[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 125 (Friday, September 18, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1765-E1766]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          ATROCITIES IN KOSOVO

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 18, 1998

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Commission on 
Security and

[[Page E1766]]

Cooperation in Europe--the Helsinki Commission--held a hearing on the 
latest atrocities in Kosovo. Senator Alfonse D'Amato and I co-chair the 
Commission and felt it critical to hold a hearing on the crisis in 
Kosovo. Other Commissioners--Senator Frank Lautenberg and our 
colleagues Representatives Steny Hoyer and Ben Cardin--joined us at the 
hearing. Representative Ben Gilman, Chairman of the House International 
Relations Committee, and Representative Eliot Engel, a longstanding 
Kosovo advocate, were there as well.
  The Commission, as most of you know, has a mandate and an obligation 
to document human rights violations where they occur in Europe. This is 
especially the case when these violations are, in fact, atrocities and 
crimes against humanity. Sadly, such violations are still taking place.
  The hearing focused on the atrocities and the humanitarian crisis in 
Kosovo today as viewed by two individuals--Assistant Secretary of State 
John Shattuck and Senator Bob Dole--who have just returned from Kosovo 
and also from Belgrade, where they met with Milosevic himself. We heard 
what they saw firsthand in Kosovo and also what Belgrade says about 
what they saw. Both were excellent in their presentations, and their 
well-known records as public officials and as human rights advocates 
added to their effectiveness.
  Secretary Shattuck, who heads the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights 
and Labor, spoke in detail about the disturbing accounts of men and 
boys being separated from women and small children. This is exactly 
what would precede massacres in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Shattuck spoke 
about the heavily shelled and sometimes still burning towns which they 
saw, ``abandoned to packs of wild dogs and heavily armed Serb police 
and Yugoslav army forces. Among the displaced children * * * there was 
evidence of the beginning of malnutrition.''
  Senator Dole added that many of the children have scabies and other 
skin ailments and sores in their mouths. He reported that personnel 
from humanitarian organizations are being harassed and even attacked, 
noting in particular the killing of three workers for the Mother 
Theresa Society.
  As with Bosnia, Mr. Speaker, we must go beyond mere documentation of 
the tragedy in Kosovo. We must witness, but we must also act. No one 
can see or hear what has happened in Kosovo this year without asking 
what can be done to stop it from continuing. Half-measures will not 
address the central causes of this conflict. They may, in fact, make 
efforts to address those causes more difficult to undertake. We all 
learned from the Bosnian conflict that diplomacy alone will not work. 
Nor will more and more humanitarian assistance, as welcomed as such 
help might be. Decisive outside intervention is what is required, and 
NATO is the most likely organization to do this. Of course, NATO 
intervention has its risks, and we in the Congress and the U.S. 
Government must assess whether those risks are worth taking. The 
hearing certainly helped the Commissioners and other Members present 
understand the situation on the ground.
  ``What is urgently needed now is American leadership and a firm 
commitment to a genuine and just peace in Kosovo,'' said Senator Dole. 
``Bush gave Milosevic the green light, and it hasn't been turned off.'' 
``Yet, if we do not act before winter sets in,'' he added, ``if the 
Kosovars in the mountains begin to freeze to death, then Milosevic can 
get away with the claim that he didn't murder them. To do the right 
thing, we don't have much time.'' Secretary Shattuck added that 
``crimes against humanity have been committed. [Thus] the International 
War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague is a critical piece of the long-term 
process of bringing a political solution in Kosovo.''
  In conclusion, the attacks on the people of Kosovo are inhumane and 
brutal beyond comprehension. The intentional displacement of the 
civilian population, the execution of people held in detention, the 
destruction of food supplies, and the prevention of aid deliveries all 
have happened so repeatedly that they cannot be dismissed as anything 
short of a deliberate policy to destroy. That policy originates in 
Belgrade, with Slobodan Milosevic at the helm. All the complexities of 
the Balkans do not erase that simple fact. Both the House and the 
Senate are on record as believing Milosevic is a war criminal. We would 
hope that, if we stop Milosevic, the problems in the region could be 
resolved in a peaceful and democratic way. Bosnia taught us the hard 
lesson that delayed action results in the loss of more and more lives.
  Mr. Speaker, I have not been known as someone who readily recommends 
a military response, but, if we do not act in this case, knowing--as we 
do know--that many more people will die as a result, we share some 
responsibility for what does happen. We become, in effect, a partner in 
the crime. That happened in Bosnia. NATO must act in Kosovo. NATO must 
act now.

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