[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 2 (Thursday, January 7, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E58-E59]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  STATEMENT BY ALBANIAN AMERICAN CIVIC LEAGUE REGARDING SITUATION IN 
                                 KOSOVO

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, January 6, 1999

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to call the attention of the 
members of Congress to the following statement by the Albanian American 
Civil League regarding the current situation in Kosovo. It represents 
the views of a significant number of Albanian Americans, and I believe 
is of interest in view of the deteriorating situation in Kosovo:

            Statement by the Albanian American Civic League


    Independence for Kosovo is the Only Way to Stop Milosevic's War

       Recent events in Kosovo only confirm the Albanian American 
     Civic League's prior assessment that the Milosevic-Holbrooke 
     agreement is a death sentence for the Albanian people of 
     Kosovo. How many mistakes and tragedies must the Albanian 
     people bear before the United States realizes that it is 
     being exploited by Slobodan Milosevic as a convenient tool of 
     Slavic expansionism, at the expense of the Albanian people?
       The first major mistake occurred in 1990, when Secretary of 
     State James Baker gave Slobodan Milosevic the green light to 
     consolidate his power by stating that the goal of the United 
     States was to keep Yugoslavia together at all costs. 
     Milosevic responded by waging war first in Slovenia in 1990, 
     then in Croatia in 1991, and finally in Bosnia in 1992. (His 
     brutal military occupation of Kosovo in 1989 continues 
     unabated to this day.) In 1995, Richard Holbrooke authored 
     the Dayton Accords, in which a fault-ridden peace was 
     declared in Bosnia after negotiations that excluded the third 
     largest ethnic group in the former Yugoslavia--the Albanians. 
     Then, in February 1998, U.S. Special Envoy to Kosovo Robert 
     Gelbard mistakenly declared the Kosovo Liberation Army a 
     ``terrorist'' group, giving Milosevic the signal he needed to 
     openly wage a one-sided war against the Albanian people of 
     Kosovo. This led to massacres of unarmed and defenseless 
     civilians in Drenice and Dukagjin, leaving over 2,000 dead, 
     1,000 missing, and 300,000 displaced.
       In September 1998, in response to the public outcries 
     around the world about the brutality of the Serbian military 
     campaign against a civilian population, the United States 
     promoted the threat of air strikes against Serbia. But, true 
     to form, Holbrooke crafted an agreement that enabled 
     Milosevic to avert the use of force against him and at every 
     step accepted more of his false promises. One must ask why 
     our State Department is allowing a chauvinistic and 
     dictatorial pan-Slavic Orthodox regime, with direct links to 
     ultranationalists in Russia, to emerge in the Balkans?
       The so-called cease-fire of recent weeks never really took 
     place. The Serbs began to move their troops out of Kosovo in 
     October, but then they moved right back. Albanians insist 
     that the brutal and criminal Serbian paramilitary forces 
     staged the killing of six Serbian civilians in Peja this 
     month in order to justify the continuation of Milosevic's 
     ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. (The Kosovo Liberation Army was 
     quick to condemn the killings of the Serbian civilians.)
       The events in Podujeva on December 24, in which the Serbian 
     military attacked five villages, killed twelve Albanian 
     civilians, and caused the flight of thousands of others leave 
     no question about Milosevic's real intentions to continue the 
     ``ethnic cleansing'' of the Albanian majority of Kosovo. The 
     Western response to these events also leaves no question 
     about our role in the Balkan conflict--that we never had any 
     intention of stopping Milosevic from using illegal and 
     inhuman methods to destroy the right of Albanians to freedom, 
     democracy, and self-determination.
       For the past three weeks, our policy makers and the press 
     have once again attempted to create a false parity between 
     the Serbian military and the Kosovo Liberation Army, and to 
     cast blame on the KLA for breaking the socalled cease-fire. 
     They have promoted Serbia's false statements to the press, 
     including listing names of people supposedly arrested and 
     imprisoned by the KLA but who, according to reliable Albanian 
     sources, do not even exist. Meanwhile 2,000 Albanians are 
     being held and brutally tortured in barbaric Serbian jails. 
     And while this information goes unreported, unconfirmed 
     reports of atrocities committed by the KLA against innocent 
     Serbs living in Kosovo are publicized widely, even though the 
     KLA has repeatedly stated its policy against killing 
     civilians.
       As the misrepresentation of the conflict continues apace, 
     so do the ``diplomatic'' initiatives designed to sell out the 
     Albanian

[[Page E59]]

     people of Kosovo. The French government for example, has been 
     working behind the scenes to persuade Ibrahim Rugova, the 
     leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo, to believe that he 
     can find a solution to the Balkan conflict with Milosevic. 
     Following a recent trip to France, Rugova made a public 
     statement that Milosevic ``was elected by the Serbian people 
     in a legitimate way,'' and that he is the ``only legitimate 
     person'' with whom he can negotiate. More astonishing still, 
     Rugova stated that institutions in Kosovo that he controls 
     ``would do the utmost to persuade the UCK extremists to stop 
     their provocations and attacks on Serbian security forces.'' 
     Incredibly, this is tantamount to Rugova giving another green 
     light to Milosevic to continue his reign of terror and murder 
     against the Albanian people of Kosovo. Are we to assume that 
     some forces inside LDK are being supported by the West to try 
     to eliminate the KLA, and that they are willing to do so in 
     order to retain their political control of Kosovo under any 
     circumstances?
       There has been great concern among Western diplomats that 
     war has broken out again in Kosovo, well before the spring 
     thaw. But, it should now be clear to all that as long as the 
     Milosevic regime remains in power, the war will continue. To 
     stop the war, NATO forces led by the United States must be 
     mobilized to wage air strikes against Serbian military 
     targets in Kosovo and Serbia. But, ultimately, the only way 
     to peace and stability in the Balkans is to allow the 
     Albanian people the right to declare their independence under 
     international law, just as we allowed the Slovenes, 
     Croatians, Macedonians, and Bosnians after the demise of the 
     former Yugoslavia.

     

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