``Why shouldn't we help the KLA help America to realize a victory in the Balkans?'' Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., asked, drawing shouts of ``KLA! USA!''
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Rally Held for Kosovo Independence
By DEB RIECHMANN Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Hundreds of demonstrators waved the red-and-black flag of Albania and displayed signs labeling Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic a ``second Hitler'' at a rally Tuesday where they called for an end to the conflict in the Serbian province of Kosovo.
More than 450 people, most of them Americans with roots in Albania, gathered on the Capitol steps to voice support for arms for the Kosovo Liberation Army, which is fighting the Serbs. After the rally, they marched to the White House, where they were joined by several hundred supporters.
Their shouts of ``Independent Kosovo! Independent Kosovo!'' could be head in the executive mansion.
The demonstration was organized by the Albanian American Civic League. The group's founder, former New York Democratic congressman Joe DioGuardi, said: ``We must do everything in our power now to save the Albanian people from genocide, to prevent Slobodan Milosevic from waging a wider war, and to ensure the right of the Albanians to live in a free and independent Kosovo.''
``Why shouldn't we help the KLA help America to realize a victory in the Balkans?'' Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., asked, drawing shouts of ``KLA! USA!''
Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, told the demonstrators it was time to arm the KLA, saying, ``The NATO airstrikes cannot rescue these people.''
Lieberman and Traficant have introduced measures to give the KLA money, an idea opposed by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She told the House International Relations Committee last week that supplying weapons to the KLA would violate an arms embargo set up by the U.N. Security Council. She also worries that if the West arms the KLA, other countries would arm the Serbs.
Such arguments don't concern Fisnik Oshlani, a 17-year-old Kosovo native who skipped high school classes in Manhattan to attend the Washington rally. ``Free Kosovo. Free Kosovo,'' he shouted as he helped carry a wooden coffin, a symbol of bloodshed in his homeland, through downtown Washington. |
