H2924 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE May 10, 1999 Mrs. Singleton is an eight-grade language gress to continue ensuring that you have ac- tually is taking place, that we can ne- arts teacher at Wellcome Middle School in cess to the resources you need to challenge gotiate an honorable truce with Greenville, North Carolina. the minds of our nation's children. Milosevic where people can go home A veteran of the Gulf War, Mrs. Singleton f and everything can be nice. But this is was nominated by her students to receive the a fantasy. More, it is a dangerous fan- SERBIAN PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC Channel One Network's Teacher of the Year. tasy. HAS A LONG HISTORY OF BRU- Channel One produces educational pro- The world simply cannot ignore the TALITY AND ETHNIC CLEANSING grams for middle and high school aged stu- fact that Milosevic and many others in dents. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under his employ are war criminals. They About 12,000 schools nationwide, including the Speaker’s announced policy of Jan- meet the test by any historical Wellcome, subscribe to Channel One as an uary 6, 1999, the gentleman from Vir- yardstick one could use to measure educational resource. ginia (Mr. WOLF) is recognized for 30 them. As long as he is in power, it will In an effort to recognize the efforts of our minutes as the designee of the major- not be possible to have a lasting peace nation's teachers, Channel One asked stu- ity leader. in the Balkans. dents to videotape their teachers in the class- Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, although I Let me paraphrase two experts from room. would not have taken the actions of Peter Maass’ book, ‘‘Love Thy Neigh- Mrs. Singleton, with the faithful support and the Clinton administration, which has bor, A Story of War’’. Maass, writing encouragement of her students, was selected led us where we are today in the Bal- about war crime indictments, relates Channel One's Teacher of the Year. kans, the question has now become, we accounts so horrifically graphic that I Ralph Cole is another educator who de- are here; now what do we do? cannot read them verbatim but will in- I want to rise today to set forth my serves recognition today. clude them for the RECORD. Mr. Cole has been educating the children of concerns and my thoughts on Amer- In one account he says that the Serb ica’s response to the terrible things Chowan County, North Carolina for the last forces put the gun up against a father’s that have taken place in the Balkans. thirty-seven years. head and tells the father to rape your I, of course, address my remarks to ev- Now principal of D.F. Walker Elementary daughter. The father says, no, I cannot erybody in the Congress but especially School in Edenton, Mr. Cole has dedicated his do that. Then he puts the gun up to the to my Republican colleagues here in career to ensure that all students have equal daughter’s head and says to the father, the Congress. now rape your daughter. The father access to a quality education. Last Thursday afternoon, May 6, While Mr. Cole is retiring at the end of this says, oh, no. while listening to the debate on the Then, according to the account, and I school year, I wanted to acknowledge him dur- emergency supplemental appropria- will not go any further, but I now ing Teacher Appreciation Week for his efforts tions bill, I was struck by two notions. would have like to have Peter Maass’ to inspire all children to learn and to reach The first was that some in the House account of what took place, beginning their full potential. apparently believe that the U.S. and on page 51. Mr. Speaker, each year the state of North NATO can negotiate and then continue Then on page 53 he goes on to tell of Carolina selects a teacher to serve as ambas- to coexist with Serbian President other atrocities and brutalities that sador for public schools and the teaching pro- Milosevic as though the terrible, bru- are so graphic that I will not read them fession. tal, and criminal acts inflicted upon on the floor of the House but will in- The teacher then goes on to compete for the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo as sert them whereby they will appear in the honor of National Teacher of the Year. daily fare did not even take place. The the RECORD at this very, very point. Rebecca Hoyle, a veteran of North Carolina second notion is that many are acting Beginning on page 51 while writing about public schools for 26 years, has been named as if this Balkan conflict just got under war criminal activity, Maass says: ``You can, North Carolina's 1998±1999 teacher of the way or began a short 8 weeks ago. for example, barge into a house and put a gun year. I am convinced that neither of these to a father's head and tell him that you will pull Ms. Hoyle is a music teacher at Jacksonville are true. So are many, many others. In the trigger unless he rapes his daughter or at Commons Elementary School in Jacksonville, fact, Milosevic’s bloody pursuit of eth- least simulates the rape. (I heard of such North Carolina. nic cleansing began in 1991 with the things in Bosnia.) The father will refuse and I had the opportunity to visit with her briefly military assault on Vukovar, Croatia, say I will die before doing that. You shrug your a couple weeks ago when she was in Wash- near the Serbian border. This assault shoulders and reply, Okay, old man, I won't ington. signaled an ethnic cleansing, and I shoot you, but I will shoot your daughter. What In addition to her dynamic personality, Miss might say there were mass graves does the father do now, dear reader? He Hoyle has received praise for embracing diver- found outside Vukovar once the West pleads, he begs, but then you the man with sity in the classroom. was able to get there of many, many the gun, put the gun to the daughter's head, She has also worked to emphasize the valu- people who have been killed as a result you pull back the hammer and you shout Now! able resource our communities can play in the of Milosevic’s effort to take Vukovar. Do it! Or I shoot! The father starts weeping, education of our nation's children. This assault signaled an ethnic cleans- yet slowly he unties his belt, moving like a Mr. Speaker, our nation's teachers are ing in Bosnia and Herzegovina that dazed zombie, he can't believe what he must forced to wear many hats in today's class- lasted for years under the benign eye of do. You laugh and say, That's right, old man, room. the United Nations and casual disin- pull down those pants, pull up your daughter's Not only do they prepare our children and terest of much of the free world. dress, and do it!'' help them to learn, but they serve as role By the time the world could no Continuing on page 53: ``Three days after models as well. longer look the other way, about a her arrival at the prison, she went with a huge Former Education Secretary William Bennett quarter of a million, 250,000, people number of women and other girls to fetch once said, ``What we do to children, they will were killed, and almost 2 million more water from a well about 50 meters from the do to others. There is nothing like the moral were homeless and displaced refugees. prison gates. Returning from the well power of example. But above all, we as a so- Kosovo is only the latest chapter in Trnopolje guards held back six girls, including ciety, as a common culture, have to respond this dark history. Most of the nearly 2 the witness, and stopped them from reentering to the call of our national history, and to the million ethnic Albanian population are the prison gates. They were then joined by responsibility it imposes upon us of instilling in now homeless and on the run within four more female prisoners. The guards took our children an informed appreciation of Amer- Kosovo or are refugees languishing in the 10 girls to a house across the meadow. ican principles and American practices.'' camps outside the border. Most have They were taken to the side yard of the During Teacher Appreciation Week, I want hopes of someday returning. But to house, out of sight of the roadway. Thirty Ser- to thank Mrs. Singleton, Mr. Cole, Ms. Hoyle, what? To homes that no longer exist bian soldiersÐincluding ``some dressed like a and teachers across the country, who prove and towns and villages that are largely tank crew''Ðwere there and they taunted the their dedication to our children daily by accept- destroyed and to families which have girls, calling them ``Turkish whores.'' The girls ing these roles and making an investment in been brutalized and torn apart and were ordered to undress or have their clothes the lives of our children. with many killed or missing? pulled off. Three girls resisted or hesitated As you continue your efforts in our class- There seems to be a mood that we from their fear. Their clothes were cut off with rooms, we will do everything we can in Con- can ignore these hard facts of what ac- knives. May 10, 1999 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H2925 The Serbian soldiers told the naked girls to record. Blaine harden had covered the disintegration, possibly involving NATO parade slowly in a circle. The men sat outside war in Sarajevo and Bosnia and many members. the circleÐsmoking, drinking and calling out other places throughout the early and But the overriding justification for mili- tary action is quite simply the nature of the foul names. The witness estimates the ``pa- mid 1990s for the Washington Post. I enemy we face. We are not dealing with some rade'' lasted about 15 minutes. Three soldiers think he writes with a lot of wisdom. minor thug whose local brutalities may of- took one girlÐone to rape her while the two As I listened to last Thursday’s de- fend our sensibilities from time to time. others held her down. The three men took bate and as I read and watched the TV Milosevic’s regime and the genocidal ide- turns. A soldier approached the witness and talk shows, Milosevic hopefully will ology that sustains it represent something mocked her, saying he had seen her before. not pull it off. He could, however, un- altogether different—a truly monstrous evil, Though she did not recognize him, he pulled less we recognize Milosevic for what he one that cannot be merely checked or con- out a photo of the witness with her 19-year-old is, a war criminal of the highest order. tained, one that must be totally defeated. Mr. Speaker, I include for the When that has been done, we need to learn Muslim boyfriend, whom he cursed for being the lessons of what has happened and of the in the Bosnian Territorial Defense Forces. The RECORD articles I referred to as follows: warnings that were given but ignored. But man with the photograph raped her first. The [From the Wall Street Journal, May 6, 1999] there has already been too much media spec- witness said she fought and pulled his hair, THE WEST MUST ANSWER EVIL WITH ulation about targets and tactics, and some but he bit her and hit her face. Her lips bled. STRENGTH shameful and demoralizing commentary that He hit her hard with the butt of his gun on her (By Margaret Thatcher) can only help the enemy. So I shall say noth- ing of detailed tactics. cheek, causing extreme pain. Another rapist Last September I went to Vukovar, Cro- But two things more I must say. First, atia, a city destroyed and its inhabitants ran the blade of his knife across her breasts about our fundamental aims. It would be butchered by the soldiers of Slobodan as if to slice the skin off, leaving bleeding both cruel and stupid to expect the Albanian Milosevic. The place still smells of death, scratches. After that, she was raped by eight Kosovans now to return to live under any the widows weep, and the ruins gape. Around more men before losing consciousness.'' form of Serbian rule. Kosovo must be given Srebrenica, Bosnia, where neither I nor Keeping those atrocities and brutal- independence, initially under the inter- many other Westerners have gone, the bodies ities in mind, and some want to resume national protection. And there must be no of thousands of slaughtered victims still lie partition. Partition would only serve to re- normal relations with an individual in unmarked graves. In Kosovo, we can only ward violence and ethnic cleansing. It would who allowed these atrocities to take image what depravities of human wicked- be to concede defeat. And I am unmoved to place, an individual who continues to ness, what depths of human degradation, Serb pleas to retain their grasp on most of those endless columns of refugees have fled. allow them to take place today, even Kosovo because it contains their holy places. Mass rape, mass graves, death camps, his- today right now in Kosovo, once people Coming from those who systematically lev- toric communities wiped out by ethnic know about these things, once the eled mosques and Catholic churches wher- cleansing—these are the monuments to depth and breadth of Milosevic’s bru- ever they went, such an argument is cynical Milosevic’s triumphs. tality sinks in, no one can entertain almost to the point of blasphemy. They are also the result of eight long years Second, about the general conduct of the the idea of normal relations or pursue of Western weakness. When will Western a no-fault peace with him. war. There are, in the end, no humanitarian leaders ever learn? wars. War is serious and it is deadly. Casual- Last week, in the Wall Street Jour- Appeasement has failed in the 1990s, as it ties, including civilian casualties, are to be nal, last Thursday, which I include for failed in the ’30s. Then, there were always expected. Trying to fight a war with one politicians to argue that the madness of Na- the RECORD, Margaret Thatcher wrote hand tied behind your back is the way to zism could be contained. Likewise, there has of the thousands of slaughtered in un- lose it. We always regret the loss of lives. never been a lack of politicians and dip- marked graves around Srebrenica, Bos- But we should have no doubt that it is the lomats willing to collaborate with nia, victims of, and I quote, ‘‘depravi- men of evil, not our troops or pilots, who Milosevic’s Serbia. In both cases, the tyrant ties of human wickedness, what depths bear the guilt. carefully laid his snares, and naive nego- The goal of war is victory. And the only of human degradation, those endless tiators obligingly fell into them. For eight columns of refugees have fled. Mass victory worth having now is one that pre- years I have called for Serbia to be stopped. vents Serbia from ever again having the rape, mass graves, death camps, his- Even after the massacre of Srebrenica I was means to attack its neighbors and terrorize toric communities wiped out by ethnic told that my calls for military actions were its non-Serb inhabitants. That will require cleansing, these are the monuments to mere ‘‘emotional nonsense.’’ the destruction of Serbia’s political will, the Milosevic’s triumphs.’’ There were good reasons for taking action destruction of its war machine and all the During the fighting in Bosnia, I had early. The West could have stopped infrastructure on which these depend. We an opportunity with one of my staff to Milosevic in Slovenia or Croatia in 1991, or in must be prepared to cope with all the chang- Bosnia in 1992. But instead we deprived his visit a Serb-run POW camp, and it was ing demands of war—including, if it is re- opponents of the means to arm themselves, quired, the deployment of ground troops. very, very brutal, if you could see the thus allowing his aggression to prosper. Even way the Muslims were being treated in And we must expect a long haul until the job in 1995, when at last a combination of air is done. that camp. strikes and well-armed Croat and Muslim Margaret Thatcher went on to write ground forces broke the power of the Bosnian [From the New York Times, May 9, 1999] Serb aggressors, we intervened to halt their that appeasement has failed in the WHAT IT WOULD TAKE TO CLEANSE SERBIA 1990s as it failed in the 1930s. I believe advance into Serb-controlled Banja Luka. (By Blaine Harden) she is right, just as I believe she is Western political leaders believed that the butcher of Belgrade could be a force for sta- Along the blood-spattered timeline of right when she goes on to write that it bility. So here we are now, fighting a war Slobodan Milosevic’s Yugoslavia, Kosovo is would be both cruel and stupid to ex- eight years too late, on treacherous terrain, merely the hideous Now. There was a Be- pect the Albanian Kosovars to now re- so far without much effective local support, fore—in Croatia and Bosnia. Assuming that turn home and live under any form of with imperfect intelligence and with war Mr. Milosevic retreats from Kosovo with his Serbian rule. aims that some find unclear and dictatorship intact, as now seems likely, Also in Sunday’s New York Times, unpersuasive. Balkans experts foresee an unspeakable which I include for the RECORD, Blaine But with all that said—and it must be said, After. Harden writes about the dangers of al- so that the lessons are well and truly It may feature: Fratricidal civil war in learned—let there be no doubt: This war lowing Milosevic to retreat from Montenegro. Ethnic cleansing of Hungarians must be won. in the Serbian province of Vojvodina. Mass Kosovo with his dictatorship intact. I understand the unease many people feel murder of Muslims in the Sandzak region of Harden predicts that if the pattern about the way in which the operation began. Serbia. No need, for the moment, to bother holds, Milosevic will continue to in- But those who agonize over whether what is about the location or correct pronunciation flame Serbs and preserve his power by happening in Kosovo today is important of these obscure places. The world will likely reassuring them that they are the vic- enough to justify military intervention, learn. Just as it learned where Kosovo is—or tims, as he is doing today in Kosovo gravely underestimate the consequences of was—before more than 700,000 human beings and as he did earlier in Croatia and doing nothing. There is always method in were chased from their homes in a system- Milosevic’s madness. He is a master at using Bosnia Herzegovina. atic military campaign of burning and in- tides of refugees to destabilize his neighbors timidation, theft and murder. I am going to insert the entire Blaine and weaken his opponents. This we simply If the pattern holds, Mr. Milosevic will sol- Harden article from Sunday’s New cannot allow. The surrounding countries dier on, using Big Lie manipulation of tele- York Times in the RECORD, and I would can’t absorb two million Albanian refugees vision to tap into a collective soft spot in the urge all of my colleagues to read his without provoking a new spiral of violent Serbian psyche. Even as legions of non-Serbs H2926 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE May 10, 1999 are dispossessed or killed, he will continue to genocidal killer who has caused the murders Vanderbilt and author of ‘‘America’s Ger- inflame the Serbs and preserve his power by of many tens of thousands of people.’’ many.’’ reassuring them that, yes, they are the vic- It is worth remembering, though, that Mr. ‘‘When Germany was totally defeated, it tims. Milosevic is an elected leader, having won provided opportunity,’’ he said. ‘‘You could Given the character of Mr. Milosevic’s re- three elections that were more or less fair. be physically there, controlling the flow of gime and knowing that there is almost cer- That, along with the Serb leader’s soaring information and using war-crime trials to tainly more horror to come, a bold, if im- popularity in the wake of NATO bombing, show the Germans that atrocities were done practical, question is just now beginning to support an argument that what ails Serbia in their name.’’ be formulated. Is it finally time for outside goes far deeper than one man. Without something similar in Serbia, Mr. powers to make the effort necessary to cure No one makes this argument more power- Schwartz said, ‘‘We can look forward to more a national psychosis inside Serbia that has fully than Sonja Biserko, director of the Hel- trouble in Serbia. been destabilizing a corner of Europe for a sinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia ‘‘What reminds me of Germany is the com- decade? Put another way, has the time come and a former senior advisor in the European parison to the end of World War I,’’ he added. for NATO to do in Serbia what the Allies did department of the Yugoslav Foreign Min- ‘‘Then, the Germans had this powerful sense in Germany and Japan after World War II? istry. Ms. Biserko, who fled Belgrade a week of being victims. There was a deep resent- To follow that model, Serbia’s military after the NATO bombings began, said in New ment that Hitler was able to exploit. It will would have to be destroyed, and Mr. York last week that Serbia’s fundamental be the same in Serbia when NATO bombing Milosevic crushed, by an invasion that al- problem is not Mr. Milosevic, but a ‘‘moral stops.’’ most certainly would cost the lives of hun- devastation’’ that has infected her nation. The Japan and German analogies, of dreds of American soldiers. After uncondi- ‘‘People in Serbia wer undergoing a mass course, are flawed. Those major-league pow- tional surrender, the political, social and denial of the barbarity of the ethnic cleans- ers ravaged a part of the world that America economic fabric of Serbia would be remade ing in Kosovo,’’ Ms. Biserko said. ‘‘The de- cared about. Occupation was nothing less under outside supervision so that the Serbs nial is itself commensurate to the crime tak- than emergency triage for the worst violence could take their place in a prosperous and ing place before the eyes of the world.’’ in history. democratic world. Ms. Biserko, who met 10 days ago with Sec- Mr. Milosevic, by comparison, is small po- The question cuts three ways. Will it hap- retary of State Madeleine K. Albright and tatoes. He leads a minor-league country that pen? Should it happen? Could it possibly urged her to consider occupation, believes periodically lays waste to poor, work? that Serbia’s opposition politicians are in- unpronounceable, strategically irrelevant The answer to the first part of this ques- capable now of coming to grips with a cul- places. Pristina is not Paris. tion, at least for the foreseeable future, is a ture victimhood. ‘‘Serbs have managed now There is, though, an inkling that the West resounding No Way. The other answers, how- with the NATO bombing to convince them- has begun to try for a solution. In Bosnia, ever, are provocative enough to make it selves they are victims and as victims they 32,000 NATO-led troops and High Commis- worthwhile to suspend disbelief and indulge cannot be responsible for what happened in sioner Carlos Westendorp are even now doing the fantasy of a post-Milosevic Balkans. Kosovo,’’ she said. the hard, slow, complex work of healing that Let’s start, though, with the real world. A surreal sense of victimhood in Serbia is country. Policy makers and long-time students of the nothing new. During the seige of Saragevo, Mr. Westendorp has not attempted a West’s slow-motion intervention in Yugo- when Serb forces ringed the city with artil- Japan-style remake of the Serb-populated slavia during the 1990’s see no possibility of lery and routinely killed its civilians, Bel- half of Bosnia (just as nobody has tried to do Mr. Milosevic’s military defeat or of Serbia’s grade television reported that Bosnian Mus- that in neighboring Croatia, with its own ac- occupation. lims were laying siege to themselves. ‘‘The complishments in ethnic cleansing). The in- An agreement last week between the West Serbs continue to defend their centuries-old dicted war criminals Radovan Karadzic and and Russia outlined the kind of solution the hills about Sarajevo,’’ and Radio-Television Ratko Mladic have not been hunted down. outside powers would seek instead—a with- Serbia. Radical Serb parties have not been banned. drawal from Kosovo of the Yugoslav Army, To shatter this Looking Glass victimhood, But tough action is being taken. Mr. policy and paramilitary fighters, with an Ms. Biserko offers a prescription: Indictment Westendorp ordered radical Serb nationalists international security force to replace them. of Mr. Milosevic by the War Crimes Tribunal. out of state television. He has fired the na- Details of the deal are still being argued A military defeat of Serbia and tionalist zealot who was elected the Bosnian over, but one thing was clear: If the outside demilitariazation of the country. Highly Serbs’ president. If Serbs violently object to powers can get him to sign on, Mr. Milosevic publicized trials that will force Serbs to con- what the peacekeepers do, NATO-led forces would remain in power in his shrinking front the savagery committed in their name. shoot to kill. Yugoslavia. Thus, he would have the oppor- A Western takeover of the mass media, with In a recent interview in Sarajevo, Mr. tunity to ‘‘cleanse’’ another day. The West’s strict prohibitions against the dissemination Westendorp said most Bosnian Serbs are co- calculation seems to be that avoiding a land of extreme Serb nationalism. A Marshall operating because they are sick of war. It war, keeping NATO tegether and cementing Plan for the Balkans. will take time, he said, but the West has Asked why the West should be willing to relations with Russia outweigh the long- enough money and muscle in Bosnia to ex- undertake an occupation that would risk term costs of letting Mr. Milosevic off the tinguish the will to war. The one insoluble many lives, cost billions and take years, Ms. hook. problem, he said, was the leader in Belgrade. That, then, is the real world. Biserko shrugged: ‘‘What other choice is ‘‘If getting rid of Milosevic fails,’’ he said, Such a course does nothing, of course, to there?’’ ‘‘then everything fails.’’ eradicate extreme Serb nationalism. ‘‘The Western world has lost its political The only way to stamp out the desease, instinct,’’ she said. ‘‘To bring substance to f protect Serbian’s minorities and bring last- the ideals of human rights, at some point ing peace to the Balkans ins a Japan- or Ger- you must be willing to commit troops.’’ SPECIAL ORDERS GRANTED many-style occupation of Serbia, according But could the occupation of Serbia work? to Daniel Serwer, who until two years ago Could it break the cycle of violence? Two By unanimous consent, permission to was the director of European intelligence prominent historians believe it could, if done address the House, following the legis- and research for the State Department. Mr. properly. lative program and any special orders Serwer concedes that occupation has never ‘‘The key in Japan was unconditional sur- heretofore entered, was granted to: been on the West’s list of serious options, render,’’ said John W. Dower, a professor of (The following Member (at the re- but he echoes many experts on the Balkans history at the Massachusetts Institute of quest of Mr. WOLF) to revise and extend when he argues that it should be. Technology and author of ‘‘Embracing De- his remarks and include extraneous ‘‘It is very hard to see how Serbia under- feat: Japan in the Wake of World War II.’’ goes this process all on its own,’’ said Mr. ‘‘The Americans went in and they did every- material:) Serwer, now a fellow at the U.S. Institute of thing. They had a major land reform. They Mr. JONES of North Carolina, for 5 Peace, a research group in Washington. abolished the military, simply got rid of it. minutes, today. ‘‘This regime is deeply rooted. It is not like They drafted a new constitution. This is f some dictatorship that you take off its head what you can do when you have uncondi- and it will die. It is so corrupt and the cor- tional surrender.’’ ADJOURNMENT ruption is not superficial.’’ Mr. Dower was struck by the eagerness Daniel Johah Goldhagen, a Harvard histo- with which a defeated people welcomed re- Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I move that rian who wrote ‘‘Hitler’s Willing Executions: form. ‘‘In Japan the average person was real- the House do now adjourn. Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust,’’ pub- ly sick of war and I think that would be the The motion was agreed to; accord- lished a kind of manifesto last week that de- case in Yugoslavia,’’ he said. ‘‘The Ameri- ingly (at 2 o’clock and 11 minutes mands Serbia ‘‘be placed in receivership.’’ cans cracked open a repressive military sys- ‘‘Serbia’s deeds are, in this essence, dif- tem and the people filled the space.’’ p.m.), under its previous order, the ferent from those of Nazi Germany only in The occupation of Germany also suggests House adjourned until tomorrow, Tues- scale,’’ Mr. Goldhgen wrote in The New Re- ways of dealing with Yugoslavia, according day, May 11, 1999, at 12:30 p.m., for public. ‘‘Milosevic is not Hitler, but he is a to Thomas Alan Schwartz, a historian at morning hour debates.