[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 151 (Wednesday, October 21, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12900-S12902]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 SERBIAN CRACKDOWN ON INDEPENDENT MEDIA

 Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, I rise today to call to my 
colleagues' attention an ominous and entirely predictable development--
Slobodan Milosevic is closing the independent media in Serbia. He is 
following the time-worn practice of dictators by trying to control 
Serbians' thinking--and therefore their politics--by controlling their 
access to information.
  The Senate and House have declared that we have reason to believe 
that

[[Page S12901]]

Milosevic has committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and 
genocide. While offenses like denying freedom of speech, assembly, and 
the press to his people don't rise to that capital criminal level, they 
further demonstrate his fine disdain for the rules and values of the 
rest of the world, and his iron determination to hold power at all 
costs.
  We are treated to the spectacle of Milosevic's killers conducting 
ethnic cleansing in Kosovo while he and his political allies use the 
Kosovo conflict as a tool to divide and suppress Serbian domestic 
political opposition. The mass public demonstrations aimed at the 
creation of democracy in Serbia have ceased. Factions joined together 
in opposition to Milosevic have been split apart, as he has appealed 
once again to extreme nationalist Serbian sentiment.
  Indeed, his excuse for closing these independent media outlets has 
been because they have been spreading ``fear, panic and defeatism'' and 
undermining ``the people's readiness to safeguard the territorial 
integrity and sovereignty of Serbia.'' He has been so happy with the 
results of this effort that his tame parliament, according to a report 
in the October 21, 1998 edition of the Washington Post, ``adopted a new 
information law today that critics say further restricts independent 
media and leads the country back toward dictatorship. The law bans 
broadcasts of Serbian-language programs by foreign media and calls for 
huge fines against media editors and owners who disobey the decree. It 
also gives broad powers to the authorities and places further 
restrictions on working permits for media organizations.''
  This situation was thoroughly discussed in a Washington Post op-ed 
entitled ``Darkness Over Serbia,'' by Slobodan Pavlovic, printed in the 
Tuesday, October 20, 1998 edition on page A19. I commend this article 
to my colleagues.
  Milosevic has carefully calibrated his defiance of the rest of the 
world. He knows, or at least thinks he knows, what it would take to 
trigger a forceful response to his actions, and he stays just short of 
that threshold. The terrible consequences of his determination, and the 
world's forbearance, are clear to see in the faces of the refugees in 
Kosovo and hear in the silence left by the suppressed voices of his 
domestic opposition in Serbia.
  Just as in Bosnia, the international community, represented by 
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, has gone to Milosevic in Belgrade, 
looking for peace in Kosovo. Once again, we have made Milosevic the 
indispensable man, and thereby encouraged him to remain difficult, at a 
level that requires our constant attention. In addition, in the process 
of seeking Milosevic's agreement to abide by the terms of a United 
Nations Security Council resolution, our visiting delegations have not 
met with the democratic opposition in Serbia. This has sent a 
regrettable message, one that we should not have sent.
  Mr. President, while we cannot save the independent media in Serbia 
from Milosevic's wrath, we must let them know that we care, that we 
have not forgotten them, that we support them, and that we understand 
that a democratic Serbia open to the West and the world is the solution 
to lasting peace in the Balkans. I also want to express my support for 
our efforts to sustain Serbian-language broadcasting into Serbia, which 
is even more important now that independent domestic voices are stifled 
by force.
  The people of Serbia are not enemies of the United States. The 
Milosevic regime is not just an enemy of the United States, it is an 
enemy of the world. The sooner those powers that extend, in some form, 
comfort and support to Milosevic realize this, the sooner we can move 
toward the establishment of peace in the Balkans.
  It is in no power's interest that there should be lasting war, 
political instability, and economic depression in the Balkans. Whatever 
advantage may be gained in the short term by diverting time, money, 
forces, and energy to coping with the results of Milosevic's unbridled 
political ambition can vanish quickly. If he should miscalculate or if 
any number of unpredictable events should take place, this conflict 
could spill across international borders with incalculable 
consequences.
  In conclusion, while expressions of our outrage cannot reopen 
newspapers or turn on radio or television transmitters, we can give 
hope and courage to those who believe in basic human rights. Freedom of 
speech, assembly, and the press are essential to the creation and 
function of civil society. Serbia and Montenegro have promised in the 
Helsinki Accords and elsewhere to respect and protect these rights, and 
Milosevic's regime is in clear and blatant violation of these 
commitments. I expect the United States and our allies to make clear to 
Milosevic that we know what he has done and is doing and will hold him 
responsible for these actions.
  I ask that an article entitled ``Milosevic Told He Hasn't Met NATO 
Demands'' be printed in the Record.
  The article follows:

             [From the Associated Press, October 21, 1998]

               Milosevic Told He Hasn't Met NATO Demands

                             (By Tom Cohen)

       Pristina, Yugoslavia, Oct. 20.--NATO's military chief 
     warned Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic today he still 
     has not met terms of an agreement to avert airstrikes.
       U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark delivered the message to 
     Milosevic in the capital Belgrade as a new surge of violence 
     raised fears about the Oct. 12 agreement with U.S. envoy 
     Richard C. Holbrooke aimed at ending the ethnic conflict in 
     Kosovo province. Their meeting began around 6 p.m. today and 
     ended late in the evening.
       Earlier, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin told 
     reporters in Washington that Clark would talk to the Yugoslav 
     leader ``about his failure to comply fully with the 
     requirements of the international community. And he will be 
     making very clear that NATO will use military force against 
     the Serbs if he [Milosevic] doesn't comply,'' Rubin said.
       U.S. and NATO officials have complained that Milosevic 
     still has not withdrawn all the special police units sent to 
     Kosovo in February when he launched his crackdown against 
     ethnic Albanian separatists of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
       The guerrillas have been fighting for independence for 
     Kosovo, a province of Yugoslavia's main republic of Serbia. 
     Ethnic Albanians comprise 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million 
     inhabitants.
       Under an agreement with Holbrooke, Milosevic pledged to 
     meet a series of U.N. demands--including a withdrawal of 
     special police and army units, halting the crackdown, 
     allowing international agencies to aid refugees and resuming 
     talks with ethnic Albanians on the future of the province.
       Meanwhile, recent violence has prompted Yugoslav army 
     troops backed by Serbian police to maintain a presence. The 
     official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said today a Serbian 
     policeman was wounded when ``terrorists'' attacked a police 
     patrol near Klina, 30 miles southwest of Pristina, the 
     capital. U.S. officials have also warned the Kosovo 
     Liberation Army to halt such attacks.
       In Pristina, the rebels issued a statement detailing a 
     series of demands, chief among them the withdrawal of all 
     government forces from the province. In a statement to 
     Albanian-language media, rebels also demanded a halt to 
     arrests of suspected guerrillas, release of ``political 
     prisoners'' and investigations of ``crimes against 
     humanity.''
       ``Failure to fulfill those demands will impose on [the 
     Kosovo Liberation Army] the continuation of the war for 
     freedom, independence and democracy,'' the rebels said.
       Meanwhile, the Serbian parliament adopted a new information 
     law today that critics say further restricts independent 
     media and leads the country back toward dictatorship.
       The law bans broadcasts of Serbian-language programs by 
     foreign media and calls for huge fines against media editors 
     and owners who disobey the decree. It also gives broad powers 
     to the authorities and places further restrictions on working 
     permits for media organizations.
                                  ____


               [From the Washington Post, Oct. 20, 1998]

                          Darkness Over Serbia

                         (By Slobodan Pavlovic)

       Fortunately, bombs did not fall on Serbia. But Serbia still 
     found itself in darkness--a media darkness characterizing 
     totalitarian regimes. A darkness that never existed even 
     during the time that we are ready today to call ``Tito's 
     dictatorship in Yugoslavia.''
       The ruling red-black coalition in Belgrade (Slobodan 
     Milosevic's Socialists, the Communists of his wife Mira 
     Markovic and radicals led by Vojislav Seselj) has imposed a 
     sort of dictatorship in Serbia. The government order to close 
     down the leading independent dailies Nasa Borba, Dnevni 
     Telegraf and Danas, to silence a number of radio stations and 
     to ban transmission of foreign broadcasts, has created legal 
     ground for the so-called ``Information Bill,'' which was 
     urgently prepared for the Serbian assembly.
       On the battlefield for truth in Serbia there are left two 
     privately owned tabloids, two independent news agencies and 
     the Association of the Independent Electronic Media, led by 
     the popular radio station B92. How long they will survive 
     remains to be seen. The regime is sending threatening signals 
     that, after the downing of the flagships of the independent 
     media, it will deal with all the other ``sources of the enemy 
     propaganda,'' including owners of the satellite dishes and 
     Internet providers in Serbia.

[[Page S12902]]

       Although Slobodan Milosevic announced last week that the 
     agreement on Kosovo reached with ambassador Richard Holbrooke 
     has eliminated immediate danger of war, the closing down of 
     the independent media is still being carried out for, 
     allegedly, spreading ``fear, panic and defeatism'' and 
     undermining ``the people's readiness to safeguard the 
     territorial integrity and sovereignty of Serbia.''
       Milosevic's war against truth, which has been fought since 
     the beginning of the breakdown of the former Yugoslavia, has 
     continued on Kosovo. Intentions of the Belgrade despot are 
     clear: He obviously does not want the threat of the NATO 
     force he has brought to Serbia to receive media coverage at 
     home, except that provided by government propaganda. Only 
     that way can he conceal from the people who are already 
     generally brainwashed by official propaganda, the fact that 
     the agreement with Holbrooke represents no victory for Serbia 
     (as claimed by the controlled media in Belgrade) but an 
     ultimatum from the international community on the basic 
     issues of Kosovo, which could have been resolved a long time 
     ago--without war, victims, destruction, refugees and OSCE and 
     NATO verifiers.
       The British prime minister, Tony Blair, stated a few days 
     ago that President Milosevic is deluding himself if he counts 
     on using the latest breakthrough in the Kosovo talks as 
     leverage to undermine the remaining political opponents in 
     Serbia. This message from London sounds promising, but would 
     serve even better if the free world were to confirm it by 
     taking a few concrete steps.
       The Cold War was a war for democracy, which America won 
     without firing one single bullet. Would it not be ironic and 
     tragic that lessons in democracy are to be given now by 
     dropping NATO bombs on those still living in the times before 
     the fall of the Berlin Wall?
       Cooperation of the Belgrade regime could be secured only by 
     threatening Milosevic with ``arguments'' from the commander 
     of NATO, Gen. Wesley Clark. However, the agreement reached 
     later (it would be a mistake to characterize it as a peace 
     agreement; at best, it is a cease-fire) does not address at 
     all the fundamental underlying problem of continuing 
     political instability in Balkans--the lack of democracy in 
     Serbia. In fact, the Kosovo agreement strengthens Milosevic's 
     authoritarian power. He will now quickly establish full 
     cooperation with international humanitarian agencies, while 
     proclaiming at home that he has done his duty in suppressing 
     the terrorist rebellion in Kosovo.
       Friends of Serbia abroad often say that the Serbian people 
     have to start helping themselves, before anyone else can help 
     them on their road to democracy. That is true. But it is also 
     true that the United States and, generally, the international 
     community have up to now not paid the necessary attention to 
     the existing democratic alternative in Serbia, nor have they 
     offered them the necessary help required.
       For example, in the agreement between Holbrooke and 
     Milosevic, a condition is set that within nine months free 
     and fair elections must be held in Kosovo, but it is not 
     noted anywhere that the same regular elections in Serbia 
     proper should be one of the conditions for its reentry into 
     the international institutions.
       Equally, the Clinton administration has for some time been 
     advised to begin diplomatic isolation of President Milosevic, 
     instead of providing him with the public image of an 
     internationally recognized and respected leader. As the 
     representatives of the Serbian democratic alternative said 
     during their recent visit to Washington: ``Milosevic is the 
     problem, not the solution for Serbia.''
       There cannot be real solutions for the problems in Kosovo 
     and Bosnia without democracy in Serbia, and there will not be 
     democracy in Serbia as long as Slobodan Milosevic is in 
     charge in Belgrade. The current media darkness over Serbia 
     confirms that said fact.


                     NOMINATION OF JAMES C. HORMEL

 Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I am deeply saddened that the 
Senate will adjourn for the year without approving the nomination of 
James C. Hormel to be U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg. Mr. Hormel's 
nomination has been pending in the Senate, but it has never even been 
scheduled for debate.
  Since James Hormel's nomination was favorably reported out of the 
Senate Foreign Relations Committee last year, many senators have asked 
the Majority Leader to schedule a debate and vote. Many have recognized 
Mr. Hormel's extensive knowledge of diplomacy, international relations 
and the business world, his outstanding record of service to his 
community and his nation, and his leadership qualities--all of which 
make him obviously qualified for the post to which he was nominated by 
the President.
  James Hormel graduated from Swathmore College and shortly thereafter 
earned his Juris Doctorate at the University of Chicago Law School. He 
served for several years as the Dean of Students and Assistant Dean at 
the University of Chicago Law School. Since 1984, he has presided as 
Chairman of EQUIDEX, Inc., an investment firm based in San Francisco.
  For the past 30 years, Mr. Hormel has been a dedicated 
philanthropist, generously working to support a wide range of worthy 
causes. For his unselfish acts of giving, he has received several 
awards and honors. In 1996, he was named Philanthropist of the Year by 
the Golden Gate Chapter of the National Society of Fundraising 
Executives.
  On the local level, Mr. Hormel is an active member of the San 
Francisco community working with several important civic organizations. 
His current projects include the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the 
Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the San Francisco Symphony and the 
American Foundation for AIDS Research.
  James Hormel has the necessary skills and talents to serve as an 
ambassador. He is clearly qualified to represent his country in 
Luxembourg. He has as clear a record of achievement and service as any 
ambassadorial nominee the Senate has ever considered.
  But despite Mr. Hormel's impressive resume and the favorable 
recommendation of the Foreign Relations Committee, his nomination was 
not even given the courtesy of a debate by the full Senate. Why not? 
Any senator who questioned Mr. Hormel's qualifications to be ambassador 
to Luxembourg could have done so in a public debate on the Senate 
floor. That is every senator's right. That is the Senate's procedure. 
That is the Constitutional process.
  Unfortunately, however, instead of a debate by the full Senate on the 
question of his nomination, Mr. Hormel himself was subjected to 
repeated accusations in the form of ``morning business statements'' and 
comments to the news media.
  I can only say, Mr. President, that, in my view, the Senate failed to 
take up the nomination of James Hormel for the sole reason that he is 
gay.
  The Senate should have debated and voted on this nomination. If it 
had done so, I am confident that Mr. Hormel would have been confirmed. 
But, because of the prejudice of a few individuals, James Hormel has 
been denied the opportunity to serve his country in a position at which 
I believe he would have excelled and made us all proud.
  The failure to act on the nomination of James C. Hormel will forever 
be a blot on the record of this Senate.

                          ____________________