Louise Slaughter: “the debate that should have taken place about 2 years ago at the end of the cold war was what was the United Nations…”

“the debate that should have taken place about 2 years ago at the end of the cold war was what was the United Nations going to be? We have sent in again to this conflagration in former Yugoslavia people dressed in suits and blue helmets and we have watched as they have been totally ineffective. Imagine what it was like for them to have been escorting the Vice President of Bosnia to the airport, in a United Nations carrier which was stopped on the street, the back door opened and the man shot to death in front of them. Time after time we have watched convoys of food and medical supplies be turned back because the Serbs would not let them go on where they were needed. I received a letter myself from a surgeon in a Sarajevo Serbian hospital, ``Please tell your President we are operating in the dark, in the cold. We have no ability to sterilize the instruments, we have no antiseptic, no antibiotics. We are using hacksaws to cut off limbs.'' While we have watched this for 3 years one side has been pounding the other, the other side being unarmed by U.N. decree. The President of Bosnia was here not long ago, he looked us all right in the eye and he said, ``Whether you like it or not, America, you have the moral imperative. You have always stood for that, you have always said you have it and now it is time for you to use it. You cannot get away from it and you cannot escape it.''”