[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6265-6267]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          TRIP TO MACEDONIA AND NATO HEADQUARTERS IN BRUSSELS

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, during the recent spring recess, I took the 
opportunity to travel to Brussels, Belgium, to meet with NATO officials 
about the situation in Kosovo. Last week, I traveled to Macedonia in 
order to make a firsthand assessment of the refugee problem confronting 
that small nation.
  While in Brussels, I received an assessment of the ongoing military 
campaign against Yugoslav military and security forces and strategic 
installations from Gen. Wesley Clark, commander of our NATO forces. I 
also discussed NATO's objectives with respect to Kosovo and the more 
than 600,000 Kosovars now displaced with NATO Secretary General Javier 
Solana, NATO ambassadors, and NATO military officials.
  I found that NATO ambassadors were unified in their resolve to stand 
up to Slobodan Milosevic. They expressed a willingness to carry on the 
air campaign for as long as it might take to degrade Serbian military 
and security forces.
  Let me also say how deeply impressed I was with Gen. Wesley Clark, 
the supreme allied commander of NATO forces, our ambassador to NATO and 
their staffs. I urge colleagues who have the opportunity to go to 
Brussels and meet with these NATO officials to do so. At the end of 
next week, there will be a gathering of the NATO nations' leaders here 
in Washington to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the most important 
strategic alliance of the 20th century. I hope that my colleagues will 
take advantage of the opportunity created by that historic gathering to 
speak with as many of these ambassadors and NATO staff and personnel as 
possible about the situation in Kosovo.
  After these meetings in Brussels, I traveled to Macedonia on a 
military aircraft that was bringing urgently needed supplies to the 
refugee camps. It was a long flight from Ramstein Air Force Base in 
Germany to Macedonia, and I was deeply impressed by the young crew and 
their hard work. Before I left Ramstein Air Force Base, General Brady 
and his staff gave me an excellent briefing on how they are helping to 
relieve the suffering of the men, women and children displaced from 
their homes in Kosovo.
  In Macedonia, I met with United States Ambassador Chris Hill and his 
staff. Let me reiterate to our colleagues here how fortunate we are to 
have someone of Chris Hill's talents and abilities representing us in 
Macedonia, particularly at a time such as this. He is a career foreign 
service officer, has spent time in the Balkans, knows the region well 
and is handling a very difficult and tense situation with a great deal 
of energy, vision and creativity.
  While I was in Macedonia, I also met with U.S. military personnel who 
are a part of a unit called Able Sentry. A brigadier general and his 
staff briefed me on their operations. Before hostilities broke out, 
Able Sentry was intended as the base facility for a peacekeeping force 
in Kosovo. Now, these American service men and women are leading NATO's 
efforts to help the refugees on the ground.
  I also spent some time with the enlisted personnel who make up the 
unit to which three young servicemen, Sergeants Ramirez and Stone and 
Specialist Steven Gonzales were assigned before their illegal capture 
by Serbian forces.
  I wish all of our colleagues could have joined me in that small room 
last Saturday to hear these young American servicemen talk with great 
pride about the work of their colleagues Ramirez, Stone, and Gonzales. 
Ramirez, Stone and Gonzales were professionals doing a commendable job. 
When they were captured, they were not close to the Serbian border 
where they would have placed themselves and their units in any 
jeopardy. When I spoke with this unit of highly competent individuals 
just three days ago, they were deeply worried that Members of Congress 
in Washington would misunderstand the role that they were engaged in 
and the professionalism with which they were conducting their 
responsibilities. I assured them that my colleagues here, regardless of 
party, had a deep respect for the job they were doing and admire them 
immensely. And, like them, I pray for the safe return of their three 
comrades.
  The service men and women I met with are committed to getting the job 
done, Mr. President. They know why they are there. They understand the 
seriousness and importance of this issue and are conducting their jobs 
with a high degree of professionalism.
  I wanted to take a moment here on the floor to express my confidence 
in them and speak their names on the floor of the Senate, as I assured 
them I would. I urge my colleagues to do likewise and express their 
support for the hard and commendable job our men and women in uniform 
are doing.
  Mr. President, the efforts of all of these men and women in Macedonia 
today are focused on alleviating the suffering of the thousands of 
people who have been forced from their homes by Slobodan Milosevic's 
reign of ethnic cleansing. I fear that I am not capable of fully 
describing the scene at the refugee camps. For a generation of us who 
were born at the end of World War II, the sites of a concentration camp 
or of the thousands of homeless people in Europe at the end of World 
War II rest securely in the domain of documentary films and Hollywood 
depictions.
  Most of us in this Chamber have not had occasion to encounter 
firsthand the kinds of scenes that our fathers and grandfathers 
witnessed. Senators Thurmond and Hollings of South Carolina, Senator 
Inouye, Senator Chafee, Senator Lautenberg, and others who were 
veterans of World War II can also speak of personal recollections of 
those days.
  In the past few days, however, the images from documentary films half 
a century old became a reality for me. I was profoundly struck by the 
sight of 45,000 people gathered together in makeshift huts or tents in 
an area only slightly larger than half of the Mall here in Washington. 
They were lining up for food, water, medicine and other basic 
necessities, and using open trenches as latrines. Mr. President, it was 
a sight to which TV film footage,

[[Page 6266]]

television broadcasts, news descriptions--despite their talent and 
ability--cannot really do justice. It was a truly compelling sight.
  I was deeply impressed with the work being done by the British 
military forces in this particular camp. It was stunning to learn that 
in less than 36 hours they had constructed and put up 4,000 tents to 
accommodate the 45,000 refugees that have poured into this particular 
part of Macedonia. There is another camp nearby in Brazda with some 
12,000 people in it. I am told by the distinguished Ambassador from 
Macedonia that some 16,000 other Kosovars are living in the homes of 
people in Macedonia. In total, there are some 120,000 Kosovars in that 
one small country, geographically the size of Vermont, with only 2 
million people. To put it into perspective for Americans, this is 
equivalent to 5 million people arriving on our shores to seek asylum in 
a 72 hour period. This influx of refugees represents a tremendous 
disruption in the economic life of Macedonia as it has in Albania.
  Mr. President, as I spent 4 hours or so wandering through the refugee 
camp walking by rows and rows of families huddled in tents or standing 
in lines to receive food and water, I noticed on every single tent a 
homemade sign written on cardboard with ballpoint pen or lipstick or 
whatever else that family could use. These signs would give a person's 
name and which town they had live in followed by: If you see or run 
into my mother, my father, my sister, my brother, or my child who is 
lost and separated, please tell them where I am. People wander by 
reading the signs, trying to find members of their own families. 
Teenagers are caring for small children who have been separated from 
their parents.
  As people cross the border they tell the stories of being brutalized 
by the Serbian military and police forces in Kosovo. These stories of 
what they had to endure, how they were evicted from their homes, and 
separated from their families, Mr. President, are haunting and 
shocking.
  I have seen a lot of hardship in my years. I was a Peace Corps 
volunteer in Latin America during the 1960s. I lived in countries where 
there is a great deal of poverty and suffering. I have been to Haiti 
many times. I have traveled throughout Central and Latin America over 
the years. But never, Mr. President, have I seen anything quite like 
the scene that I saw in this camp.
  At times, however, there are moments amongst the despair of the 
present which speak to the potential optimism of the future. In the 
camp I visited is a field hospital operated by the Israeli military. 
Since the refugees began arriving, the Israeli doctors and nurses have 
delivered 6 babies. I pray, Mr. President, that these 6 infants will 
not know the horrors of ethnic-cleansing and hatred their parents have 
fled. Rather, may they grow up in the spirit of understanding and 
respect for each other which drives these Jewish doctors to care for 
mostly Muslim refugees.
  If there is any doubt in anyone's mind about whether or not we were 
trying to do the right thing as a nation and as a group of nations 
under the alliance of NATO, I promise my colleagues that had they been 
with me last Saturday, seen what I saw, and talked to the people that I 
talked to, there would be absolutely no disagreement in this Chamber 
about whether or not the United States and NATO were taking the right 
course of action. Our efforts to restore these people to their rightful 
home, bring an end to this conflict, and thus save the lives of 
thousands and prevent the spread of this conflict throughout the 
Balkans area are most assuredly the right thing to do.
  I can only hope that Slobodan Milosevic will hear from this Chamber, 
from this Congress, and from NATO's member nations in the coming days a 
unanimous voice of determination to rid Kosovo of his brutal forces and 
stop to worst ethnic cleansing Europe has seen in decades. Furthermore, 
we must clearly state that we will not second guess the decisions of 
this administration, including President Clinton, Secretary of Defense 
Cohen and General Shelton, of our leaders in NATO, and of our 
colleagues in the diplomatic wing of NATO.
  Mr. President, I think it is critically important that we demonstrate 
at this juncture as much bipartisan support as we can for NATO's 
military campaign in Yugoslavia. Once President Milosevic understands 
that the United States and other NATO countries are resolute in their 
common determination to continue a military campaign against Serbian 
targets until NATO's conditions have been met, I am convinced he will 
back down.
  We must also be prepared to make clear that President Clinton has 
available all necessary means to carry out our mission against Serbian 
military and security forces. The Governments of Macedonia and Albania, 
together with international private relief organizations, have been 
confronted with a sea of refugees and are ill equipped to cope with 
this problem. International relief efforts to provide food, clothing, 
shelter, and medicines to the still-growing refugee community must 
continue--and on an expedited basis, I might add.
  The United Nations, and specifically the United Nations High 
Commission for Refugees, must dramatically step up their efforts to 
respond to the refugee crisis in Albania and Macedonia.
  It is also important to say a few words about the Governments of 
Albania and Macedonia. These are both poor countries that have been 
confronted with a situation even a wealthy nation like the United 
States would find difficult to cope with. While there have been some 
bumps along the road, I would like the Governments and the peoples of 
Macedonia and Albania to know that we in the United States appreciate 
deeply what they are trying to do to assist the Kosovar refugees and we 
recognize that they need substantial economic assistance to help them 
cope with this situation.
  Macedonia and Albania should receive, in my view, bilateral and 
multilateral economic assistance including IMF assistance, debt relief 
in the form of debt forgiveness, trade assistance, in order to address 
war-related economic dislocation in both countries.
  The hundred or so refugees with whom I spoke made it clear that they 
want to return to their home in Kosovo rather than be relocated 
throughout the globe. They also expressed deep appreciation of the 
international community, and specifically the United States, in 
endeavoring to accomplish certain goals on their behalf. It does not go 
unnoticed by them that the United States, once again, is standing up 
for those who have been treated as poorly as these people have. It is 
in our heritage. It is part of our collective ethic in this Nation to 
try to help, try to do what is right rather than to be silent and stand 
by while outrages are perpetrated against innocent people.
  I believe that what the United States and NATO are doing reversed the 
Serbian policy of ethnic cleansing and is a just cause that deserves 
the support of the Congress and the American people.
  I pledge to do all I can to support this effort. Particularly, I want 
to support our President, our military, and NATO as they endeavor to 
achieve this worthy goal. I hope before this week is out that we might 
find some common ideas through some collective work here to express 
some issues on which we can all agree. There are differences of opinion 
on various aspects of this crisis, but I happen to believe we share a 
great deal in common on this issue.
  I am confident that, under the leadership of the majority leader, 
Trent Lott, and the Democratic leader, Tom Daschle, the chairmen and 
ranking members of the Armed Services Committee, the Foreign Relations 
Committee, and the Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the 
Appropriations Committee, as well as the chairman and ranking member of 
the Appropriations Committee and other interested Members of this body, 
we can find some common language and common ideas to send a clear, 
strong signal this week of how much we appreciate the efforts of our 
service men and women, of the front-line states, and of the 
international relief organizations. We must assure them that they do 
not stand alone and that we are going to do everything we can to ease 
the pressures

[[Page 6267]]

and burdens that these poor refugees are facing. I am confident that we 
will speak with a common voice when we express our determination not to 
let Slobodan Milosevic's genocidal behavior stand.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

                          ____________________