ovo as a human rights problem (Representative Tom Lantos). Annual human rights reports submitted to the White House by the Department of State read like a prison record when it came to Serbian abuses of the people of Kosovo. Unfortunately, Congress was not in agreement with how to treat the reports of the abuses in Kosovo. The Bush administration was more interested in keeping Yugoslavia together and concerned more about the breakup of the Soviet Union and the potential tragedy that such a thing might cause. Therefore, Kosovo, in the words of Warren Zimmerman, remained a part of Serbia, albeit a much-abused one (Zimmerman, 3).In my estimation, the problems of Kosovo were not viewed as important or of any interest to the national security or economic prosperity of the United States therefore no action was needed. I disagree with the stand that the Bush administration took on Kosovo. The State Department catalogued massive human rights violations by the Serbian leadership in Kosovo yet the Bush Administration did nothing. Little was said about what was going on in the region and the American press because of the instability in the former Soviet Union said even less. Up until this point, the official party line in Washington, DC was that the Bush administration would continue to support a united, territorially strong, and independent Yugoslavia. It would seem that history had yet another crossroads in Yugoslavia. The strategic importance of Yugoslavia was lost with the breakup of the Soviet Union. The movement towards more democratic government was creating an air of instability and uncertainty in the region. Finally, the inter-ethnic conflicts between Serbs and Croats, people of Kosovo and Serbs, Slovenes and the rest of Yugoslavia added to the unstableness of the situation (Zimmerman, 4).While the political unity of Yugoslavia was paramount for the White House any financial aid that would be given to Eastern Europe would be b...
