[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 13612-13615]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        THE SITUATION IN KOSOVO

  Mr. VOINOVICH. Mr. President, 11 days ago, the American people were 
relieved to hear that the air war against Yugoslavia was ending. 
Yesterday, the air war was officially declared over.
  In the end, I believe it was prayer and the Holy Spirit that brought 
enlightenment to our leaders that the death and destruction in Kosovo 
and Serbia must stop. Enough was enough.
  I rise today to commend our men and women in uniform for their 
honorable, valiant and courageous service over the last several months 
in the campaign to stop ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.
  Conventional military wisdom has long held that a military victory 
could not be achieved without the deployment of troops on the ground. 
Indeed, television pundits, newspaper editors and even some of my 
colleagues, advocated the introduction of ground troops to Kosovo based 
on this widely-held belief.
  However, the incredible work of our pilots, logistics and support 
staff during the bombing has proven the conventional wisdom wrong--it 
is possible to achieve limited military objectives on the ground using 
air power alone given the quality of the American soldier using our 
technical superiority.
  When I traveled to Southeast Europe last month to learn more about 
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's campaign, I was struck by the 
commitment and professionalism of our forces throughout the region. 
Faced with incredibly long working hours, the stress of a combat 
environment, isolation from family and loved ones and difficult living 
conditions, each soldier I spoke with strove to do their best in 
service to their grateful nation. We can ask no more.
  The American people, and Congress, should especially be proud of 
these fine men and women in uniform.
  We should also thank God that we have such soldiers as Chief Warrant 
Officer David Gibbs, from Massillon, Ohio, and Chief Warrant Officer 
Kevin Reichert of Wisconsin--two brave Apache helicopter pilots who 
gave their lives in service to their nation in the Kosovo conflict.
  A few weeks ago, my wife Janet and I went to Arlington Cemetery to 
pay our respects to the David Gibbs' family. I shared our appreciation 
for the sacrifice that he made and that they will continue to make. I 
get upset when I hear our leaders say we did not have any combat 
casualties--a euphemism to mean no soldier died in ``actual'' combat.
  Tell that to David Gibbs' widow, Jean Gibbs. Or to their three 
children--Allison, Megan, or David. Or his mother, Dorothy. Their lives 
will never be the same.
  Since 1991, when I was Governor of Ohio, there have been 32 men and 
women from Ohio who have died serving their nation, not counting the 19 
that died in the Persian Gulf War.
  Tell the families of those who did not die in combat that their loss 
is any less significant because their loved one didn't die in battle.
  We must thank God that we have brave men and women who choose to 
serve our country, and we must never forget those soldiers who have 
made the ultimate sacrifice for this nation and the ongoing sacrifice 
of the families.
  Mr. President, as you know, I opposed the bombing from Day One. We 
should have done all that we could to negotiate a diplomatic solution.
  I was also violently opposed to sending in U.S. ground troops to 
Kosovo

[[Page 13613]]

based on my belief that it would instigate an all-out war in 
southeastern Europe with tremendous repercussions throughout the world.
  Just in the limited actions of the air war, we have witnessed several 
potential crises, the ramifications of which will be with us for who 
knows how long--China, Russia.
  But I believe we must congratulate President Clinton for sticking to 
his guns and not letting others pressure him into getting the United 
States involved in a ground war; he no doubt saved the lives of 
hundreds, or even thousands, of American soldiers.


                              the bombing

  Even though I was opposed to the bombing, I had confidence that the 
bombing campaign would ultimately bring Milosevic back to the table. I 
just wonder why it took us so long to read his signals.
  Indeed, according to the June 6th edition of the New York Times, it 
was reported that Milosevic was ready to make a deal as early as the 
beginning of May. The Times said:

       That it took another month may have been due less to his 
     unwillingness to make a deal than to the West's slowness to 
     grasp that he was serious. The signs were everywhere.

  I have been concerned that very few people have fully grasped the 
relevance of Serbian history and culture as it relates to this war.
  As I have said on the floor previously, it is crucial to remember 
that Kosovo is the cultural and historical heartland of the Serbian 
people, and to the Serbs, it is a holy place. It is the scene of the 
most important event in Serbian history--the battle of Kosovo in 1389 
between the Turks and the Serbs.
  History, pride and heritage are deeply-seeded in Serb culture. That's 
why it is significant that Milosevic started his rise to political 
power in Kosovo and probably the most important event in his political 
career was when he spoke to one million citizens on the 600th 
Anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo--at the very site of the battle!
  Given the importance of Kosovo to Milosevic politically and to the 
Serbs historically, I knew that he would not sign the Rambouillet 
agreement. The agreement called for a referendum on the future of 
Kosovo's independence after three years. Which, considering the 
overwhelming Albanian majority, would have guaranteed an independent 
Kosovo.
  I also knew that once we started the bombing, it would, 
unfortunately, fan nationalistic flames causing the Serbian people to 
galvanize and rally around him. Prior to the war, I was privy to a 
Gallup poll that showed some 70% of people wanted him out.


                              rambouillet

  In addition to the historical and political reasons for Milosevic not 
to sign, the agreement called for other items that no one has talked 
about in any detail that would have had a tremendous impact on 
Yugoslavia's sovereignty.
  Here are a couple of the parts of that proposed agreement:

       NATO personnel shall enjoy, together with their vehicles, 
     vessels, aircraft and equipment, free and unrestricted 
     passage and unimpeded access throughout the FRY including 
     associated airspace and waters. This shall include, but not 
     be limited to, the right of bivouac, maneuver, billet and 
     utilization of any areas or facilities as required for 
     support, training and operations.''

  Summary.--NATO will have the ability to station troops and/or 
equipment anywhere through-out the FRY at its discretion. This would 
give NATO the ability to take control of the country.

       NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in 
     Europe (OSCE), through its Implementation Mission, shall have 
     its own broadcast frequencies for radio and television 
     programming in Kosovo. The FRY shall provide all necessary 
     facilities, including frequencies for radio communications, 
     to all humanitarian organizations responsible for delivering 
     aid in Kosovo.

  Summary.--At the discretion of NATO, OSCE and humanitarian groups, 
the FRY loses control of its radio and television stations.
  With a leader as worried about his political survival as much as 
Milosevic, it's understandable that he would reject an agreement with 
such provisions.
  The White House and NATO political strategists should have 
anticipated that he would not sign, and should have prepared counter-
options based on actions that he might take.
  I think it's quite interesting to point out that the day before the 
Senate vote to authorize the air campaign, my office was contacted by a 
staff member of the National Security Council who, when asked if there 
was a ``Plan B'' should the bombing campaign fail, assured my office 
that Milosevic would come to the peace table within two weeks of the 
bombing campaign. The staff member said that Milosevic was about to be 
subjected to such ``devastating'' punishment that he would come running 
back.
  That was exactly the same impression that I got from Defense 
Secretary Cohen, National Security Advisor Berger, Secretary of State 
Albright, and NATO General Clark--this guy is going to fold.
  And what was Milosevic doing while this Security Council staff member 
and our other leaders were making these pronouncements? He was laying 
the groundwork to start his policy of ethnic cleansing. Our 
intelligence community should have known that he was getting ready to 
move into Kosovo at the first sight of NATO bombers.
  We should have had a Plan B and a Plan C in case the ``sign or bomb'' 
approach didn't work.
  Where was our intelligence? Why didn't they anticipate such a massive 
outpouring of refugees? Or more chilling, maybe our intelligence did 
have the answer, and no one listened to them!
  The whole impetus for the Rambouillet agreement was to prevent ethnic 
cleansing, to prevent murder and genocide, to prevent an escalation of 
a wider war, to prevent an outpouring of refugees, reduce the 
likelihood of xenophobia and to prevent regional destabilization.
  Everything Rambouillet was supposed to prevent from happening, 
happened because we misjudged Milosevic with our ``sign or bomb'' 
diplomacy.
  Now look at what we have.
  Before the air war there were 45,000 refugees outside of Kosovo. Now 
there are more than 850,000 refugees outside of Kosovo and probably 
more than half a million more inside Kosovo.
  We've had ethnic cleansing and we're now seeing mass graves.
  It was as if the floodgates of death and destruction opened up once 
the air war started.
  Initial projections are that over ten thousand Kosovars died due to 
ethnic cleansing; and another 1,200 civilians were killed in Serbia due 
to the bombing.
  The infrastructure of Kosovo and Serbia is destroyed and the most 
vulnerable--women, children and the elderly--are in jeopardy.
  In addition, Serb monasteries have been desecrated, religious icons 
destroyed, and there are further reports that clergy members were 
kidnapped by men of the KLA.
  Hopefully the KLA will be brought under control to prevent any 
further ethnic cleansing of people in Kosovo.
  This war has been a humanitarian disaster.
  As I just mentioned, we've destroyed the infrastructure in Kosovo and 
in Serbia--bridges, roads, industry, water purification and 
electricity--and in Kosovo alone, the European Union estimates run at 
about $30 billion to rebuild. In Serbia, estimates run anywhere from 
$50 billion to $150 billion.
  One thing that no one talks about is the ecological disaster facing 
the entire region. We've destroyed an oil and petrochemical refinery 
complex in Pancevo, which has sent benzo-pyrene into the atmosphere, 
there are toxic substances released from oil and chemical plants along 
the Danube River into the river.
  We've bombed other chemical plants and oil refineries that have sent 
toxic substances into the environment, which has caused acid rain to 
fall in southwestern Romania and has caused air contaminants to be 
registered in Hungary.
  In addition, it is believed that some of our tank-piercing shells 
used depleted uranium in order to penetrate the hulls of Serbian tanks. 
The full effects of these shells are still unknown.

[[Page 13614]]

  There have been reports of increased numbers of stillborn babies, 
birth defects, childhood leukemia and other cancers in the children 
born to soldiers who served in the Iraq war; where depleted uranium was 
used as well. In addition, depleted uranium is believed to contribute 
to Gulf War syndrome--a debilitating chronic sickness that a number of 
our Gulf War veterans suffer.
  This war has also had a disastrous impact on the economies of 
Serbia's neighbors.
  The Danube River flows through Belgrade on its way to the sea. The 
Danube starts in West Germany and flows through Austria, the Czech 
Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia (and Vojvodina), Romania and 
Bulgaria.
  The Danube is a major economic thoroughfare for these nations, but 
because of our bombing campaign, river traffic has been curtailed. And 
until we clean up the river and rebuild the bridges, the passage of 
ships will be blocked and both truckers and shippers will find it 
difficult to move their goods to market.
  By our bombing, we have put a tourniquet on the economic lifeblood of 
many nations in the region.
  I've met with the Bulgarian President Stoyanov, Foreign Minister 
Mihaylova and Ambassador Philip Dimitrov and I've spoken with several 
Romanian leaders--all have asked if they are going to be part of the 
economic recovery plan for Southeast Europe.
  They also want to know if the United States and NATO recognize that 
the infrastructure damage in Serbia is directly impacting their 
economic well being.
  I don't believe too many people realize the economic ripple effect on 
Serbia's neighbors that the air war has caused. Tourism, a main 
economic boost to the entire region at this time of year, has been 
seriously affected. The agriculture planting season in Yugoslavia has 
been disrupted which will likely result in food shortages and high 
prices in the coming months as the area struggles to feed everyone. As 
I said earlier, shipping goods is more hazardous and shippers must use 
more circuitous routes to avoid conflict and destroyed infrastructure, 
which raises costs. The economic uncertainty because of the war (not to 
mention the destruction of plants and jobsites) has caused a tremendous 
increase in unemployment in the region--which adds to the refugee 
problem; as people go elsewhere looking for work. The diversion of 
economic resources by Serbia's neighbors to address the problems raised 
by the war (e.g. refugees, environmental damage), particularly Albania 
and Macedonia. Last month I was with the Deputy Foreign Minister of 
Macedonia, Boris Traijkovski, who said this war had had a $400 million 
(and growing) impact on their economy.
  We need to recognize and respond to this regional economic crisis.
  We have also suffered a tremendous blow to our nation's image.
  We've damaged our relations with the Russians. A recent public 
opinion poll in Russia indicated that 72% of the Russian people have an 
unfavorable view of the United States, whereas before the war it was at 
28%.
  I can't help but wonder if the war would have been over sooner--or 
averted--had we worked with the United Nations and Russia from the 
beginning and not asked them to come in as an afterthought.
  And what about the Chinese? With the bombing of their embassy in 
Belgrade, we've harmed nearly 30 years of good relations with China and 
destroyed the leg-up we had with them. We've had rioting in front of 
the U.S. Embassy in China and we've had the humiliating image of our 
Ambassador in Beijing trapped inside.
  We've lost prestige with a number of Europeans, who look upon this 
war as a giant American bombing ``video game''--a sort of Star Wars--
complete with a daily score card of target ``hits.''
  There are reports of anti-Americanism happening throughout Europe.
  Mr. President, I will be attending the Organization for Security and 
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia in two 
weeks. I am curious to hear, first hand, what these parliamentarians 
think about the United States, and how the people in their respective 
nations feel about the United States. I look forward to sharing my 
observations with my colleagues upon my return.
  Like Bosnia, this country will be in Kosovo as one diplomat has told 
me ``for as far as the eye can see,''and it will have a lasting impact 
on our finances. It is being paid for right now with Social Security.
  I believe the war over there has been a disaster--one of our worst 
foreign policy decisions of the century, and no amount of plastering 
over of the Clinton Administration can cover it up.
  Let me be clear--we must get rid of Milosevic. He is a war criminal. 
And I am glad we are reportedly finally trying to help those in Serbia 
who want democracy. I've been working with Serbs in diaspora for almost 
two years to find alternative leadership to Milosevic.
  This group is still willing to help if given support from our State 
Department. There are Serbs from all over the world who want to help--
doctors, engineers, accountants, architects.
  We need to encourage the Serbian people to pursue new leadership. We 
should publicly applaud Serb Orthodox Patriarch Pavle, for calling for 
Milosevic's removal.
  The Orthodox Church has been opposed to Milosevic from the beginning, 
and the Serbian Orthodox Church last week called for the ouster of 
Milosevic. The Holy Synod, the Church's highest body, said:

       We demand that the Federal President and his government 
     resign in the interest and the salvation of the people, so 
     that new officials, acceptable at home and abroad, can take 
     responsibility for the people and their future as a National 
     Salvation Government.

  I thoroughly believe that Milosevic should heed the call from the 
Church and do what is right--he must put his country's needs and his 
people's needs ahead of his own. He has put his nation through enough 
death, destruction and shame. The time is now to step down and I echo 
the call for his resignation.
  However, Mr. President, I am concerned that there seems to be a 
consensus that very little will be done to respond to the needs in 
Serbia until Milosevic is gone. Mr. President, we must remember that 
there are more than 500,000 refugees in Serbia and over 250,000 that 
were ethnically cleansed from southern Croatia in 1995 and reports are 
that they could have 50,000 more coming out of Kosovo.
  And though I am somewhat comforted that the President and the 
European Community have said they will respond to the humanitarian 
needs, I am really interested in how they define ``humanitarian.''
  I am certainly hopeful that humanitarian means things like repairing 
the bridges and cleaning the Danube, so people can go to work and 
receive necessary goods, bringing power back on-line, so people's 
essential needs can be met, or mending the basic infrastructure, to 
provide clean water and sanitation. However, based on news reports from 
this weekend, that does not seem to be the entire case; the West is 
only considering food, medicine and basic humanitarian aid, including, 
hopefully, electricity.
  Nevertheless, I believe we should listen to Russian Prime Minister 
Sergei Stepashin who, according to the Washington Post, says the West 
is taking a short-sighted attitude on aid, which will foment resentment 
among the Serb people and make it hard to be a part of restoring 
peaceful relations in the region. Stepashin said, ``You must not 
penalize 10 million Serbs for the conduct of one man.''
  We all know that part of our post-war objective in Yugoslavia is to 
get rid of Slobodan Milosevic. The best way to do that is to present an 
olive branch, not to him, but to the people of Serbia.
  If we help the people, if we give them the humanitarian assistance 
they need directly, we speed up the process to his ouster. However, if 
we don't help, Milosevic will continue to keep his political hold by 
appealing to his constituents' worst instincts about NATO and the U.S.
  In addition, our actions to help the Serbian people re-build will 
have a ripple effect on the rest of the region,

[[Page 13615]]

such as Bulgaria and Romania, which have a great need to revitalize 
their respective economies.
  We should support infrastructure programs that respond to the greater 
economic vitality of the entire region no matter where they are 
located.
  As the international community continues to examine its options and 
alternatives for the redevelopment of the region, they should consider 
removing the outer wall of sanctions to allow the IMF and the World 
Bank into Serbia to promote its long-term reconstruction, understanding 
that the Serbian people will know that this cannot happen with 
Milosevic's vice-grip on all the institutions in the country.
  There is a responsibility on the part of the countries of NATO to 
recognize that the Balkan nations are European, and they must be 
brought aggressively into the European fold.
  The fact that the Europeans are taking on the lion's share of 
rebuilding the infrastructure and economy is the best guarantee that 
Southeast Europe will join the European and world economies, and 
presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make lasting and 
significant changes in that part of Europe.
  For that challenge to become a reality, the people of Southeastern 
Europe, including the people of Slovenia and Croatia, must understand 
that they all have a symbiotic relationship.
  By working together, their economies will improve, their standard of 
living will increase and the nationalism and ethnic cleansing that has 
plagued them for centuries will end.
  I have often said that ``there is some good that blows in an ill 
wind,'' and I consider this war to be an ``ill wind.''
  However, the good that is blowing is the opportunity for the United 
States and NATO, to provide the impetus for a lasting peace to prevail 
throughout Southeastern Europe.
  We can provide the reconstruction assistance that righted the 
economies of the rest of Europe after World War II and which has made 
them economically prosperous and willing defenders of the rights of all 
men and women.
  We have had two world wars that have sprung from Europe in this 
century. We have a chance to guarantee that there will be no such wars 
in the 21st Century by helping restore Southeast Europe. It is 
important to the world, and its important to the strategic and national 
interests of the United States of America.
  I have two mottoes: ``Together, we can do it'' and the other is our 
state motto, ``With God, all things are possible.''
  I am confident that working together with our allies and with God's 
help, we can get the job done.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The distinguished Senator from 
Massachusetts is recognized.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask to proceed for 15 minutes.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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