[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 19845]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 19845]]

                  END THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE IN KOSOVO

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, the news out of Kosovo concerning the 
commission of atrocities against Serbs and Gypsies is deeply troubling.
  According to a report released on Tuesday by Human Rights Watch ``for 
the province's minorities, and especially the Serb and Roma (Gypsy) 
populations, as well as some ethnic populations perceived as 
collaborators or as political opponents of the Kosovo Liberation Army 
(KLA), these changes have brought fear, uncertainty, and in some cases 
violence.'' The report adds that ``The intent behind many of the 
killings and abductions that have occurred in the province since early 
June appears to be the expulsion of Kosovo's Serb and Roma population 
rather than a desire for revenge alone.''
  Mr. President, the massive atrocities committed against the ethnic 
Albanian population of Kosovo pursuant to Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic 
cleansing policy have been appropriately condemned by the international 
community. The United States and our NATO allies have invested a great 
deal of resources and put their sons and daughters at risk to stop the 
atrocities and to reverse the ethnic cleansing. But they did not do so 
to allow the former victims to commit atrocities against or seek to 
ethnically cleanse the Serbs and Gypsies.
  When I visited Kosovo in the first week of July along with Senators 
Reed, Landrieu and Sessions, we met with Hashim Thaci, political leader 
of the KLA and Colonel Agim Ceku, the KLA military commander. We 
condemned the violence being perpetrated against the Serbs and asked 
them to speak out against the mistreatment of the Serbs. They stated to 
us they have publicly called for the Serbs to stay and for those who 
have left to return provided they had not previously committed 
atrocities.
  Mr. President, words are important but deeds are more important. I 
realize that the KLA is not a highly-disciplined organization and that 
there are extremists within the KLA who do not answer to either Mr. 
Thaci or Colonel Ceku. I also realize that not all those who are 
presently committing atrocities are members of the KLA. But Mr. Thaci 
and Colonel Ceku and other Albanian leaders must do more to bring an 
end to the cycle of violence in Kosovo.
  According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 164,000 
Serbs have left Kosovo during the seven weeks since Yugoslav and Serb 
forces withdrew and KFOR entered Kosovo, and the number continues to 
rise. The military troops of the NATO-led KFOR are not trained to be 
policemen and the enforcement of day-to-day law and order is not and 
should not be their mission. The United Nations has only deployed about 
400 civilian police to Kosovo. The deployment of the international 
civilian police force to Kosovo must be accelerated. The cycle of 
violence in Kosovo must stop.
  I visited with the ethnic Albanian refugees in the camps in Macedonia 
and was sickened at their horrific stories of their mistreatment at the 
hands of the Serbs. I was a strong supporter of the NATO air campaign 
against Serbia and of the deployment of the NATO-led KFOR. I support 
the reconstruction of Kosovo and the creation of an autonomous multi-
ethnic Kosovo. But none of us, no matter what position we took on other 
issues involved in NATO's action in Kosovo, can accept criminal acts 
against Serbs and Gypsies in Kosovo.
  President Clinton and the leaders of our NATO allies won the support 
of their citizens for the NATO air campaign and subsequent peacekeeping 
mission in part because it was the humane thing to do. Americans and 
Europeans alike were deeply upset at the plight of the ethnic Albanian 
refugees. That support will dissipate if the cycle of violence in 
Kosovo does not stop.
  I call on NATO, the United Nations, the leaders of the ethnic 
Albanian community in Kosovo, particularly Mr. Thaci and Colonel Ceku, 
and the law abiding citizens of Kosovo, to act and act now to show 
their rejection of lawlessness and violence. The cycle of violence must 
stop.

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