[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 151 (Friday, October 24, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2127-E2128]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ALIJA IZETBEGOVIC

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 24, 2003

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I learned this week of the passing of Alija 
Izetbegovic, formerly the President of Bosnia-Herzegovina. As a former 
Chairman of the Helsinki Commission, I knew President Izetbegovic and 
followed the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina closely and with great 
concern.
  Under Izetbegovic's early leadership in 1990 and 1991, Bosnia-
Herzegovina sought to cope with the disintegration of the former 
Yugoslav federation of which it was a part, a particularly difficult 
task given the republic's very multi-ethnic population which had 
benefitted greatly under that federation. Eventually, Izetbegovic led 
Bosnia-Herzegovina to respond by asserting independent statehood in 
early 1992, an act used immediately as a pretext by the regime of 
Slobodan Milosevic in neighboring Serbia to wage a war of aggression 
and genocide. Seeing the international community take little action to 
stop well-armed Serb militants from seizing more than two-thirds of the 
country, the regime of Franjo Tudjman in Croatia, another neighbor, 
later joined the fray. In the next three years, the ethnic cleansing 
associated with this conflict would cause the forced displacement of 
millions, the death of hundreds of thousands and the rape or torture of 
tens of thousands of innocent people.
  By 1995, the international community was essentially shamed into 
taking more decisive action by atrocities like that which occurred in 
Srebrenica and fresh attacks on civilians in Sarajevo. The 
international community also recognized that not doing so had definite 
implications for the future of post-Cold War Europe. The result was 
NATO intervention and the negotiation of the Dayton Agreement, which 
preserved Bosnia territorial integrity on the one hand but hampered its 
recovery and development by legitimizing internal division on the 
other. Alija Izetbegovic, ethnically a ``Bosniak'' or Muslim Slav, 
retained power, but shared the presidency in a new arrangement with 
Bosnian Serb and Croat counterparts.
  Given these circumstances, it is difficult to assess Izetbegovic's 
legacy. As a dissenter in Tito's Yugoslavia and as a politician during 
the emergence of multi-party politics, Izetbegovic expressed devoutness 
to the Islamic faith and pride in Bosnia's Muslim heritage. The 
conflict, however, denied Izetbegovic the chance to prove his claimed 
desire to respect the religious beliefs of others, to embrace Bosnia's

[[Page E2128]]

cultural diversity and to become part of Europe. While Sarajevo was 
under siege, he correctly asserted that international principles of 
tolerance and respect were as threatened as that city's population. As 
the feckless United Nations and Europe failed to stop the conflict 
quickly, Izetbegovic's Bosnia became increasingly vulnerable to 
militant Islamic infiltration as well as corruption, both of which 
plague the country to this day.
  From his hospital bed in late September, however, Alija Izetbegovic 
was quoted as saying to the media that Bosnia will survive as a state 
if ``Serbs stay Serbs, Croats stay Croats, and [Muslims]stay [Muslims], 
but they also should all be Bosnians . . . Nobody should seek revenge 
but rather justice, because revenge starts a chain of evil that has no 
end,'' adding that people ``should not forget the past but not live in 
it. They should turn toward the future.''
  As I note the passing of Alija Izetbegovic, Mr. Speaker, and we 
express our condolences to his family, friends and supporters, we 
should also recall with equal sadness the troubled times he and the 
people of Bosnia-Herzegovina faced a decade ago.

                          ____________________