[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 17400]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    REMEMBERING THE U.N. SAFE HAVEN OF ZEPA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BRUCE L. BRALEY

                                of iowa

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 29, 2008

  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. Madam Speaker, last Friday, July 25, marked the 
13th anniversary of the 1995 fall of Zepa, a United Nations-declared 
``safe haven'' in eastern Bosnia, to the Army of Republika Srpska. I 
rise to commemorate the fall of Zepa today on behalf of the thousands 
of Bosnian Americans who live in my District, the First District of 
Iowa. -
   Zepa was a village in eastern Bosnia declared a ``safe haven'' in a 
May 1993 U.N. Security Council Resolution. This declaration was 
supposed to guarantee the safety of its population, but the siege of 
Zepa began in the summer of 1992 and lasted until the fall of the 
enclave in July 1995. Throughout this period, the population suffered 
from continuous shelling and starvation, and many Zepa residents and 
refugees from surrounding areas perished during the siege. After the 
fall of Zepa, an unknown number of Bosniak males were taken away never 
to be seen again, including the commander of the defense of Zepa, Avdo 
Palic. Thousands of others were victims of ``ethnic cleansing.''
   This 13th anniversary took place during the same week as the arrest 
of Radovan Karadzic, indicted on charges of genocide and other crimes 
by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague. I believe that at this 
time it's very important to remember the tragedy that befell Zepa, and 
the lives that were lost there. It's also important that we support the 
efforts of the families of the missing to learn the fate of their loved 
ones, and the families of those missing and killed in their search for 
justice. It is only with truth, justice, reconciliation, and democratic 
governance that a stable and prosperous Bosnia can be built.

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