[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 50 (Tuesday, April 13, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H1902-H1903]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H1902]]
           KOSOVO REFUGEES: AN EXODUS OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Everett). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, an exodus from Kosovo of biblical proportions 
is taking place. Thousands upon thousands of refugees stream across the 
border 24 hours a day.
  There was a newspaper headline in Europe that said ``Europe's turn in 
the killing fields.'' That writer must have seen what I saw, a 
catastrophe that should have been anticipated. Ethnic Albanian refugees 
from Kosovo are now paying a heavy price for this poor judgment.
  I just returned from a 4-day visit to the Balkans. I went to focus on 
humanitarian conditions and the massive numbers of refugees flooding 
out of Kosovo each day. I traveled to Kukes and Morina on the Kosovo-
Albania border. And when I left, an estimated 270,000 to 300,000 
refugees had crossed the border.
  The scene there is heart-wrenching. Our first introduction was the 
stench, the overpowering smell of urine and feces from refugees with no 
place to go to the bathroom. In many places the ground was covered with 
feces. It will not be long before disease breaks out, especially among 
the people who are already dehydrated, malnourished, and sick. Four 
cases of measles had been confirmed as of last Tuesday.
  Refugees are everywhere, camped on hillsides, along the road, in 
parks and plazas, and in parking lots. Most arrive as an extended 
family in carts and trailers being pulled by farm tractors or, in some 
cases, by horses. Some arrive in cars, but many are on foot, an 
unending procession of people who had been threatened; and many have 
been separated from their families.
  Everyone had a bad story. There is no need to document the reports, 
but every report was different: ``I lost my husband.'' ``I lost my 
wife.'' ``I lost my son.'' ``I lost my daughter.'' And we should now 
have people documenting that for a war crimes trial but also for 
history.
  The country of Albania has responded admirably to this entire crisis. 
It is a poor country but it has opened up its heart and its homes. 
Still, in spite of the tremendous effort of people on the scene, the 
refugee situation is still a disaster. The Clinton administration, the 
international community, and NATO were ill prepared to deal with this 
crisis they should have anticipated. The information was there, but 
those who decided the course of events, particularly the Clinton 
administration, did not listen.
  People on the ground in Kosovo before the bombing campaign began 
warned that the Serbs could begin to brutalize ethnic Albanians.
  Some comments and suggestions:
  The brutality has been taking place for too long. Serbian President 
Milosevic is the father of the Kosovo tragedy, as he was in Bosnia and 
even before. Beginning in the fall of 1991, when Serbs shelled and 
bombed and laid siege to Vukovar, he has continued this pattern of 
destruction. This is just another chapter.
  Two, Milosevic is an evil man who has directly caused nearly a decade 
of terror and killing. Nine Serb generals have just been warned that 
they may be named as war criminals. Should Milosevic head the list? And 
the answer is ``yes.''
  Three, there is a life-and-death crisis in Albania. President Clinton 
should immediately send a high-level delegation of NSC, State 
Department, and Defense to go on the scene, people who can 
make decisions.

  Four, massive amounts of infrastructure supplies and communications 
equipment are needed at the border, along with people to assemble and 
operate.
  Five, there is a huge shortage of food and people are starving today. 
But once the influx of refugees ends, the problem of sustaining them 
for a longer period is no less critical.
  Six, refugees report that a vast number of houses and buildings and 
infrastructures have been destroyed. Every family said, ``My house had 
been burned.'' ``My house had been destroyed.'' We need to help them 
rebuild, and that will take a long time for them to return.
  Seven, it is doubtful that Kosovo can ever again be part of the 
Yugoslav Federation. It will take a long time to implement workable 
solutions. In time, Albanians will tire of having to deal with the 
refugees who infringe upon their normal life. Most Kosovo refugees have 
no documentation, no identity cards, no medical history, no records. 
This will take a long time to reconstruct. And everyone I spoke to said 
they want to go home.
  Lastly, we must do everything possible to help the suffering 
refugees. These victims of war have lost their homes, their 
livelihoods, and in many cases their identities. Additionally, having 
witnessed firsthand their struggle to survive and having seen their 
fear and their tears, I believe our country, the United States of 
America, and NATO's resolve with our partners must be to stop once and 
for all the brutality of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.
  Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the following report of our 
visit to Albania:

   Report by U.S. Representative Frank R. Wolf of Virginia, Visit to 
 Albania: Refugees--An Exodus of Biblical Proportions, April 4-7, 1999

       This report provides details of my trip to Albania on April 
     4-7, 1999. I met briefly with Albanian leaders in Tirana and 
     spent the bulk of my time at the Kosovo-Albanian border near 
     Morina and the nearby town of Kukes. Thousands upon thousands 
     of refugees streamed across the border, 24 hours a day. They 
     desperately need lifesaving care now and will require 
     sustaining aid for a long time until all the problems 
     resolving around Kosovo are solved, and they can once again 
     return home.
       An exodus from Kosovo of biblical proportions is taking 
     place, I saw a newspaper headline yesterday, ``Europe's turn 
     in the killing fields.'' That writer must have seen what I 
     saw, a catastrophe that should have been anticipated. Ethnic 
     Albanian refugees from Kosovo are now paying a heavy price 
     for this poor judgment.
       I just returned from a four-day visit to Albania--my second 
     since mid-February. I went this time to focus on humanitarian 
     conditions and needs with tens of thousands of refugees 
     streaming across the border from Kosovo each day.
       By the time we left on Wednesday, an estimated 270,000-
     300,000 refugees had cross the border from Kosovo. They have 
     added about 10 percent to the Albanian population in a matter 
     of only a few days.
       We arrived in Tirana on Eastern Sunday courtesy of 
     Americares--one of the many non-governmental organizations 
     (NGO's) saving lives, delivering food, water, blankets, 
     medicine and other items desperately needed in large 
     quantities.
       Our airplane, a Belgian Air Force C-130 Hercules, seconded 
     to Americares, was loaded with baby food, flour, and other 
     emergency supplies. About 20 passengers were on board, mostly 
     print and TV journalists and Americares staff and volunteers. 
     A few NBC people from the TODAY show were there. We crowded 
     in amid relief supplies, wherever there was room to sit.
       The Tirana airport is just beginning to come alive with 
     relief supplies and equipment arriving from many nations. 
     U.S. Air Force personnel, with their positive attitude and 
     ``can do'' spirit, have set up a tent city to get the planes 
     off-loaded and the goods dispersed. They are doing a great 
     job, and planes do not linger on the ground.
       We left Tirana very early the next morning for Kukes, a 
     northern Albania town nearest the border crossing. It is a 
     drive of six to nine hours or more, depending on traffic, 
     weather and luck. We travelled with USAID's Disaster Response 
     Team (DART) which was going to assess and coordinate relief 
     efforts.
       It is the only road to Kukes. It is the only road available 
     to transport relief supplies to Kukes. It is the only road 
     for newly arriving refugees to travel out of Kukes to the 
     villages, towns and cities throughout Albania where they will 
     stay, or be moved to other countries.
       It is a treacherous road--a dangerous road through 
     mountains and valleys with steep drop-offs of hundreds of 
     feet. It is barely two lanes wide with no barriers to prevent 
     going over the edge. The roadway is dotted with flower 
     adorned memorials to earlier accidents and fatalities.
       We bounced from pothole to pothole around tight S curves, 
     dodging traffic going in both directions. Worse, the roadbed 
     in a number of places is being undercut by the passage of 
     heavy trucks. Chunks of road are just falling off. As more 
     and more relief trucks make the trip, the roadway may 
     deteriorate to the point where it is impassable.
       Officials are looking at creating an airstrip near Kukes 
     capable of handling up to C-130 Hercules aircraft. They need 
     to hurry.
       In Kukes we joined with Catholic Relief Services (CRS). 
     Like other NGO's, CRS is doing a remarkable job with what 
     they have to work with. The overall relief effort was late in 
     getting started, is slow in coming up to speed and, thus far, 
     is overwhelmed by the vast number of refugees.
       Our first introduction to the area was the stench--the 
     overpowering smell of urine and feces from the enormous 
     numbers of refugees with no place to go to the bathroom. In

[[Page H1903]]

     many places, the ground was covered with feces. It won't be 
     long before disease breaks out under these conditions, 
     especially among people who are already dehydrated, 
     malnourished and sick. Four cases of measles had been 
     confirmed by Tuesday and the NGO's were trying to arrange 
     a massive inoculation program.
       The number of people in Kukes was startling. This is a town 
     of 23,000 inhabitants which is growing by tens of thousands 
     each day. About 30,000 refugees are estimated to cross the 
     border every day, 24 hours a day. Only about 15,000 to 20,000 
     refugees are transported from Kukes daily to other places. 
     The population continues to swell. The most common estimates 
     are that about 80,000 refugees were in Kukes on Tuesday and 
     Wednesday.
       They are everywhere, camped on hillsides, along the road, 
     in parks and plazas, and in parking lots. Most arrive as an 
     extended family in trailers being pulled along by tractors, 
     or in some cases, by horse. Some arrive in cars, but many are 
     on foot. Their only possessions are carried on their back. 
     Our time at the Morina border crossing was an overpowering, 
     emotional experience. We saw an unending procession of people 
     and families, each with a horrific story to tell. Many had 
     been travelling for days under constant threat of being 
     harmed or killed by Serb militia.
       Perhaps just reaching the border was an emotional release 
     for them. There were many more women, children and elderly 
     than younger men. Tears were streaming down their faces--many 
     sobbed uncontrollably. We had an interpreter and the tales 
     they told were chilling.
       An 18-year-old boy from the village of Blac was randomly 
     pulled out of line and shot to death--in front of his mother 
     and family. They wouldn't even let his mother kiss him 
     goodbye.
       An elderly paralyzed woman was given 10 minutes to leave 
     her home. There wasn't even time to get her medicine. As they 
     moved away, the family home was set afire--blazing behind 
     them.
       Everyone has a story. Most have had their homes destroyed. 
     There is a need to document these reports while they are 
     still fresh, not only for war crimes, but for history as 
     well.
       The refugees have little food, water, shelter, sanitation 
     or medical care. We went with a CRS feeding mission on Monday 
     night. It was scheduled after dark to keep the hungry people 
     from seeing what was going on and getting out of hand at food 
     distribution points. But it didn't work. As soon as the 
     distributors showed up, starving people began clamoring and 
     struggling for food. The trucks were overwhelmed and had to 
     speed away to keep people from being injured. Police were 
     helping as much as they could but they are too few. We saw 
     individual policemen on duty for 24 hours straight. Many 
     Albanian families, and especially some in Kukes, were warm, 
     welcoming and generous. Many opened their homes to refugees 
     they did not know and had no earlier connection with.
       I visited two apartments in Kukes to see for myself. In 
     one, the residents vacated their two-room apartment so that a 
     Kosovar family of 17 could have a place to stay. The 
     grandfather was blind and just sat facing a wall. There was a 
     baby girl, just weeks or perhaps a few months old. They had 
     been a thriving family in Kosovo, but now have nothing, not 
     even an idea of what the future holds.
       In the next two-room flat, 10 refugees stayed in one room 
     and 17 in the other. The host Kukes residents stayed with 
     them, all sleeping on the floor.
       Albania is a poor country in wealth, but rich in 
     generosity.
       We also sat in on a coordinating meeting of NGO's who are 
     struggling to cope, many themselves on the edge of exhaustion 
     and sickness. The room was filled with coughing and 
     sneezing--respiratory cases about to happen.
       The talk was of how to provide the most help. Who could do 
     what? Who could best ease the shortfall of supplies? The 
     overall conclusion was one of inadequacy, of being 
     overwhelmed, of having too little to share among too many. 
     And the talk was especially about poor logistics and 
     communications.
       The refugees situation in Albania, in spite of the 
     tremendous effort of people on the scene, is a disaster. I 
     think the Clinton administration, the international community 
     and NATO were ill-prepared to deal with this crisis they 
     should have anticipated. The information was there, but those 
     who decided the course of events, particularly the Clinton 
     administration, did not listen.
       Satellite imagery could detect the large lines of refugees 
     forming along the way to the borders, but this information 
     has not been available to the United Nations High 
     Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with overall coordinating 
     responsibility.
       People on the ground in Kosovo before the bombing began 
     warned of the possibility that Serbs would begin to brutalize 
     ethnic Albanians. I visited Kosovo in February, a few days 
     before Rambouillet talks broke down ending hope for a truce 
     with NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo. Many Organization for 
     Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), UNHCR and NGO 
     representatives and diplomats predicted then that ethnic 
     Albanians would be attacked before NATO troops could arrive. 
     In Kosovo, nearly every Serb family is armed, not with 
     Saturday-night specials, but with Kalishnakov automatic 
     rifles. The Serbs Army and Police are heavily armed, too. 
     Real concern existed that, hidden from western observers, 
     helpless and unprotected ethnic Albanians would be 
     brutalized. That is exactly what happened. Had this been 
     anticipated by decision-makers, measures to provide relief 
     and the basis for survival of refugees could have been put in 
     motion. Shiploads, and caches of relief supplies then could 
     have been positioned nearby.
       Even now, when it is clear that enormous problems exist, 
     too little is being done. There is much talk of providing for 
     the long run. But people are dying today. Massive amounts of 
     life-giving supplies are needed now.
       I would like to close with a few comments and 
     recommendations.
       1. This brutality has been taking place for too long. 
     Serbian President Milosevic is the father of the Kosovo 
     tragedy as he was in Bosnia and even before. Beginning in the 
     fall of 1991 when Serbs shelled, bombed and laid siege to 
     Vukovar, Croatia, Milosevic has continued a pattern of 
     destruction. Kosovo is just the latest chapter.
       2. Milosevic is an evil man who has directly caused nearly 
     a decade of terror, killing and destruction. Nine Serb 
     generals have just been warned that they may be named as war 
     criminals for their actions in Kosovo. Shouldn't Milosevic 
     head the list?
       3. There is a life and death crisis in Albania. President 
     Clinton should immediately send high level people from the 
     National Security Council, State and defense department--
     people who can make decisions on the scene--to the border 
     crossings in Kukes. A decision-maker/policy person has yet to 
     visit there. And that's where you have to go to see what is 
     really happening. Too many visitors stop briefly in Tirana 
     and quickly move on, thinking they know what is taking place. 
     They don't. Today, the refugee problem is hemorrhaging at the 
     border. That's where the compress now needs to be applied. 
     Once the influx of refugees ends, and they are placed 
     throughout Albania, the same amounts of massive help and 
     support must be re-targeted to provide long-term assistance.
       4. Massive amounts of infrastructure supplies and 
     communications equipment are needed at the border along with 
     people to assemble and operate them. It is not enough to ship 
     a load of tents. People to erect them, dig toilets and purify 
     water must be there as well. Equipment alone is insufficient. 
     Operators and technicians must be there, too. When refugees 
     stop coming to the border, these needs will continue 
     throughout Albania where massive numbers of refugees will be 
     housed.
       5. There is a huge shortage of food, and people are 
     starving today. Once the influx of refugees ends, the problem 
     of sustaining them for a longer period will be no less 
     critical. Albania can't feed itself. Food is the country's 
     largest component of imports. Albania is going to need help.
       6. Albania also has difficulty maintaining law and order, 
     even in Tirana. In many remote areas, police protection is 
     non-existent. Unemployment is very high, and there is no 
     capacity to provide work and economic sufficiency for 
     refugees. The Albanian government will need to be propped up 
     and the economy improved.
       7. Refugees report that a vast number of houses, buildings 
     and infrastructure have been destroyed in Kosovo. Rebuilding 
     will take a long time and care for refugees must be worked 
     out while this take place.
       8. Little is known about the refugee situation in 
     Montenegro, but it will undoubtedly add to the overall 
     problem.
       9. It is doubtful that Kosovo can ever again be a pat of 
     the Yugoslav federation. It will take a long time to 
     implement workable solution. In time, Albanians will tire of 
     having Kosovo refugees to deal with and infringe upon normal 
     life. Most Kosovo refugees have not documentation, no 
     identity cards, medical histories or necessary records. Even 
     the license plates were ripped from cars as they crossed the 
     border. This, too, will take time to reconstruct.
       10. And lastly, let me say a word about the press. Without 
     their coverage as refugees began to pile up, it would have 
     taken even longer to recognize the crisis at hand. The press 
     has done a good job of telling the world what is happening 
     and in mobilizing people to come to the aid of hundreds of 
     thousands of the neediest people. Members of the press should 
     be proud of their work.

                          ____________________