[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 89 (Wednesday, July 8, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7677-S7678]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       NEED FOR ACTION ON KOSOVO

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, the use of indiscriminate force by units of 
the Serbian special police and the Yugoslav armed forces in Kosovo must 
stop. If unchecked, the violence there could well spillover into 
Albania and Macedonia and could at some point involve other nations in 
the region, including our NATO allies.
  Acting at the direction of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, the 
Serbian police and military units have brutally targeted civilians and 
used scorched earth tactics with a plan to drive ethnic Albanians out 
of their towns and villages. According to the United Nations High 
Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata, around 65,000 people have been 
forced to flee their homes in Kosovo since March and prior to the 
latest Serbian special police and troop attack on the town of 
Belacevac.
  Of that number, around 12,000 have fled to neighboring Albania across 
treacherous mountains--some children had to walk barefoot for days. 
About 8,000 have fled to Montenegro and small numbers have sought 
refuge in Macedonia, where the United States maintains about 350 Army 
personnel as part of the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force.
  Before I comment further on what I believe should be done to address 
the crisis in Kosovo, I would like to briefly describe how this crisis 
came about.
  Kosovo, with a population of 2 million of which more than 90 percent 
are ethnic Albanians, enjoyed autonomous province status under the 1974 
Yugoslav Constitution. However, changes to the Serbian constitution in 
1989 through 1991 revoked that autonomous province status and abolished 
the Parliament and Government of Kosovo. Since that time, Serbian 
authorities have carried out a policy of repression: firing ethnic 
Albanians from all public jobs and using arrests, brutal and often 
fatal beatings and other forms of intimidation in violation of commonly

[[Page S7678]]

accepted human rights standards. In the face of this repressive policy, 
ethnic Albanians pursued a policy of non-violent resistance. They 
boycotted Serbian institutions and built their own parallel set of 
political, economic and social institutions. In 1992, they elected 
Ibrahim Rugova as president and a 130-member parliament.
  When the policy of non-violent resistance failed to make any 
progress, some ethnic Albanians turned to violence and over the past 
two years, the Kosovo Liberation Army has conducted attacks on Serbian 
police and other officials. On the night of February 28 of this year, 
Serbian special police reportedly killed more than 20 ethnic Albanians 
in a sweep through the Drenica region of Kosovo. Since late February, 
it is estimated that more than 200 ethnic Albanians have been killed in 
Kosovo at the hands of Serbian special police and military forces. As 
Serbian police forces have increased their violence against civilians, 
more and more ethnic Albanians have joined the Kosovo Liberation Army.
  Mr. President, the actions of Slobodan Milosevic and his henchmen 
have been condemned by the entire international community. Russia, at 
the conclusion of the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council meeting on 
June 12, 1998, joined the NATO defense ministers in condemning 
``Belgrade's massive and disproportionate use of force as well as 
violent attacks by Kosovar Albanian extremists.''
  The United Nations Security Council, by resolution 1160 adopted on 
March 31, 1998, condemned the excessive use of force by Serbian police 
forces against civilians and peaceful demonstrators in Kosovo and 
acting under Chapter VII of the Charter imposed a comprehensive arms 
embargo on Yugoslavia and urged the Prosecutor for the International 
Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia to begin gathering information 
related to the violence in Kosovo.
  The Security Council's action is important because, by taking under 
Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the Security Council has 
determined that the violence in Kosovo is a threat to international 
peace and security. This is important because, there is a possibility 
that Russia may use its veto to prevent the Security Council from 
authorizing the use of all necessary means to stop the violence in 
Kosovo. In this regard, I note with approval that both Secretary of 
State Albright and Secretary of Defense Cohen took the position that 
the Security Council's authorization was desirable but not required for 
NATO action to intervene in Kosovo.
  Mr. President, I applaud NATO's decision to conduct an air exercise 
in Albania and Macedonia to demonstrate its capability to project power 
rapidly in the region. I regret that Russian President Yeltsin was 
unable to gain Milosevic's commitment to withdraw Serbian special units 
from Kosovo, when they met in Moscow on June 16. Milosevic has already 
defaulted on his commitment to President Yeltsin to carry out no 
repressive actions against civilians.
  Mr. President, we all hope that this tragic situation will be 
resolved peacefully, but that does not appear to be likely. Bosnia has 
taught us that quick and decisive action can prevent a crisis from 
getting out of hand. We must not allow Milosevic to draw this crisis 
out, while the ethnic Albanian people of Kosovo suffer. The 
international community must let Milosevic know that he must halt the 
systematic campaign of repression and expulsions in Kosovo. He must 
withdraw his special police from Kosovo and return his military forces 
to their barracks. And he must engage in bona fide negotiations to 
restore a significant degree of autonomy to Kosovo. Anything else will 
be insufficient and justify strong action by the international 
community.

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