    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [May 6, 1999]
    [Pages 708-709]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to Kosovar Refugees in Ingelheim
    May 6, 1999

        Good afternoon. Let me begin by thanking Chancellor
    Schroeder, the representatives of his
    government who are here, and all the people of Germany for their strong,
    strong leadership in NATO in defense of the people of Kosovo and for
    making this place of refuge and shelter for people in need.
        I thank Minister-President Beck and the
    government of Rheinland-Pfalz and the townspeople of Ingelheim for
    making this center available, as well, and for supporting your presence
    here. Most of all, I would like to express my respect to the families
    who are here today from Kosovo, and my very special thanks for those who
    met earlier with Chancellor Schroeder and
    me. To those of you who told us the stories of your lives--the
    heartbreak, the nightmare, the cruelty, the uncertainty--those who are
    young, those who are old, and those who are in the middle of their
    lives, I listened very carefully to all of you.
        I hope that as you mustered the courage to meet with us, you know
    that because you have done so, the world will hear your stories. It is
    very important that every freedom-loving person in the entire world know
    the story of Kosovo. It is important that people not forget that what is
    called ethnic cleansing is not some abstract idea; it is real people
    with real families and real dreams being uprooted from their homes,
    their schools, their work, their children, their parents, their husbands
    and wives. NATO has acted in Kosovo because we believe ethnic cleansing
    must be opposed, resisted, reversed.
        We are doing all we can to bring aid to the victims of the violence.
    We are helping as many as we can in Albania and Macedonia. Both Germany
    and the United States and our other Allies

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    are taking refugees out of the camps in Macedonia into our nations. We
    are helping relief groups to improve their registration systems so those
    of you who have missing family members can find them and so that we can
    restore identity papers.
        I know you will understand what a difficult task this is. More
    people are pouring into Macedonia every day. More people are pouring
    into Albania every day. And then we are taking some people from the
    camps into Germany, into the United States, into other countries. But we
    know this is an agony for those of you who do not know what has happened
    to your family members, and we are working on it. Just this week, we
    will begin to put in computer terminals here and in other refugee
    centers so that you can constantly get news in your own language on the
    situation in Kosovo and the status of the NATO campaign.
        Let me say on a very personal level, Chancellor Schroeder and I understand that what has been done to you and
    your children and your homeland cannot be undone. But you must know that
    you have not been forgotten or abandoned. Mr. Milosevic has not succeeded in erasing your identity from the
    pages of history, and he will not succeed in erasing your presence from
    the land of your parents and grandparents. You will go home again in
    safety and in freedom.
        Now in closing, I would like to ask of all of you something I asked
    of the smaller group with whom I just met. When you have gone through
    something as awful as this, it is very easy to have your spirit broken,
    to spend the rest of your life obsessed with anger and resentment. But
    if you do that, you have already given those who oppressed you a
    victory.
        I am of Irish heritage. The great Irish poet William Butler Yeats
    once said this; I hope you can remember this. He said, ``Too long a
    sacrifice can make a stone of the heart.''
        I ask you all to work with each other, to support each other, not to
    let your hearts turn to stone, to be determined to go home to a Kosovo
    where all the children can go to school and all the children can laugh
    and play and we can have a future that is not only free of the bad
    things that have happened to you but is full of hope and opportunity,
    where you're a part of Europe and a free world, where all the children
    can pursue their faith, their religion, and their dreams. We are working
    hard for that day.
        God bless you, and thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:40 p.m. at the Refugee Reception Center.
    In his remarks, he referred to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany;
    Minister-President Kurt Beck of Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany; and President
    Slobodan Milosevic of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and
    Montenegro).