Bosnia-Plenum

For nearly three years the NJCRAC has been actively opposed to the blatant Serbian aggression in Bosnia. Since the brutal war began some 200,000 Bosnians have been killed, and over a million have been forced from their homes. For two years Serb forces have been bombarding Bosnian cities, including areas designated by the United Nations as safe havens. The situation in Bosnia is difficult, complicated and confusing, yet it is clear that ethnic cleansing and systematic rape and forced relocations must be stopped once and for all.

It is equally clear that the international community has been slow to implement any concrete actions that could possibly bring an end to the carnage and suffering. The arms embargo, originally designed to minimize the conflict, has left a sorely underequipped Bosnia-Herzegovina at the mercy of larger and much better equipped Serbian forces. United Nations designated “safe areas” have provided little refuge for Bosnians. Shelling has continued and UN peacekeeping forces often have been obstructed in their efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to these areas.

The NJCRAC calls upon the United States government to take action to end the brutality.

• The discriminatory arms embargo on Bosnia-Herzegovina should be lifted so that Bosnia may properly defend itself, a right of every independent nation.

• In response to indiscriminate infliction of civilian causalities and “ethnic cleansing”, the United States should not exclude the option of tactical and strategic bombing.

• The current sanctions against Serbia should be maintained as long as aggression by Serbians in Bosnia-Herzegovina continues.

• The United States should more energetically support the initiation of war crimes tribunals against those who ordered and implemented atrocities such as mass rapes and summary executions, and who promoted conditions of starvation in concentration camps as well as other cruelties as parts of the Serbian “ethnic cleansing.”

• The United States should ensure that humanitarian aid to Bosnia is continued as needed.

• The United States should ensure that any new negotiations provide for a just peace and the preservation of a democratic, viable, multi-ethnic Bosnia-Herzegovina. 

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