The grudging and tentative steps by Belgrade have not
yet begun to meet the legitimate demands of the
International Community.
Permitting a Finnish forensics team to examine bodies
that have been disturbed and evidence that has been
altered or destroyed is a far cry from recognizing
ICTY jurisdiction in Kosovo and allowing full, unimpeded
ICTY access to Racak and other sites of alleged
atrocities.
Similarly, merely "freezing" the expulsion order
against Ambassador Walker falls far short of the active
cooperation with the mission to which the "FRY" is
committed under its agreement with our Chairman in
Office, Foreign Minister Geremek.
Belgrade continues to withhold baseline data, to deny
the OSCE mission access to facilities, and to block
important support requests for the Mission
Moreover, the "FRY" official media continue to
conduct an outrageous and reckless campaign against the
OSCE mission and its director. This campaign is a
direct threat to the security of mission personnel, and
must stop.
Mr. Chairman, almost two weeks after the atrocity at
Racak, the Big Lie continues unabated. And the ugly face
of fascism continues to show itself only a short
distance from where we sit.
Earlier this week, five Kosovar Albanians, including
a woman and two children, were found shot to death on a
tractor near Rakovina. An "FRY" minister had the
audacity to claim that these people were the victims of
a
traffic accident.
Credible press reports today indicate there is strong
evidence not only that Serb security forces perpetrated
the Racak massacre, but that officials—approaching the
highest levels of the FRY government—have taken steps to
cover-up that responsibility and to alter and destroy
evidence.
In this hall I have said several times that the
United States believes that there is little prospect for
progress
unless the Milosevic regime feels the credible threat
of the imminent application of military force. Others
are
also reaching that conclusion, UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan told the North Atlantic Council this
morning,
"The bloody wars of the last decade have left us with
no illusions about the difficulty of halting
internal conflicts—by reason or by force—particularly
against the wishes of the government of a
sovereign state. But nor have they left us with any
illusions about the need to use force, when all
ofther means have failed. We may be reaching that
limit, once again, in the former Yugoslavia."
This weekend will see steps taken in other bodies
that may set us on the road to peace.
If those steps are successful, it will require
more—not less—of us and of our Mission in Kosovo. We
need to be
prepared.
