June 18, 1998
The Honorable Madeleine Albright,
Secretary of State,
United States Department of State
2201 C Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20520
Dear Madam Secretary:
In your speech to the Asia Society yesterday, you rightly stated that a
precondition for a better relationship between Iran and the US was that Iran
should reject terrorism as a "tool of Iranian statecraft." This is right on
the mark.
In Kosovo and Metohija, however, these preconditions seem not to apply. For
example, in an address to the Carnegie Endowment on June 17, Mr. Rifat
Blaku, Vice President of the Parliamentary Party of Kosova, was persistently
asked to distance himself and his party from the Kosovo Liberation Army. He
did not do so and even welcomed the KLA's contribution to the political
debate. In other words, he clearly regards terrorism as a tool for his
party's statecraft. Given that Mr. Blaku is visiting the U.S. at the
invitation and expense of USIS, this amounts to a condoning by our
government of the support for terrorism. This is a travesty. The State
Department should take immediate action to place the KLA on its list of
terrorist organizations so that all funding from this country can be brought
to an immediate halt.
One of the most difficult factors for Serb Americans to understand is why
Serbia is always held to different standards from other countries. The
Serbian Unity Congress holds no brief for Milosevic, but we find the
application of double standards to Serbia impossible to accept. Faced with
terrorist challenges in its territory, Serbia is acting little differently
from other nations under grave internal threat from terrorism. Israel and
Turkey are two obvious examples. The SUC does not condone excessive violence
of any kind, but if Serbia comes to feel (as it already does) that it does
not enjoy the same rights to protect internal security as any other nation,
then it will have no incentive to negotiate.
At the same time, if Mr. Rugova and his associates see that they can sit
back while the U.S. de facto backs the KLA's terrorism, why should they come
to the negotiating table? This is indeed their tactic. Their refusal to
rejoin the talks until Serbian forces withdraw is a blatant example of
profiting from terrorism. Their objective is to allow the KLA to fill the
power vacuum that will result. The consequence will be chaos.
If rejection of terrorism is a precondition for Iran's acceptance as a
U.S. partner, the same demand should be made of the Kosovo Albanians. The
Contact Group has called for the Serbian side to enter negotiations without
preconditions. It must not allow the Kosovo Albanians to set their
preconditions for negotiations.
Double standards will never produce a stable settlement in Kosovo. There is
an urgent need for U.S. policy to return to the normal criteria of
international diplomacy. You outlined these well in your speech about Iran.
Now is the time to demand that Mr. Rugova and all his advisers unequivocally
reject terrorism. Then progress can start.
I am copying this letter to the other members of the Contact Group,
Security Council, and other interested parties in the Congress and elsewhere.
Sincerely,
Vojin Joksimovich
President
406 Hidden Hills Lane,
Escondido, CA 92029-6827
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Jonathan Clarke
tel (202) 785-8430
fax (202) 466-4089