End The Paralysis and Provide Firm U.S. Leadership

By Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

In decades ahead, historians will speculate about the sequence of events in Yugoslavia that produced declarations of independence by the republics of Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina in the summer and fall of 1991 and their subsequent recognition by the United Nations as sovereign states.

To many observers at the time, these republics had exercised the unassailable right of self-determination, a right made all the more valuable by the fact that Serbia, Yugoslavia's most powerful republic, had fallen into the hands of a ruthless Serb nationalist named Slobodan Milosevic. To others, Yugoslavia's fragmentation was a certain recipe for devastating war.

Whether wiser leadership within—and outside—Yugoslavia might have averted war will remain a question for historical debate. The issue for Western policymakers today is how to respond to the war that came.

For months, in witness to the unfolding tragedy in the former Yugoslavia, Western nations have been paralyzed by:

confusion over their respective responsibilities;
a misperception of the conflict as an ethnic "civil war";
hopes for a risk-free solution through diplomatic mediation; and
what may be termed the "paradox of limited intervention": the fear that further intervention would endanger U.N. "peacekeepers" already on the ground.

On April 15, Britain's former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sought to summon the conscience of the West to accept the imperative of military intervention. Mrs. Thatcher's call to arms reflects not emotionalism, as some labeled it, but clear judgement. In recognizing Bosnia-Herzegovina as a sovereign and independent state, the European community, the United States, and the United Nations implied—and incurred—solemn obligations. Yet, as Serb aggression devoured Bosnia and its innocent citizens, the West has stood idle, its inaction a mockery of the concept of a new world order.

While Serb artillery batteries consummate their systematic slaughter of Bosnians—men, women and children—Western leaders have wrung their hands over the tragic complexities of a so-called civil war. The Bosnian conflict no doubt exhibits aspects of a civil war. But it more precisely constitutes a calculated act of aggression incited and logistically supported by Slobodan Milosevic.

The Milosevic regime has sought rhetorical refuge in the fiction that it has sympathy for, but little control over, the conduct of the Bosnian Serbs. But this fiction—appealing to those who wish to see the conflict as something other than a brutal act of aggression—is dissolved by the fact that the Serbian army itself (the JNA) is now involved in the fighting.

During my trip to Bosnia, U.N. and U.S. military officials revealed their knowledge that JNA artillery units operating from Serbia have fired massive barrages across the border into eastern Bosnia, and that JNA units have crossed into Bosnian territory to accelerate the wanton destruction. JNA artillery units in Bratunac—on Bosnian territory—were integral to the siege and fall of Srebrenica.

The international community can no longer hide behind the excuse that this is a Balkan civil war. The plain facts remove the fig-leaf behind which the West has sought to hide its own confusion and timidity. The bloodbath in Srebrenica—a town whose name may become the Guernica of our era—was an act of international aggression by Serbia itself.

The United States must lead the West in a decisive response to Serbian aggression, beginning with air attacks on Serb artillery everywhere in Bosnia and on Yugoslav National Army units in Serbia that have participated in this international crime. Western forces should destroy every bridge across the Drina River by which Serbian authorities continue to resupply Bosnian Serbs.

These actions require no new decisions by the United Nations. They are justified under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter and by U.N. Resolution 770, passed in 1992 but still not implemented.

From talks with the most informed U.S. military officials, those fully aware of the situation on the ground in Bosnia, I am confident that the effective use of force—to deny the Serbs the victory toward which they are now headed in the face of Western apathy—would not require the introduction of a major Western ground contingent.

The Bosnian army comprises not only Muslims but thousands of Serbs and Croats who remain loyal to the Bosnian government and to the principle of a multiethnic Bosnian republic in which minority rights are honored. Nearly all Bosnian men of military age have experienced conscription and military training, and loyal Bosnians stand motivated and able to fight in their own defense. Every Bosnian I encountered, government official and common citizen alike, was convinced that they could succeed in defending their country if given the means and supported by air strikes against Serb artillery.

If the limited U.N. presence now in Bosnia cannot defend itself against possible retaliation, then the time has come to remove these men and women from harm's way or to reconfigure that force for defensive combat. In my discussions with relief officials throughout Bosnia, and with the government itself, it became clear that Bosnian civilians face a far greater threat of annihilation from Serb military attacks than from a lack of food or medicine. However well intentioned, the presence of U.N. relief personnel and peacekeeping forces, by inhibiting stronger Western action, now constitutesmore an obstacle than a contribution to the humanitarian relief they were deployed to provide.

As we shift from futile half-measures, the principleof collective security and the claims of international conscience must supersede the moral torpor that has governed Western policy until now. Unless the West changes course, Milosevic and the barbarism he orchestrates will continue to operate under the shelter of Neville Chamberlain's umbrella.

Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) is chairman of the Subcommittee on European Affairs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.