[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 36 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. CON. RES. 36
Calling for the end of impunity of unpunished Serbian sexual war crimes
during the 1999 Kosovo war in the case of United States citizen and
sexual war crime survivor Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman and other survivors
of sexual and gender-based violence.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 27, 2023
Mr. Allred (for himself, Mr. Veasey, Mr. Espaillat, Mr. Vargas, and Mr.
Torres of New York) submitted the following concurrent resolution;
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Calling for the end of impunity of unpunished Serbian sexual war crimes
during the 1999 Kosovo war in the case of United States citizen and
sexual war crime survivor Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman and other survivors
of sexual and gender-based violence.
Whereas Vasfije Krasniqi was 16 years old during the 1999 Kosovo war and living
in Stanofc i Poshtem, Kosovo, then under the control of the Republic of
Serbia, which was part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and led by
President Slobodan Milosevic;
Whereas, on April 14, 1999, a Serbian police officer entered Ms. Krasniqi's
family home in Stanofc i Poshtem, Kosovo, looking for all male
occupants, and ordered Ms. Krasniqi to go to the police station to give
a statement about her father and brothers, who were not present;
Whereas the Serbian police officer threatened to shoot everyone present,
including Ms. Krasniqi and her mother, before forcibly removing Ms.
Krasniqi from the house and taking her to a Serbian village nearby;
Whereas the Serbian police officer forced Ms. Krasniqi into an empty house off
the main road and threw her onto dried corn stacks before taking her to
his car, where he started raping her despite her yelling and screams for
him to stop;
Whereas Ms. Krasniqi was held at gunpoint and raped repeatedly before losing
consciousness;
Whereas, once Ms. Krasniqi regained consciousness, she begged the Serbian police
officer to kill her, and the Serbian police officer responded by saying,
``No, I won't because you will suffer more this way'', and threatened to
take her to an area full of Serbian forces where more people would rape
her;
Whereas the Serbian police officer later went into a local store in the same
village, from where an older, crippled Serbian man emerged and forced
Ms. Krasniqi out of the car and took her to an unfinished house where he
raped her;
Whereas, a few hours later, Ms. Krasniqi was taken back to her village where she
was left out on the street and told not to tell anyone about what had
transpired;
Whereas Ms. Krasniqi did not want to go home having to explain to anyone what
had happened to her, but instead walked through the village cemetery and
hoped that her life would come to an end then and there;
Whereas, upon arriving at her uncle's house hours after the assault, Ms.
Krasniqi did not have to say a word, as everyone knew what had happened,
witnessing her scratches, bruises, cuts, and torn clothes;
Whereas Ms. Krasniqi reported her case to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) the
day after she was raped on April 15, 1999;
Whereas, in March 1999, with the support of the United States, NATO began a 78-
day air campaign against Serbian forces in Kosovo after efforts to
negotiate an end to the Kosovo war collapsed, leading to Serbia's
agreement to cease all military activity in Kosovo and to facilitate the
withdrawal of Serbian forces from Kosovo, and the deployment of a NATO-
led Kosovo Force (KFOR);
Whereas the United Nations Security Council then passed Resolution 1244 on June
10, 1999, which established the United Nations Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) as a temporary government until Kosovo's own
institutions had developed and demonstrated the capacity to self-govern,
which included various powers, such as the authority to administer
justice in Kosovo and the ability to investigate and prosecute serious
crimes committed during the war;
Whereas Ms. Krasniqi reported her case to UNMIK on September 10, 1999, with no
outcome, as well as to the French KFOR on April 21, 2004, but inaction
of both these bodies caused additional difficulties and delays in her
case;
Whereas Kosovo declared independence on February 17, 2008, and has since
received the recognition of over 100 states, including the United States
and 23 of the 28 European Union member states, though Serbia still
rejects such claim;
Whereas the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) was launched in
2008 as a civilian mission to support rule-of-law institutions,
accountability, and compliance with international human rights standards
in Kosovo within the framework of United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1244, as well as to support the Specialist Chambers and
Specialist Prosecutor's Office in line with relevant Kosovo legislation;
Whereas Ms. Krasniqi moved to the United States in 2001, naturalized as a
citizen in 2006, and now lives in Rowlett, Texas, with her husband and
two children, each of whom are also United States citizens, and she has
also taken the last name Goodman;
Whereas Ms. Krasniqi Goodman reported her case to EULEX authorities and gave
five interviews from August 2010 to July 2012, and witnesses gave
several testimonies from February 2011 to August 2012;
Whereas, on November 12, 2012, the Special Prosecution Office of the Republic of
Kosovo (SPRK) filed the indictment PPS nr. 89/2012 against the
perpetrators Jovica Dejanovic (DOB 09/11/1954), the Serbian police
officer, and Djordje Bojkovic (DOB 11/13/1940), the older and crippled
Serbian man, with the then-District Court of Mitrovica, which was
amended on November 30, 2012;
Whereas the main trial was held between April 4 to 15, 2013, and on April 17,
2013, the Basic Court of Mitrovica announced the judgment that both
perpetrators were acquitted of the charge of war crime against the
civilian population (rape), punishable under Articles 22 and 142 CC
SFRY;
Whereas, on October 31, 2013, the SPRK Prosecutors submitted a joint appeal
proposing that the judgment of the first instance court be modified and
Jovica Dejanovic and Djordje Bojkovic be convicted of the criminal
offense of war crime against civilian population, or in the alternative,
to return the case to the court of first instance for a retrial;
Whereas the Appellate Public Prosecutor moved the Court of Appeals to grant the
appeal of the Special Prosecutors, and the Court of Appeals rendered its
judgment on May 27, 2014, and found both Jovica Dejanovic and Djordje
Bojkovic guilty and convicted them of the war crime against civilians
under Article 142 CC SFRY (now Article 153 CCRK), sentencing them to 12
years and 10 years of imprisonment, respectively;
Whereas, on July 2014, Jovica Dejanovic and Djordje Bojkovic filed their appeals
against the judgment of the Court of Appeals PaKr 503/13 dated May 27,
2014, and the Supreme Court of Kosovo rendered a ruling for the
immediate release of Jovica Dejanovic and Djordje Bojkovic from the
detention on remand;
Whereas Jovica Dejanovic and Djordje Bojkovic were released, and nobody has been
held responsible for the sexual war crimes committed against Vasfije
Krasniqi Goodman;
Whereas all prior mechanisms for pursuing accountability for war crimes in
Kosovo have fallen short in bringing perpetrators of sexual violence to
justice, including the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia, UNMIK, EULEX, and the Kosovo judicial system;
Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that
approximately 20,000 individuals were the victims of conflict-related
sexual violence during the Kosovo war, and Human Rights Watch reports
that rape was used as a weapon of war and instrument of ethnic cleansing
by Serbian forces during the Kosovo war;
Whereas 20 years later and after approximately 20,000 individuals raped, there
has only been one perpetrator brought to justice, Zoran Vukotic, by the
Prishtina Basic Court on July 5, 2021;
Whereas the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1820 was unanimously
adopted on June 19, 2008, condemning the use of sexual violence as a
tool of war, and declared that ``rape and other forms of sexual violence
can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act
with respect to genocide'';
Whereas the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2467 was adopted on April
23, 2019, ``recalling the responsibilities of States to end impunity and
to prosecute those responsible for crimes of genocide, crimes against
humanity, and war crimes, perpetrated against civilians'';
Whereas Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman testified before the Committee on Foreign
Affairs of the House of Representatives on April 30, 2019, in a hearing
titled ``Kosovo's Wartime Victims: The Quest for Justice'', testifying
for justice on behalf of her case and the 20,000 individuals raped
during the Kosovo war;
Whereas the Republic of Kosovo marked for the first time on April 14, 2023, the
Day of Survivors of Sexual Violence During the War in Kosovo that
coincides with the date Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman was abducted by Serbian
police and subsequently sexually assaulted; and
Whereas the United States recognizes that preventing and responding to gender-
based violence around the world is not only a matter of human rights,
justice, equity, and equality, but is also a moral imperative and the
strategic national interest of the United States and its global
partners: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),
That Congress--
(1) finds it reprehensible that no individuals have been
found guilty for the sexual war crimes against Ms. Krasniqi
Goodman;
(2) strongly condemns the use of rape and other forms of
sexual and gender-based violence as a weapon of war;
(3) underscores the importance of transparent, accountable,
and independent investigations into gender-based war crimes and
atrocities;
(4) commends the Government of the Republic of Kosovo for
taking a tangible and multisectoral approach to address the
sexual violence during the war in the country;
(5) calls on the Government of the Republic of Kosovo to
uphold commitments expressed and agreed to in the ``Protocol
for the Treatment of Sexual Violence Cases in Kosovo'', and
prioritize and expedite cases of rape and sexual assault from
the 1999 Kosovo War;
(6) calls on the Government of the Republic of Serbia to--
(A) bring individuals who are responsible for the
sexual war crimes on April 14, 1999, of United States
citizen Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman in Kosovo before
justice pursuant to United Nations Security Council
Resolutions 1820 and 2467;
(B) cease the protection and glorification of any
individuals who were involved in war crimes during the
Kosovo conflict and make it a priority to investigate
and prosecute any such individuals;
(C) enforce laws to ensure that known perpetrators
of sexual gender-based violence are held accountable
and are brought before justice; and
(D) prioritize the creation and sustainment of
appropriate tracking and investigative mechanisms to
extradite known perpetrators and convicted offenders of
sexual gender-based violence during the Kosovo war in
1999 to Kosovo to be brought to justice according to
all conventions; and
(7) calls on the United States Government to--
(A) uphold and strengthen its commitments to
counter and prevent the practice of gender-based
violence in accordance with the ``United States
Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based
Violence Globally'';
(B) elevate the case of Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman in
future bilateral engagements with the Government of
Serbia, especially in terms of accountability for war
crimes committed against women and youth;
(C) identify the specific factors that increase the
risks of gender-based violence and undermine access to
services and safety;
(D) monitor efforts by the Government of Serbia and
its relevant ministries and offices to investigate and
prosecute cases of sexual violence during the Kosovo
war; and
(E) devote sufficient funding to implement a
variety of educational, research, and advocacy projects
in Kosovo, including the training of judiciary and law
enforcement, as well as funding for a rehabilitation
center focusing on physical and psychological
rehabilitation from war trauma and sexual and domestic
violence, and vocational training and job integrating
opportunities.
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