[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 7, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H712]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           SITUATION WORSENS IN SOUTHERN SERBIA AND MACEDONIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Bereuter) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, since late last year, we have received a 
spate of reports indicating that violence is on the rise once again in 
the southern parts of Yugoslavia, Macedonia, and especially in the 
Kosovo region. These reports are of special concern because the regions 
involved in this new outbreak of conflict lie immediately adjacent to 
the sector of Kosovo which is termed the ``area of responsibility'' for 
United States troops participating in KFOR, the NATO-led Kosovo 
peacekeeping operation.
  Responsibility for most of the increased violence lies with the hard-
line Albanian Kosovar nationalists, some of whom quite clearly 
participated in the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, which is 
supposed to be disbanded. They are now pushing their extreme agenda 
through violence in the Presevo Valley, lying across the internal 
boundary that separates Kosovo from Serbia.
  As part of the agreement that ended the NATO military air operations 
against Yugoslavia in June of 1999, a 5-kilometer ground safety zone, 
GSZ, was established along the internal boundary between Kosovo and 
Yugoslavia. The Yugoslavian military and special police forces were 
prohibited from entering without expressed authorization by NATO.
  The Presevo Valley contains several small cities and villages that 
are home to ethnic Albanians? Unlike their brethren in Kosovo, however, 
the Albanians of the Presevo Valley chose to remain outside the 
conflict which wracked Kosovo during 1998 and 1999. Although they 
certainly had legitimate grievances against the brutal regime of the 
former Yugoslavian leader, Slobodan Milosevic, the ethnic Albanians in 
the Presevo Valley rather than overwhelmingly seemed to prefer to 
settle their problems peacefully rather than through the violent means 
ultimately employed by the KLA.
  Beginning in 1999, following the formal disbanding of the KLA, KFOR 
began receiving reports of the existence of a guerilla force calling 
itself by the initials UCPMB, the Liberation Army of Presevo, which was 
infiltrating across the Kosovo boundary into the GSZ in order to harass 
Serb police officers and intimidate some of the Serb residents of the 
Presevo Valley and thus caused them to leave the region.
  In February of 2000, this Member led our House delegation to the NATO 
Parliamentary Assembly on a visit to Kosovo, and the commander of U.S. 
forces briefed us on the situation in the Presevo Valley. In fact, this 
Member climbed the heights of Kosovo to see the Presevo Valley below. 
At that time, he said to us that the situation with the so-called UCPMB 
was his single largest worry insofar as the safety of U.S. troops and 
other forces under his command were concerned.
  Since last December, incidents in the Presevo Valley increased with 
several Serbian police officers reported to have been assassinated, and 
a joint U.S.-Russian patrol attempting to seal off the boundary came 
under fire by ethnic Albanians attempting to infiltrate from Kosovo. 
Last week, we learned of fighting in Macedonia along the border with 
Kosovo. Reports implicated a shadowy body calling itself the Liberation 
Army of Macedonia as being behind this most recent violence.
  What is particularly disturbing about the involvement of Macedonian 
territory in what seems to be a new onset of a major conflict is that, 
in addition to Macedonia's enormous strategic significance, the 
Government of Macedonia, democratically elected last year, includes 
ethnic Albanians in its governing coalition; and Macedonia recently 
normalized its relations with Kosovo. Apparently, these democratic and 
popularly supported measures are unacceptable to the radical Albanian 
ethnics behind the renewed violence, because these progressive 
democratic steps undermine their goal of creating a ``greater 
Albania.'' They continue to have as their goal unification of all 
ethnic Albanians who inhabit Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo, and Albania 
itself into a greater Albania.
  The numbers of radical Albanian participants in these incidents in 
southern Serbia and Macedonia is, at present, small. What is of most 
concern, however, is that they seem to be receiving support and 
assistance from Kosovo and they have not been repudiated by the ethnic 
Albanian leadership in Kosovo.
  Mr. Speaker, this Member is of the opinion that those supporting an 
extremist agenda within Kosovo are known to some of the leadership 
within Kosovo; and thereby, they could be denied the support that they 
are apparently receiving to use Kosovo as a base of operations.
  The implications of a ``greater Albania'' for the region and for the 
United States and its allies in Europe are extremely grave. A wider war 
involving Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey ultimately would be 
very serious. Our earlier intervention of Kosovo was aimed at stopping 
that problem.
  Mr. Speaker, this deserves our attention.
  We need to make it clear to the Albanian extremists that we will no 
longer tolerate their efforts to foment violent and ethnic discord in 
the region.
  Mr. Speaker, NATO is at present considering measures to stabilize the 
situation, both in Macedonia and in the Presevo Valley. NATO Secretary 
General, Lord Robertson is visiting the Capitol today and tomorrow to 
meet with Members. This Member is inclined to support suggestions that, 
given the gravity of the current situation in Macedonia and on its 
border, Yugoslavian military forces be permitted to operate within the 
5 kilometer ground safety zone in southern Serbia. Additionally, this 
Member strongly believes that we need to return an international 
preventive peacekeeping force to Macedonia similar to that which helped 
protect Macedonia from attack and destabilization several years ago. 
The governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Republic of 
Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia need to agree to a 
complete demarcation of the border between Macedonia and Serbia, and to 
measures to ensure its sanctity and security.

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