Implementation of the Helsinki Accords

Commissioners present: Dennis DeConcini, Chairman, Hon. Steny H. Hoyer, Co-Chairman, Hon. Edward J. Markey, Hon. Frank McCloskey, Hon. Benjamin L. Cardin, and Hon. Hamilton Fish, Jr.

Also present: Hon. Thomas C. Sawyer, Hon. James Moran, Hon. Charles Wilson, Hon. Louise McIntosh Slaughter, and Hon. Helen Delich Bentley.

Chairman DECONCINI. The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe will come to order. Please sit down, gentlemen. In recent weeks, the tragedy which continues in BosniaHerzegovina has been overshadowed by events here at home, as well as Haiti, Somalia, and Russia. This testifies to the significance of the other events, but it also reflects a tendency to want to ignore longstanding problems.

The problem in the former Yugoslavia confronts us horribly day after day. For more than 2 years now, there is a large gap between what we know needs to be done, on the one hand, and what governments are politically willing to do, on the other. Rather than meet the challenge before it, the world shifts its focus.

This cannot be allowed to happen. People in Sarajevo, in Gorazde, and elsewhere in Bosnia are still being killed by sniper fire and by shelling. People are still being forced to flee, adding to an already tremendous refugee burden as winter approaches.

The effects of aggression and genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina will not disappear by turning off our television sets or turning to the next newspaper page. Not only will thousands more die this winter, resettlement, reconstruction, and reconciliation will take years, perhaps decades to achieve when and if such efforts can be finally undertaken.

Our hearings this morning focus on the fate of the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina. We hope to gain insight into whether they will survive their second winter under siege, whether they want to end the conflict no matter what principles are sacrificed, whether they want to fight on to defend what is theirs, whether they will want to return to their home village or move elsewhere in BosniaHerzegovina or someplace else around the world.

(1)

We have two outstanding witnesses before us this morning who can address this issue. Jose Mendiluce is a former Special Envoy of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in the former Yugoslavia, and currently the UNHCR representative in Brussels. His expertise in refugee matters, his experience in the former Yugoslavia and his personal candor are well know.

Fred Cuny is an expert in disaster relief, who has spent most of 1993 in Bosnia-Herzegovina assisting efforts to keep an infrastructure under attack functioning so that people can survive.

Gentlemen, we welcome you here, and thank you for taking the time to be with us.

I would also like to note the presence in the audience of Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey, the Bosnian representative to the United Nations, who has worked tirelessly to keep that organization and its members aware of the tragic plight of the Bosnian conflict. Co-chairman Hoyer is tied up in some leadership meetings and will be joining us, and I will yield to Mr. McCloskey.

Mr. MCCLOSKEY. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

As you know, given our friendship and experiences together, I continue to appreciate your courageous leadership in this very, very important area.

I think one thing that concerns people who care about this particular issue is that, in recent weeks, developments in Somalia, Haiti, and Russia have, in essence, pushed the suffering, the tragedy, and the devastation of the Bosnian people off the front pages and news reports. In essence, more and more placing them in the continuing danger of continuing to have to accept this terrible, terrible fate.

Just 10 days ago, Conmgressman Charlie Wilson and I were in Sarajevo, and I learned later from New York Times reports that, by current standards, it was a fairly lively day. 150 Serb shells struck the city that day. We could hear them periodically, and we could also hear occasional small arms, semi-automatic, and automatic weapons fire, usually seeming to be a block or two away.

When I talked to President Izetbegovic and Vice President Ganic that day, they noted the slow strangulation going on which, while at a different pace, nevertheless leads to death and devastation.

As we all know, last Saturday and Sunday thousands of shells rained down on Sarajevo-up to 2,000 on Sunday, I understand, Mr. Ganic told me that, on Sunday, 60 to 65 people were seriously wounded or horribly maimed. There were nine deaths in Sarajevo due to Serb gunners up on those hills around the capital. Yet we will hear from our witnesses today that people in various enclaves elsewhere in Bosnia probably have it even worse, particularly nutritionally.

This has to stop. I do not think there are two people who are more expert than Msrs. Cuny and Mendiluce as to the extent of the suffering in Sarajevo and elsewhere and as to what needs to be done. I appreciate their testimony, particularly the concerns from the Bosnian government for a restoration of the natural gas supply. There is currently no fuel, as I am sure we will hear. The water available is minimal, and there are great hopes that somehow UNPROFOR and the West, among other things, would open up the Tuzla airport rather than rely on a relatively small winding road

as the only means this winter to meet the needs of 800,000 to 1,000,000 refugees in that area.

This issue will not go away. It is a matter of strategic, as well as humanitarian, import, and I think the sooner our administration, the Congress, and the West wakes up to that, the better it is going to be for everyone.

So, Mr. Chairman, I thank you.

Chairman DECONCINI. Thank you.
Congressman MARKEY.

Mr. MARKEY. I thank the Senator very much, and thank you for having this hearing today. I think it is very important.

As Somalia and Haiti move this story deeper into the newspaper, in no way is the suffering of the people in this part of the world in any way diminished. The winter is arriving. Food is scarce. Homelessness is prevalent. Inflation is rampant, and the physical and psychological suffering is almost unmeasurable.

So it is absolutely imperative for us to insure that this moral and ethical responsibility, which the United States and the world community has towards this part of the world, not be lost as for the last couple of months the media moves over to a couple of new stories, because without the attention that has to be paid to it, what we are going to see is that the good work that could be done is undermined by neglect.

So we thank you both for your willingness to come here today and helping us to continue to focus on the suffering of the people of all nationalities within the former Yugoslavia.

Chairman DECONCINI. Thank you, Congressman.
Congressman SAWYER.

Mr. SAWYER. Thank you very much, Senator.

Just let me join with my colleagues in thanking you for this opportunity and to our witnesses for the messages they bring to us today.

There is little more that we can say about the sense of horror that we all share with regard to the human suffering. The work of the Helsinki Commission in that regard is signal for all of us.

I think among the most important things that we can come to understand is the suffering that we have trouble even measuring and accounting for. It is not only a symptom of disruption, dislocation, and instability, but is like a virus that has the capacity to spread. In that sense it is one of the large scale, growing, unmeasured, and unmetered human phenomena that is spreading throughout the world today.

We have greater numbers of migrants and refugees than at any time in the last 50 years. The kinds of events that are taking place in Bosnia and throughout the former Yugoslavia are mirrored in so many other places throughout the world, from Liberia to Georgia to countless other places. We have a great deal to learn from what you have to tell us today.

Thank you, Senator.

Chairman DECONCINI. Thank you, Congressman.

Congressman CARDIN.

Mr. CARDIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Let me just underscore an important point in your opening statement. There have been events in the United States that have over

« Предыдущая Продолжить »

Книги

Implementation of the Helsinki Accords: Hearing Before the Commission ..., Том 4