Herbert Pell: “in January, the Senate voted to adopt a sense-of-the-Senate amendment to the State Department authorization bill calling…”

“in January, the Senate voted to adopt a sense-of-the-Senate amendment to the State Department authorization bill calling on the President to lift the United States arms embargo against Bosnia. I was one of a few Members who voted against that provision, and I continue to hold to that position today as we consider a bill that actually directs the President to lift the arms embargo unilaterally. I listened to a great deal of the debate that occurred 2 weeks ago when Senators Dole and Lieberman originally offered this legislation and, in fact, found many of the arguments in favor of lifting the arms embargo to be quite compelling. I heard gripping testimony--including the messages that Senator Dole read from Bosnia's leaders--providing further evidence that the current situation is unjust. Clearly, the people of Bosnia are suffering greatly, and Bosnian Government forces are outgunned by the Bosnian Serb aggressors, as we saw most recently in Gorazde. Although the NATO ultimatum of April 22 appears to have relieved the Serb bombing of Gorazde, regrettably, in other parts of Bosnia, the reckless violence against civilians continues. First, it would put the United States in the position of abrogating a U.N. Security Council resolution, and in essence, breaking international law.”