Congressman Tom Lantos

 

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T O M L A N T O S

San Matea Office (415) 342-0300
Eleventh District, CaliforniaWashington Office (2021,225-3531
1707 Longworth House OFfice BuildingWashington, D.C. 20515

For Immediate Release

January 3, 1992
For information Contact:
Bob King (202) 225-3531 

Congressman Torn Lantos introduces Resolution Urging President Bush to Extend Diplomatic Recognition to Republic of Kosova

Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CaIilornia) today introduced a resolution in Congress urging Prosident Bush to recognize the Independence of the Republic of Kosova and extend full United States diplomafic recognition to this Republic of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, The Kosova is an autonomous province in the former Yugoslav Federation whose population is over 90 percent ethnic Albanian.

Joining Congressman Lantos in sponsoring the resolution are Congressmen William S. Broomfield (R-Michigan), the Ranking Minority member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; David Bonlor (D-Michigan), the Majority Whip of the House of Representatives; Benjamin A. Gilman (R-New York), the Ranking Minority member of the Subcommittee on EUrope and the Middle East; and DIck Swett (D-New Hampshire).

The resolulion notes that Kosova has been recognized as a sovereign constituent territory of the Yugoslav Federation since the early 1940s, and the Yugoslav Constitutions of 1946 and 1974 confirm that sovereign status. It also recalls that in an election held in September 1991, in which over 87 percent of the eligible voters of Kosova participated, 99.07 percent voted for the Independence of the Republic of Kosova.

In a statement to the Congress today, Congressman Lantos said:

Mr. Speaker, the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation In Europe noted that all peoples have the right, in lull freedom, to determine, when and as they wish, their internal and external political status, without external interference, and to pursue as they wish their political, economic, social and cultural development? The people of Kosova have clearly and unequivocally expressed their wish to be independent of Yugoslavia and become a sovereign state. We should recognize the will of the people of Kosova and extend to them diplomatic recognition, just as we. have extended diplomatic recognition to peoples of the former Soviet Union.