Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson applauded the passage of H.Res. 310, a resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding Srebrenica. As a co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Bosnia, Congresswoman Johnson served as the lead democrat on the resolution that passed by voice vote this afternoon. Congresswoman Johnson released the following statement regarding Srebrenica:
"I believe it is crucial to distinguish the Srebrenica massacres as genocide while honoring the thousands of innocent people who were killed in July twenty years ago. In the early 1990s, following Bosnia and Herzegovina's declaration of national sovereignty, Bosnian Serb forces attacked Eastern Bosnia in order to unify and secure Serb territory. During this struggle for control, those Bosnian Serb forces, also called the Army of Republika Srpska committed crimes of ethnic cleansing of the non-Serb population. Approximately 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were systematically executed in July of 1995.
The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina during this time was a failure on behalf of the international community. In 1999, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan acknowledged that the global community needed to accept responsibility for the ethnic cleansing campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina that killed thousands of unarmed civilians in a town designated as a "safe area."
For many years now, I have called on the United Nations to recognize the Srebrenica genocide. Yesterday, I learned that Russia blocked the latest effort by the United Kingdom to recognize the Srebrenica massacres as a genocide, calling it "not constructive, confrontational, and politically-motivated." I am disappointed that the UN is unable to formally recognize Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.
Although the global community cannot and will not distinguish the Srebrenica massacres as a crime of genocide, I applaud my fellow Bosnia Caucus co-chair, Congressman Chris Smith, for introducing this important resolution. While the UN's hands are tied, I am proud that the United States continues to be Bosnia and Herzegovina's greatest friend and ally."
