[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 47 (Tuesday, April 19, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E685-E686]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         THE SREBRENICA MASSACRE OF 1995, HOUSE RESOLUTION 199

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 19, 2005

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join our colleague and 
Chairman of the Helsinki Commission, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, in 
cosponsoring House Resolution 199, regarding the 1995 massacre at 
Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina.
  For us, the congressional debates regarding the nature of the Bosnian 
conflict and what the United States and the rest of the international 
community should do about it are increasingly part of history. Now 
focused on other challenges around the globe, it is easy to forget the 
prominence of not only Bosnia, but the Balkans as a whole, on our 
foreign policy agenda.
  It would be a mistake, however, to ignore the reality of Srebrenica 
ten years later to those who were there and experienced the horror of 
having sons, husbands, fathers taken away never to be seen again. Their 
loss is made greater by the failure to apprehend and transfer to The 
Hague for trial people like Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic who were 
responsible for orchestrating and implementing the policies of ethnic 
cleansing.
  Following the Srebrenica massacre, the United States ultimately did 
the right thing by taking the lead in stopping the bloodshed and in 
facilitating the negotiation of the Dayton Agreement, the tenth 
anniversary of which will likely be commemorated this November. Thanks 
in large measure to the persistence of the U.S. Congress and despite 
the resistance of some authorities particularly in Belgrade and Banja 
Luka, cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the 
former Yugoslavia remains a necessary precondition for improved 
bilateral ties and integration into NATO and the European Union. 
Meanwhile, the United States and many other countries have contributed 
significant resources, including money and personnel, to the region's 
post-conflict recovery.
  It is therefore appropriate that we, as the leaders of the Helsinki 
Commission, introduce and hopefully pass this resolution on Srebrenica 
ten years later, not only to join with those who continue to mourn and 
seek closure, but also to understand why we have done what we have done 
since then, and, more importantly, to learn the lesson of failing to 
stand up to those in the world who are willing to slaughter thousands 
of innocent people. The atrocities committed in and around Srebrenica 
in July 1995, after all, were allowed to happen in what the United 
Nations Security Council itself designated as a ``safe area.''
  In confirming the indictments of Mladic and Karadzic, a judge from 
the international tribunal reviewed the evidence submitted by the 
prosecutor. His comments were included in the United Nations Secretary 
General's own report of the fall of Srebrenica, which described the 
UN's own responsibility for that tragedy. Let me repeat them here:

       After Srebrenica fell to besieging Serbian forces in July 
     1995, a truly terrible massacre of the Muslim population 
     appears to have taken place. The evidence tendered by the 
     Prosecutor describes scenes of unimaginable savagery: 
     thousands of men executed and buried in mass graves, hundreds 
     of men buried alive, men and women mutilated and slaughtered, 
     children killed before their mothers' eyes . . . .These are 
     truly scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of 
     history.

  Regardless of one's views of the Yugoslav conflicts--who started the 
conflicts, why, and what our response should have been--there is no 
denying that what happened to the people of Srebrenica was a crime for 
which there are no reasonable explanations, no mitigating 
circumstances, no question of what happened. As a result, it is 
inconceivable to me that anybody can defend Radovan Karadzic or Ratko 
Mladic, let alone protect them from arrest.
  There should also be no mistake, Mr. Speaker, that Srebrenica was 
only the worst of many incidents which took place in Bosnia and 
Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995. Like the

[[Page E686]]

shelling of Sarajevo and the camp prisoners at Omarska, the July 1995 
events in Srebrenica were part of a larger campaign to destroy a multi-
ethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina, which manifested itself in atrocities in 
towns and villages across the country. It does, indeed, meet the 
definition of genocide.
  I hope, Mr. Speaker, that the House will express its views regarding 
this massacre, which may fade in our memories but is all too recent and 
real to those who witnessed it and survived. Joining them in marking 
this event 10 years ago may help them to move forward, just as we want 
southeastern Europe as a whole to move forward. I call on my colleagues 
to support this resolution.

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