III

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. RES. 135

Calling for the immediate release of the three humanitarian workers in

Yugoslavia.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JULY 1, 1999

Mr. DURBIN (for himself and Mr. LEAHY) submitted the following resolution;

which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

RESOLUTION

Calling for the immediate release of the three humanitarian

workers in Yugoslavia.

Whereas Branko Jelen, Steve Pratt, and Peter Wallace are

three humanitarian workers employed in Yugoslavia by

CARE International, the relief and development organization, providing food, medicines and fuel to more than

50,000 Serbian refugees in Serbia and to displaced ethnic

Albanians in Kosovo;

Whereas Steve Pratt and Peter Wallace, two Australian nationals, were detained on March 31, 1999, and later accused of operating and managing a spy ring and being

employed by a spy ring, and Branko Jelen, a Yugoslav,

was arrested one week later on the same charges;

Whereas on March 30, the organization CARE International

had received a letter of commendation from the Yugo-
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SRES 135 IS

slavian government about CARE International’s humanitarian work in Yugoslavia;

Whereas one of the three humanitarian workers, Steve Pratt,

appeared on Serbian television on April 11, and he was

coerced into saying that he had performed covert intelligence activities;

Whereas the three humanitarian workers were held without

access to outsiders for 20 days;

Whereas on May 29, a military court dismissed every element

of the original indictment, but then proceeded to convict

the three CARE International workers on an entirely new

charge of passing on information to a foreign organization, namely CARE International, and sentenced Pratt to

12 years, Jelen to 6, and Wallace to 4;

Whereas this last charge was introduced at the reading of the

verdict, denying lawyers for the three any opportunity to

mount an appropriate defense;

Whereas it appears the humanitarian workers were convicted

of providing ‘‘situation reports’’ to their head office and

other CARE International offices around the world,

based on legitimately gathered information, necessary to

enable CARE International management to plan their

humanitarian assistance in a rapidly changing context

and to inform CARE International management of the

security situation in which their staff were working;

Whereas the convictions of these three humanitarian workers

raise serious questions regarding the ability of humanitarian aid organizations to operate in Yugoslavia, with

implications for their operations in other areas of conflict

around the world;
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SRES 135 IS

Whereas the three humanitarian workers are innocent, committed no crime, and are being held prisoner unjustly;

Whereas Yugoslavia needs humanitarian workers who feel secure enough to do their work and who are not at risk of

going to prison on false charges; and

Whereas many leaders around the world have raised the issue

and sought to free the captives, including Kofi Annan,

Nelson Mandela, Marti Ahtisaari, Mary Robinson, and

Jesse Jackson: Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved, That the Senate—

2 (1) urges the Government of the United States

3 and the United Nations to undertake urgent and

4 strenuous efforts to secure the release of the three

5 CARE International humanitarian workers; and

6 (2) calls upon the Government of the Federal

7 Republic of Yugoslavia to send a positive signal to

8 the international humanitarian community and to

9 give these workers their freedom without further

10 delay.

Æ