[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.
____________________