Benjamin Gilman: “Mr. Speaker, in recent weeks the world has witnessed the horrifying spectacle of violence again sweeping a part of the…”

“Mr. Speaker, in recent weeks the world has witnessed the horrifying spectacle of violence again sweeping a part of the Balkans. Serbian paramilitary police forces brutally assaulted the long suffering people of the province of Kosova, more than 90 percent of whom are Albanian. Whole villages were attacked and their inhabitants were forced to flee into the hills. Entire families were massacred as Serbian forces fired indiscriminately into their homes. When the Kosovars gathered peacefully to protest these atrocities, Serbian police met them with more brutality, first firing on the marchers with tear gas and water cannon, then beating anyone who came within reach. It should be noted that the terrible war that destroyed the former Yugoslavia began in 1989 in Kosova, when dictator Slobodan Milosevic arbitrarily and illegally terminated the autonomous status enjoyed by Kosova under the Constitution of the former Yugoslavia. The international community and our government in particular has repeatedly warned Milosevic of severe consequences should he be responsible for further violence in Kosova, where his government has forced ethnic Albanians from their jobs, from their classrooms and from their communities. He has apparently decided to ignore all these warnings.”