[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 129 (Thursday, September 24, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10901-S10903]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         CATASTROPHE IN KOSOVO

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today to draw attention to the 
foreign policy catastrophe unraveling in Kosovo. Yogi Berra 
immortalized the phrase ``this is deja vu all over again''--and that is 
just what we are seeing in Kosovo--Bosnia, all over again. Today, just 
like yesterday and the day before, men, women, and children in Kosovo 
are living and dying witnesses to a rerun of the tragic experience 
suffered by Bosnia for three brutal years. Hundreds of thousands of 
civilians are, once again, the victims of our false promises and a 
deeply flawed policy.
  Take a minute to review the events as they have unfolded on the 
ground to establish exactly what I think Belgrade has learned about 
United States policy. What Milosevic and his mafia have figured out 
is--we bluster and threaten,

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we issue ultimatums and condemnations, but the policy is hollow, the 
threats are empty, the show is a charade.
  A recent Congressional Research Service chronology provides stark 
evidence of this sad pattern of Western threats and demands, always 
swiftly challenged by vicious Serbian violence and assaults against 
Kosovo's civilians. And, the response to these attacks? Concessions and 
inaction.
  The United States has not failed alone. We are joined in this 
collective dishonor by the G-7 nations, the OSCE, the European Union, 
the Contact Group, and even the United Nations which have individually 
and collectively reneged on commitments made to take action to stop the 
bloodshed, to produce a cease-fire, to prompt a withdrawal of Serb 
troops, and to protect the rapidly mounting numbers of refugees and 
displaced people.
  The CRS report tell us:
  On January 8, the six nations of the Contact Group declared Kosovo a 
matter of priority urging a peaceful dialogue to begin between parties. 
This message was reinforced by Special Envoy Gelbard in meetings with 
Milosevic in Belgrade. The response, within days, was attacks by the 
Serbian police on a small village leaving ethnic Albanians dead and 
more wounded. While this was a relatively small assault, the beginning 
of the coming trend was marked by 20,000 people turning out for the 
funeral in protest of that action.
  On February 23, Gelbard announced some minor concessions to the Serbs 
including restoring landing rights for their airlines. At the same time 
the Contact Group foreign ministers issued a statement expressing 
concern about the lack of progress in dialogue. In an attempt at 
balance and fairness they even condemned terrorist acts by the Kosovo 
Liberation Army and reiterated their lack of support for Kosovo 
independence.
  What did the Serbs do in response to these generous gestures? Within 
three days, Serbian forces launched major attacks on villages in 
central Kosovo. CRS reports the attacks were ``spearheaded by thousands 
of Serbian police and Interior Ministry troops and resulted in 20 to 30 
deaths mostly of ethnic Albanians.''
  On March 2, the United Stats and the European Union joined voices in 
condemning violence by Serb forces. On March 5, Serb police and special 
anti-terrorist units ``began their second largest offensive in central 
Kosovo. KLA strongholds were attacked with armored vehicles and 
helicopter gun ships * * * the assault continued for 2 days and claimed 
the lives of 6 police officers and over 50 Kosovar Albanians.''
  On March 4, Mr. Gelbard said, ``I guarantee you we simply won't brook 
any renewal of violence,'' followed on March 7, by Secretary Albright 
who issued her now famous ultimatum. She said, Milosevic ``will have to 
pay a price. The international community will not stand by and watch 
the Serbian authorities do in Kosovo what they can no longer get away 
with doing in Bosnia.'' Her statement was backed up by a Contact Group 
declaration demanding Milosevic take specific steps within ten days 
including withdrawing paramilitary troops and allowing Red Cross access 
conflict zones.
  As the Contact Group was issuing its statement, in a gruesome public 
spectacle, Serb troops dumped 51 bodies at a warehouse, each one an 
ethnic Albanian, 25 of them were women and children. Before 
international forensics experts could complete autopsies, the Serbs 
bulldozed the bodies into a mass grave.
  This pattern of challenge and brutal response continued weekly 
through the spring and summer. Threats of western actions have been 
dismissed by Serb attacks, after attack, after attack.
  Villages are shelled, burned and looted. Crops and fields are burned. 
The death toll and refugee population swells. Yesterday a Kosovo 
journalist told me that the Serbs have now destroyed 400 of the 700 
villages in Kosovo.
  And, the world watches. Deja vu all over again.
  I thought we had reached an all time low in June when 84 NATO planes 
carried out a six nation exercise in Albania and Macedonia intended as 
a show of strength and force. The Washington Post summed up the events 
saying, ``Yugoslavia's reply to threats of NATO air strikes could be 
heard for miles around in the nightly bombardment of border villages.''
  Mr. President, the tragedy continues. Winter's cold curtain now falls 
upon the weakened shoulders of tens of thousands of families expelled 
from their homes, in hiding in the mountains and forests of Kosovo. 
Soon, we will begin to see the heart-rending, pitiful images of ailing, 
elderly women, clutching babies and toddlers, every possession they 
could salvage strapped to their backs, stagger out of hiding, hoping to 
cross borders into safe haven, but more likely, stumbling into harm's 
way.
  And, this time, Mr. President, the consequences of inertia are deadly 
serious. I agree with Ambassador Holbrooke's assessment that Kosovo is 
``the most explosive tinderbox in the region.'' Unlike Bosnia, the 
long-standing frictions involving Kosovars, Albanian, Serbs, and 
Macedonians have consequences in Greece and Turkey--precarious NATO 
partners in the best of times.
  The conditions in Kosovo have demanded action for months. Instead we 
have been a state of policy stall. Now, as much in recognition of the 
weather, the Administration has turned a lethal pattern of appeasement 
into a dangerous policy of collaboration and containment.
  Let me point to two examples of the current approach which seeks a 
partnership with Belgrade rather than protection of innocent refugees. 
As conditions worsen, the Administration seems seized with a 
containment strategy, which balances on improving delivery of relief 
while controlling what they view as potentially messy regional 
spillover problem.
  There are two prongs to this misguided effort. First, let me describe 
what the Administration is considering on the relief front. Earlier 
this month, administration officials announced plans to work in Kosovo 
through twelve centers established by Serb security forces to 
distribute emergency food and supplies to the victims of this savage 
war. I am not sure what surprised me more--the fact that we would work 
with the very forces which carried out the atrocities creating hundreds 
of thousands of victims, or the fact that we decided to encourage this 
cooperation by actually making food available to Serb troops. The new 
chief of the Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs offered and has provided 
thousands of food rations to Serb troops fresh from bloody killing 
fields. He even asked NGO representatives to cooperate with this plan 
and work through these twelve centers. As one representative described 
it to me, the NGOs were the bait, intended to lure refugees into Serb 
centers. AID claims that this plan was agreed to by the major non-
government organizations carrying out humanitarian relief in Kosovo, 
but I can't find one that thinks collaborating with Belgrade makes any 
sense.
  This effort to control and contain the problem also has a military 
component--but the wrong military component. Last week, the foreign 
Operations Subcommittee was briefed on Administration plans to provide 
$7.3 million in security assistance loans to Macedonia. This train an 
equip initiative will provide night vision goggles, surveillance radar, 
ammunition, body armor, howitzers and trucks to 3,000 Macedonian 
soldiers--troops with long-standing ties to Serbian security forces. 
Coincidentally, Macedonia also has an ethnic Albanian community which 
suffer what many describe as apartheid-like conditions.
  Arming the Macedonians is the wrong substitute for the current policy 
failure in Kosovo. Having failed to talk Milosevic into submission, 
this program strikes me as a complete retreat in which the United 
States is supplying an effort to establish a cordon sanitaire isolating 
Kosovo. Strengthening Macedonian troops may have a defense purpose but 
it also clearly serves an offensive one--to curb the flow of people and 
supplies into and out of Kosovo.

  I hope we all learned at least one lesson in Bosnia--we pay a huge 
price for imposing an unfair and imbalanced embargo against only one 
party in a conflict. In good conscience, I for one, cannot support an 
initiative designed intentionally or otherwise to surround and choke 
off Kosovo. I have made

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clear to the Secretaries of State and Defense that I will not release 
the funds for this reprogramming unless and until appropriate action is 
taken to produce results in Kosovo.
  Secretary Albright has repeatedly stated that the only kind of 
pressure Milosevic and his mafia understand is the kind which exacts a 
real price for his unacceptable conduct. His campaign to burn Kosovo to 
the ground was launched as the Administration pushed Kosovars to the 
negotiating table and continues as we speak today. it is well past the 
time for threats of sanctions and NATO flyovers. The Administration 
must move decisively, offering the necessary leadership to back up our 
ultimatums with the effective use of air strikes and force in order to 
secure our common goals: a cease fire, the withdrawal of Serb forces, 
and the protection of refugees, displaced people and relief efforts.
  Balkan history provides substantial evidence that Belgrade's abuse of 
force demands a commensurate response. Without this fundamental 
guarantee, diplomacy will most certainly fail and we will bear witness 
to yet another of Milosevic's genocidal slaughters. His victims will 
not only be those who suffer, lose their life possessions, and die on 
Kosovo's fields. He will also destroy American honor and credibility--
taking along with that what shred of hope there is for us to lead this 
troubled world onto a peaceful path into the next century.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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