[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 30 (Wednesday, March 18, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S2221]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 85--CALLING FOR AN END TO THE VIOLENT 
                   REPRESSION OF THE PEOPLE OF KOSOVO

  Mr. NICKLES (for himself, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Biden, Mr. Helms, Mr. 
Lieberman, Mr. Levin, Mr. Kyl, Mr. Kerrey, Mr. D'Amato, Mr. Abraham, 
Mr. Wellstone, Mr. Grams, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Cleland, and Mr. Coverdell) 
submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was considered and 
agreed to.

                            S. Con. Res. 85

       Whereas ethnic Albanians constitute ninety percent of the 
     population of the province of Kosovo;
       Whereas the human rights situation in Kosovo has recently 
     deteriorated, culminating in the killing of more than 70 
     ethnic Albanians, including innocent women and children, by 
     Serbian police and paramilitary forces controlled by Yugoslav 
     President Slobodan Milosevic;
       Whereas Serbian authorities controlled by Milosevic have 
     attempted to thwart efforts by international forensic experts 
     to determine the cause of death of recent victims by burying 
     the dead against the wishes of their families;
       Whereas the current conflict in Kosovo threatens to 
     reignite war in the Balkans, and is thereby a potential 
     threat to regional peace and security;
       Whereas the six-nation Contact Group established to monitor 
     the situation in the former Yugoslavia has requested that the 
     Serbian authorities controlled by Milosevic grant 
     International Red Cross personnel access to areas where 
     recent violence and killing have been reported;
       Whereas the Contact Group has called upon Milosevic to 
     withdraw special police units from Kosovo and enter into 
     unconditional negotiations with ethnic Albanian political 
     leaders in order to find a peaceful political solution to the 
     conflict or face additional international sanctions; and
       Whereas a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Kosovo 
     must respect the rights of members of all ethnic and 
     religious groups in Kosovo, all of whose representatives 
     should be involved in negotiations about the resolution of 
     that conflict: Now, Therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress--
       (1) the United States should condemn the Serbian government 
     controlled by Slobodan Milosevic in the strongest possible 
     terms for the gross human rights violations against its 
     citizens, including the indiscriminate use of Serbian 
     paramilitary police units against the Albanian population of 
     Kosovo;
       (2) the United States should condemn any terrorist actions 
     by any group or individual in Kosovo;
       (3) the international community should respond 
     affirmatively to the call of the Contact Group for the 
     imposition of broad-based sanctions against the government of 
     Serbia if it fails to prevent additional atrocities by the 
     police and paramilitary units under its control or does not 
     otherwise comply immediately with the terms set forth by the 
     Contact Group;
       (4) the United States should freeze funds of the 
     governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia 
     if the government of Serbia fails to comply by March 25, 
     1998, with the terms set forth by the Contact Group;
       (5) pursuant to the terms set forth by the Contact Group, 
     the United States should demand that the Serbian government 
     and the ethnic Albanian leadership and the representatives of 
     all ethnic and religious groups in Kosovo immediately begin 
     unconditional talks to achieve a peaceful resolution to the 
     conflict in Kosovo and to provide for the exercise of the 
     legitimate civil and political rights of all persons in 
     Kosovo; and
       (6) the United States should demand that international 
     human rights monitors, especially personnel of the 
     International Red Cross who were forced to withdraw from 
     Kosovo, be allowed to return immediately to Kosovo in order 
     to be able to report on all human rights violations.

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