Republic Status for Kosova
102D CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H.CON. RES. 264
To express the sense of the Congress that the President should recognize the independence of the Republic of Kosova and extend full United States diplomatic recognition.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 3, 1992
Mr. LANTOS (for himself, Mr. BROOMnELD, Mr. BONIOR, Mr. GILMAX, and
Mr. SWETT) submitted the following resolution
JANUARY 28, 1992
Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Toexpress the sense of the Congress that the President should recognize the independence of the Republic of Kosova and extend full United States diplomatic rec-oknition.
Whereas Kosova was constitutionally defined as a sovereign territory in the First National-Liberation Conference for Kosova on January 2, 1944, and this status was con-firmed in the Constitution of the Socialist Federal Re-public of Yugoslavia adopted in 1946, and the amended Yugoslav constitution adopted in 1974 preserved the au-tonomous status of Kosova and described it as one of the eight constituent territorial units of the Yugoslav Fed-eration, and the effort of the Government of the Republic of Serbia to abolish their autonomous status of Kosova through the adoption of an unlawful constitutional amendment on March 23, 1989, was done without the consent of the people of Kosova;
Whereas the elected Assembly of Kosova adopted a Dec-laration of Independence of Kosova on July 2, 1990, and proclaimed the Republic of Kosova and adopted a con-stitution of the Republic of Kosvoa on September 7, 1990, based on the principles of self-determination, equality and sovereignty;
Whereas a popular referendum was held in Kosova during the period September 26—30, 1991, and in this referendum, 87.01 percent of all eligible voters cast ballots and 99.87 percent of those participating voted in favor of declaring Kosova independent of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia;
Whereas the elected Govermnent of Kosova—which now func-tions as a government-in-exile because the Government of the Republic of Serbia has forcibly denied this freely-elected governnient the ability to function on the territory of ICosova—has affirmed its commitment to observe internationally recognized obligations for the protection of human rights, including: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights of the United Nations; the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Charter of Paris for a new Europe and other documents of the Conference on Secu-rity and Cooperation in Europe relating to the Human Dimension; and the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Free-doms, including the protocols to that Convention;
HCON 264 IH
Whereas the Government of Kosova has affirmed its willing-. ness to accept and observe all commitments and obliga-tions defined by the Euro pean Community as pre-conditions for the formal recognition of Yugoslav repub-lics wishing to be recognized as set forth iii the Dec-laration on Yugoslavia adopted in the Extraordinary Min-isterial Meeting of the European Community in Brussels on December 16, 1991;
Whereas the Government of Kosova has affirmed its support for the efforts of the United Nations and the European Community to resolve the continuing conflict between the Republics of Serbia and Croatia;
Whereas the Government of Germany has extended dip-lomatic recognition to the Republics of Croatia and Slove-nia, and the European Community has established prin-ciples for the recognition of the independence and sov-ereignty of republics of the former Socialist Federal Re-public, of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Kosova fully satisfies those principles;
Whereas it has been the policy of the United States for over two centuries to recognize and extend full diplomatic relations to those nations whose people have freely ex-pressed their sovereign wish for independence and rec-ognition as a sovereign state;
Whereas the Congress has traditionally supported the rights of peoples to peaceful and democratic self-determination; and
Whereas pursuant to article WIT of the Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Eu-rope, ?all peoples always have the right, in full freedom, to determine, when and as they wish, their internal and
HCON 264 IH
external political status, without external interference, and to pursue as they wish their political, economic, so-cial and cultural development?: Now, therefore, be it
1 Resolved by the house of Representatives (the Senate
2 concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that the
3 President— 4 (1) should recognize the independence of
5 Kosova and undertake steps toward the establish-
6 ment of full diplomatic relations with Kosova; and
7(2) Should use United States assistance, trade,
8 and other programs to support the Government of
9 Kosova and encourage the further development of
10 democracy and a free market economic system.
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