[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 72 (Friday, June 5, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H4232]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 KOSOVA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, for the last several weeks the world has 
watched in horror as innocent civilians, men, women, and children, have 
been slaughtered in the province of Kosova in Europe. Forty thousand 
people are now fleeing their homes, are now refugees.
  Kosova is a province of 2 million people, 90 percent of whom are 
ethnic Albanian, controlled totally and dominated by the Serbs, living 
under tremendous oppression. Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic 
uncorked ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, and here it is happening again in 
Kosova.
  The people of Kosova, the Albanians, have no rights. They have no 
political rights, no civil rights, no economic rights. They are truly a 
people under oppression. Unemployment is 80 percent. They have tried 
for years peaceful resistance. It has not worked. Now their plight is 
worse than ever. The tens of thousands of Serb troops in Kosova have 
fired the opening shots, Mr. Speaker, in a renewed campaign of ethnic 
cleansing.
  I have warned for years that Kosova was a powderkeg. Unless the U.S. 
and the international community intervene now to ward off a 
catastrophe, Milosevic will carry out there what he did in Bosnia, a 
horrific campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Two hundred 
thousand people died in Bosnia. It could be worse in Kosova if we let 
it happen.
  Thankfully, President Clinton reaffirmed last week during his meeting 
with Abraham Rugova, President of the Republic of Kosova, that the U.S. 
would not permit what happened in Bosnia to recur in Kosova. President 
Clinton was right.
  But the time, Mr. Speaker, has come to put our money where our mouth 
is. The ethnic cleansing has begun. The burning of villages has begun. 
The expulsion of tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians has begun. The 
halting of humanitarian convoys has begun. All of this is how it 
started in Bosnia. The United States must now act.
  In December, 1992, President Bush warned Serb strongman Milosevic 
that if he vastly increased the military repression in Kosova, the U.S. 
would respond in kind. This threat, known as the Christmas warning, 
formed the basis of U.S. foreign policy in the region. President 
Clinton reiterated the Christmas warning when he entered office. Time 
and time again State Department officials have noted that U.S. policy 
has not changed.
  Today I say the Christmas warning has been triggered. To live up to 
our pledge to the people of Kosova and maintain our credibility in the 
region by meeting this solemnly pledged commitment, it is time we act.
  Here is what we must do. We must strike with NATO air strikes. Today 
Serbian tanks and artillery are leveling villages, setting houses 
ablaze, and slaughtering innocent civilians. We should now utilize our 
assets in the region by destroying these weapons of war in the field 
and as they sit in their staging compounds.
  We must declare a no-fly zone over Kosova. Serbian attack helicopters 
have been used against innocent civilians. This must stop. Furthermore, 
fighter aircraft have been moved into Kosova. American aircraft in the 
region must halt any of these flights.
  We must reimpose the investment ban on Serbia. Milosevic's only 
access to hard currency has been through international investment. 
Unless serious progress is made to resolve the Kosova crisis, no 
additional international investment should be permitted. The outer wall 
of sanctions on Serbia ought to be maintained, and we ought to reimpose 
the inner wall of sanctions.
  We ought to utilize the war crimes tribunal. Milosevic and his 
henchmen should be fully accountable for their actions in Kosova, and 
should be prosecuted for any war crimes they commit. We need to get 
international monitors back in Kosova. In July of 1993 Milosevic 
spelled OSCE monitors from Kosova. Now more than ever they must return 
so they can report to the world on the brutality now being committed, 
and to prevent further acts of atrocity from being committed.
  On Wednesday, the Washington Post ran an editorial which I believe 
accurately captured the Kosova crisis, and what U.S. policy should be 
in response. The editorial said, ``Sanctions are in any case mostly 
beside the point. Only the credible threat of force and the use of 
force, if necessary, can deter Mr. Milosevic. The U.S. can intervene 
now, as it has said it would, or, as in Bosnia, it can be forced to 
intervene later, after much damage has been done and any solution is 
far more difficult.''

                              {time}  1545

  Mr. Speaker, along with 25 of my colleagues, I am sending a letter to 
the President making these recommendations. Two months ago we requested 
a meeting with the President to discuss Kosova. Today we look forward 
to hearing from the White House when that meeting will be scheduled.
  The genocide and ethnic cleansing in Kosova must stop and only we and 
NATO can stop it. The time for diplomatic niceties is over. We must act 
now.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit the following for the Record:

                [From The Washington Post, June 3, 1998]

                             Empty Threats

       The Clinton administration has said time and again that it 
     won't permit Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic to extend his 
     brutal ethnic-cleansing tactics to the independence-minded 
     province of Kosovo. Now Mr. Milosevic's troops are conducting 
     precisely such atrocities in Kosovo, and the administration's 
     response so far: more talk.
       Kosovo is part of Serbia, which in turn is part of what's 
     left of Yugoslavia. But only 10 percent of Kosovo's 2 million 
     people are ethnic Serbs; 90 percent are ethnic Albanians. For 
     a quarter of a century, the province enjoyed considerable 
     autonomy, but Mr. Milosevic revoked that in 1989 to fuel his 
     nationalist rise to power. Ever since, and under the lash of 
     Serb repression, a Kosovo independence movement has gained 
     strength. The movement has been largely nonviolent. But 
     recently, as ethnic Albanians have become convinced that the 
     West has abandoned them, an armed resistance has rapidly 
     gained support.
       U.S. policy on all this has been pretty clear--at least in 
     words. The United States doesn't support Kosovo independence, 
     but it does support legitimate aspirations for more autonomy. 
     It favors peaceful dialogue and opposes armed conflict. 
     President Bush warned in 1992 that the United States would 
     use force if necessary to block ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. 
     The Clinton administration embraced that warning in 1993. And 
     as recently as three months ago, Secretary of State Madeleine 
     Albright said the United States would not ``stand by and 
     watch the Serbian authorities do in Kosovo what they can no 
     longer get away with doing in Bosnia.''
       But that's just what Serbian authorities are doing right 
     now. In a wide swath of borderland along Albania, Serb police 
     and soldiers have been destroying villages, killing civilians 
     and turning thousands of men, women and children into 
     refugees. An Austrian defense attache who spent two days 
     touring the isolated region said, ``All the signs are that 
     the Serbs are going on with ethnic cleansing in the Kosovo 
     area.''
       U.S. policy in the past three months has been a confusing 
     mixture of sanctions threatened, imposed and withdrawn. Such 
     sanctions are in any case mostly beside the point; only the 
     credible threat of force, and the use of force if necessary, 
     can deter Mr. Milosevic. The United States can intervene now, 
     as it has said it would. Or, as in Bosnia, it can be forced 
     to intervene later, after much damage has been done and any 
     solution is far more difficult.




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