[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 199 Engrossed in House (EH)]
In the House of Representatives, U.S.,
June 27, 2005.
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 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 Frontieres (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-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 executed;
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 executed 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 either executed or
killed;
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;
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 the Serbian regime of Slobodan Milosevic and its followers 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 on December 9, 1948, and entered into
force with respect to the United States on February 23, 1989) 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; and (e) forcibly transferring
children of the group to another group'';
Whereas on May 25, 1993, the United Nations Security Council adopted 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 nineteen individuals at various levels of responsibility have been
indicted, and in some cases convicted, 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, three of whom, most notably 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 the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and
Herzegovina (initialed in Dayton, Ohio, on November 21, 1995, and signed
in Paris on December 14, 1995), and to help ensure its fullest
implementation, including cooperation with the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that--
(1) the thousands of innocent people executed 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;
(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 the independence
and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, peace and stability
in southeastern Europe as a whole, and 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, as
well as to know the fate of missing relatives and friends.
Attest:
Clerk.