IV 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 310 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding Srebrenica. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 12, 2015 

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of 

Texas, Mr. SENSENBRENNER, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. TURNER, Mr. CONNOLLY, 

Mr. WEBER of Texas, Mr. LARSON of Connecticut, Mr. EMMER of Minnesota, Mr. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New York, Mr. CRENSHAW, Mr. 

MCDERMOTT, Mr. ROTHFUS, Mr. RUSH, Mr. ZINKE, Ms. LOFGREN, Mr. 

KINZINGER of Illinois, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. FORTENBERRY, Mr. CLAY, 

Mr. KING of New York, Mr. CICILLINE, Mr. HULTGREN, Mr. QUIGLEY, 

Mr. MARINO, Mr. KEATING, Mr. PERRY, Ms. MENG, and Mr. COOK) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 

Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives 

regarding Srebrenica. 

Whereas July 2015 will mark 20 years since the genocide at 

Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina; 

Whereas beginning in April 1992, aggression and ethnic 

cleansing perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces resulted in 

a massive influx of Bosniaks seeking protection in 

Srebrenica and its environs, which the United Nations 

Security Council designated a ‘‘safe area’’ within the 

Srebrenica enclave in Resolution 819 on April 16, 1993, 


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under the protection of the United Nations Protection 

Force (UNPROFOR); 

Whereas the UNPROFOR presence in Srebrenica consisted 

of a Dutch peacekeeping battalion, with representatives 

of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 

the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the 

humanitarian medical aid agency Medecins Sans 

Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) helping to provide 

humanitarian relief to the displaced population living in 

conditions of massive overcrowding, destitution, and disease; 

Whereas early in 1995, an intensified blockade of the enclave 

by Bosnian Serb forces deprived the entire population of 

humanitarian aid and outside communication and contact, and effectively reduced the ability of the Dutch 

peacekeeping battalion to deter aggression or otherwise 

respond effectively to a deteriorating situation; 

Whereas beginning on July 6, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces attacked UNPROFOR outposts, seized control of the isolated enclave, held captured Dutch soldiers hostage and, 

after skirmishes with local defenders, took control of the 

town of Srebrenica on July 11, 1995; 

Whereas an estimated one-third of the population of 

Srebrenica at the time, including a relatively small number of soldiers, attempted to pass through the lines of 

Bosnian Serb forces to the relative safety of Bosnian-government controlled territory, but many were killed by patrols and ambushes; 

Whereas the remaining population sought protection with the 

Dutch peacekeeping battalion at its headquarters in the 

village of Potocari north of Srebrenica, but many of these 


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individuals were with seeming randomness seized by Bosnian Serb forces to be beaten, raped, or executed; 

Whereas Bosnian Serb forces deported women, children, and 

the elderly in buses, but held over 8,000 primarily 

Bosniak men and boys at collection points and sites in 

northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina under their control, and then summarily executed these captives and 

buried them in mass graves; 

Whereas Bosnian Serb forces, hoping to conceal evidence of 

the massacre at Srebrenica, subsequently moved corpses 

from initial mass grave sites to many secondary sites 

scattered throughout parts of eastern Bosnia and 

Herzegovina under their control; 

Whereas the International Commission for Missing Persons 

(ICMP) deserves recognition for its assistance to the relevant institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina in accounting for close to 90 percent of those individuals reported 

missing from Srebrenica, despite active attempts to conceal evidence of the massacre, through the careful excavation of mass graves sites and subsequent DNA analysis 

which confirmed the true extent of the massacre; 

Whereas the massacre at Srebrenica was among the worst of 

many atrocities to occur in the conflict in Bosnia and 

Herzegovina from April 1992 to November 1995, during 

which the policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing pursued by Bosnian Serb forces with the direct support of 

the Serbian regime of Slobodan Milosevic and its followers ultimately led to the displacement of more than 

2,000,000 people, more than 100,000 killed, tens of thousands raped or otherwise tortured and abused, including 

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peatedly subjected to traumatic shelling and sniper attacks; 

Whereas in addition to being the primary victims at 

Srebrenica, individuals with Bosniak heritage comprise 

the vast majority of the victims during the conflict in 

Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole, especially among the 

civilian population; 

Whereas Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and 

Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as 

‘‘any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or 

religious group, as such: (a) killing members of the 

group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to 

members of the group; (c) deliberately inflicting on the 

group conditions of life calculated to bring about its 

physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) imposing 

measures intended to prevent births within the group; 

and (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group’’; 

Whereas, on May 25, 1993, the United Nations Security 

Council adopted Resolution 827 establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia 

(ICTY), based in The Hague, the Netherlands, and 

charging the ICTY with responsibility for investigating 

and prosecuting individuals suspected of committing war 

crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and grave 

breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions on the territory 

of the former Yugoslavia since 1991; 

Whereas the ICTY, along with courts in Bosnia and 

Herzegovina as well as in Serbia, have indicted and in 

most cases convicted approximately three dozen individuals at various levels of responsibility for grave breaches 


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of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, violations of the laws 

or customs of war, crimes against humanity, genocide, 

and complicity in genocide associated with the massacre 

at Srebrenica, most notably Radovan Karadzic and Ratko 

Mladic whose trials are ongoing; 

Whereas both the ICTY and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have ruled that the actions of Bosnian Serb 

forces in Srebrenica in July 1995 constitute genocide; 

Whereas House Resolution 199, passed on June 27, 2005, 

expressed the sense of the House of Representatives that 

the aggression and ethnic cleansing committed by Serb 

forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina meets the terms defining genocide according to the 1949 Genocide Convention; 

Whereas the United Nations has largely acknowledged its 

failure to fulfill its responsibility to take actions and 

make decisions that could have deterred the assault on 

Srebrenica and prevented the subsequent genocide from 

occurring; 

Whereas some prominent Serbian and Bosnian Serb officials, 

among others, have denied or at least refused to acknowledge that the massacre at Srebrenica constituted a genocide, or have sought otherwise to trivialize the extent and 

importance of the massacre; and 

Whereas the international community, including the United 

States, has continued to provide personnel and resources, 

including through direct military intervention, to prevent 

further aggression and ethnic cleansing, to negotiate the 

General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and 

Herzegovina (initialed in Dayton, Ohio, on November 21, 

1995, and signed in Paris on December 14, 1995), and 

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operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for 

the former Yugoslavia as well as reconciliation among all 

of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s citizens: Now, therefore, be 

it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) affirms that the policies of aggression and 

3 ethnic cleansing as implemented by Serb forces in 

4 Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995 meet 

5 the terms defining the crime of genocide in Article 

6 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punish7 ment of the Crime of Genocide; 

8 (2) condemns statements that deny or question 

9 that the massacre at Srebrenica constituted a geno10 cide; 

11 (3) urges the Atrocities Prevention Board, a 

12 United States interagency committee established by 

13 the Administration in 2012, to study the lessons of 

14 Srebrenica and issue informed guidance on how to 

15 prevent similar incidents from recurring in the fu16 ture, paying particular regard to troubled countries 

17 including but not limited to Syria, the Central Afri18 can Republic and Burundi; 

19 (4) encourages the United States to maintain 

20 and reaffirm its policy of supporting the independ21 ence and territorial integrity of Bosnia and 

22 Herzegovina, peace and stability in southeastern EuVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:37 Jun 12, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR310.IH HR310

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1 rope as a whole, and the right of all people living in 

2 the region, regardless of national, racial, ethnic or 

3 religious background, to return to their homes and 

4 enjoy the benefits of democratic institutions, the rule 

5 of law, and economic opportunity, as well as to know 

6 the fate of missing relatives and friends; 

7 (5) recognizes the achievement of the Inter8 national Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) in 

9 accounting for those missing in conflicts or natural 

10 disasters around the world and believes that the 

11 ICMP deserves justified recognition for its assist12 ance to Bosnia and Herzegovina and its relevant in13 stitutions in accounting for approximately ninety 

14 percent of those reported missing after the 

15 Srebrenica massacre and seventy percent of those re16 ported missing during the whole of the conflict in 

17 Bosnia and Herzegovina; 

18 (6) welcomes the arrest and transfer to the 

19 International Criminal Tribunal for the former 

20 Yugoslavia (ICTY) of all persons indicted for war 

21 crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and grave 

22 breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, particu23 larly those of Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, 

24 which has helped strengthen peace and encouraged 


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1 reconciliation between the countries of the region 

2 and their citizens; 

3 (7) asserts that it is in the national interest of 

4 the United States that those individuals who are re5 sponsible for these crimes and breaches should con6 tinue to be held accountable for their actions, and 

7 that the work of the ICTY therefore warrants con8 tinued support until all trials and appeals have been 

9 completed; and 

10 (8) honors the thousands of innocent people 

11 killed or executed at Srebrenica in Bosnia and 

12 Herzegovina in July 1995, along with all individuals 

13 who were victimized during the conflict and genocide 

14 in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995, as 

15 well as foreign nationals, including United States 

16 citizens, and those individuals in Serbia, Bosnia and 

17 Herzegovina, and other countries of the region who 

18 risked and in some cases lost their lives during their 

19 brave defense of human rights and fundamental 

20 freedoms, and advocacy of respect for ethnic identity 

21 without discrimination. 

Æ 


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