‘DO THE RIGHT THING’: LIFT THE IMMORAL, UNWISE AND ILLEGAL BOSNIAN ARMS EMBARGO — NOW!

(Washington, D.C.): Tomorrow, the U.S.
Senate is scheduled to vote on an
historic piece of legislation — S. 2042,
the Dole-Lieberman bill that would end
the U.S. arms embargo against Bosnia and
Hercegovina. Even though moral, strategic
and legal issues are clearly on the side
of the bipartisan sponsors of this
legislation (Sens. Robert Dole [R-KA] and
Joseph Lieberman [D-CT]), the vote is
expected to be very close.

In recent days, the arguments for
lifting the U.N.-imposed arms embargo
have been made by two distinguished
recipients of the Center for Security
Policy’s “Freedom Flame” award
— Lady Margaret Thatcher and Dr. Albert
Wohlstetter. In powerful op.ed. articles
(see attachments) published,
respectively, in the href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=94-D_48at1″>New York
Times and the href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=94-D_48at2″>Wall Street
Journal over the past week, Lady
Thatcher and Dr. Wohlstetter have
addressed the key issues:

• Moral: “The
  U.S. did not bring about such
  horrors as those in Rwanda, but
  the U.S. and the other
  democracies have played a major
  role in bringing on the genocide
  in the Balkans. They have much to
  make up for. Most
  obviously, they have an
  obligation to disavow and erase
  the persistent effects of their
  diplomatic moves that first
  deprived the victims of
  recognition and so the right to
  acquire arms for self-defense.…”
  (Dr. Wohlstetter)
• Strategic:
  “…The credibility
  of our international stance on
  every security issue from nuclear
  nonproliferation to the Middle
  East is now at stake.…Would
  be aggressors are waiting to see
  how we deal with the
  Serbs….Serbia’s ambitions are
  by no means necessarily limited
  to Croatia and
  Bosnia….Bulgaria, Hungary,
  Greece, Albania and Turkey all
  have strong interests that could
  drag them into a new Balkan war
  if Serbian expansion and
  oppression continue
  unchecked.” (Lady Thatcher)
• Legal: “The
  U.S. should now simply declare
  that there is no valid embargo on
  the sovereign nations that are
  the victims of Serbian genocide. That
  declaration would not (as has
  been suggested) even remotely
  endanger the operation of the
  embargo against Iraq.
  The embargo against Iraq applies
  not to its victims but to the
  genocidal invader of
  Kuwait….The embargo resulted
  from the defeat and surrender of
  Iraq. It was a condition of the coalition’s
  ceasing to fire. Unlike the
  embargo against the ex-Yugoslav
  republics, it is embodied in the
  explicit language of a U.N.
  resolution.” (Dr.
  Wohlstetter; emphasis in the
  original).

The Bottom Line

The Center for Security Policy
has long believed that the arms embargo
against Bosnia was immoral, strategically
foolish and unsupportable under
international law. It urges members of
the United States Senate to heed the
counsel of two of the world’s wisest
experts on international security matters
and end this travesty now.