S. HRG. 106±443 THE KOSOVO REFUGEE CRISIS HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON THE CURRENT KOSOVO REFUGEE SITUATION AND THE SCOPE AND ADEQUACY OF THE RESPONSE OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY APRIL 14, 1999 Serial No. J±106±14 Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 63±248 WASHINGTON : 2000 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:30 Sep 14, 2000 Jkt 064379 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 E:\HEARINGS\63248 pfrm01 PsN: 63248 SENATE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah, Chairman STROM THURMOND, South Carolina PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR., Delaware JON KYL, Arizona HERBERT KOHL, Wisconsin MIKE DEWINE, Ohio DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California JOHN ASHCROFT, Missouri RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin SPENCER ABRAHAM, Michigan ROBERT G. TORRICELLI, New Jersey JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York BOB SMITH, New Hampshire MANUS COONEY, Chief Counsel and Staff Director BRUCE A. COHEN, Minority Chief Counsel SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION SPENCER ABRAHAM, Michigan, Chairman ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California JON KYL, Arizona CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York LEE LIBERMAN OTIS, Chief Counsel MELODY BARNES, Minority Chief Counsel (II) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:30 Sep 14, 2000 Jkt 064379 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 0486 Sfmt 0486 E:\HEARINGS\63248 pfrm01 PsN: 63248 C O N T E N T S STATEMENTS OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS Page Abraham, Hon. Spencer, U.S. Senator from the State of Michigan .................... 1 Hatch, Hon. Orrin G., U.S. Senator from the State of Utah ................................ 3 Kennedy, Hon. Edward M., U.S. Senator from the State of Massachusetts ...... 5 Leahy, Hon. Patrick J., U.S. Senator from the State of Vermont ....................... 7 Feinstein, Hon. Dianne, U.S. Senator from the State of California .................... 9 Biden, Hon. Joseph, R., Jr., U.S. Senator from the State of Delaware ............... 37 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WITNESSES Panel consisting of Vjosa Dobruna, Kosovar refugee, and director and founder, Center for the Protection of Women and Children, Pristina, Kosovo; Aferdita Kelemendi, Kosovar refugee, and director, Radio/TV 21, Pristina, Kosovo; and Mentor Nimani, Kosovar refugee, and coordinator, Humani- tarian Law Center, Pristina, Kosovo .................................................................. 10 Statement of Julia V. Taft, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Popu- lation, Refugees, and Migration, Department of State, Washington, DC ....... 41 Panel consisting of Bill Frelick, senior policy analyst, U.S. Committee for Refugees, Washington, DC; and Maureen Greenwood, advocacy director for Europe and the Middle East, Amnesty International USA, Washington, DC .......................................................................................................................... 59 ALPHABETICAL LIST AND MATERIAL SUBMITTED Dobruna, Vjosa: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 10 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 13 Attachment: Reports of Massacres by Serb Forces in Kosovo, dated Mar. 27±Apr. 8 ....................................................................................... 15 Frelick Bill: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 59 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 63 Greenwood, Maureen: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 71 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 74 Kelmendi, Aferdita: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 16 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 19 Nimani, Mentor: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 20 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 22 Attachment: From the Humanitarian Law Center, dated Apr. 12, 1998 ......................................................................................................... 23 Taft, Julia V.: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 41 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 45 APPENDIX QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Responses of Julia V. Taft to Questions From Senator Leahy ............................ 79 (III) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:30 Sep 14, 2000 Jkt 064379 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 E:\HEARINGS\63248 pfrm01 PsN: 63248 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:30 Sep 14, 2000 Jkt 064379 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 E:\HEARINGS\63248 pfrm01 PsN: 63248 THE KOSOVO REFUGEE CRISIS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 1999 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION, COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:11 a.m., in room SD±226, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Spencer Abraham (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Also, present: Senators Specter, Grassley, Kennedy, Feinstein, Schumer, Hatch (ex officio), Leahy (ex officio), and Biden (ex offi- cio). OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. SPENCER ABRAHAM, A. U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MICHIGAN Senator ABRAHAM. We will begin our hearing at this time, and I want to thank so many people who have been involved in helping to put together today's activities, to our ranking member, Senator Kennedy, and his staff, and to Chairman Hatch and the full Judici- ary Committee staff. Today's hearing, of course, is on the Kosovo refugee crisis. I will make a few opening remarks, and then I have asked Senator Hatch, who has had a long interest and involvement in these issues, to join us today and he will make some brief remarks, as will our ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Leahy. And we are also joined, of course, by subcommittee mem- bers Senators Kennedy and Feinstein. Today, we will examine the Kosovo refugee crisis. The hearing will focus on what I consider to be a tragedy of epic proportions, a tragedy that constitutes the single largest humanitarian disaster in Europe since the end of World War II. On March 24, just 3 weeks ago, NATO launched air strikes against Serb targets in Yugoslavia. Mr. Milosevic immediately raised to a new level his brutal campaign against the inhabitants of the province of Kosovo. He directed his forces to sweep through towns and villages, and target their residents, 90 percent of whom were ethnic Albanians. ``Ethnic cleansing'' is a euphemism. What Slobodan Milosevic's forces did was to rape, murder and remove ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. It is said that one's home is the safest refuge, but for Kosovar Albanians this has not been the case. Across Kosovo, indi- viduals, indeed entire families, were forced to leave their houses. Many were awoken in the middle of the night with a knock on the door or worse. Fathers and sons were removed from their families, (1) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 09:30 Sep 14, 2000 Jkt 064379 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 E:\HEARINGS\63248 pfrm01 PsN: 63248 2 leaving women and children to wander toward the border, not knowing, and perhaps never knowing, the fate of their loved ones. According to U.S. intelligence and other sources, the human rights abuses being committed in Kosovo are immense. In Arllat, Serb forces executed 200 ethnic Albanian men. In Dakovica, the bodies of 70 ethnic Albanians were found in two houses, and an- other 33 bodies were found in a local river. In Goden, on March 25, Serb forces executed 20 men, including school teachers. In Likovc, Malisevo and other towns and villages, they torched homes and burned shops to the ground. And in town after town, in village after village, Serb forces ex- pelled Kosovar Albanians, with the numbers soon climbing into the hundreds of thousands. It is difficult to fathom the horror of police and military forces surrounding entire neighborhoods and forcing those of a particular ethnicity to leave, but that is precisely what has happened. There have been some who have questioned the extent of the atrocities being committed in Kosovo. I think that today's hearing and the testimony we are about to hear will help resolve any doubt. We will also be addressing the scope and the adequacy of the re- sponse of the United States and the international community, fo- cusing on several aspects of this subject. First, it is reported that last week Macedonian police removed refugees from a site there, separating people from their families and forcing them onto planes bound for Turkey. More than $400,000 in U.S. taxpayer money was used for these flights which apparently removed many people against their will. Second, food, shelter and other items needed by the refugees for their survival were not available for many days after the refugee flow began and are still in desperately short supply in some places. These