[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 95 (Wednesday, June 13, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1280]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            SUPPORT FOR AN INDEPENDENT AND DEMOCRATIC KOSOVO

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 13, 2007

  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I have just returned from 
official travel as Chairman of the Helsinki Commission to several 
locations in Europe and the Middle East. One stop was Kosovo, which is 
presently high on the international agenda.
  As we all know, the Special Envoy for the UN Secretary-General, 
former Finnish President Maarti Ahtisaari, has submitted a 
comprehensive proposal for settling the status of Kosovo. If adopted, 
the proposal would end the eight years of limbo in which Kosovo has 
found itself since the NATO intervention ended a long period of 
brutality and repression by Serbian authorities under the leadership of 
Slobodan Milosevic. Nevertheless, some countries represented on the UN 
Security Council have problems with the Ahtisaari plan, and Russian 
opposition, based at least in part on issues having little if anything 
to do with Kosovo and the Balkans, would doom action at the United 
Nations. Last week's G-8 summit failed to break the impasse within the 
international community.
  During my stay in Kosovo, I was thoroughly briefed by the U.S. Office 
in Pristina, led by Tina Kaidanow, as well as by Brigadier General 
Douglas Earhart of the 29th Infantry Division, who commands U.S. forces 
in Kosovo as well as multinational task force located in the southeast 
portion of Kosovo. The head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, German 
Ambassador Werner Wnendt, provided the perspective of one of the 
international missions in the field. I also had the opportunity to meet 
the Kosovo Prime Minister, the Minister for Communities and Returns and 
representatives of the Kosovo ``Unity Team.'' I traveled to Mitrovica 
where I also met representatives of the Serb community, and I visited 
areas at different locations where housing has been built to 
accommodate the return of those Serbs and Roma displaced by violence.
  Based on my observations, I support the Ahtisaari proposal. It 
provides for independence for Kosovo, which I believe can be justified 
on grounds of what happened in Kosovo under Serbian rule as well as the 
right of self-determination, a right included in the Helsinki Final 
Act. The overwhelming majority of the people of Kosovo want 
independence, and the United Nations made it a credible possibility in 
Security Council Resolution 1244, adopted at the end of the Kosovo 
conflict in 1999.
  At the same time, and perhaps more important, the Ahtisaari proposal 
contains provisions regarding the decentralization of powers to Serb-
majority municipalities, numerous human rights protections for ethnic 
communities, and the protection of religious and cultural heritage 
sites so important to the Serb community. If implemented, these 
provisions offer a good possibility for the Serb and other non-Albanian 
communities to survive in what would be a multi-ethnic Kosovo. 
Independence would be supervised by the international community, to 
ensure both a smooth transfer of authority and full implementation of 
the proposal.
  As Chairman of the Helsinki Commission, I remain naturally concerned 
about the human rights situation in Kosovo. My priority is a Kosovo 
where human rights and fundamental freedoms are respected, and where 
democracy, tolerance and the rule of law are established, regardless of 
the course or outcome of deliberations on Kosovo's status. Such a 
Kosovo does not yet exist; many problems remain. I do believe, however, 
that in a situation where no answers are easily found the Ahtisaari 
plan has the best potential to achieve these goals, and I will work to 
ensure that the Helsinki Commission encourages their achievement even 
after status is determined.
  I wish to conclude my remarks, Madam Speaker, by announcing my 
intention to cosponsor House Resolution 309, expressing the sense of 
the House that the United States should support independence for 
Kosovo. Some of the concerns expressed in an alternative piece of 
legislation, House Resolution 445, are ones that I share, but continued 
delay on this issue helps nobody on the ground. The Ahtisaari proposal, 
in addition to addressing status, provides a means for securing the 
return and sustainability of the Serb and other ethnic communities in 
Kosovo, and I believe the people of the region would be best served by 
trying to make its provisions a reality.

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