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U.S. Department of State Office of the Spokesman Press Statement

Press Statement by James B. Foley, Deputy Spokesman
December 14, 1998

At the request of Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, Harold Hongju Kob, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, will visit Serbia-Montenegro from December 15 to 19, 1998. Assistant Secretary Koh will meet with key Serbian and Montenegro officials, opposition party leaders, representatives of the independent media, and other representatives of Serbian and Montenegrin civil society.

Assistant Secretary Koh will visit Belgrade, Podgorica, and Pristina during his visit. He will focus on five key issues: support for independent media; restrictions on academic freedom; the failure of the Milosevic regime to cooperate with the international Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY); problems with international access to detainees; and support for the families of missing persons. In Kosovo, Assistant Secretary Koh will meet with officials of the Kosovo Verification Mission and Serbian and Kosovo Albanian leaders to discuss human rights issues. In Montenegro, Koh will reinforce U.S. support for President Djukanovic's democratic government and his forward leaning reforms.

Assistant Secretary Koh is in Serbia-Montenegro to underscore the concern of the United States over recent events that have retarded democratic development. We strongly condemn the Belgrade regime's repeated human rights abuses and violations of humanitarian law and urge it to reverse its indefensible record of noncooperation with the ICTY.

Assistant Secretary Koh will use his visit to stress that the United States wants Serbia-Montenegro to become part of Europe. However, as long as there is no free press, no right to free association and no right to democratic governance, Serbia will continue to suffer pariah status. Assistant Secretary Koh will meet with those who recognize the need for democratization and seek their ultimate integration into the European family of nations.

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