[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 150 (Tuesday, October 20, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12683-S12684]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 KOSOVO

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I have repeatedly taken the floor to speak 
about my great concern regarding the people who are suffering today in 
Kosovo. As I stated in my remarks on previous days, I visited Kosovo 
some weeks ago in the company of the KDOM--which is a most unusual 
organization--but it has the permission by which to take unarmed 
missions into the countryside around Pristina and elsewhere, to see the 
ravages of that tragic conflict.
  Regrettably, even though we have now in place an agreement with 
Milosevic, the fighting and the strife continues. We have recently 
executed an agreement. I say ``we.'' Primarily, the United Nations and 
NATO have entered into an agreement with the Yugoslav Government, and 
President Milosevic signed it.
  There have been some changes in the status of forces of the Yugoslav 
Army and the like, but it is a very fluid situation. We hear one day 
units are moving out and then today there are reports that other 
Yugoslav Army units are being redeployed. The suffering, however, 
continues and the winter is coming. The whole world is standing by to 
witness what is, I think, one of the greatest recent tragedies.
  Weather is as cruel as weapons. I saw, for my own eyes, these people 
huddled in the hills, helpless, homeless, without food, without 
medicine; tens of thousands--we do not know with any specific accuracy 
how many there are, but it certainly is in excess of 100,000 human 
beings--innocent victims, by and large, of the conflicts, political and 
military, in this region of Kosovo.
  I have had the opportunity to get briefed by the Central Intelligence 
Agency, briefed by the Department of Defense; I try to remain as 
current as I can on this issue. The bottom line of what I am saying 
today is it is time that we look with great seriousness at the need to 
constitute a force which will have sufficient arms to go into that 
region and provide the stability necessary--I repeat, the stability 
necessary for the nongovernmental institutions and others to bring in 
the food, the medicine and the shelter that is required to support 
these people. It is as simple as that. They will simply perish by the 
tens of thousands without this sort of help.
  The agreement provides for the OSCE to come in. This is the first 
time in the history of that organization that they have ever undertaken 
a challenge of this magnitude. They are not organized, really, to work 
to provide security which requires force of arms, but some attempt will 
be made along that line. The bottom line, I think, is someone has to 
stand up--and I am prepared to do it--and say that NATO is the only 
force constituted that can come in, in a short period of days, 
literally days, to give that degree of stability so these emergency 
supplies can come in. It is my grave concern that unless that is done 
and done promptly, the world will witness human suffering of a 
magnitude we have not seen, certainly, in a long time. I think only 
NATO can step in to do this.
  I know the deep concern here in the Senate and elsewhere in the 
United States about employing any U.S. ground troops in the region of 
Kosovo. We went through those debates with regard to Bosnia. I 
personally was never in favor of it. But once we make a decision, as we 
have now made, and we have the agreements in place, there is absolutely 
no alternative but to faithfully try and execute our responsibility, 
together with NATO and the United Nations, to provide the environment 
in which, in the few weeks to come, we can save the lives of tens of 
thousands of innocent people. That can only be done by putting in place 
uniformed, organized, well-trained troops. Their presence could well be 
the deterrent to stop the fighting.
  In my judgment, there are no clean hands in this situation. The 
preponderance of the atrocities obviously have been committed by the 
Serbian forces under the direction, either indirectly or directly, of 
Slobodan Milosevic. There is no doubt about that. But there also are 
some attacks being perpetrated by the KLA, which is that disparate 
group, relatively undefined, whose leadership changes from time to 
time, whose organization has very little coordination between the 
various bands of the KLA, but nevertheless they have perpetrated 
atrocities and, apparently, there are reports that some atrocities are 
continuing to be perpetrated by the KLA.
  Only an absolutely neutral independence force, as constituted by the 
United Nations, together with NATO, can provide the security necessary 
to bring in the needed food and medicine.
  In looking over the agreement, and in consultation with the 
Department of Defense, I have learned of one very interesting 
development. I have not, as yet, seen it in the open press, but I have 
obtained the authority of the Department of Defense to mention this, 
because I think it is a positive goal. There are certain positive goals 
that have been achieved by this agreement. This one will be severely 
criticized. I certainly have some criticism of it. But there are some 
positive results of the agreement that have recently been executed 
between the United Nations, NATO and the Yugoslav Government.
  One of them, for example, is as follows:

       Under the agreement, Milosevic has been required to accept 
     a continuing presence of NATO reconnaissance aircraft over 
     his sovereign airspace in order to monitor its compliance 
     with the terms of the accord.

  Under that, we have today--and this is most important--six NATO 
military officers in Belgrade inside the Serbian air defense 
headquarters to act as liaison with NATO. We expect Yugoslav air 
defense personnel to report to the Combined Air Operation Center in 
Italy today to perform the same function.
  That eliminates a lot of uncertainty that could spark a response by 
the Yugoslav air defense operations against our monitoring aircraft, 
and that must be avoided.
  We expect this military-to-military coordination to eliminate any 
possibility of miscommunication on the implementation of the air 
verification regime.
  I wish to say I find that to be a very positive part of this 
agreement. I just hope we will come to the realization that a second 
very positive step must be taken immediately, and that is placing 
security forces--and I think only NATO is able to do this within the 
few days that is required for those forces--to enable the food and 
medicine to reach those in need.
  Unquestionably, Milosevic bears the primary responsibility for 
finding an acceptable political solution that grants the people of 
Kosovo some degree of autonomy. We know not that level at this time. A 
degree of self-governance has to come about and, most importantly, 
freedom from the oppression we have witnessed in the past months and, 
indeed, throughout the past decade when Milosevic removed from Kosovo 
its degree of autonomy and self-governance that it had some years ago.
  Also, the ethnic Albanians bear responsibility for making this 
agreement a success as well. That primarily falls on the KLA. The 
political leadership of Kosovo and the Kosovo Liberation Army, or the 
UCK, as it is called, must refrain from violence and set up some 
establishment where they can have representatives at the negotiating 
table and negotiate in good faith and support the OSCE verification 
regime on the ground.
  Mr. President, I will continue to monitor this. Of course, I will not 
have an opportunity to do so here on the floor of the Senate, but I 
will by other means, because I personally am gravely concerned about 
the plight of these homeless, helpless people who only ask for the 
opportunity to live in peace and quiet in their countryside and in 
their small homes, which I have seen in great numbers, but regrettably 
most that I saw had been blown up and devastated.
  My prayers, and I think the prayers of the people of this country, 
are with

[[Page S12684]]

those helpless people. I hope we come to the quick realization of the 
steps that must be taken to resolve this tragic conflict.
  I yield the floor.

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