[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9788]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



           HOW LONG MUST THE BOMBING IN YUGOSLAVIA CONTINUE?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Whitfield) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, how long must the bombing of Yugoslavia 
continue? Fifty-four days of continuous bombing in Yugoslavia. For what 
purpose? The President, Vice President and Secretary Albright adopted a 
policy saying that we must stop the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo 
Albanians. They said that they must act to forestall a new round of 
ethnic cleansing by Mr. Milosevic, and that was the reason the bombing 
started.
  The bombings have not worked. Today, there are nearly 800,000 
refugees in Macedonia, another 500,000 internally displaced within 
Kosovo. Thousands have been murdered. Macedonia has been destabilized, 
and our foreign relations with Russia and China severely strained. It 
is difficult to imagine how the situation could be much worse than what 
it is today.
  This administration, as part of its policy, and rightfully so, 
criticizes Milosevic for killing innocent civilians, and he has killed 
innocent civilians. However, our bombings are killing innocent 
civilians in Yugoslavia today.
  Mr. Milosevic has destroyed the infrastructure of Kosovo, and that is 
a valid criticism. Our bombings are destroying the infrastructure in 
Yugoslavia today.
  As Mr. Michael Dobbs wrote in yesterday's Washington Post, this 
administration's oversimplistic comparison between Kosovo and Bosnia or 
Milosevic and Hitler has helped transform what would otherwise have 
been a Balkan crisis into a global crisis, the ramifications of which 
are being felt not only in America, not only in Yugoslavia but also in 
Moscow and in Beijing.
  NATO's senior military officer, General Klaus Naumann said this 
weekend, we are nibbling away night by night and day by day at 
Milosevic's military capabilities.
  Paul Watson of the Los Angeles Times reported from Yugoslavia on some 
of NATO's nibblings. Bomblets from cluster bombs have been aimed in the 
middle of the night at military forces and a park and playground in the 
village of Stare Garko. At least three of the unexploded bomblets lay 
in the playground, where three empty bunkers suggested that soldiers 
may have been based. There were no signs of damage to any military 
vehicles. Instead, four-year-old Dragan Dimic was dead, along with his 
neighbors Bosko Jankovic and Mr. Jankovic's wife Jenverosima. Their 
bodies lay smeared with dried blood where they fell at the edge of 
their small front patio.
  Mr. President, stop the bombings. Give negotiations an opportunity to 
work. Are we willing to continue bombing whatever the cost in human 
life, in pain and in suffering until Mr. Milosevic removes all of his 
forces from Kosovo? There must be some other way. Bombing is not the 
answer. How long must the bombing in Yugoslavia continue?

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