[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 171 (Thursday, November 19, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1664]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       MARKING 20 YEARS SINCE THE SIGNING OF THE DAYTON AGREEMENT

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                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 19, 2015

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, November 21 will mark the 20th 
anniversary of the Dayton Agreement, which ended the conflict in 
Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995.
  As a member and later Chairman of the Helsinki Commission, I remember 
those events vividly--many Bosnians and Serbs testified before the 
Helsinki Commission in the 1990s (including victims of human rights 
abuses and human rights defenders) and some have since played leading 
roles as elected officials. In 1991, Frank Wolf and I visited Vukovar 
in neighboring Croatia while it was still under siege. With a group of 
other Helsinki Commissioners and Members of Congress, I urged a 
decisive international response under U.S. leadership from the very 
beginning of the war. In 1995 we spearheaded a movement to lift the 
arms embargo on Bosnia, so that it would not present such an inviting 
target to Serb militias. Sadly the embargo was lifted too late for the 
Bosniaks in Srebrenica.
  Just last month I met with a group of young Bosniaks belonging to 
Voices of the Bosnian Genocide. It was so moving to meet with these 
young people--many of them were from Srebrenica--and to learn how many 
of them had taken up work or study that sought to bring some good out 
of the horrors of 1995. Many studied human rights law, or conflict 
resolution, or medicine.
  Their lives were shaped not only by Srebrenica but also by Dayton, 
which brought an end to the killing. Yet as public officials we have a 
responsibility to remember that robust action earlier in the conflict 
could have saved many more lives and produced better prospects for the 
future.
  Twenty years later, this Dayton anniversary offers the opportunity to 
assess what has been achieved in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The agreement 
should rightly be remembered for restoring a peace that has held to 
this day, and for ensuring the sovereignty, unity and territorial 
integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Dayton gave the country time to begin 
to heal from a horrific conflict infamous for ethnic cleansing and 
atrocities against innocent civilians, including the genocide at 
Srebrenica--which we remembered with the unanimous passage of House 
Resolution 310 this past July--as well as the shelling of Sarajevo and 
other urban centers, and the rape and death camps established by Serb 
militant forces at the beginning of their aggression. In this small 
country, over two million were displaced by the conflict, more than 
100,000 were killed, and tens of thousands were raped or tortured. 
Scars made by crimes of this scale still remain.
  Dayton was a central part of an effort that helped the international 
community transition from a world divided between East and West in 
order to meeting post-Cold War challenges, including the extreme and 
violent nationalism and its inherent hatred for others which manifested 
itself elsewhere in the Balkans and Europe. For the first time since 
World War II, an international tribunal was established to hold persons 
accountable for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. 
Determining the fate of missing persons, using new technology such as 
satellite photography to locate mass graves and DNA testing to identify 
remains, became a priority. The NATO Alliance, previously confined to 
the borders of its member states, expanded its security role to operate 
``out of area,'' first to restore peace and then to keep it. The 
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe also evolved to 
include significant field operations and new mandates ranging from 
election observation to police training. These developments remain 
relevant today.
  As we commemorate the accomplishments of Dayton, Mr. Speaker, we also 
must remember that the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina must live in its 
wake. It is my hope that, at the 30th anniversary of the end of the 
conflict, Bosnia will have made more progress and we will have more to 
celebrate.

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