[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 32 (Tuesday, March 19, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E381-E383]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    OPPOSING CERTIFICATION OF SERBIA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ELIOT L. ENGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 19, 2002

  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my opposition to 
certification of Serbia to receive U.S. assistance. Belgrade has not 
met the conditions included in the law by Senator Mitch McConnell and 
does not deserve to be certified by President Bush. As my colleagues 
are aware, certification must take place by March 31, 2002.
  Until Serbia releases all of the Albanian prisoners under its 
control, stops funding parallel institutions in Bosnia and Kosova, 
protects minority rights and the rule of law, and fully cooperates with 
the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, it 
should not be certified to receive assistance from the United States. 
While I look forward to the day when Belgrade is a constructive and 
cooperative player in the Balkans, the President must apply the 
standards Congress has laid down in law and deny certification.
  In support of this position I include a letter from Richard Lukaj, 
Chairman of the Board of the National Albanian American Council, in the 
Congressional Record.

                                                   March 17, 2002.
       Dear Senator/Representative: On March 31, 2002, the United 
     States Congress will consider Serbia's eligibility for 
     continued U.S. donor assistance. The National Albanian 
     American Council would like to share with you some of its 
     concerns, as well as point out Serbia's failure to fulfill 
     any of the conditions posed by Congress last year.
       According to Congress's decision, financial assistance to 
     Serbia will continue after March 31, 2002 only if the 
     President has made the determination and certification that 
     Serbia is:
       Cooperating with the International Criminal Tribunal for 
     the former Yugoslavia including access for investigators, the 
     provision of documents, and the surrender and transfer of 
     indictees or assistance in their apprehension;
       Taking steps to implement policies which reflect a respect 
     for minority rights and the rule of law, including the 
     release of political prisoners from Serbian jails and 
     prisons, and
       Taking steps that are consistent with the Dayton Accords to 
     end Serbian financial, political, security and other support 
     which has served to maintain separate Republika Srpska 
     institutions.
       A quick overview of these conditions indicates that Serbia 
     and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) have failed to 
     comply with any of them, and moreover, they have engaged in 
     additional actions that run counter to Congress' intent and 
     the administration's efforts to bring peace and stability to 
     the region.


          Cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal

       The trial of former Yugoslav dictator Slobodan Milosevic at 
     the ICTY raised the hopes of many in the Balkans that the 
     victims of war crimes will finally see justice being served. 
     However, while the new Serbian government extradited 
     Milosevic to The Hague at the last moment in a clear attempt 
     to get financial support, it is doing disappointingly little 
     to cooperate with the ICTY in the arrest of other indicted 
     war criminals. Just last month, the Tribunal's Chief 
     Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, labeled Yugoslav president 
     Vojislav Kostunica as the ``chief obstacle'' to cooperation 
     and denounced his direct complicity in the efforts to protect 
     Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general wanted by ICTY for 
     masterminding and executing some of the most heinous crimes 
     against humanity during the Bosnian war. Recently, the 
     Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic emphatically stated 
     that his government would make no efforts whatsoever to 
     apprehend Mladic.
       In addition, four other Milosevic associates wanted for war 
     crimes committed in Kosova remain free men and actively 
     engage in high governmental or military positions. One of the 
     indicted war criminals, Milan Milutinovic, maintains his post 
     as president of Serbia, while Dragoljub Ojdanic, the fomer 
     Chief of Staff of the Yugoslav Army, continues to hold a high 
     ranking post within the Yugoslav Army. On March 9th, 
     Kostunica's party, a key member of the ruling alliance, 
     refused to endorse a draft law on cooperation with the UN 
     Hague Tribunal. Moreover, both Kostunica and Djindjic, rather 
     than seizing the opportunity presented by Milosevic's trial 
     to initiate a debate within Serbia on the issue of war 
     crimes, have instead made statements denouncing the Tribunal 
     as the ``last hole on the flute,'' thus seriously undermining 
     its legitimacy and credibility in the eyes of the Serbian 
     public.
       These and additional facts are mentioned in the recently 
     published human rights report by the U.S. Department of 
     State. The report forthrightly notes that ``[w]ith the 
     exception of the transfer of Slobodan Milosevic and a few 
     other war criminals, the Government's cooperation with the 
     Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal (ICTY) decreased significantly 
     during the year. [. . .] [A]t year's end, several indictees 
     remained at liberty, and, in at least one case, still in an 
     official position in Serbia.'' The report further states that 
     the FRY government ``has been uncooperative in requests for 
     documents regarding crimes committed by Serbs against other 
     ethnic groups, and in arranging interviews with official and 
     nongovernmental witnesses.''
       Clearly, the post-Milosevic governments of Serbia and 
     Yugoslavia are failing utterly in keeping their international 
     commitments for cooperating with the ICTY. The Secretary of 
     State should use the upcoming March 31 cut-off date for U.S. 
     assistance to the FRY government to press for full 
     cooperation by the FRY government with the ICTY. The 
     administration, too, should signal to Belgrade and beyond 
     that it values international justice, and overcome 
     perceptions that it does not fully support the tribunal's 
     work.


Release of Albanian Political Prisoners from Jails and Prisons and the 
                              Rule of Law

       Despite Congress' unequivocal language and the pressure 
     from the international community, Serbia continues to hold 
     hostage 157 Kosovar Albanian prisoners, rounded up and 
     transported to Serbia during the withdrawal of Serb forces 
     from Kosova in 1999. These prisoners were tried in 
     artificially created courts, tortured brutally, and forced to 
     make false confessions under extreme duress. While President 
     Kostunica frequently claims his respect for the rule of law, 
     he has too easily overlooked many of the legal discrepancies 
     involved in the cases of the Albanian prisoners. To date, Mr. 
     Kostunica has overturned just two cases and this only after 
     direct intervention by leading political figures of the 
     international community.
       The recently published human rights report by the U.S. 
     Department of State also has indicated Serbia's failure to 
     adequately address the issue of these prisoners, alongside a 
     host of other problems in its treatment of minority 
     populations. We could not agree more with what Senator Helms 
     stated in the floor debate last year: ``Each day Belgrade 
     keeps people like Albin Kurti, Isljam Taci, Berisa Petrit, 
     and Sulejman Bitici [Albanian political prisoners] locked 
     behind bars is another day that Belgrade has continued the 
     horrors and injustice of the Milosevic regime. And this is 
     totally unacceptable.'' The United States Congress, as well 
     as the international community, should condemn any attempt by 
     the Serb and FRY authorities to continue to use these 
     Albanian prisoners as hostages, should resist the temptation 
     to equate them with ordinary convicted criminals, and should 
     ask for their immediate and unconditional release.
       Furthermore, the reality of today's Serbia and FRY is very 
     far from our country's notions of the rule of law. Aside 
     rampant corruption and organized crime, the government and 
     the justice system in Serbia and FRY not only are failing to 
     bring about any resemblance of rule of law and justice in 
     their

[[Page E382]]

     country, but are engaged in systematic efforts to obstruct 
     justice by destroying all evidence pertaining to war crimes 
     issues. In the words of Natasa Kandic, a leading Serb Human 
     Rights activist, even ``judges, prosecutors and police chiefs 
     are destroying any remaining papers that might implicate them 
     [for war crimes in Kosova], forging documents, and testing 
     the strength of the wall of silence.'' For example, despite 
     the concern expressed by Senator McConnell last year, the 
     investigation into the murder of the three American brothers 
     of Albanian descent from New York, cold bloodedly killed 
     after the war and whose remains were found in a mass grave in 
     Serbia, had not started as late as February 4, 2002 according 
     to Ms. Kandic.
       Ironically, even Vojislav Sesclj, leader of the nationalist 
     Serbian Radical Party has recently accused police generals 
     Sreten Lukic and Goran Radosvljevic of ``initiating, 
     organizing, transporting, and burying bodies of Kosovar 
     Albanians in locations near Belgrade'' and accused the 
     ``authorities for keeping quiet about it!'' Over 800 hundred 
     bodies of Albanians found in mass graves in Serbia are under 
     the supervision of the head of the Serb police since April, 
     2001. There has been no effort to return these bodies to the 
     families in Kosova. As Ms. Kandic so poignantly writes `` 
     [N]o more questions are asked in Serbia about mass graves, 
     the people whose remains are buried in them, their names, how 
     they died, who gave the orders, who carried them out, and who 
     covered up the evidence.'' Instead, Serbia's own Milosevic is 
     cheered by the public and politicians as a star in a 
     basketball game.


EndinG Serbian financial, political, security and other support for the 
 maintenance of separate or parallel institutions in Bosnia as well as 
                                 Kosova

       Although this letter is not focused on Serbia's or FRY's 
     relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is relevant to 
     mention that instead of taking steps towards complying with 
     this condition, Serbia and the FRY have been very 
     obstructionist to the Dayton Peace Accords in a variety of 
     ways. The FRY has never ratified the Accords and continues to 
     finance the entire Republika Srpska Army (VRS) and security 
     forces. Furthermore, VRS command and control structures tie 
     directly into Yugoslav Army structures, violating Annex 1-A 
     of the Dayton Peace Accords.
       On top of violating Dayton Peace Accords, Serbia and the 
     FRY are in clear violation of the United Nations Security 
     Council Resolution 1244. Belgrade continues to finance and 
     maintain illegal parallel administrative, police, and 
     security structures in Kosova. Paradoxically, a large 
     quantity of the funds that supports these illegal parallel 
     structures is drawn from international aid and potentially 
     from assistance that is given by the United States. According 
     to Deputy Premier Nebojsa Covic, Serbia has on its payroll as 
     many as 29,800 people who illegally operate inside Kosova. 
     The most visible example are the so called ``bridge-
     watchers'' in the town of Mitrovica who, in an all too clear 
     attempt to partition this territory from the rest of Kosova, 
     violently prevent the free movement of the Albanian 
     population into their own homes as well as do not allow the 
     Government of Kosova and the UNMIK representatives to 
     establish and assert their authority in the northern part of 
     the town. Covic himself has admitted that these troops 
     operate under Belgrade's control and with Belgrade's direct 
     financial support.


   Other actions or inactions that present a threat to the regional 
                               stability

       In addition to the failure to fulfill the conditions posed 
     by the U.S. Congress, Belgrade continues to present a threat 
     to the regional stability by refusing to take responsibility 
     for the carnage and suffering its predecessors instigated in 
     this last decade but instead choosing to continue fuel 
     nationalistic and hate propaganda to their constituents, as 
     well as by embarking in a foreign policy agenda that is a 
     prelude of further destabilization.
       As it is clearly stated in a recent report by a well known 
     international think tank (attached herein), in Serbia, the 
     parliament, media, and even its religious institutions 
     frequently serve as a setting and an instrument for the most 
     blatant and prejudiced hate speeches particularly against 
     Albanians, Jews, and other minority groups. While Yugoslav 
     officials led by President Kostunica himself have firmly 
     discouraged any efforts to openly and honestly face the past 
     and tell the Serbian public the truth for the events of this 
     past decade, Serbia's leaders, including Serbian Premier 
     Zoran Djindjic and Deputy Premier Nebojsa Covic, have been 
     all too willing to continue to refer to all Albanians as 
     ``terrorists,'' just as Milosevic is doing in the Hague, in a 
     clear attempt to exploit to their political advantage our 
     country's tragedy of September 11 and raise discontent among 
     America's politicians and public towards Albanians. This at a 
     time when it is widely known, and recently confirmed by a 
     Gallup poll, that together with Israel, Albanians are after 
     September 11, as well as before, among the strongest 
     supporters of the United States in the world, second only to 
     the American people.
       Furthermore, Belgrade has set sail in a foreign policy 
     agenda that is a prelude of further regional destabilization. 
     There are clear indications that Belgrade and Skopje are 
     forging anti-Albanian alliances with anti-Western character. 
     For example, despite the efforts of the United States and the 
     international community to discourage the selling of weapons 
     to Skopje, according to Macedonian sources, Belgrade is the 
     second biggest supplier of military aid after Ukraine. It is 
     noteworthy that while the military structures of Albanians in 
     Kosova, FYROM, and Southern Serbia have kept their promises 
     and have demilitarized beyond the extent required by the 
     international community, while the U.S. is contemplating a 
     reduction of the U.S. forces in the region and has suggested 
     the same for the military structures of the Republic of 
     Albania, all of Albanian's neighbors are continuously beefing 
     up their military arsenal, dangerously shifting the military 
     balances in the area.
       Most importantly, in a clear provocation to the Kosovar 
     Albanians and to the authority of the United Nations, last 
     year Belgrade and Skopje signed an agreement that attempts to 
     change Kosova's borders and gives away 2500 hectares (close 
     to 6000 acres) of Kosova's land to FYROM. This move has been 
     widely rejected by the Kosovar Albanian political leaders as 
     well as the population at large. This agreement should not be 
     endorsed or supported by the United States Congress and 
     Administration as it creates the dangerous precedent of 
     giving Belgrade the authority to give away Kosova's territory 
     in complete disregard of the United Nations mandate over 
     Kosova as well as against the will of Kosova's citizens.
       These actions do not contribute to peace and stability. On 
     the contrary, they are designed to stir up tensions, provoke 
     the Albanian population, and then present them as the source 
     of instability in the region and thus justify FRY's actions 
     and inactions and thereby divert attention from problems 
     within the FRY and originating in Belgrade.


                               Conclusion

       The failure of Serbia and FRY to fully cooperate with ICTY, 
     the refusal to release the Albanian prisoners, its continued 
     maintenance and support of illegal parallel structures inside 
     Kosova, the unwillingness of Belgrade to openly face and 
     denounce the calamity its predecessors have caused, the 
     continued tolerance and active support for hate speech and 
     similar mentality, the highly destabilizing and provocative 
     actions in relation to its neighbors, all confirm that 
     Belgrade continues to be a source of future tension and 
     instability in the region and as such, it should not be 
     rewarded by the United States Congress and the international 
     community.
       Upon the fall of the Milosevic regime, Yugoslavia was 
     readmitted to the United Nations and the Organization for 
     Security and Cooperation in Europe. While in our opinion, 
     such reinstatement was done hastily and without full 
     guarantees of cooperation and compliance, Belgrade's further 
     reintegration and the financial aid it receives from the 
     United States and the rest of the world should be conditional 
     upon at least the following:
       In relation with cooperation with ICTY the FRY should: (1) 
     Transfer all indictees to The Hague, including those on 
     active political or military duty as well as the retired 
     officials. (2) Provide ICTY access to all relevant archives 
     and documents. (3) Clearly and visibly change its policy of 
     public denigration and dismissive attitude towards the ICTY 
     and its legitimacy. (4) Provide information and assistance in 
     tracing Milosevic's and other criminals'funds be them in 
     Serbia or in illegal bank accounts in Greece or elsewhere. 
     (5) Provide information on the discovery of other known mass 
     graves located in Serbia.
       In relation with Kosova the FRY should: (1) Release all the 
     remaining Kosovar Albanian prisoners. (2) Stop financing, 
     training, and operating parallel security forces and 
     counterintelligence personnel as well as parallel civilian 
     administrative structures. (3) Support (and not hinder) the 
     Kosovar Government and UNMIK efforts to assert their 
     authority in the north of Kosova. (4) Stop all efforts to 
     depict Albanians as ``terrorists'' but rather publicly admit 
     their wrongdoing as an important good will effort towards 
     reconciliation. (5) Retum to their families the bodies of the 
     Albanians found in mass graves.
       In relation with its neighbors the FRY must demonstrate its 
     commitment to regional peace and stability by: (1) Not 
     hindering international community's efforts to sustain peace 
     in FYROM. (2) Discontinuing to funnel and sell weapons to 
     FYROM in a clear disregard of international community's will 
     and policy (3) by bringing to an end its efforts to stir up 
     tensions in the region by forging dubious alliances and 
     signing and attempting to enforce provocative agreements.
       As the U.S. Administration and Congress assist the FRY in 
     the quest for normalization, it must face--and act on--the 
     reality that the FRY still causes significant regional 
     instability and is not in compliance with the conditions 
     established under the impeding March 31, 2002 deadline. No 
     matter what actions the Yugoslav or Serbian government takes 
     out of pragmatism in these remaining few weeks, we urge our 
     government to insist on a clear and clean break of the 
     current Yugoslav and Serb government from the policies and 
     practices of its predecessor. It should do so by refusing to 
     certify Serbia's eligibility for further U.S. assistance, by 
     not extending the Most Favorite Nation status to FRY, and by 
     insisting that all the above-listed conditions are fulfilled 
     before FRY's efforts for further integration in the 
     international community are endorsed.
       We as Albanian-Americans are looking forward to the time 
     when Serbia will become a constructive player that 
     contributes to the

[[Page E383]]

     peaceful and harmonious development of Southeastern Europe. 
     However, until that time comes, our Congress and the 
     international community must avoid the temptation to bend the 
     rules for Belgrade and must hold FRY to the same high 
     standards that have been rightly required of other countries 
     in the area.
           On behalf of the National Albanian American Council,
                                                    Richard Lukaj,
                                      Chairman, Board of Trustees.

     

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