[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 35 (Thursday, March 18, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H1281-H1282]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        ETHNIC CLASHES IN KOSOVO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I must say a couple of things before I begin. 
I want to commend my colleague, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. 
Baird) for his meticulous Spanish, and I want to also take note of the 
fact that the Manhattan College Jaspars, in my district, just won the 
opening round of the basketball NCAA against Florida. They were the 
underdogs. So I am very proud of them and the 17th District of New 
York. Go Jaspars.
  I want to address a very serious subject, though, Mr. Speaker, and 
that is the violence which took place yesterday; ethnic clashes in 
Kosovo in the

[[Page H1282]]

Balkans between ethnic Albanians and ethnic Serbs. I chair the Albanian 
Issues Caucus in the Congress and have done extensive work in the 
Balkans and extensive work in Kosovo. I believe that ultimately the 
situation in Kosovo can only be resolved through self-determination. 
The people of Kosovo have to have a future and have to understand that 
they have the right to determine their own future.
  The ethnic violence which happened yesterday is a tragic undertaking, 
a tragic tragedy, and I must call on both sides to stop the violence. 
Violence is never a solution to anybody's perceived problems or 
indignities. It must be solved peacefully.
  However, having said that, I think that the violence that erupted 
yesterday was inevitable, and it was inevitable because in 1999, when 
the United Nations came in, including our troops, and prevented 
genocide, prevented Slobodon Milosovic from his ethnic cleansing, from 
cleansing Kosovo of its Albanian population, we stepped in and 
prevented that from happening. And that was a wonderful thing that we 
did. However, since that time, very little has been done to move to a 
resolution of the final status of Kosovo.
  When there is no resolution of the final status, the people in a 
country become restless because they see no future. They see no end 
point. They only see the status quo. And we have become the status quo 
in that country. UNMIK, the United Nations, and NATO have to be seen as 
people who are resolving this issue, who are moving it to final status 
to give the people of Kosovo hope. Right now there is rampant 
unemployment. Right now there is very little hope for a future. That 
has to end.
  Self-determination and, ultimately, independence for the people of 
Kosovo is the only solution. When people do not see a chance for self-
determination, tensions fester beneath the surface when you do not move 
to resolution.
  What we have seen with the United Nations, with UNMIK and NATO, is 
this ridiculous plan called standards before status. To me, it only 
means status quo. We put forward benchmarks and we tell the people of 
Kosovo they have to achieve these benchmarks before we can even look at 
a resolution and at self-determination. And somehow or other, something 
always intervenes, the benchmarks are never there, so the status is 
never achieved and we delay, and we delay and we delay, and we push it 
to the back burner.
  I very much regret that our administration has pushed the whole issue 
of Kosovo to the back burner. It needs to be on the front burner. We 
need to resolve this problem. We need to give the people of Kosovo 
hope. We need to have a resolution. Self-determination is what is 
needed, and we need to push that; not be pushing off the day of 
reckoning again and again and again and again.
  And let me tell my colleagues why self-determination and, ultimately, 
independence is the only solution. There are only two other solutions, 
which do not work. One is to have Kosovo go back under Serb control. 
That will never happen after the ethnic cleansing of 1999. The 
overwhelming Albanian population will never, rightfully so, accept it. 
Secondly, the only other alternative would be for Kosovo to continue to 
be an international protectorate, which is what it is now, with troops 
of many countries there, United Nations troops and NATO troops. That 
cannot happen indefinitely. So the only solution is independence, and 
the only solution is to give the people of Kosovo some hope.
  So I would hope that the administration would move to resolve this 
problem now, to give the people of Kosovo hope for the future. The 
status quo only aids and abets violence. And while we are at it, we 
have to resolve the whole situation with privatization. The people 
there have to know if they invest in property for the future, to help 
the people there, they must know that it will be secure.
  So, again, I want to condemn the violence, I want to show my sympathy 
for the victims of the violence, but I want to again tell the 
administration that we need to ratchet it up and come to a resolution 
of final status for the people of Kosovo.

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