[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 26 (Monday, July 2, 2001)]
[Pages 978-980]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Congress on the National Emergency in the Western Balkans

June 27, 2001

To the Congress of the United States:

    Pursuant to section 204(b) of the International Emergency Economic 
Powers Act, 50 U.S.C. 1703(b) (IEEPA), and section 301 of the National 
Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C. 1631, I hereby report that I have exercised 
my statutory authority to declare a national emergency in response to 
the unusual and extraordinary threat posed to the national security and 
foreign policy of the United States by (i) actions of persons engaged 
in, or assisting, sponsoring, or supporting, extremist violence in the 
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, southern Serbia, the Federal 
Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), and elsewhere in the Western Balkans 
region, and (ii) the actions of persons engaged in, or assisting, 
sponsoring, or supporting acts obstructing implementation of the Dayton 
Accords in Bosnia or United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 of 
June 10, 1999, in Kosovo. The actions of these individuals and groups 
threaten the peace in or diminish the security and stability of the 
Western Balkans, undermine the authority, efforts, and objectives of the 
United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and other 
international organizations and entities present in those areas and the 
wider region, and endanger the safety of persons participating in or 
providing support to the activities of those organizations and entities, 
including United States military forces and Government officials. In 
order to deal with this threat, I have issued an Executive order 
blocking the property and interests in property of those persons 
determined to have undertaken the actions described above.
    The Executive order prohibits United States persons from 
transferring, paying, exporting, withdrawing, or otherwise dealing in 
the property or interests in property of persons I have identified in 
the Annex to the order or persons designated pursuant to the

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order by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the 
Secretary of State. Included among the activities prohibited by the 
order are the making or receiving by United States persons of any 
contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services to or for the 
benefit of any person designated in or pursuant to the order. In the 
Executive order, I also have made a determination pursuant to section 
203(b)(2) of IEEPA that the operation of the IEEPA exemption for certain 
humanitarian donations from the scope of the prohibitions would 
seriously impair my ability to deal with the national emergency. Absent 
such a determination, such donations of the type specified in section 
203(b)(2) of IEEPA could strengthen the position of individuals and 
groups that endanger the safety of persons participating in or providing 
support to the United Nations, NATO, and other international 
organizations or entities, including U.S. military forces and Government 
officials, present in the region. The Secretary of the Treasury, in 
consultation with the Secretary of State, is authorized to issue 
regulations in exercise of my authorities under IEEPA to implement the 
prohibitions set forth in the Executive order. All Federal agencies are 
also directed to take actions within their authority to carry out the 
provisions of the order, and, where appropriate, to advise the Secretary 
of the Treasury in a timely manner of the measures taken.
    I am enclosing a copy of the Executive order I have issued. The 
order was effective at 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on June 27, 
2001.
    I have issued the order in response to recent developments in the 
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, southern Serbia, and elsewhere in 
the Western Balkans region where persons have turned increasingly to the 
use of extremist violence, the incitement of ethnic conflict, and other 
obstructionist acts to promote irredentist or criminal agendas that have 
threatened the peace in and the stability and security of the region and 
placed those participating in or supporting international organizations, 
including U.S. military and Government personnel, at risk.
    In both Macedonia and southern Serbia, individuals and groups have 
engaged in extremist violence and other acts of obstructionism to 
exploit legitimate grievances of local ethnic Albanians. These groups 
include local nationals who fought with the Kosovo Liberation Army in 
1998-99 and have used their wartime connections to obtain funding and 
weapons from Kosovo and the ethnic Albanian diaspora. Guerrilla attacks 
by some of these groups against police and soldiers in Macedonia 
threaten to bring down the democratically elected, multi-ethnic 
government of a state that has become a close friend and invaluable 
partner of NATO. In March 2001, guerrillas operating on the border 
between Kosovo and Macedonia attempted to fire upon U.S. soldiers 
participating in the international security presence in Kosovo known as 
the Kosovo Force (KFOR). Guerrilla leaders subsequently made public 
threats against KFOR.
    In southern Serbia, ethnic Albanian extremists have used the Ground 
Safety Zone (GSZ), originally intended as a buffer between KFOR and FRY/
Government of Serbia (FRY/GoS) forces, as a safe haven for staging 
attacks against FRY/GoS police and soldiers. Members of ethnic Albanian 
armed extremist groups in southern Serbia have on several occasions 
fired on joint U.S.-Russian KFOR patrols in Kosovo. NATO has negotiated 
the return of FRY/GoS forces to the GSZ, and facilitated negotiations 
between Belgrade authorities and ethnic Albanian insurgents and 
political leaders from southern Serbia. A small number of the extremist 
leaders have since threatened to seek vengeance on KFOR, including U.S. 
KFOR.
    Individuals and groups engaged in the activities described above 
have boasted falsely of having U.S. support, a claim that is believed by 
many in the region. They also have aggressively solicited funds from 
United States persons. These fund-raising efforts serve to fuel 
extremist violence and obstructionist activity in the region and are 
inimical to U.S. interests. Consequently, the Executive order I have 
issued is necessary to restrict any further financial or other support 
by United States persons for the persons designated in or pursuant to 
the order. The actions we are taking will demonstrate to all the peoples 
of the region and to the wider international community that the 
Government of the United States strongly opposes

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the recent extremist violence and obstructionist activity in Macedonia 
and southern Serbia and elsewhere in the Western Balkans. The concrete 
steps we are undertaking to block access by these groups and individuals 
to financial and material support will assist in restoring peace and 
stability in the Western Balkans region and help protect U.S. military 
forces and Government officials working towards that end.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 June 27, 2001.