Steny Hoyer: “I rise with a combination of deep sorrow and great anger. Numerous times on the floor of this House I have risen and…”

“I rise with a combination of deep sorrow and great anger. Numerous times on the floor of this House I have risen and talked about war crimes in Bosnia. I have talked about Slobodan Milosevic branded by the State Department under George Bush as a war criminal. I have talked about the necessity of us confronting Slobodan Milosevic, not the Serbian people, but the leader of the Serbian Government, confronting him in a way that he clearly understood the West was serious; that the West would not tolerate genocide in Europe. Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, in Bosnia, as all of us know, some 250,000 people lost their lives, over 2 million refugees were created by ethnic cleansing--the greatest tragedy in Europe since the Second World War. Mr. Speaker, tragically, when dictators and despots are not confronted effectively, the lesson of history is that they repeat their atrocities. Just the other day we saw such atrocities committed. When Ambassador Walker called it genocide, which truly it was, a crime against humanity--people lying on the ground, children, women shot at close range, in their faces and in the backs their heads--Slobodan Milosevic told Ambassador Walker to 'Get out of my country'.”