IV 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 1045 

Condemning the genocide and other crimes against the Bosniak community 

perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces at Srebrenica in Bosnia and 

Herzegovina in July 1995. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 13, 2020 

Ms. JOHNSON of Texas (for herself, Mr. ENGEL, and Mr. MCGOVERN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 

Armed Services 

RESOLUTION 

Condemning the genocide and other crimes against the 

Bosniak community perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces 

at Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina in July 1995. 

Whereas, beginning in April 1992, aggression and ethnic 

cleansing perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces supported 

by the military and paramilitary forces from Serbia while 

taking control in the surrounding territory resulted in a 

massive influx of Bosniaks seeking protection in 

Srebrenica and its environs, which the United Nations 

Security Council (UNSC) designated a ‘‘safe area’’ within the Srebrenica enclave in Resolution 819 on April 16, 

1993, under the protection of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR); 


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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 supported by the military and 

paramilitary forces from Serbia deprived the entire population of humanitarian aid and outside communication 

and contact, and effectively reduced the ability of the 

Dutch peacekeeping battalion to 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 

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


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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 in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina under their control, and 

then summarily executed the captives and buried them in 

mass graves; 

Whereas Bosnian Serb forces, hoping to conceal evidence of 

the Srebrenica massacre, subsequently moved corpses 

from initial mass grave sites to many secondary and tertiary sites scattered throughout parts of northeastern 

Bosnia and Herzegovina under their control; 

Whereas the Srebrenica massacre 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 

Slobodan Milosevic and the Yugoslav Government led to 

the displacement of more than 2,000,000 people, more 

than 100,000 killed, and tens of thousands raped, tortured, and abused, including at concentration camps in 

the Prijedor area, with the innocent civilians of Sarajevo 

and other urban centers repeatedly subjected to traumatic shelling and sniper attacks; 

Whereas in addition to being the primary victims in 

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 


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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 UNSC 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 and in Serbia, have indicted and convicted 

more than 1,000 individuals at the highest and additional 

levels of responsibility for grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, violations of the laws or customs of 

war, crimes against humanity, genocide, and complicity 

in genocide associated with the Srebrenica massacre; 

Whereas the ICTY found Radovan Karadzic guilty of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity and found 

Ratko Mladic guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and ultimately sentenced both to life in prison; 

Whereas both the ICTY and the International Court of Justice have ruled that the actions of Bosnian Serb forces 

in Srebrenica in July 1995 constitute genocide; 


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

and House Resolution 310, passed on July 8, 2015, expressed the sense of the House of Representatives that 

the aggression and ethnic cleansing committed by Bosnian Serb forces supported by military and paramilitary 

forces from Serbia in Bosnia and Herzegovina meets the 

terms defining genocide according to the 1949 Genocide 

Convention; 

Whereas the United Nations has acknowledged its failure 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, 

including current Serb member of Bosnia and 

Herzegovina’s three-member presidency, Milorad Dodik, 

who has falsely labelled the Srebrenica genocide a ‘‘fabricated myth’’ and ‘‘the greatest deception of the twentieth century’’, have denied that the massacre at 

Srebrenica constituted a genocide or have sought to otherwise trivialize the extent and importance of the genocide; 

Whereas other prominent Serbian and Bosnian Serb officials 

have denied or refused to acknowledge that the 

Srebrenica massacre constituted a genocide, or have 

sought to trivialize the extent and importance of the massacre by disputing the number and identities of 

Srebrenica’s victims, claiming the existence of an international anti-Serb conspiracy, and disputing definitions 

under the UN Genocide Convention; 

Whereas many in the Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb 

entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and municipalities, institutions, and other authorities within it have honored 


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and glorified war criminals in an effort to rewrite the history of their offenses and instituted school curricula that 

teach students false narratives of Srebrenica or omit it; 

Whereas some nongovernmental organizations in Serbia dedicated to human rights and justice have been instrumental 

in helping to document atrocities which occurred during 

the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as their 

perpetrators, and have worked tirelessly to encourage 

Serbian officials and the public to acknowledge the 

crimes committed by Serb forces during that conflict and 

to support the pursuit of justice regarding those crimes; 

Whereas the community of nations, including the United 

States, that intervened militarily to prevent further aggression and ethnic cleansing as well as to advance negotiation of 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) has continued to provide personnel and resources to help ensure fullest implementation of the 

agreement, as well as to bring reconciliation among all of 

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s citizens; 

Whereas the Office of the High Representative of Bosnia and 

Herzegovina continues to operate through the multination Peace Implementation Council, but with diminished financial and personnel resources and, in its twiceyearly reports to the UNSC, repeated abstentions from 

exercise of its full executive powers; and 

Whereas the United States established the Atrocities Prevention Board, an interagency committee that studied the 

lessons of Srebrenica and issued informed guidance on 

how to prevent similar incidents from recurring in the future, and, in the Congress, passed the Elie Wiesel GenoVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:38 Jul 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR1045.IH HR1045

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cide and Atrocities Prevention Act, under which the 

United States Government reports to Congress its 

progress in such preventative measures: Now, therefore, 

be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) condemns the genocide perpetrated by Serb 

3 forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 

4 1995; 

5 (2) condemns statements, actions, and policies 

6 that deny or question that the massacre at 

7 Srebrenica constituted a genocide and that dishonor 

8 the victims or disrespect their families, and recog9 nizes that entire ethnic groups or communities are 

10 not responsible for the crimes committed by some 

11 members of their forces; 

12 (3) urges the Peace Implementation Council to 

13 restore full funding to the Office of the High Rep14 resentative of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and encour15 ages the High Representative to exercise his full ex16 ecutive powers to ensure that the General Frame17 work Agreement for Peace is implemented fully and 

18 to call for an end to historical revisionism, particu19 larly as it relates to the genocide at Srebrenica; 

20 (4) encourages the United States to maintain 

21 and reaffirm its policy of supporting the sovereignty, 

22 legal continuity, unity, and territorial integrity of 


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1 Bosnia and Herzegovina within its internationally 

2 recognized borders; 

3 (5) reaffirms its strong support for the people 

4 of Bosnia and Herzegovina and their aspirations for 

5 greater democracy, economic prosperity, and success 

6 in Euro-Atlantic and European Integration; 

7 (6) urges the people of Bosnia and 

8 Herzegovina, their elected representatives, and the 

9 international community to place renewed emphasis 

10 on respect for human rights and fundamental free11 doms held by the individual, which should not be 

12 compromised by any collective protections and privi13 leges to a group, ethnically based or otherwise; 

14 (7) encourages the United States to promote 

15 peace and stability in southeastern Europe as a 

16 whole, and the right of all people living in the re17 gion, regardless of national, racial, ethnic, or reli18 gious background, to return to their homes and 

19 enjoy the benefits of democratic institutions, the rule 

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

21 the fate of missing relatives and friends; 

22 (8) recognizes the assistance of the Inter23 national Commission for Missing Persons to Bosnia 

24 and Herzegovina and its relevant institutions in ac25 counting for nearly 90 percent of those reported 


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1 missing after the Srebrenica massacre and approxi2 mately 75 percent of those reported missing during 

3 the whole of the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina; 

4 (9) welcomes the completion of the work of the 

5 International Criminal Tribunal for the former 

6 Yugoslavia, including its convictions and sentencing 

7 of Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic, and 88 other 

8 persons convicted of offenses including war crimes, 

9 crimes against humanity, genocide, grave breaches 

10 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and related of11 fenses, a judicial process that has helped strengthen 

12 peace and encouraged reconciliation between the 

13 countries of the region and their citizens; 

14 (10) remains concerned that ethnic tensions 

15 stoked by political leaders and extreme nationalist 

16 sentiment can deter recovery and reconciliation in 

17 Bosnia and Herzegovina, and even encourage new 

18 violence with potentially deadly consequences; 

19 (11) urges all political leaders in Bosnia and 

20 Herzegovina to cease using divisive rhetoric to stoke 

21 ethnic divisions in order to achieve shortsighted po22 litical gains; 

23 (12) urges all political leaders to demonstrate 

24 courage by championing tolerance, empathy, and 

25 mutual respect for the purpose of fostering lasting 


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1 reconciliation, peace, and prosperity for the people of 

2 Bosnia and Herzegovina; and 

3 (13) recognizes the 8,372 people killed or exe4 cuted at Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 

5 July 1995, along with all individuals who endured 

6 pain and suffering or who were killed in Bosnia and 

7 Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995, as well as foreign 

8 nationals, including United States citizens, and 

9 those individuals in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and 

10 Herzegovina, and other countries of the region who 

11 risked or lost their lives because of their defense of 

12 human rights, fundamental freedoms, and ethnic 

13 identity without discrimination. 

Æ 


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