Rick Lazio: “I rise today to state support on a matter of utmost importance: lifting the arms embargo against the Bosnian Government.…”

“I rise today to state support on a matter of utmost importance: lifting the arms embargo against the Bosnian Government. The United States Government must take the morally correct position and unilaterally lift the arms embargo immediately. We simply cannot continue to look the other way as the horrors of genocide continue. On September 25, 1991, the United Nations Security Council imposed an international arms embargo against the former Yugoslavia which was intended to cut off the supply of arms to all parties involved in the conflict. Yet, despite this embargo, the violence and bloodshed continues. The Bosnian Serbs already have heavy weapons. The embargo, which United States forces have helped enforce, has done nothing but deprive the Bosnian Moslems of their inherent right to defend themselves and their families. International bureaucrats should not be making decisions about which weapons the Bosnian people may use to defend themselves. For too long we have stood idly by as incidents of ethnic-cleansing, systematic rape and murder, and attacks on civilian targets continue. Yet there is no end in sight unless we unequivocally stand and demonstrate that this moral outrage is absolutely unacceptable. I do not advocate the use of United States ground troops in this conflict. The Bosnian Government has not asked for that kind of help.”