[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 6012]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             WAR IN BOSNIA

  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, as we consider the many important issues 
currently before us, I believe it is worthwhile for us also to pause 
and recall past events that remain relevant to our work today.
  As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a long-time 
member and Co-Chairman of the Helsinki Commission, I would like to 
remind my colleagues that it was approximately 20 years ago that the 
conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina began. While seeking to find a peaceful 
path out of the Yugoslavia which was collapsing around it, Bosnia and 
its people instead became chief victims of the clearly senseless 
violence associated with that collapse.
  The ethnic cleansing of villages and the shelling of Sarajevo which 
we first saw in April 1992 were horrific, and little did we know how 
much worse things would get in subsequent months and years. It was in 
July and August of 1992 that we first saw the shocking pictures of the 
detainees in Omarska and other camps run by nationalist, militant 
Serbs, in northeastern Bosnia. The next year, we saw Croat militants 
destroy the famous bridge in Mostar for which the city got its name. In 
1995, we saw Srebrenica before and after the genocide in which 8,000 
people, mostly men and boys, perished.
  While the United States and its friends and allies brought the 
conflict in Bosnia to an end with the Dayton Agreement in 1995, the 
action we took came too late for those who were ethnically cleansed and 
displaced, those who were tortured or raped, and those who were injured 
or killed. It is never too late, however, to provide justice. I am glad 
that people like Slobodan Milosevic, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic 
and all others indicted for war crimes, crimes against humanity and 
genocide were apprehended and transferred to the International Criminal 
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. I am also glad that 
the United States and some other countries persevered to make this 
happen despite the resistance to cooperation and the protection 
afforded these individuals. I want to thank my colleagues who joined me 
in supporting justice in Bosnia as a matter of U.S. policy.
  I think it is important not only to remember the victims and culprits 
of the conflict in Bosnia but also to remember the heroes. There were 
those who opposed extreme nationalism and aggression against neighbors. 
I particularly want to note the small group of human rights advocates 
and democratic forces in Serbia who opposed what Milosevic was doing 
allegedly in their name, even when he appeared to be getting away with 
it. I have met some of these courageous individuals over the years, 
including last July when I visited Belgrade, and they are truly 
inspiring people.
  Today, Bosnia has recovered from the more than 3 years of brutal, 
destructive conflict that started 2 decades ago, and the country 
aspires to join both NATO and the European Union. I believe it is 
important that we support the people of Bosnia and their desires for 
integration by holding firm against the lingering forces of ethnic 
exclusivity, which remain particularly strong in the entity of 
Republika Srpska created by the Dayton Agreement, and at the same time 
encourage practical reforms so that Bosnia can function more 
effectively as a European partner. When one talks to the young people 
that represent Bosnia's future, as several of us have, it is clear they 
do not want to forget the past but they certainly do not want to repeat 
it. They want a future in Europe, and their political leaders need to 
give them that future. I hope the United States, which has invested so 
much in Bosnia thus far, will be there as necessary to help.

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