The Helsinki Commission through the leadership of the previous co-chairs of the Helsinki Commission noted that calls for a negotiated settlement, however correct, are meaningless if accompanied by artificial neutrality and not by severe repercussions for those who operate outside acceptable parameters and seek what they want through the use of force. Collective partnerships, however desirable, will erode if partners allow one of their own to be carved into ethnic pieces. Enunciating international principles, however promising, is empty if countries abandon them for historical affinities and big power politics.
The hearing will seek to understand policies that the U.S. may implement to curb the atrocities that have become dishearteningly commonplace in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
