Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Thank you, Mr. President. I thank the distinguished Senator from Virginia.

Mr. President, I rise today to indicate my intention to vote for the Dole-Lieberman resolution. I want to state what my intent is, and what it is solely. My intent is solely to allow an afflicted people to defend themselves. Last week I stated that I had hoped that a specific course of action would result from last weekend's meetings in London. The actions taken, unfortunately, are limited to one enclave, Gorazde. They are not well defined, and as we have seen, the shelling of Gorazde has been ongoing since last weekend.

Also, last week I spoke about the devastating photograph of a young Bosnian woman who decided she could not go on and hung herself from a tree. This anonymous image spoke eloquently to me of the desperation facing the Bosnian people as they endure rape, torture, summary execution, and a litany of war crimes. However, no one knew who this woman was, and to this day we still do not. But now at least we have an idea of what might have driven her to take her own life.

According to one witness, a young mother tried in vain to trade her life for her 12-year-old twin boys who were taken from her and had their throats slit by the Invading Serbs at Srebrenica. Later the mother tied a scarf to a tree limb and hung herself. Was this young mother the woman in the photograph? We may never know. But this story tells us all we need to know about what drives a person to such an extreme.

As the stories of the Srebrenica survivors have emerged, the picture of the suffering endured by the refugees and the atrocities committed by the attackers has become increasingly clear. I want to lay some of these out because in recent days news reports and other sources have revealed the true extent of the horror. Here are just a few examples.

On July 17, the New York Times reported several accounts of atrocities related by refugees. Two,women, Hava Muratovic and Hanifa Masanovic, told nearly identical stories of Serb soldiers dressed in uniforms of U.N. soldiers, breaking into a factory where some refugees were staying and hauling away a group of teenage boys.

According to Mrs. Muratovic: "The next morning I saw a pile of bodies next to the water fountain. There were about ten of them, all with their throats cut. There was a tree next to the fountain. and two other bodies were hanging from the branches."

Another woman, Sveda Porobic, told of three apparent rapes. In another factory where refugees were gathered, Bosnian Serb soldiers, dressed as U.N. peacekeepers, no less, came through the factory and dragged away two girls, ages 12 and 14, and a 23-year-old woman. After several hours, the three returned. They were crying, naked and bleeding, covered with scratches and bruises. One said, very simply, "We are not girls anymore."

On July 16 the Washington Post reported that a teenage girl found a stack of bodies of young men behind a factory. They had been shot with their hands tied behind their backs. Near the same factory, two other teenagers witnessed 20 men gunned down by a Serb firing squad.

Three days later, on July 19, just last week, USA Today quoted a Bosnian refugee, Zarfa Turkovic, who said she witnessed a brutal gang rape at the U.N. camp in Potocari, where refugees had gathered. She said that four Serb soldiers grabbed a young woman from among the sleeping refugees. "Two took her legs and raised them up in the air," Turkovic said, while the third began raping her. People were silent. No one moved. She was screaming and yelling, begging them to stop." The rapists stuffed a rag in her mouth and continued raping her.

Since the day that Srebrenica fell, the U.N. High Commission for Refugees has been caring for Bosnian refugees fleeing the Berb armies. In Tuzla, UNHCR has been responsible for providing food and shelter to thousands of refugees in the last week and a half.

On July 18, the U.N. High Commission for Refugees released a report describing the experiences of a number of refugees, based on interviews with those who arrived in Tuzla. I would like to relate a few of the most disturbing examples.

A 60-year-old man and his wife described how the bus that was carrying them to Tuzla was stopped by Serb soldiers. The soldiers took four young women off the bus and into the woods. An hour later, three of the women emerged from the woods. The fourth woman appeared later in the town of Kladanj, naked, with only a blanket wrapped around her.

Buses were stopped by Serb soldiers a number of times along the road to Kladanl. Men, and boys over age 12 were taken away, along with many young women. Most have not been seen since. Most alarmingly, a group of refugees fleeing Srebrenica on foot through the woods encountered a group of Serb soldiers wearing the uniforms and blue helmets of UNPROFOR troops and using U.N. vehicles. One Serb soldier called out on a megaphone for the Bosnians to come out of the woods. Between 20 and 30 Boanians, mostly women and children, emerged from hiding. The Serb soldiers lined them up on the road, and opened fire with machine guns, killing them all.

None of these reports has been independently confirmed, but based on the facts available, these stories are compelling, believable, and consistent with documented Serb behavior. There have also been many instances of refugees telling identical stories independently.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the entire text of the UNHCR report be printed in the RECORD at the conclusion of my remarks.

The PRESEDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. (See exhibit 1.)

Mrs. FEINSTEIN. In recent days, we have seen more substantiated reports of atrocities. Dutch peacekeepers present in Srebrenica have reported witnessing sunmmary executions of Bosnian soldiers. The U,N. human rights envoy told reporters that "what happened (in Srebrenica) cannot be described as moderate violations of human rights, but as extremely serious violations on an enormous scale."

Yesterday, the Bosnian Foreign Minister called me from Zagreb. He told me that as many as 10,000 people are still missing from Srebrenica, and that of the 6,000 Bosnian men and boys held hostage in a stadium in Bratunac, north of Srebrenica, as many as 1,600 have been executed....

Most startlingly, he indicated that last Monday, the Bosnian President offered to peacefully evacuate Zepa. This offer was turned down by General Mladic. I believe we know the reason.

If the evacuation had taken place peacefully and under U.N. supervision, it would have deprived the Serbs of the opportunity to detain and kill all the men of fighting age, and the opportunity to rape, torture, and humiliate defenseless refugees.

To me, It is unfathomable that crimes like these can be perpetrated in 1995, 50 years after the liberation of Auschwitz. The names Karadzic and Mladic will go down in history with the greatest villains of our time. They have led a regime that sanctions, promotes, and encourages its soldiers to murder, torture, rape, and humiliate innocent Bosnian civilians. They are evil.

Today, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia announced indictments of both Dr. Karadzic and General Mladic for war crimes. It is my hope that both these men, and numerous other war criminals, will be successfully prosecuted.

I know that every Member of the Senate is outraged by the barbaric behavior that has taken place. But for the Bosnian victims of these crimes, our outrage is worth little, unless it leads to action. In the face of these atrocities, we must make an important decision.

Our choices are clear: we must either dramatically change the U.N. operation on the ground in such a way that it will be able to protect Bosnian citizens from Bosnian Serb murderers and rapists; or, we must lift the arms embargo @nst the Bosnian Government, unilaterally if necessary, in order to allow the Bosnians to defend themselves.

But there is one thing we cannot do, and that is nothing.

Last week, Secretary of Defense Perry, Secretary of State Christopher, and General Shalikashvili met in London with our NATO allies. They were attempting to devise a response to the collapse of Srebrenica and Zepa that will prevent and punish further Bosnian Serb attacks on safe areas and defend the civilians in those areas.

Before these meetings began, I felt that in order to be successful, they would have to succeed in radically changing the mission and mandate of the allied troops on the ground in Bosnia, giving them the wherewithal and command structure to fight effectively that they have lacked thus far.

Unfortunately, I do not feel that the agreements reached in London meet that test. I have spoken with the Secretary of State. I have spoken with our Ambassadors in London and Paris. And I have spoken at length with the Foreign Minister of Bosnia. All of these conversations have solidified my view that there has not been a sufficient change In the situation on the ground.

The London meetings only addressed the enclave of Gorazde. It is true that a fairly resolute statement was issued regarding a Serb offensive on Gorazde. Substantial allied airstrikes will be ordered in response to any attack on Gorazde.

What constitutes a Serb assault on Gorazde? Is this present shelling that has been going on since the London Conference enough to provoke action? Does a siege that cuts off the flow of humanitarian aid warrant airstrikes? Gorazde has in fact been shelled continuously since the London conference. Why have the airstrikes not begun?

Unfortunately, the promised defense of Gorazde only means that the Serbs will continue their attacks at Zepa, which I understand has finally fallen, Bihac, then Sarajevo, and Tuzla, and then what? In fact, the fate of Bosnia is sealed if the enclaves fall--for only 30 percent of Bosnia remains in government hands today.

As we debate this resolution, Bihac is surrounded and under attack. In this offensive, the Bosnian Serbs are receiving assistance from their Croatian Serb brethren--25,000 Croatian Serbs are coming over the border to augment the attacking forces. Bihac has received no food convoys for two months, and relief flights have been suspended because of the shelling. There is virtually no food left in Bihac, and residents are able to eat only what they can grow.

As for Sarajevo, it is perhaps the most important of all the enclaves. Its fall would mean the end of Bosnia. Yet, Sarajevo was hardly mentioned in London. It is true that since the conference, British and French troops from the Rapid Reaction Force have deployed around Sarajevo to respond to Serb shelling. But their mission, it seems, is primarily to protect U.N. forces. Earlier, in our caucus, the Secretary of State indicated that these troops would respond to Serb attacks on the civilian population. I certainly hope so.

As the Bosnian Foreign Minister told me, drawing a line in sand around Gorazde alone is like drawing a line in the sand around one solitary sunbather on a beach. It may protect that one sunbather, but it ignores everything else on the beach.

Third, it is not at all clear that the United States and our allies have the same understanding about the agreements reached in London. While Brittsh Foreign Secretary Rifkind, promised a "substantial and decisive" response to any Serb attack on Gorazde, only U.8. officials mentioned the certainty of airstrikes.

Furthermore, It is entirely clear that Russia does not support a policy based on the use of airstrikes to contain the Bosnian Serbs. Foreign Minister kozyrev went out of his way to say that "no consensus" had been reached in London. How Russia would respond to a policy that it does not support is uncertain. This uncertainty may well prove dangerous.

I had hoped that the London meetings would have initiated a genuine change to the situation on the ground in Bosnia. I wanted to be convinced. But with the weight of all the evidence, I am afraid the London conference appears inconclusive, and that the status quo will continue.

The London meetings do not produce a new course of action, and did not conmiit the allies to protect the Bosnians. I am convinced that we have no choice but to lift the arms embargo against the Boanians. I prefer th it be a multilateral lifting. It has become painfully clear now that no one will defend the Bosnians except the Bosnians themselves. If no one will defend them, we can no longer deny them the right to defend themselves. And so, I intend to support the Dole-Lieberman resolution.

Last year, I opposed a similar resolution, in large part because it contained a policy of "lift and leave". It would have forced the President to lift the arms embargo unilaterally before any effort had been taken to extract UNPROFOR from Bosnia. I felt that was unfair to our allies, who have troops on the ground there.

The resolution before us has gone a long way toward addressing those concerns. It now contains a "leave and lift' sequence, which is very important. The President would not be required to lift the arms embaxgo until 12 weeks after UNPROFOR began its withdrawal, and that period could be extended in 30 day increments if the withdrawal took longer than expected. I believe that this change alters the effect of the resolution considerably.

This is a time for the entire world to feel outraged at the atrocities now being carried out with merciless abandon. And where is the conscience of the world? In fact, much of the world genuinely wants to help. Today, for example, a joint delegation from Israel and Jordan are meeting in Bosnia to see what they can do to help.

Let there be no mistake--we are watching the development of a "Fourth Reich" dedicated to the genocide of a people simply because they are different. To me, after the events of the past 3 years, there is little difference--except in size--between the drive for a pure Aryan nation 50 years ago, and that for an ethnically cleansed Greater Serbia of today. The Bosnian Foreign Minister put it to me so eloquently yesterday when he said: "No one has taken on the job of defending the Bosnian people. UNPROFOR Is not a substitute for our defense, and the Rapid Reaction Force is committed only to defend UNPROFOR. We must know that somebody is going to defend us--and that somebody is only us.

An afflicted people must have the right to defend themselves. This resolution signals no more and no less.

Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, if I might comment through the Chair, what I learned from our caucus is that what my colleague has just stated is true in general, but there is some higher commitment in the Sarajevo area. I am not certain of this, but I believe I understood the Secretary to say that they would defend against the shelling of Sarajevo. I am sure someone will straighten this out for certain later in the debate, but that is what I understood today.