[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 85 (Wednesday, June 16, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1290]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


       THE KOSOVO LIBERATION ARMY: A NAIVE VIEW OF A REBEL FORCE

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                           HON. DOUG BEREUTER

                              of nebraska

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 16, 1999

  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, this Member commends to his colleagues 
this June 9, 1999, Omaha World Herald editorial that cautions NATO not 
to underestimate the ambitions of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) 
after the Serbian forces withdrawal from Kosovo.

        The Kosovo Liberation Army: A Naive View of Rebel Force

       NATO told Yugoslavia it would stop the air war if Serbian 
     forces were pulled out of the province of Kosovo in one week. 
     It's easy to understand why Yugoslavian President Slobodan 
     Milosevic found that idea hard to swallow. He does not want 
     to surrender Kosovo to the Kosovo Liberation Army.
       Milosevic sent Serbian soldiers and police into Kosovo to 
     put down a rebellion led by the KLA. The ethnic-Albanian KLA 
     wants independence for Kosovo, whose majority population is 
     ethnic Albanian. Or at least it was before Milosevic, a Serb 
     who obtained political power by exploiting ethnic hatred, 
     managed to kill thousands and expel hundreds of thousands of 
     ethnic-Albanian Kosovars.
       News reports say Milosevic nearly succeeded in wiping out 
     the KLA, but the rebels have regrouped. Fueled by recruits 
     from the roughly one million Kosovar refugees Milosevic has 
     created, the KLA reportedly is regaining ground in Kosovo. 
     Some reports indicated that the KLA is helping NATO target 
     Serbian forces in Kosovo.
       The KLA and Milosevic's Serbian forces are engaged in the 
     latest round of an ethnic blood feud that is centuries old. 
     Yet here's what NATO spokesman Jamie Shea had to say about a 
     settlement: ``As the Serb forces pull out and the NATO forces 
     move into Kosovo, we expect the Kosovo Liberation Army . . . 
     not to try to take advantage of the situation.''
       Shea must be dreaming. The KLA, in its view, is fighting to 
     liberate its homeland. ``The KLA will be the sole force in 
     Kosovo creating institutions,'' said a KLA spokesman Sunday. 
     ``It will be the strongest force influencing the future of 
     Kosovo.'' The KLA is planning to build a nation of ethnic 
     Albanians in what is now Yugoslavian territory.
       Of a proposed NATO peacekeeping force, Shea said, ``NATO 
     forces will be operating under strict rules of engagement 
     and, of course, they will not tolerate any hindrance to their 
     mission. More specifically, we hope the (KLA) will renounce 
     violence.''
       Imagine France announcing in the early 1780s that, upon 
     cessation of the war between England and the American 
     colonies, the colonies would become an autonomous zone within 
     the British empire and would be occupied by a European 
     peacekeeping force. Oh, and the American freedom fighters, it 
     is assumed, would ``renounce violence.''
       NATO's next adversary in Kosovo might be the KLA.

       

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