[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 73 (Tuesday, June 9, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S5992]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           VIOLENCE IN KOSOVO

 Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I rise today to express my grave 
concern, and that of my constituents, regarding the escalating violence 
in Kosovo. Fighting between Serbs and the majority ethnic-Albanian 
population in Kosovo has been on-going since Kosovo was declared to be 
part of Serbia in 1989.
  Mr. President, I am deeply concerned about the safety of ethnic 
Albanians, many of whom have been murdered or forced to flee their 
homes by the ethnically-motivated attacks by the minority-Serb 
population. I am also concerned that this latest round of ethnic 
fighting in the Balkans could reignite unrest throughout the region.
  The fighting intensified in late February of this year, and has been 
spiraling across Kosovo ever since. During the weekend of February 28 
alone, approximately 30 people were killed there. When ethnic Albanians 
marched in the provincial capital of Pristina to protest these 
killings, they were met by Serb riot police armed with water cannon, 
clubs, and tear gas.
  Since this latest wave of fighting began, a total of more than 200 
ethnic Albanians, including women and children, have been killed, and 
more than 10,000 have fled into neighboring Albania. In early March, 22 
members of the Jashari family were massacred on their farm in Prekaz. 
During the last weekend in May, at least 39 people were killed. These 
are but a few examples of the senseless bloodshed that has occurred in 
Kosovo during the last three months.
  Day after day, the world is witness to this brutal fighting through 
television and print media coverage of the events in Kosovo. We saw the 
pictures from the massacre at Prekaz. We have seen soldiers in 
helicopters shooting at people trying to flee across the border into 
Albania. These pictures have an eerie resemblance to those from Bosnia, 
Rwanda, and other places where ethnic fighting has occurred in this 
decade.
  The latest wave of fighting in Kosovo has been marked by an increase 
in violence and militancy. There is no question that there have been 
casualties on both sides of this conflict. What is troubling, however, 
is that very few of these casualties have been combatants fighting for 
their cause. Instead, the majority of the dead have been innocent 
civilians, many of them women and children. And most of these civilians 
have been killed simply because they happened to be Albanian.
  I am pleased that the United States has contributed funding to the 
Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal to begin an investigation into the 
involvement of Serbian forces in the violence in Kosovo.
  I am also pleased that U.S. envoys Richard Holbrooke and Robert 
Gelbard, who traveled to the region last month, have been able to bring 
the two sides to the table to discuss their differences.
  I was pleased that the first round of talks between Yugoslav 
President Slobodan Milosevic and Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova, 
which took place on May 15, opened a dialogue between the ethnic 
Albanians and the Serb government in Belgrade.
  I was also hopeful that the May 29 meeting between President Clinton 
and Mr. Rugova would bolster attempts to reach a diplomatic solution to 
this on-going crisis.
  Unfortunately, the promise of the May 15 talks has been followed by 
continuing violence and attacks on civilians by the Serbian police and 
military. Today, the United States joined the European Union in issuing 
a ban on all new investment in Serbia and by freezing the assets of the 
Milosevic government. The U.S. had delayed the implementation of these 
sanctions prior to the May 15 talks, but now there is little choice but 
to impose these sanctions. I hope that these sanctions will help to 
stem the violence and bring the two sides back to the table.
  The leaders on all sides of this conflict should not allow the 
escalating violence to derail plans for negotiations. While there 
remain many issues to resolve, I believe that only through continuing 
negotiations can a sustainable settlement be ironed out. I hope that 
people on all sides of this conflict are able to put aside their 
feelings of nationalism and ethnic pride and work together to achieve a 
peaceful solution to this situation before more innocent blood is shed, 
and before the fighting spreads into other areas of the 
Balkans.

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