[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 140 (Thursday, October 9, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1998]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   STOP HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN KOSOVA

                                 ______
                                 

                      HON. JAMES A. TRAFICANT, JR.

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 9, 1997

  Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, Since the spring of 1989, when the regime 
of Slobodan Milosevic brutally occupied Kosova, the Serbian authorities 
have violated the human rights of the Albanian population. I would 
point out that ethnic Albanians comprise more than 92 percent of the 
total population of Kosova. Shortly after the Serbian occupation, all 
Albanian-language educational institutions were closed, and Albanian 
students were forced to attend makeshift classrooms in private homes 
throughout the province.
  Thirteen months ago, an agreement was signed by President Ibrahim 
Rugova of Kosova and Serbian President Milosevic to enable Albanian 
students and teachers to return to their schools and to reopen the 
Albanian-language University of Prishtina. The international community 
hailed this agreement as the first step towards the settlement of the 
crisis in Kosova. However, no progress has been made towards 
implementing the agreement because of the Serbian regime's 
intransigence. Last week, the lack of Serbian willingness to comply 
with the agreement prompted students in Kosova to peacefully protest to 
bring world attention to their plight.
  More than 50,000 students gathered in Velanija on October 1, the 
beginning of the new academic year in Kosova, to begin their protest. 
There they were met by Serbian police, who informed them that their 
protest was illegal because it had not been cleared by the occupation 
authorities. When the students refused to disband, the police encircled 
the crowd and brutally attacked the nonviolent protesters with 
truncheons and tear gas.
  Throughout Kosova, Serbian police have attacked students and 
teachers, barricaded Albanian primary and secondary school buildings, 
and sealed off entire towns and cities. Yet the Albanian people of 
Kosova refuse to abandon their struggle for self-determination. The 
Albanian-American community has called on the international community 
to take measures to prevent the conflict from escalating further. 
Inaction and silence by the world will only encourage the Serbian 
occupiers of Kosova to pursue a more aggressive and repressive policy, 
as they did in Bosnia. Such a result could happen without timely action 
and a firm resolve on the part of the United States and the world's 
democracies.
  The gross violation of the human rights of Albanian students, 
teachers, and defenseless citizens of Kosova must be stopped. The daily 
reality of Albanians in Kosova was illustrated for me today when a 
member of the Albanian American Civic League called me in desperation 
over the plight of his brother Hazyr Dervishi. Mr. Dervishi, who 
suffers from a heart problem, was brutally beaten by the Serbian police 
for teaching Albanian students the Albanian language out of his home in 
Gjakova, Kosova. He was then taken by force to the Albanian border, and 
warned not to return to his home and family. Under the Serbian police 
system, Hazyr Dervishi is a marked man in Kosova. Yet, he plans to risk 
his life in order to rejoin his family.
  On behalf of Hazyr Dervishi and so many other innocent Albanian 
victims, the United States State Department must make a public and 
unambiguous statement condemning the ongoing human rights violations in 
Kosova. Our Government should make it clear to the Serbian Government 
that we will not tolerate the continued abuse of ethnic Albanians in 
Kosova and the denial of their basic human and civil rights.
  When will we learn how to deal with the barbaric Communist regime of 
Slobodan Milosevic, who rose to power on the dead bodies of so many 
innocent Albanian citizens of Kosova? When will we learn that only 
timely action and resolve will have an impact on dictators like 
Milosevic? I implore you, Mr. Speaker, and I implore our Government, 
not to let Kosova, which many have described as the modern-day 
equivalent of the Warsaw Ghetto under the Nazis, become the next 
Bosnia. We need to change a failed foreign policy that has allowed the 
victimization of Albanians in Kosova and Macedonia to continue 
unabated. Our policy must change now before it is too late.

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