;)
WHEN HISTORY ASKS WHO STOOD UP TO EVIL IN KOSOVO, THE ANSWER
WILL BE: NATO (Senate - April 29, 1999)
[Page: S4472]
Mr. DODD. Mr. President, sixty
years ago, as Europe moved increasingly close to war, a number
of philanthropic organizations came to the aid of those
desperately trying to escape the Holocaust. Today, many of those
same organizations have turned their attention to helping the
latest victims of genocide. The American Jewish Committee, for
example, has raised over $800,000 in humanitarian aide for the
Kosovar refugees.
As in World War II, these organizations recognize that they
cannot stop the genocide without support from the world community.
In the case of Kosovo, that means that NATO has had to bring its
military might to bear on Slobodan Milosevic. This sentiment was
poignantly expressed in a recent statement by the American Jewish
Committee, one of the organizations actively worked to alleviate
both the European genocide of today and that of a generation ago.
Mr. President, I therefore ask that their statement in support
of NATO's ongoing efforts be printed in the Record.
The statement follows.
Statement by the American Jewish Committee
When history asks who stood up to evil in Kosovo, the answer
will be: NATO. The world could see the slaughter coming. Diplomats
worked furiously to prevent it--and, for a time, succeeded.
But when Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic, in the name of a
nationalism run amok, set his army and police at the throat of the
ethnic Albanian citizens of Kosovo defying appeals to end the
terror and withdraw, one international force had the resolve to
stand up to Belgrade's policy of barbarism.
NATO, the guarantor of European security for half a century,
rose to the challenge of defending the Kosovo Albanians. Nineteen
countries acted in unison to stop the violence against the
Kosovars and seek their safe return under international protection.
In this noble mission, NATO must prevail. What is at stake in
Kosovo isn't oil or commerce or trading routes. What is at stake
are basic principles: human rights, human dignity, the credibility
of deterrence, collective security. With determination and courage,
NATO weighed the difficult choices and chose to act--because it
was right, because the alternative would give tyrants a green light
to terrorize civilian populations and destroy the fabric of
international order. We recognize the sacrifice made by each NATO
member to arrest evil in Kosovo. In this dark century, witness to
unspeakable acts of inhumanity, we applaud the alliance for taking
a principled stand.
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