[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6101-6102]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                 KOSOVO

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, as the Senate reconvenes from a 2-week 
Easter recess, I am sure a number of my colleagues will be coming to 
the floor to discuss the challenges and the difficulties and the 
circumstances that exist now with respect to the action being taken in 
Kosovo. I am one of those who voted to support airstrikes in Kosovo. We 
voted to give the President the authority to commit U.S. troops and 
airplanes to conduct airstrikes only, along with our NATO allies, to 
respond to the ethnic cleansing and the genocide that has been 
occurring in Kosovo.
  I believe it is in our national interest to respond in these 
circumstances when we see genocide being committed. When we see ethnic 
cleansing on the scale as has been committed in Kosovo, we have a 
responsibility as a community of nations to respond to it, to try

[[Page 6102]]

to help and to save the lives of those poor, innocent people who are 
being repressed and in a good many cases murdered, and certainly in 
hundreds of thousands of cases removed from their homeland, by a 
tyrant, by someone who does not respect international law. Over 630,000 
refugees have been forced from their homes in Kosovo, 25,000 of them 
loaded on trains in scenes that are reminiscent of the late stages in 
World War II, sending of the folks to the death camps in the Second 
World War. Reports of mass executions, burned villages, rapes and 
robberies--all of this is rampant.
  I supported the airstrikes as part of a NATO response to stop this 
ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. The United States is doing this as a part 
of NATO, but the United States shoulders the bulk of the burden of the 
airstrikes in that region. There are 400 U.S. war planes, 400 U.S. 
aircraft involved in this operation, and about 200 aircraft from the 
allied nations. During the first week of the war, the United States 
flew about 90 percent of the sorties. In other words, 90 percent of the 
pilots and about 90 percent of the airplanes during the first week of 
that war were U.S. planes and pilots.
  I expect we will have briefings this week about the consequences of 
the airstrikes that have been launched. We have seen substantial 
television coverage. There has been a great deal of news analysis of 
all of this, and I think probably everyone here in the Senate is 
concerned and nervous about what is happening. There is discussion now 
about whether ground troops ultimately will be needed in that region in 
order to complete the mission of NATO. I do not know the answer to 
that, but I do feel very strongly that the introduction of U.S. forces 
on the ground in the Balkans could be a very, very significant mistake.
  The NATO allies, it seems to me, the NATO countries, particularly the 
European countries, have a greater responsibility, especially in their 
neighborhood, in their area of the world, to do what is necessary to 
make the commitment if ground troops are necessary to support this 
effort. We do not know the consequences of NATO action. We know the 
consequences of taking no action. That would be the continuation and 
perhaps the finality of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, perhaps the murder 
of tens of thousands of additional people, certainly the displacement 
of hundreds of thousands and more from Kosovo to refugee camps and to 
other places in the world.
  That is unacceptable. None of us want 5 and 10 years from now to look 
back and say, ``What shame has been wrought upon this world with this 
ethnic cleansing and this genocide that we did nothing about it.'' That 
is the reason I think this country and the NATO allies decided we will 
not allow this to stand; we must take action. So we took action with 
airstrikes, and those airstrikes continue.
  The next decision, I think, will be, Will there be ground troops 
needed? I will just say, speaking for myself, I am very concerned about 
the introduction of U.S. ground forces in the Balkans. I believe very 
strongly that the NATO countries, particularly the European countries, 
must bear a greater responsibility of that burden. If ground troops are 
needed for intervention in the Balkans, then I believe that the 
European countries ought to commit under NATO those ground troops. But 
I would be very concerned about a decision to commit U.S. ground troops 
in the Balkans.
  Those of us in leadership on the Republican and Democratic side, both 
in the Senate and in the House, have been invited to meet with 
President Clinton tomorrow at the White House late in the morning. We 
will be discussing this issue, I suspect, in greater detail: What have 
the airstrikes accomplished? What is the mission? How does that mission 
now continue toward some kind of conclusion, and what might we expect 
that conclusion to be?
  I do not agree with my colleagues at all who say our mission must be 
to be successful; our mission must be to win with respect to the goals 
we have established in this area. But no one should mistake that this 
is a very difficult set of circumstances. We acted because we had to, 
but this remains a very difficult set of circumstances for this country 
and for the NATO allies.
  It is my hope that very soon Mr. Milosevic will understand that he 
cannot continue, that this country and many of us in this body view him 
as a war criminal. I am one who believes he should be tried as a war 
criminal in front of an international tribunal. I know some are 
reluctant to do that because then they say you are negotiating 
ultimately with a war criminal if you negotiate an end to the 
hostilities.
  The fact is, because genocide is being committed, we are persuaded to 
go in to stop it. By definition, when we began this process, we decided 
this person was a war criminal at the start. Why are we reluctant now, 
at anyplace along this process, to ask an international tribunal to 
brand him, try him in absentia, if necessary, as a war criminal?
  There will be much more to discuss on the subject of Kosovo in the 
coming days. I will be interested, as well, in the views of my 
colleagues and interested in the meeting with President Clinton 
tomorrow with the joint leadership of the House and the Senate.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak on a different 
subject, the subject of family farming and agriculture, for another 8 
minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is 
so ordered.

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