On the recordJanuary 27, 1994
I rise as a cosponsor of the Republican leader's bipartisan measure, and I would like to echo his theme, which is to say that it is not too late. It is possible, I know, to have reached the contrary judgment. It is possible, that when CNN broadcast a mortar shell killing 6 children playing with sleds, that one just moved to another channel. It is possible, I suppose, to ignore the account in this morning's press that regular Serbian Army units are operating in Bosnia. It is possible to assume that nothing having been done, nothing will be done. But I say, as Senator Dole has said: it is not too late. What is at issue is far too important to let go by. The resolution speaks to Article 51 of the United Nations Charter which guarantees the right of self-defense. What we have allowed to happen so far is indefensible. We have suborned violations of international law. In the first instance by standing by while the Serbian Army invaded Bosnia. And then compounding that violation of the Charter by denying the Bosnian Government the means of self-defense. We have helped create a caricature of what the United Nations was meant to be. Can we ever imagine that that Charter, which grew out of the invasion of nations around the world by Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, imperial Japan and by such like nations, would permit this? It says that the one absolute rule of international law is that armies will not cross borders, armies will not invade and partition other nations.
