IV 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1423 
Observing the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide and expressing 
support for ‘‘Srebrenica Remembrance Day’’ in the United States. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 28, 2010 
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. CARNAHAN, Mr. WOLF, and Mr. 
BAIRD) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Observing the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide 
and expressing support for ‘‘Srebrenica Remembrance 
Day’’ in the United States. 
Whereas July 2010 marks the 15th anniversary of the fall of 
Srebrenica to Bosnian Serb forces operating in Bosnia 
and Herzegovina and the massacre of approximately 
8,000 people who were resident in or who had sought ref-
uge in the United Nations-designated ‘‘safe area’’ of 
Srebrenica; 
Whereas beginning in April 1992, aggression and ethnic 
cleansing perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces, while tak-
ing control of the surrounding territory, resulted in a 
massive influx of Bosniaks seeking protection in 
Srebrenica and its environs, which the United Nations 
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•HRES 1423 IH 
Security Council designated a ‘‘safe area’’ in Resolution 
819 on April 16, 1993; 
Whereas Bosnian Serb forces blockaded the Srebrenica en-
clave early in 1995, depriving the entire population of hu-
manitarian aid and outside communication and contact, 
and effectively reducing the ability of a Dutch peace-
keeping battalion stationed in the enclave to deter ag-
gression or otherwise respond effectively to a deterio-
rating situation; 
Whereas, on July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces seized full 
control of the Srebrenica enclave and proceeded to deport 
women, children, and the elderly in buses, and to hold 
Bosniak males over 16 years of age at collection points 
and sites in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina under 
their control, and then to kill the captives and bury them 
in mass graves; 
Whereas Bosnian Serb forces, attempting to conceal evidence 
of the massacre at Srebrenica, subsequently dismembered 
and moved corpses and parts of corpses from initial mass 
grave sites to many secondary sites scattered throughout 
parts of northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina under 
their control; 
Whereas the massacre at Srebrenica was among the worst of 
many horrible atrocities to occur in the conflict in Bosnia 
and Herzegovina from April 1992 to November 1995, 
during which the policies of aggression and ethnic cleans-
ing, pursued by Bosnian Serb forces with the direct sup-
port of the Serbian regime of Slobodan Milosevic and its 
followers, ultimately led to the displacement of more than 
2,000,000 people, and the killing, raping, and torturing 
of innocent civilians on a massive scale; 
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•HRES 1423 IH 
Whereas Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and 
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (done at Paris on 
December 9, 1948, and entered into force with respect to 
the United States on February 23, 1989) defines geno-
cide 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 an-
other group’’; 
Whereas in 2005, the 10th anniversary year of the fall of 
Srebrenica, the United States Congress, with the passage 
of H. Res. 199 and S. Res. 134 (109th Congress), be-
came the first legislative body to recognize the July 1995 
massacre, as implemented by Serb forces in and near the 
United Nations-designated ‘‘safe area’’ Srebrenica, as a 
genocide under the terms of the Convention on the Pre-
vention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; 
Whereas since the passage of H. Res. 199 and S. Res. 134 
(109th Congress), other legislative bodies have recognized 
the July 1995 massacres in Srebrenica as a genocide 
under the terms of the Convention on the Prevention and 
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, including the Eu-
ropean Parliament; 
Whereas the International Commission on Missing Persons 
continues to use and develop the most advanced DNA 
identity testing to identify victims of the Bosnian Serb 
forces at Srebrenica, as well as those killed in the conflict 
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