[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 24 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 24

 Urging the criminal prosecution of persons committing crimes against 
humanity, including participation in mass rapes, in Bosnia-Herzegovina.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

             January 21 (legislative day, January 5), 1993

 Mr. Danforth (for himself and Mrs. Kassebaum) submitted the following 
  resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Urging the criminal prosecution of persons committing crimes against 
humanity, including participation in mass rapes, in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Whereas mass rapes of Bosnian women at the hands of the Serbs is now taking 
        place in the former Yugoslavia;
Whereas the United Nations Security Council cited ``massive, organized and 
        systematic detention and rape'' when it unanimously voted to condemn 
        ``atrocities committed against women, particularly Muslim women, in 
        Bosnia and Herzegovina'' on December 18, 1992;
Whereas this behavior comports with the Serbian policy of ``ethnic cleansing'', 
        the most sadistic and genocidal violence to infect Europe since World 
        War II;
Whereas rape, humiliation, starvation and murder have been inflicted on Muslim 
        girls as young as seven years old;
Whereas the press reports the existence of Serbian ``rape camps'' in Bosnia with 
        up to 100 prisoners;
Whereas the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal (IMT) held that, for 
        purposes of international criminal law, the individual is a subject of 
        international law;
Whereas the IMT also held that ``international law imposes duties and 
        liabilities upon individuals as well as upon states  .  .  .  '';
Whereas the 1907 Hague regulations, the 1929 Geneva Convention, and the Genocide 
        Convention establish crimes against humanity as punishable international 
        crimes whether or not committed in execution of a crime against peace or 
        a war crime; and
Whereas the 1949 Geneva Conventions and subsequent protocols designate certain 
        aggravated breaches as universal and extraditable offenses within the 
        criminal jurisdiction of each contracting party: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate hereby--
            (1) declares its desire that criminal proceedings, under 
        the principle of universality, be brought against all persons 
        suspected of responsibility for war crimes and crimes against 
        humanity, including mass rape, in Bosnia; and
            (2) calls on all parties to the applicable international 
        conventions--
                    (A) to identify alleged offenders of crimes against 
                humanity, including mass rape, in Bosnia; and
                    (B)(i) to submit such offenders for prosecution 
                before its own courts; or
                    (ii) to extradite them to another contracting party 
                or an international tribunal, if the requesting party 
                has jurisdiction and sufficient grounds for 
                prosecution.

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