[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 315 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

  2d Session
H. CON. RES. 315


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 24, 1998

      Received and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
   Expressing the sense of the Congress condemning the atrocities by 
  Serbian police and military forces against Albanians in Kosova and 
   urging that blocked assets of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 
 (Serbia and Montenegro) under control of the United States and other 
 governments be used to compensate the Albanians in Kosova for losses 
          suffered through Serbian police and military action.

Whereas the ethnic Albanian population of the province of Kosova, which makes up 
        the overwhelming majority of the population of that area, has been 
        denied internationally recognized human rights and political rights, 
        including the protection of life, freedom of speech, freedom of 
        assembly, and freedom of the press;
Whereas Serbian police and military forces have engaged in brutal suppression of 
        the Albanian people, and the number of Serbian police and military 
        forces which have been deployed in Kosova is estimated at some 50,000 
        men;
Whereas human rights groups have reported and documented instances of Serbian 
        forces conducting abductions and summary executions of innocent ethnic 
        Albanian civilians in reprisal killings that are similar to those 
        conducted by Nazi forces during World War II and are similar to the 
        ethnic cleansing which was carried out by ethnic Serbian troops in 
        Bosnia;
Whereas Serbian forces have indiscriminately shelled and burned villages, 
        reducing them to rubble, in order to drive out the ethnic Albanian 
        inhabitants, inflicting heavy material losses upon the ethnic Albanians 
        in Kosova;
Whereas hundreds of ethnic Albanians, including women and children, have been 
        killed and over 200,000 ethnic Albanians have been forced to flee and 
        have become refugees as a result of this Serbian military action;
Whereas the stubborn denial of human rights and political rights to the ethnic 
        Albanian majority in Kosova by the Government of Serbia has been the 
        major factor in the radicalization of the political situation in the 
        province and made the prospects of a peaceful resolution of the conflict 
        there difficult if not impossible;
Whereas the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) 
        resulted in 5 independent states and the ownership of the blocked assets 
        of the SFRY has yet to be determined and apportioned among the successor 
        states; and
Whereas the United States and the governments of other countries have blocked 
        the assets of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) 
        as part of the blocked assets of the SFRY: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That the Congress--
            (1) deeply deplores and strongly condemns the appalling 
        loss of life and the extensive destruction of property in 
        Kosova that is the consequence of the brutal actions of Serbian 
        police and military forces against the ethnic Albanian 
        population of the province;
            (2) believes that the Government of Serbia is primarily 
        responsible for the loss of life and destruction of property, 
        and thus Serbia should bear the principal burden of providing 
        compensation for the loss of life and for the costs of 
        rebuilding areas which its forces have devastated;
            (3) urges the President and officials he designates to work 
        with the Congress to draft legislation and regulations which 
        will permit the claims of ethnic Albanians from Kosova who have 
        suffered as a consequence of the brutal actions of Serbian 
        police and military forces in Kosova to be considered, without 
        prejudice to the claims of United States nationals, when claims 
        settlement negotiations involving the assets of the Federal 
        Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) which the United 
        States has blocked or asserted control over takes place;
            (4) urges that, in drafting such legislation and 
        implementing regulations, special consideration be given to the 
        circumstances of the Government of the Republic of Montenegro 
        and to persons located in and organized under the laws of the 
        Republic of Montenegro;
            (5) urges the President and the Secretary of State to urge 
        all other countries to follow a policy which permits ethnic 
        Albanians who have suffered as a consequence of the brutal 
        actions of Serbian police and military forces in Kosova to make 
        claims against the assets of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 
        (Serbia and Montenegro) which are in the control of the 
        respective country; and
            (6) requests that a copy of this resolution be transmitted 
        to the President and the Secretary of State by the Clerk of the 
        House of Representatives and the Secretary of the Senate.

            Passed the House of Representatives September 23, 1998.

            Attest:

                                                ROBIN H. CARLE,

                                                                 Clerk.