105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. CON. RES. 235
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Calling for an end to the violent repression of the
legitimate rights of the people of Kosova.
105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. CON. RES. 235
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Whereas the Albanian people of Kosova constitute more than
90 percent of the total population of Kosova;
Whereas the political rights of the Albanian people of Kosova
were curtailed when the Government of Yugoslavia ille-
gally amended the Constitution of Yugoslavia without the
consent of the people of Kosova on March 23, 1989, re-
voking the autonomous status of Kosova;
•HCON 235 EH
Whereas in 1990, the Parliament and Government of Kosova
were abolished by further unlawful amendments to the
Constitution of Yugoslavia;
Whereas the Mission of Long Duration to Kosova, the
Sandzak and Vojvodina, which the Organization for Secu-
rity and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) deployed in
1992, eased local tensions through objective human
rights monitoring and facilitating dialogue between au-
thorities and the various communities before the authori-
ties of Serbia-Montenegro expelled the Mission in 1993;
Whereas the State Department’s 1997 Country Report on
Human Rights in Serbia notes violations of civil liberties
in Kosova particularly in the following categories: politi-
cal and other extra-judicial killing; torture and other
cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; ar-
bitrary arrest, detention or exile; denial of fair public
trial; and arbitrary interference with privacy, family,
home, or correspondence;
Whereas on the night of February 28, 1998, Serbian para-
military policy units, reported to number in excess of
25,000 men, swept through the Drenica region of Kosova
killing more than 20 Albanian citizens, many of who died
from being beaten to death;
Whereas on March 2, 1998, 30,000 demonstrators peacefully
marched in Pristina to protest the massacre of February
28 and were brutally attacked by Serbian police;
Whereas a group calling itself the Liberation Army of Kosova
has threatened to retaliate against the atrocities commit-
ted by Serbian authorities;
Whereas new elections in Kosova scheduled for March 22,
1998, have now been postponed; and
•HCON 235 EH
thorities continue to use unlawful violence against
the Albanian people of Kosova;
(5) the United States should acknowledge re-
cent developments in the Republic of Montenegro
that indicate that the new leadership of the Republic
is seeking a peaceful resolution to the repression in
Kosova, particularly the statement by Montenegrin
President Milo Djukanovic that Kosova must receive
a certain degree of autonomy, and his call for a dia-
log between the Government of Serbia and Montene-
gro and ethnic Albanians in Kosova;
(6) the United States should, to the extent
practicable, recognize positive actions by the Govern-
ment of the Republic of Montenegro with regard to
repression in Kosova through exclusion from those
sanctions that may be applied to the Government of
Serbia;
(7) the elections in Kosova originally scheduled
for March 22, 1998, and now postponed, should be
allowed to proceed unimpeded by Belgrade whenever
they take place, as they represent the opportunity
for a peaceful expression of the political will of the
Albanian people of Kosova;
(8) all parties should refrain from acts that
could lead to heightened tensions in Kosova;
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(9) international and nongovernmental organi-
zations that provide medical assistance should be
permitted immediate and unrestricted access to
Kosova and all of its citizens;
(10) international investigators of serious
breaches of international humanitarian law should
be granted immediate and unimpeded access to all
parts of Kosova and to its citizens;
(11) the agreement on education in Kosova
should be implemented immediately, including at the
university level, allowing all residents of Kosova re-
gardless of ethnicity to receive education in their na-
tive tongue;
(12) the elected leaders of Kosova should begin
a dialog without preconditions with the authorities
in Belgrade to resolve the present situation, and to
provide for the exercise of the legitimate civil and
political rights of all the people of Kosova;
(13) inasmuch as the Belgrade regime led by
the last Communist dictator in Europe, Slobodan
Milosevic, continues to abuse democratic norms and
the rights of all its citizens, threatening general re-
gional stability, the United States should undertake
determined measures and provisions designed to pro-
•HCON 235 EH
mote human rights and democratic government
throughout Serbia and Montenegro;
(14) the authorities of Serbia-Montenegro
should cooperate fully with efforts and initiatives of
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) to address the problems in Kosova,
including the immediate and unconditional return of
a Mission of Long Duration;
(15) staff of the United States Information
Agency office in Pristina, Kosova, should be aug-
mented; and
(16) the United Nations Security Council
should consider the question of restoration of the
human and political rights of the people of Kosova
and actions to halt Belgrade’s violent repression of
the region’s population.
Passed the House of Representatives March 18,
1998.
Attest:
Clerk.