[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 313 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. CON. RES. 313

Expressing the sense of the Congress with respect to self-determination 
           for the people of Kosova, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 30, 1998

   Mr. Engel (for himself, Mr. King, Mr. Moran of Virginia, and Mrs. 
    Kelly) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
          referred to the Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the Congress with respect to self-determination 
           for the people of Kosova, and for other purposes.

Whereas under the United Nations Charter, friendly relations among nations are 
        based on the principles of equal rights and self-determination of 
        peoples;
Whereas under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which 
        the United States and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia are 
        parties, all peoples have the right of self-determination;
Whereas equal rights and self-determination of peoples are among the Principles 
        Guiding Relations Between Participating States enshrined in the 1975 
        Helsinki Final Act, to which the Socialist Federal Republic of 
        Yugoslavia was a party;
Whereas the Helsinki Final Act states that ``all peoples have the right, in full 
        freedom, to determine, when and as they wish, their internal and 
        external political status, without external interference, and to pursue 
        as they wish their political, economic, social, and cultural 
        development'';
Whereas the Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was 
        founded upon the right of every nationality to self-determination, 
        including the right to secede;
Whereas in the Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 
        adopted in 1946, and the amended Yugoslav Constitution, adopted in 1974, 
        Kosova was described as one of the 8 constituent territorial units of 
        the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia;
Whereas until 1989 Kosova had a representative on the Yugoslav Federal 
        Presidency, a constitutional entity consisting of members from each of 
        the constituent territorial units of the Socialist Federal Republic of 
        Yugoslavia;
Whereas several former constituent territorial units of the Socialist Federal 
        Republic of Yugoslavia, including Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and 
        Herzegovina, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, have 
        exercised their rights to become independent, and Montenegro retains the 
        right to do so in the future;
Whereas the borders of Yugoslavia were altered in the 1990's when Slovenia, 
        Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of 
        Macedonia became independent;
Whereas the United States and the international community do not recognize the 
        Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as the successor state to the Socialist 
        Federal Republic of Yugoslavia;
Whereas the political rights of the people of Kosova were curtailed on March 23, 
        1989, when the Government of Yugoslavia revoked the autonomous status of 
        Kosova by amending the Yugoslav Constitution without the consent of 
        Kosova, as was constitutionally required, and by other unconstitutional 
        actions including further amendments to the Yugoslav Constitution 
        obtained by unconstitutional means;
Whereas in September 1990, in a referendum on the question of independence for 
        Kosova, 87 percent of those eligible to participate voted and 99 percent 
        of those who voted supported independence for Kosova;
Whereas throughout the 1990's, the people of Kosova have peacefully operated a 
        shadow government separate from the Serbian and Yugoslav authorities, 
        and that shadow government has governed the majority of the population 
        of Kosova;
Whereas since 1989 the majority of the population of Kosova, 92 percent of whom 
        are ethnically Albanian, has been subject to official discrimination 
        including the removal of ethnic Albanian students from public schools 
        and the University of Pristina and the firing of more than 100,000 
        ethnic Albanians from the civil service and police;
Whereas since 1989 the people of Kosova have been subject to egregious human 
        rights abuses, and according to the Department of State's Country 
        Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1997, the most widespread and 
        worst abuses in Serbia and Montenegro were committed by the police 
        against the ethnic Albanian population of Kosova;
Whereas on July 17, 1998, the Senate passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 105 
        declaring that it is the sense of the Congress that ``the United States 
        should publicly declare that it considers that there is reason to 
        believe that Slobodan Milosevic, President of the Federal Republic of 
        Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), has committed war crimes, crimes 
        against humanity and genocide''; and
Whereas the United States has opened an office of the United States Information 
        Service in Pristina, the capital of Kosova: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of the Congress that--
            (1) by illegally revoking of the autonomy of Kosova in 1989 
        and undertaking other unconstitutional actions, by subsequently 
        promoting official policies of harsh discrimination against the 
        majority ethnic Albanians in Kosova, and by flagrantly 
        violating the human rights of the people of Kosova, Serbia and 
        the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, especially as ruled by 
        Slobodan Milosevic, have forfeited the legitimate right to 
        govern or to determine political status of the territory of 
        Kosova;
            (2) the United States should support the right of self-
        determination for the people of Kosova;
            (3) the United States should support any resolution of the 
        question of the status of Kosova, including independence, if 
        such resolution is arrived at by means of legitimate acts of 
        self-determination, including a free and fair referendum in 
        Kosova;
            (4) the United States should support the same right of 
        self-determination for Kosova that the international community 
        has recognized for the other former constituent territorial 
        units of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, some of 
        which have become independent;
            (5) the United States should encourage other countries, 
        especially members of the Contact Group of Nations for the 
        Former Yugoslavia, to support the right of self-determination 
        for the people of Kosova; and
            (6) the United States should support such representation of 
        Kosova in international institutions as is consistent with the 
        exercise of the legitimate right of self-determination by the 
        people of Kosova.
                                 <all>