Here is the only non-completely generic letter I got back from my emails to Congress/Senate. From Senator Wellstone:
Dear Friend,
Thank you for contacting me with your comments regarding U.S.
intervention in the conflict in Kosovo. I appreciate having the
benefit of your views on this matter.
As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I have
been following events in Kosovo for years. In fact, I have been
very focused on the Balkans since the breakup of the former
Yugoslavia. I traveled there about 5 years ago, and have seen
for myself the conditions under which millions of ethnic
Albanians have struggled under increasing Serb repression.
Kosovo is a small province of Serbia, the dominant unit of the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Ethnically, Kosovo is
approximately 90% Albanian, though it is also of great historical
importance to the Serbian people. For decades, Kosovo, while a
province of Yugoslavia, enjoyed a limited autonomy and local
control of many governmental functions. This autonomy was
revoked by Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in 1989 when he
unilaterally amended the constitution of Yugoslavia without
consulting the people of Kosovo. During the last year Serbia
dramatically increased the presence of troops and security police
in Kosovo, ostensibly to counter secessionist activity on the
part of some members of the ethnic Albanian community, including
the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Since that time, the conflict
between ethnic Albanian rebels of the KLA and Serb security
forces, and a brutal, methodical "ethnic cleansing" effort by
Serb army and police units against Kosovar civilians, has
resulted in thousands of deaths, with the greatest numbers of
casualties being concentrated among ethnic Albanians -- both
rebels and civilians.
In reaction to these events of the past year, in particular the
horrifying massacres of women, elderly men, and young children
perpetrated by Serbian military forces, the U.S. and its partners
in the International Contact Group (made up of the United States,
Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia), called for
imposition of a U.N. arms embargo against the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, which was approved by the Security Council in March,
1998. On October 13, 1998, U.S. Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke
and Slobodan Milosevic concluded an agreement to provide a
framework for a settlement and to allow independent monitoring of
the situation in Kosovo. Many hoped that this would help to pave
the way toward a peaceful resolution of the crisis there.
By January of this year, that agreement was shattered by sporadic
fighting and evidence that Serb forces were being deployed in
Kosovo in gross violation of the October accord. On January
15th, approximately 40 ethnic Albanians, including women and
children, were massacred in the town of Racak by Serb security
forces. This renewed violence led the International Contact
Group to accelerate their work on a peace plan and invite
representatives of the ethnic Albanians and the Serbian
government to Rambouillet, France, to peace talks based on the
proposal. The Contact Group draft plan called for a 3-year
interim settlement that would provide greater autonomy for Kosovo
while postponing final resolution of its political status. The
plan would also have required the disarmament of the KLA, a
withdrawal of most Serb forces from Kosovo, and the
implementation of a large Organization of Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring group and a NATO-led
verification force to ensure that all parties adhered to the
agreement.
Unfortunately, a final agreement was never reached. While the
ethnic Albanians eventually signed the agreement, on March 19th
the talks broke up after the Serbian representatives refused to
do so. This failure of the Serbs to sign the agreement, coupled
with accelerating Serb violence in Kosovo, led NATO members to
threaten the use of air strikes to halt the growing violence
against innocent civilian Kosovars by degrading the Serbs'
ability to prosecute their campaign of ethnic cleansing.
On March 23rd, President Clinton ordered U.S. aircraft to
participate in NATO air strikes against Serb military targets in
Yugoslavia. With a heavy heart at the need to resort to the use
of military force, I supported the air strikes because I believe
they offer the last best hope to limit the humanitarian crisis in
Kosovo prompted by Serb attacks on innocent non-combatants, to
deter further Serb aggression, and, if necessary, to degrade the
Serb security forces ability to prosecute their ethnic cleansing
campaign.
In the days prior to the air strikes, President Milosevic made
his intentions clear by significantly increasing his forces in
Kosovo, forces which ejected thousands of Kosovar civilians from
their homes, and left villages smoldering and in ruins behind
them after brutal offensives. Atrocities of various kinds have
become the signature of Serb military forces in Kosovo, just as
they were for years in parts of Bosnia.
Since the commencement of NATO air strikes, Serb forces have
stepped up their attacks on civilians. Hundreds of thousands of
ethnic Albanians have now been driven from their homes, and many
have been killed or injured. Others have been jammed onto train
cars, shipped to border areas, and left there without food,
medicine or shelter. Most recently, Serb forces have closed the
borders with Albania and Macedonia to refugee traffic - for
unknown purposes.
I believe that a very high threshold must be met before the use
of military force by the U.S. can be justified. It must be truly
a last resort, used only after all reasonable diplomatic and
other non-violent alternatives have been exhausted. Our goals
must be clear, the means proportionate, the prospects for success
strong, and Congress must be consulted thoroughly and in advance
on its use. I believe these criteria have been met in Kosovo,
and that the effort to deter further ethnic cleansing by the
Serbs justified its use. In our system of checks and balances,
military action of this kind should also have prior Congressional
authorization, as required by the Constitution; I do not believe
that the President should be given a blank check by Congress in
Kosovo. For example, I opposed the expansion of the bombing
campaign to targets within Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia.
In this case, I do not believe the limited military utility of
such strikes outweighs the potential for Serb civilian
casualties.
As of the date of this letter, the NATO bombing campaign
continues in Kosovo. In addition, the United States and the
international community have marshaled a huge humanitarian relief
effort to ease the suffering of the hundreds of thousands of
Kosovar refugees who have flooded into Albania, Macedonia,
Montenegro, and Kosovo's other nearby neighbors. It is critical
that the urgent needs of refugees be met and that support be
given to those nations who have accepted large numbers of
displaced persons.
It seems likely that the NATO military intervention in Kosovo
will continue until the government of Serbia agrees, at a
minimum, to halt its ethnic cleansing campaign and allow ethnic
Albanians to return to their homes in an environment that is
secure -- a security guaranteed and verified by an international
military presence.
I offer my unqualified support for U.S. troops participating in
the NATO bombing campaign there and for their families back home.
I have been hoping and praying for a prompt end to the violence
and for their safe return home. I will continue to follow events
in the Balkans very carefully and will keep your comments on this
matter in mind.
Again, thank you for contacting me. Please stay in touch.
Sincerely,
Paul David Wellstone
United States Senator
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