USA: KOSOVO'S ETHNIC ALBANIAN LEADER DR BUKOSHI AT CAPITOL HILL

(7 Oct 1998) English/Nat U-S envoy Richard Holbrooke is expected to meet Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic again on Wednesday, in what appears to be a last-ditch effort to avoid a NATO attack. The United States has threatened military action unless Milosevic calls off his bloody crackdown on ethnic Albanian rebels seeking independence from Serbia, the main republic of Yugoslavia. Growing pressure is coming from the U-S capitol, after a group of 36 Congress members signed a letter to President Clinton, calling for the use of "firm resolve" to stop ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. They had been meeting with representatives of the ethnic Albanian leadership. As the Clinton administration continues to talk about the Kosovo crisis, one of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders, Dr Bujar Bukoshi, was on Capitol Hill trying to drum up support for his countrymen and women. Dr Bukoshi, who describes himself as the Prime Minister of Kosovo, met with Democratic Senator Joseph Biden late on Tuesday. SOUNDBITE: (English) "I have drafted a resolution that is being considered by the leadership on my side of the aisle, that would authorise the President in conjunction with NATO to use force against Milosevic's forces in Kosovo and throughout Serbia if certain conditions are not met." SUPER CAPTION: Senator Joseph Biden, Democrat-Delaware Senator Biden says those conditions include the withdrawal of police and military forces from Kosovo, access for humanitarian aid and the beginning of meaningful negotiations on a political solution for the province. Earlier on Tuesday, Dr Bukoshi addressed both Democratic and Republican Representatives. SOUNDBITE: (English) "Never again - first in Croatia, never again then in Bosnia and now never again in Kosovo. It seems to me that the time for concerted action by NATO, has come." SUPER CAPTION: Chris Smith, Representative, Republican-New Jersey It's not just the present military offensive by Belgrade that has the U-S lawmakers concerned. SOUNDBITE: (English) "With the approaching winter the loss of life, especially to children and to women could be staggering and for us to sit back idly with winter approaching with the scorched earth ethnic cleansing going on by Milosevic, is a reprehensible abrogation of our moral responsibility." SUPER CAPTION: Chris Smith, Representative, Republican-New Jersey Newspaper advertisements paid for by Albanian Americans have featured in various U-S papers calling for an end to the killing. SOUNDBITE: (English) "This is not civil war, this is genocide, this is ethnic cleansing, this is the murder of people because they are from a different ethnic group and the United States and NATO and all the countries - freedom loving countries throughout the world - have to say to this tyrant, to this dictator, to this killer Milosevic that we will not stand idly by and allow you to slaughter people to have genocide to have ethnic cleansing, to kill these people solely because they are Albanians. That's why they are dying, not because they are Kosovars but because they are ethnic Albanians who live in Kosovo. And so we will not allow genocide and that's why the U-S ought to get involved and NATO ought to get involved with massive strikes." SUPER CAPTION: Eliot Engel, Representative, Democrat-New York Congress members are circulating a letter around Capitol Hill which has support from both Democrats and Republicans. It will be sent to President Clinton on Wednesday, expressing Congress' serious concern with the growing humanitarian crisis in Kosovo. SOUNDBITE: (English) Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...