[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 63 (Tuesday, May 4, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H2617-H2618]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




AGREEMENT REACHED IN VIENNA PROVIDES A FRAMEWORK FOR RESTORING PEACE IN 
                         YUGOSLAVIA AND KOSOVO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewomen for giving me the 
opportunity to go forward.
  Mr. Speaker, I, too, had the opportunity to join my colleagues in the 
trip to Vienna to meet with leaders of the Russian Duma.
  Mr. Speaker, in this audience tonight we have some young people who 
are visiting our Nation's Capitol, and as I was looking up there 
getting ready to speak, I was reminded of the time when I was in school 
at that age, and we had in this country a different type of 
relationship with Russia.
  It was the height of the Cold War, and at school they used to do 
drills. Some people will remember the drills. They were called duck and 
cover drills. We would have to, anticipating there would be a nuclear 
attack, we would actually have to get down under our desks, cover our 
heads, and close our eyes so we would not see the flash that was 
supposed to be a nuclear attack.
  Mr. Speaker, that was an era of terror. It was an era when the United 
States and Russia were at odds over the great global consequences of 
whether capitalism or communism would rule the earth.
  Have we come a long way from those days? Yes. We worked throughout 
the seventies to build down nuclear arms, we worked throughout the 
eighties to reestablish a relationship with Russia, and in the nineties 
we have in the United States been responsible for helping Russia 
rebuild itself economically, and assisted in so many ways as partners 
in peace.
  But yet, Mr. Speaker, that very peace and that partnership has been 
threatened by the Balkan conflict, because Russia has seen this 
conflict in other terms, and only a week ago the leader of the Yablako 
faction in Russia, Vladimir Luhkin, was quoted in worldwide news 
reports as saying a blockade of the port in Montenegro would be a 
direct path to nuclear escalation, setting aside years and years of 
progress that we made and launching us right back into the Cold War.
  How important it was to have Members of this Congress go to Vienna, 
Austria, to sit down with that very same leader and other leaders of 
the Duma, the leader of Mr. Chernomyrdin's party, one of the leaders of 
the Communist party, to sit down with those individuals face-to-face, 
sharing our common human interest in protecting the life of this planet 
and sharing our interest in relieving the suffering of the Kosovar 
Albanians and of the people who are being bombed throughout the Federal 
Republic of Yugoslavia.

[[Page H2618]]

  So we came together as brothers and sisters in search of peace. We 
came together hoping to create a framework for peace which we could 
bring back to our Nation and give our nations an opportunity to 
reconstruct, in this fragile and even grim climate, an opportunity to 
set the world on the path of light instead of the path of might, on the 
path to negotiation instead of the path of annihilation; to create for 
the world a new opportunity towards peace.
  We came in peace, and we departed as brothers and sisters in search 
of peace, with a framework which I am pleased to have a copy of here.
  Mr. Speaker, I include this framework for the Record.
  The material referred to is as follows:

      Report of the Meetings of the U.S. Congress and Russian Duma

                            Vienna, Austria

                          30 April--1 May 1999

       All sessions centered on the Balkan crisis. Agreement was 
     found on the following points
       I. The Balkan crisis, including ethnic cleansing and 
     terrorism, is one of the most serious challenges to 
     international security since World War II.
       II. Both sides agree that this crisis creates serious 
     threats to global and regional security and may undermine 
     efforts against non-proliferation.
       III. This crisis increases the threat of further human and 
     ecological catastrophes, as evidenced by the growing refugee 
     problem, and creates obstacles to further development of 
     constructive Russian-American relations.
       IV. The humanitarian crisis will not be solved by bombing. 
     A diplomatic solution to the problem is preferable to the 
     alternative of military escalation.
       Taking the above into account, the sides consider it 
     necessary to implement the following emergency measures as 
     soon as possible, preferably within the next week. 
     Implementation of these emergency measures will create the 
     climate necessary to settle the political questions.
       1. We call on the interested parties to find practical 
     measures for a parallel solution to three tasks, without 
     regard to sequence: the stopping of NATO bombing of the 
     Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, withdrawal of Serbian armed 
     forces from Kosovo, and the cessation of the military 
     activities of the KLA. This should be accomplished through a 
     series of confidence building measures, which should include 
     but should not be limited to:
       a. The release of all prisoners of war.
       b. The voluntary repatriation of all refugees in the 
     Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and unhindered access to them 
     by humanitarian aid organizations. NATO would be responsible 
     for policing the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's borders 
     with Albania and Macedonia to ensure that weapons do not 
     reenter the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with the returning 
     refugees or at a later time.
       c. Agreement on the composition of the armed international 
     forces which would administer Kosovo after the Serbian 
     withdraw. The composition of the group should be decided by a 
     consensus agreement of the five permanent members of the U.N. 
     Security Council in consultation with Macedonia, Albania, the 
     Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the recognized leadership 
     of Kosovo.
       d. The above group would be supplemented by the monitoring 
     activities of the Organization for Security and Cooperation 
     in Europe (OSCE).
       e. The Russian Duma and U.S. Congress will use all 
     possibilities at their disposal in order to successfully move 
     ahead the process of resolving the situation in Yugoslavia on 
     the basis of stopping the violence and atrocities.
       2. We recognize the basic principles of the territorial 
     integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which 
     include:
       a. wide autonomy for Kosovo
       b. a multi-ethnic population
       c. treatment of all Yugoslavia peoples in accordance with 
     international norms
       3. We support efforts to provide international assistance 
     to rebuild destroyed homes of refugees and other humanitarian 
     assistance, as appropriate, to victims in Kosovo.
       4. We, as members of the Duma and Congress, commit to 
     active participation as follows:
       Issue a Joint U.S. Congress-Russian Duma report of our 
     meetings in Vienna. Concrete suggestions for future action 
     will be issued as soon as possible.
       Delegations will agree on timelines for accomplishment of 
     above tasks.
       Delegations will brief their respective legislatures and 
     governments on outcome of the Vienna meetings and agreed upon 
     proposals.
       Delegations will prepare a joint resolution, based on their 
     report, to be considered simultaneously in the Congress and 
     Duma.
       Delegations agree to continue a working group dialogue 
     between Congress and the Duma in agreed upon places.
       Delegations agree that Duma deputies will visit refugee 
     camps and Members of Congress will visit the Federal Republic 
     of Yugoslavia.

  Mr. Speaker, this agreement begins with stopping the bombing, a 
withdrawal of the Armed Forces from Kosovo, a cessation of military 
activities of the KLA, releasing all prisoners, returning all refugees, 
providing for their safekeeping with an international peacekeeping 
force, rebuilding their shattered homes, and helping to rebuild their 
shattered lives.
  This is such a great country with such a great heart, because we care 
about people all over this world. We want to bring peace to those who 
are suffering.
  Our delegation, Mr. Speaker, gave us a chance, at a moment when it 
looked like escalation was the only recourse, with the leadership of 
the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Curt Weldon), with the 
participation of our leader, the gentleman from Hawaii (Mr. Neil 
Abercrombie), we finally had the opportunity to begin anew to look at 
each other as brothers and sisters in search of peace, to come up with 
a framework which we would all hope would be the start of a new 
opportunity to look forward to perhaps a cease-fire, to a cessation of 
bombing, to restoring the refugees and rebuilding the war-ravaged area.
  Let us continue to pray for peace, and let us continue to act in 
consonance with our prayers.

                          ____________________