[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9819-9820]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                                 KOSOVO

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I have come to the floor of the Senate 
several times in the last 2 weeks to talk about Kosovo. When the 
majority leader was talking about our crowded schedule, I couldn't help 
but thinking to myself that we need to find the time on the floor of 
the Senate to have a thorough discussion and debate about Kosovo and 
what is happening there.
  This weekend in Korisa, as a result of airstrikes, somewhere in the 
neighborhood of about, I think, 70 or 80 innocent people were killed. 
Now, it is quite unclear whether or not we made the mistake, or whether 
or not the Serbs somehow brought people back to this town and used them 
as human shields--and they have done that.
  But I come to the floor of the Senate to make two points. One, about 
2 weeks ago, I said I thought we should have a pause in the bombing. I 
did not make it open-ended. I made it crystal clear that we would 
communicate to Milosevic that if he used this 48-hour period of time to 
repair radar systems, to resupply military, and if he did not stop the 
slaughter and if he did not remove troops, we would immediately begin 
to bomb again. But I felt it was critically important to do that 
because of the momentum of the G-8 countries going to the United 
Nations and a possible diplomatic solution.
  I wish we had done that because then there was the bombing of the 
Chinese Embassy and all that has happened since. I just want to make 
the following point: I then came to the floor again last week and 
called for a temporary pause in the bombing, and I do so again this 
week. I do not want to engage in moral equivalency. I did not want this 
century to end this way. I did not want Milosevic to be able to get 
away with what he has been able to get away with, which has been the 
murder of innocent people, noncombatant civilians.
  But, by the same token, it troubles me when I read reports that we 
don't use Apache helicopters for fear that we would be flying too low 
and we could see some of our Americans shot down and killed. I have 
that same concern.
  When I first voted for airstrikes, I assumed we would be prosecuting 
the war

[[Page 9820]]

in Kosovo. I assumed this was the risk. I stayed up thinking, my God, 
we are going to lose people. What if it were my son or daughter? Would 
I believe they were doing the right thing?
  I believe our intentions are good, but I think these high-tech, high-
fly airstrikes, if it continues on and on, it is going to lead to the 
death of many other innocent people, and it is going to undercut our 
moral case. There is no question about it.
  When we took this vote--and I read from the Record and I will 
conclude on this--I asked my colleague, Senator Biden:

       Could my colleague, for the purpose of the legislative 
     record, spell out the objective? Could my colleague spell out 
     what his understanding is when we say the President is 
     authorized to conduct military operations?

  Senator Biden's response, which I think was a good one, was:

       My understanding of the objective stated by the President 
     is that his objective is to end the ethnic cleansing in 
     Kosovo and the persecution of the Albanian minority 
     population in Kosovo and to maintain security and stability 
     in the Balkans as a consequence of slowing up, stopping, or 
     curtailing the ability of Milosevic and the Serbian VJ and 
     MUP to be able to go in and cause circumstances which provide 
     for the likelihood of a half million refugees to destabilize 
     the region. The objective at the end of the day is, 
     hopefully, that this will bring Milosevic back to the table. 
     Hopefully, he will agree to what all of NATO said they wanted 
     him to agree to, and hopefully that will occur. In the event 
     it does not occur, the objective will be to degrade his 
     military capability so significantly that he will not be able 
     to impose his will upon Kosovo as he is doing now.

  I suggest that perhaps our objectives have shifted because much of 
the massacre has taken place--and maybe more would have if not for the 
airstrikes, I don't know. But many people have been murdered and 
emptied out of their country, forced out of their country. In addition, 
this bombing goes way beyond degrading Milosevic's military capacity.
  So I call on my colleagues to seriously consider a very thorough, 
honest, serious debate about the war in Kosovo, about where we are, and 
where we need to go. I don't think any of the options are good. I don't 
want us to leave and abandon the people. I want the people to be able 
to go back to their country. I want there to be an international force, 
a militarized force, and I want people to rebuild lives. But I would 
like to see much more emphasis on what we need to do to pursue a 
diplomatic solution to this. I don't think there is any other 
alternative. It is not going to be the ground troops; it is not going 
to be Apache helicopters, apparently. I don't think it can be 5 or 6 
more months of airstrikes.
  So, again, I come to the floor today to call for a pause in the 
airstrikes, very focused, for 48 hours, with clear conditions, the 
emphasis being on a diplomatic solution to this military conflict.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________