[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 96 (Friday, July 17, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8456-S8458]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING THE CULPABILITY OF SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC FOR 
                               WAR CRIMES

  Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Foreign 
Relations Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Con. 
Res. 105, and, further, that the Senate proceed to its immediate 
consideration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 105) expressing the 
     sense of the Congress regarding the culpability of Slobodan 
     Milosevic for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and 
     genocide in the former Yugoslavia, and for other purposes.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the immediate 
consideration of the concurrent resolution?
  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. D'AMATO addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
  Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, I believe we are about to take historic 
action that is so important, because, to date, what we have been doing 
is pleading, negotiating, hoping while the world burns in front of us. 
When I say ``the world,'' I am talking of technically the people in 
this war-torn area of Kosovo.
  It is incredible that 90 percent of the population there are ethnic 
Albanians under withering attack. In today's New York Times, it 
graphically speaks about it on the front page.
  As a witness to this, a former paramilitary, former police officer in 
the Serbian police, said he can no longer stay there and work there as 
he watched innocent women and children being raped, killed, tortured 
and savaged--3 million people on the move, ethnic cleansing, moving 
them out of their homes, moving them out of their communities all 
because of one thing--all because of their ethnicity.
  What we do today is the least we should be doing; and that is calling 
for the United States to, yes, utilize the provisions that the United 
Nations set up in terms of Security Council Resolution 827 creating the 
International Criminal Tribunal.
  This man can and should be charged as the war crime criminal that he 
is. The documentation has already been chronicled in one of the best 
reports, which I have submitted to this body. The conclusions are 
inescapable. It is called ``War Crimes and the Issue of 
Responsibility,'' prepared by Norman Cigar and Paul Williams. It 
documents the systematic slaughter and use of paramilitary groups 
against innocent civilians. There is no doubt that not only did he know 
about that but that he continues to perpetuate this kind of conduct.

[[Page S8457]]

  To summarize briefly what Resolution 105 does, it says that we, the 
United States, should publicly declare its considered reasons to 
believe that Milosevic has committed war crimes; that we make the 
checks of information that can be supplied to the Tribunal as evidence 
to support an indictment and trial of Milosevic for war crimes against 
humanity and genocide; that we should undertake it as a high priority; 
all of the information that we collect should be provided to the 
Tribunal as soon as possible; and, thereafter, that we coordinate our 
activities with our allies, members of the North Atlantic Treaty 
Organization and others interested in a matter of discussion of what we 
can and should be doing to apprehend this war criminal and others.
  Yes. Mr. President, the time has come to gather the evidence and to 
submit it to the Tribunal, and to see to it that this man is branded as 
the war criminal that he is instead of us all sitting back silently as 
innocent lives continue to be taken.
  Mr. President, I thank all of the Members of the U.S. Senate for the 
relatively short period of time Senator Lieberman and I began this 
effort in terms of gathering cosponsors and support several days ago.
  It makes me proud to be a Member of this body, for people to come 
together in this way to see, yes, the indictment of this war criminal. 
And he is one of the most evil men of our period of time. Make no 
mistake about it.
  Mr. BIDEN. Madam President, I rise today as a co-sponsor in support 
of S. Con. Res. 105, which expresses the sense of the Congress 
regarding the culpability of Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes, crimes 
against humanity, and genocide in the former Yugoslavia.
  Yugoslav President Milosevic is the walking definition of an 
unscrupulous politician. I have come to understand the stark truth that 
the only thing that matters to Milosevic is his own political survival. 
The only thing.
  Since his rise to power in Serbia in the late 1980's, he has been a 
failure at everything he has attempted--except, I regret to say, in 
staying in power.
  Slobodan Milosevic has been an unmitigated disaster for the Serbian 
people.
  As a result of his insane attempt at creating a ``Greater Serbia,'' 
the centuries-old Serbian culture in the Krajina and Western Slavonia 
in Croatia has been extinguished, the Bosnian Serb community has been 
decimated and impoverished, and Serbian life in Kosovo seems on the 
verge of eradication.
  Of course, that is only half of the story, for Slobodan Milosevic has 
also been a curse for many of the neighboring peoples of the Serbs. His 
vile ``ethnic cleansing'' led to a quarter-million deaths and more than 
two million refugees and displaced persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 
Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats, and Croats in Croatia were brutalized 
and murdered.
  Most recently, Milosevic's special police storm troopers have moved 
their grisly activities to Kosovo where they are visiting upon the 
ethnic Albanian population the same horrors suffered by the Bosnians 
and Croats.
  I would like to add a personal note. I believe that I am one of only 
a very few Senators who have met Milosevic, and I am certain that I am 
the only one who ever called him a war criminal to his face.
  In April 1993, on the first of my many trips to Bosnia, I also 
stopped off in Belgrade to see Milosevic. In the course of a lengthy 
meeting that went on late into the evening, I went through the entire 
litany of the horrors that his Serbian troops had perpetrated and were 
continuing to perpetrate. Of course, Milosevic protested that he had no 
control over any of this.
  Nonetheless, he later asked if I wanted to meet Radovan Karadzic, the 
Bosnian Serb leader who has subsequently been indicted as a war 
criminal. I said yes, and twenty minutes later Karadzic came running up 
the steps of Milosevic's palace, totally out of breath. Rather 
interesting for a guy who supposedly had no influence in Bosnia!
  After all this, Milosevic looked across the table and asked, ``What 
do you think of me?''
  I answered, ``I think you're a damn war criminal!''
  Milosevic's reaction was like water off a duck's back. He just 
resumed talking as if nothing had happened. He might as well have said, 
``lots of luck in your sophomore year!'' This is one brazen guy.
  Mr. President, I said earlier that the only thing Milosevic cares 
about is his political survival. I believe that for the first time 
there is a reasonable chance that he may be failing in this arena too.
  In the person of Milo Djukanovic, the dynamic, young reformist 
President of Montenegro, the junior partner of Serbia in the Yugoslav 
Federation, the democratic opposition to Milosevic has both a new 
leader and a constitutional means of expressing its opposition. We must 
continue to support Djukanovic and Montenegro in their struggle.
  In the meantime, as S. Con. Res. 105 urges, the international 
community should speedily bring Milosevic to trial before the 
International Tribunal in the Hague for his criminal behavior.
  There is no possibility for lasting peace in the Balkans until Serbia 
has a democratic government, willing to live in peace and equality with 
its non-Serb citizens and non-Serb neighbors. Removing Milosevic from 
power is the sine qua non for this to happen, and S. Con. Res. 105 
charts the path.
  I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the amendments at the 
desk, the resolution, and the preamble be agreed to, that the 
resolution, as amended, be agreed to, that the preamble be agreed to, 
as amended, and that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, 
and that any statements relating to the resolution appear at this point 
in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


               Amendments Numbered 3212 and 3213, En Bloc

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the amendments.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from New York (Mr. D'Amato) proposes amendments 
     numbered 3212 and 3213, en bloc.

  The amendments (Nos. 3212 and 3213) en bloc are as follows:


                           amendment no. 3212

               (Purpose: To make a technical correction)

       On page 3, line 4, strike ``probable cause'' and insert 
     ``reason''.
                                  ____



                           amendment no. 3213

       On page 5, strike lines 24 through page 6 line 5.

  The amendments (Nos. 3212 and 3213) were agreed to.
  The concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 105), as amended, was agreed 
to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 105), as amended, with its 
preamble, is as follows:

                            S. Con. Res. 105

       Whereas there is reason to mark the beginning of the 
     conflict in the former Yugoslavia with Slobodan Milosevic's 
     rise to power beginning in 1987, when he whipped up and 
     exploited extreme nationalism among Serbs, and specifically 
     in Kosovo, including support for violence against non-Serbs 
     who were labeled as threats;
       Whereas there is reason to believe that as President of 
     Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic was responsible for the conception 
     and direction of a war of aggression, the deaths of hundreds 
     of thousands, the torture and rape of tens of thousands and 
     the forced displacement of nearly 3,000,000 people, and that 
     mass rape and forced impregnation were among the tools used 
     to wage this war;
       Whereas ``ethnic cleansing'' has been carried out in the 
     former Yugoslavia in such a consistent and systematic way 
     that it had to be directed by the senior political leadership 
     in Serbia, and Slobodan Milosevic has held such power within 
     Serbia that he is responsible for the conception and 
     direction of this policy;
       Whereas, as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 
     (Serbia and Montenegro), Slobodan Milosevic is responsible 
     for the conception and direction of assaults by Yugoslavian 
     and Serbian military, security, special police, and other 
     forces on innocent civilians in Kosovo which have so far 
     resulted in an estimated 300 people dead or missing and the 
     forced displacement of tens of thousands, and such assaults 
     continue;
       Whereas on May 25, 1993, United Nations Security Council 
     Resolution 827 created the International Criminal Tribunal 
     for the former Yugoslavia located in The Hague, the 
     Netherlands (hereafter in this resolution referred to as the 
     ``Tribunal''), and gave it jurisdiction over all crimes 
     arising out of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia;
       Whereas this Tribunal has publicly indicted 60 people for 
     war crimes or crimes against humanity arising out of the 
     conflict in the former Yugoslavia and has issued a number of 
     secret indictments that have only been made public upon the 
     apprehension of the indicted persons;
       Whereas it is incumbent upon the United States and all 
     other nations to support the

[[Page S8458]]

     Tribunal, and the United States has done so by providing, 
     since 1992, funding in the amount of $54,000,000 in assessed 
     payments and more than $11,000,000 in voluntary and in-kind 
     contributions to the Tribunal and the War Crimes Commission 
     which preceded it, and by supplying information collected by 
     the United States that can aid the Tribunal's investigations, 
     prosecutions, and adjudications;
       Whereas any lasting, peaceful solution to the conflict in 
     the former Yugoslavia must be based upon justice for all, 
     including the most senior officials of the government or 
     governments responsible for conceiving, organizing, 
     initiating, directing, and sustaining the Yugoslav conflict 
     and whose forces have committed war crimes, crimes against 
     humanity and genocide; and
       Whereas Slobodan Milosevic has been the single person who 
     has been in the highest government offices in an aggressor 
     state since before the inception of the conflict in the 
     former Yugoslavia, who has had the power to decide for peace 
     and instead decided for war, who has had the power to 
     minimize illegal actions by subordinates and allies and hold 
     responsible those who committed such actions, but did not, 
     and who is once again directing a campaign of ethnic 
     cleansing against innocent civilians in Kosovo while treating 
     with contempt international efforts to achieve a fair and 
     peaceful settlement to the question of the future status of 
     Kosovo: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that--
       (1) the United States should publicly declare that it 
     considers that there is reason to believe that Slobodan 
     Milosevic, President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 
     (Serbia and Montenegro), has committed war crimes, crimes 
     against humanity and genocide;
       (2) the United States should make collection of information 
     that can be supplied to the Tribunal for use as evidence to 
     support an indictment and trial of President Slobodan 
     Milosevic for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and 
     genocide a high priority;
       (3) any such information concerning President Slobodan 
     Milosevic already collected by the United States should be 
     provided to the Tribunal as soon as possible;
       (4) the United States should provide a fair share of any 
     additional financial or personnel resources that may be 
     required by the Tribunal in order to enable the Tribunal to 
     adequately address preparation for, indictment of, 
     prosecution of, and adjudication of allegations of war crimes 
     and crimes against humanity posed against President Slobodan 
     Milosevic and any other person arising from the conflict in 
     the former Yugoslavia, including in Kosovo;
       (5) the United States should engage with other members of 
     the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and other interested 
     states in a discussion of information any such state may hold 
     relating to allegations of war crimes and crimes against 
     humanity posed against President Slobodan Milosevic and any 
     other person arising from the conflict in the former 
     Yugoslavia, including in Kosovo, and press such states to 
     promptly provide all such information to the Tribunal;
       (6) the United States should engage with other members of 
     the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and other interested 
     states in a discussion of measures to be taken to apprehend 
     indicted war criminals and persons indicted for crimes 
     against humanity with the objective of concluding a plan of 
     action that will result in these indictees' prompt delivery 
     into the custody of the Tribunal; and
       (7) the United States should urge the Tribunal to promptly 
     review all information relating to President Slobodan 
     Milosevic's possible criminal culpability for conceiving, 
     directing, and sustaining a variety of actions in the former 
     Yugoslavia, including Kosovo, that have had the effect of 
     genocide, of other crimes against humanity, or of war crimes, 
     with a view toward prompt issuance of a public indictment of 
     Milosevic.
       Sec. 2. The Secretary of the Senate shall transmit a copy 
     of this resolution to the President.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
  Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, I thank this body and thank all of my 
colleagues for their support of what I consider to be a very important 
initiative. I certainly hope that the House acts quickly on this. I 
believe this is the least that we can and should do.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. DORGAN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senator from 
North Dakota is recognized for 15 minutes.

                          ____________________