[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 59 (Monday, May 9, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4651-S4652]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 134--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING THE 
                  MASSACRE AT SREBRENICA IN JULY 1995

  Mr. SMITH (for himself and Mr. Biden) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 134

       Whereas, in July 1995, thousands of men and boys who had 
     sought safety in the United Nations-designated ``safe area'' 
     of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina under the protection 
     of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) were 
     massacred by Serb forces operating in that country;
       Whereas, beginning in April 1992, aggression and ethnic 
     cleansing perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces, while taking 
     control of the surrounding territory, resulted in a massive 
     influx of Bosniaks seeking protection in Srebrenica and its 
     environs, which the United Nations Security Council 
     designated a ``safe area'' in Security Council Resolution 819 
     on April 16, 1993;
       Whereas the UNPROFOR presence in Srebrenica consisted of a 
     Dutch peacekeeping battalion, with representatives of the 
     United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the 
     International Committee of the Red Cross, and the 
     humanitarian medical aid agency Medecins Sans Frontiers 
     (Doctors Without Borders) helping to provide humanitarian 
     relief to the displaced population living in conditions of 
     massive overcrowding, destitution, and disease;
       Whereas Bosnian Serb forces blockaded the enclave early in 
     1995, depriving the entire population of humanitarian aid and 
     outside communication and contact, and effectively reducing 
     the ability of the Dutch peacekeeping battalion to deter 
     aggression or otherwise respond effectively to a 
     deteriorating situation;
       Whereas, beginning on July 6, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces 
     attacked UNPROFOR outposts, seized control of the isolated 
     enclave, held captured Dutch soldiers hostage and, after 
     skirmishes with local defenders, ultimately took control of 
     the town of Srebrenica on July 11, 1995;
       Whereas an estimated one-third of the population of 
     Srebrenica, including a relatively small number of soldiers, 
     made a desperate attempt to pass through the lines of Bosnian 
     Serb forces to the relative safety of Bosnian-

[[Page S4652]]

     held territory, but many were killed by patrols and ambushes;
       Whereas the remaining population sought protection with the 
     Dutch peacekeeping battalion at its headquarters in the 
     village of Potocari north of Srebrenica but many of these 
     individuals were randomly seized by Bosnian Serb forces to be 
     beaten, raped, or murdered;
       Whereas Bosnian Serb forces deported women, children, and 
     the elderly in buses, held Bosniak males over 16 years of age 
     at collection points and sites in northeastern Bosnia and 
     Herzegovina under their control, and then summarily murdered 
     and buried the captives in mass graves;
       Whereas approximately 20 percent of Srebrenica's total 
     population at the time--at least 7,000 and perhaps thousands 
     more--was murdered;
       Whereas the United Nations and its member states have 
     largely acknowledged their failure to take actions and 
     decisions that could have deterred the assault on Srebrenica 
     and prevented the subsequent massacre, including the lengthy 
     report issued by the Government of the Netherlands on April 
     10, 2002, entitled ``Srebrenica, a `safe' area--
     Reconstruction, background, consequences and analyses of the 
     fall of a safe area'';
       Whereas Bosnian Serb forces, hoping to conceal evidence of 
     the massacre at Srebrenica, subsequently moved corpses from 
     initial mass grave sites to many secondary sites scattered 
     throughout parts of northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina under 
     their control;
       Whereas the massacre at Srebrenica was among the worst of 
     many horrible atrocities to occur in the conflict in Bosnia 
     and Herzegovina from April 1992 to November 1995, during 
     which the policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing pursued 
     by Bosnian Serb forces with the direct support of authorities 
     in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) 
     ultimately led to the displacement of more than 2,000,000 
     people, an estimated 200,000 killed, tens of thousands raped 
     or otherwise tortured and abused, and the innocent civilians 
     of Sarajevo and other urban centers repeatedly subjected to 
     shelling and sniper attacks;
       Whereas Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and 
     Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, done at Paris December 
     9, 1948, and entered into force January 12, 1951, defines 
     genocide as ``any of the following acts committed with intent 
     to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial 
     or religious group, as such: (a) killing members of the 
     group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members 
     of the group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the group 
     conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical 
     destruction in whole or in part; (d) imposing measures 
     intended to prevent births within the group; (e) forcibly 
     transferring children of the group to another group'';
       Whereas, on May 25, 1993, the United Nations Security 
     Council adopted Security Council Resolution 827, establishing 
     the world's first international war crimes tribunal, the 
     International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia 
     (ICTY), based in The Hague, the Netherlands, and charging the 
     ICTY with responsibility for investigating and prosecuting 
     individuals suspected of committing war crimes, genocide, 
     crimes against humanity, and grave breaches of the 1949 
     Geneva Conventions on the territory of the former Yugoslavia 
     since 1991;
       Whereas numerous members of the Bosnian Serb forces and 
     political leaders at various levels of responsibility have 
     been indicted for grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva 
     Conventions, violations of the laws or customs of war, crimes 
     against humanity, genocide, and complicity in genocide 
     associated with the massacre at Srebrenica, some of whom have 
     been tried and sentenced while others, including Radovan 
     Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, remain at large; and
       Whereas the international community, including the United 
     States, has continued to provide personnel and resources, 
     including through direct military intervention, to prevent 
     further aggression and ethnic cleansing, to negotiate and 
     help ensure the full implementation of the General Framework 
     Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, initialled at 
     Dayton, Ohio, November 21, 1995, and done at Paris December 
     14, 1995, including cooperation with the International 
     Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia: Now, therefore, 
     be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) the thousands of innocent people murdered at Srebrenica 
     in Bosnia and Herzegovina in July 1995, along with all 
     individuals who were victimized during the conflict and 
     genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995, should 
     be solemnly remembered and honored;
       (2) the policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing as 
     implemented by Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 
     1992 to 1995 meet the terms defining the crime of genocide in 
     Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment 
     of the Crime of Genocide, done at Paris December 9, 1948, and 
     entered into force January 12, 1951;
       (3) foreign nationals, including United States citizens, 
     who have risked, and in some cases lost, their lives in 
     Bosnia and Herzegovina while working toward peace should be 
     solemnly remembered and honored;
       (4) the United Nations and its member states should accept 
     their share of responsibility for allowing the Srebrenica 
     massacre and genocide to occur in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 
     1992 to 1995 by failing to take sufficient, decisive, and 
     timely action, and the United Nations and its member states 
     should constantly seek to ensure that this failure is not 
     repeated in future crises and conflicts;
       (5) it is in the national interest of the United States 
     that those individuals who are responsible for war crimes, 
     genocide, crimes against humanity, and grave breaches of the 
     1949 Geneva Conventions committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina 
     should be held accountable for their actions;
       (6) all persons indicted by the International Criminal 
     Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) should be 
     apprehended and transferred to The Hague without further 
     delay, and all countries should meet their obligations to 
     cooperate fully with the ICTY at all times; and
       (7) the United States should continue to support--
       (A) the independence and territorial integrity of Bosnia 
     and Herzegovina;
       (B) peace and stability in southeastern Europe as a whole; 
     and
       (C) the right of all people living in southeastern Europe, 
     regardless of national, racial, ethnic or religious 
     background--
       (i) to return to their homes and enjoy the benefits of 
     democratic institutions, the rule of law, and economic 
     opportunity; and
       (ii) to know the fate of missing relatives and friends.
  Mr. SMITH: Mr. President, I rise today to mark a solemn anniversary. 
Ten years ago this July, thousands of Bosnian Muslims sought safety 
from the brutal ethnic cleansing campaign conducted by Bosnian Serb 
forces in the small town of Srebrenica. This was supposed to be a 
``Safe Area,'' a space designated and protected by the United Nations 
as a place of refuge. Instead, it became the site of the worst case of 
genocide in Europe since World War II.
  I am pleased to submit a resolution today, along with my colleague 
Senator Biden, which recognizes this somber anniversary. The resolution 
also reiterates our support for the need to bring to justice those who 
perpetrated this crime against humanity.
  In June 1995, after three years of war, the Bosnian Serbs launched a 
brutal attack against the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica. In what was an 
incomprehensible and fatal error, United Nations Protection Force 
(UNPROFOR) had collected weapons from the Bosnian Muslims in return for 
its designation of Srebrenica as a safe area. This rendered the 
population even more vulnerable to the Bosnian Serb assault.
  The presence of the U.N. soldiers and the confiscation of the 
Muslims' arms was supposed to deter a Bosnian Serb attack by removing 
any semblance of provocation. But the Bosnian Serbs struck anyway and 
the UNPROFOR troops were unable to assist the Muslim population they 
had placed at such disadvantage.
  The Bosnian Serbs easily overtook the city, deporting women, 
children, and the elderly in buses. Bosniak men older than 16 were 
rounded up and held at collection points in northeastern Bosnia. Here 
they were summarily murdered and buried in mass graves.
  At least 7,000 Bosnian Muslims, 20 percent of Srebrenica's total 
population at the time, were murdered. A similar enclave at Zepa, 
allegedly protected by the United Nations force, fell to the Serb 
onslaught two weeks later.
  After learning of the genocide committed by the Nazis during the 
second World War, the world made a promise: We said ``never again.'' 
Yet 50 years later on the European continent, men and boys were 
murdered solely because they were Muslim.
  So as we look back and remember a decade later, we must learn from 
the mistakes that were made at Srebrenica. We should ensure that those 
responsible are held accountable for their actions. We should continue 
to support the independence and territorial integrity of Bosnia and 
Herzegovina and peace and stability in southeastern Europe as a whole. 
We should support the right of all people living in the region, 
regardless of national, racial, ethnic or religious background, to 
return to their homes and enjoy the benefits of democratic 
institutions, the rule of law, and economic opportunity. We should 
encourage all efforts to determine the fate of all those still missing.
  And finally, we should solemnly remember and honor all those that 
were victims of the massacre at Srebrenica.

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