[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 34 (Tuesday, March 24, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H1415-H1416]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      CONGRESSIONAL TRIP TO KOSOVO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bob Schaffer of Colorado). Under a 
previous order of the House, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, just yesterday I returned from the Balkans 
along with the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran) and the gentlewoman 
from New York (Mrs. Kelly). We had hoped to go into a region called 
Kosovo to monitor elections that were being held this past Sunday by 
the Albanians in the region of Kosovo who make up 90 percent, 2 million 
people, 90 percent of Kosovo, but have no political, economic or human 
rights whatsoever.
  I have been to Kosovo a number of times, and I can tell my colleagues 
the people, they are truly a people under oppression. We have witnessed 
during the past few weeks, Mr. Speaker, the wanton killings of men, 
women and children by the Serbian police forces going into villages and 
slaughtering people. It reminds us of what happened in Bosnia early on. 
If the West, particularly the United States, does not

[[Page H1416]]

take strong action early on, we will wind up with another Bosnia in 
Kosovo.
  Kosovo again are people, Albanians, 90 percent ethnic Albanians, they 
have no rights, they have no political rights, they have no economic 
rights, unemployment is high, they cannot teach in the Albanian 
language. They are constantly oppressed, harassed, beaten and murdered. 
This Sunday they conducted their own elections. The Albanian leadership 
conducted their elections. Dr. Ibrahim Rugova was reelected as the 
president. They elected a parliament. This parliament and Dr. Rugova 
had been elected 6 years ago but the parliament had never been allowed 
to meet under threat of jail or exile.
  We had hoped to go there, but we were stopped at the border. First, 
we were denied visas here in Washington and then we were denied visas 
when we flew to Macedonia; in Skopje we could not get visas. We went to 
the border and we were stopped by the Serbian guards, who told us we 
could not get in.
  It is unprecedented that three Members of this Congress would be 
barred from visiting another country. This is the first time that I 
have been barred and the first time I have heard of Members of Congress 
being barred. But again it shows the arrogance of the leadership of the 
Serbian government, particularly President Milosevic, who has done the 
kind of atrocities in Europe that makes one remember the Nazi era, with 
the ethnic cleansing and the genocide being perpetrated first on the 
Bosnian Muslims, now on the Albanians, a constant pattern of harassment 
and killings and intimidation of the Albanians.
  The people of Kosovo I believe have the right to self-determination, 
the same self-determination we would want for ourselves or for all free 
peoples around the world. They have the absolute right to determine 
their destiny. They have the absolute right to determine their 
political future if they want to be an independent republic.
  I personally, this Congressman support them, and if they want to do 
whatever they want to do as a free people, they have the right to do 
so. The United States must very strongly stand with them. This House 
last week passed a resolution sponsored by the gentleman from New York 
(Mr. Gilman) and myself and lots of other people calling on the Serbs 
to end their oppression, condemning the Serbian oppression against the 
Albanian majority in Kosovo. The contact group is meeting tomorrow. 
Under the able leadership of Ambassador Gelbard and Secretary of State 
Albright they will be pushing for further sanctions on the Serbian 
regime. They have to understand that the people of Kosovo need to be 
free, the people of Kosovo will not tolerate and the people of the 
world will not tolerate the wanton slaughter of innocent men, women and 
children.
  They went into villages and just killed people. This is unheard of. 
We will not stand by and allow genocide and ethnic cleansing to 
continue. The gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Kelly), the gentleman 
from Virginia (Mr. Moran) and myself all took very, very strong stands. 
It was outrageous that we were not allowed to go into the border. We 
can only say that the Serbian leader must be hiding something because 
he does not want us to know the truth.
  To add insult to injury, while we were not allowed to go to the 
border, Mr. Milosevic's forces jailed six Americans on trumped-up phony 
charges, jailed them and put them in prison. Thankfully, those 
prisoners were finally released yesterday after our State Department 
intervened, after the three of us made very strong statements urging 
their release, and they are here in Washington and we are going to meet 
them in a little while to have dinner with them, and tomorrow morning 
we are calling a press conference to let the world know what we saw and 
the brutality that Milosevic is putting onto the Albanian people. We 
are going to have these Americans who were imprisoned against their 
will join us at the press conference.
  I would like to now yield to either one of my colleagues if they 
would like to comment. We are going to spend the next 15 minutes 
talking and comparing notes and letting the American people know 
precisely what is happening.

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