Benjamin Gilman: “I move to suspend rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 235) calling for an end to the violent…”

“I move to suspend rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 235) calling for an end to the violent repression of the legitimate rights of the people of Kosova, as amended. The Clerk read as follows: H. Con. Res. 235 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 illegally amended the Constitution of Yugoslavia without the consent of the people of Kosova on March 23, 1989, revoking the autonomous status of Kosova; 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 Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) deployed in 1992, eased local tensions through objective human rights monitoring and facilitating dialogue between authorities and the various communities before the authorities 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: political and other extra-judicial killing; torture and other cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; arbitrary arrest, detention or exile; denial of fair public trial; and arbitrary interference…”