[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
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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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