sure 
that there is both peace and justice in Bosnia, since without justice 
there will ultimately never be peace.

  I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.

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