[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 10, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E188]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        THE SITUATION IN KOSOVA

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. SUE W. KELLY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 10, 1999

  Mrs. KELLY. Mr. Speaker, peace and security for the Kosovan people 
will never become a reality unless NATO brings military pressure to 
bear on Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, and unless the ongoing 
peace negotiations include a guaranteed right to self-determination for 
the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosova.
  The fact is, Mr. Speaker, NATO should have intervened a year ago when 
widespread violence against the Kosovan people was first initiated by 
Mr. Milosevic. Thousands are dead, tens of thousands are homeless, and 
many more have fled the country. Thousands of refugees now live in 
camps and settlements in neighboring countries, too afraid to return 
out of fear of reprisals. These countries are bearing the burden of the 
lack of peace in this region.
  Sadly, we have seen this spectacle before. Once again Milosevic 
carries out a genocidal campaign of ethnic cleansing, once again the 
international community is slow to react, and once again it is innocent 
civilians who must pay the terrible price that world indifference 
imposes.
  The renewed violence in Kosova is but the latest example of the 
manner in which Milosevic attempts to use terror and murder to hold 
together the republics which made up the former Yugoslavia. His 
policies of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, policies which shocked the 
world and eventually led to international intervention, are now being 
carried out with renewed vigor in Kosova. Sadly, the very same lack of 
resolve on the part of the international community which allowed 
Milosevic to kill thousands in Bosnia is allowing him to carry out a 
new campaign of terror against the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosova, 
which makes up 90% of the population.
  Perhaps no event better illustrates Milosevic's brutal policies than 
the recent massacre in the village of Racak, where 45 ethnic Albanians, 
many of whom were women and children, were found murdered by Serb 
military and police units. As in the past, it took a tragic event to 
finally focus the world's attention to the plight of the Kosovan 
people, and to move governments to act to stop the violence.
  Mr. Speaker, unless we wish to see more massacres, more fighting, and 
more misery in Kosova, the peace negotiations currently underway in 
France must include a military commitment to enforce the peace. Despots 
such as Milosevic and Saddam Hussein do not respect international law. 
They do not respond to impassioned appeals for peace and human rights. 
They do, however, recognize and respond to the very real threat of 
overwhelming military force. The world community was slow to learn this 
fact in Bosnia, and we continue to inch along painfully slow toward 
understanding this fact in Kosova.
  The Kosovan people are running out of time, however. Humanity cannot 
stand idly by and witness further atrocities such as those committed in 
Racak. Milosevic enforces his policies from the point of a gun, and I 
fear that time has long past for NATO to confront him by doing the 
same.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, any peace settlement must also include an iron-
clad commitment that the Kosovan people will have the opportunity that 
we often take for granted--the right of self-determination. Anything 
less is a recipe for renewed violence and death in the future.

                          ____________________