    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [June 10, 1999]
    [Pages 913-916]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Address to the Nation on the Military Technical Agreement on Kosovo
    June 10, 1999

        My fellow Americans, tonight for the first time in 79 days, the
    skies over Yugoslavia are silent. The Serb army and police are
    withdrawing from Kosovo. The one million men, women, and children driven
    from their land are preparing to return home. The demands of an outraged
    and united international community have been met.
        I can report to the American people that we have achieved a victory
    for a safer world, for our democratic values, and for a stronger
    America. Our pilots have returned to base. The airstrikes have been
    suspended. Aggression against an innocent people has been contained and
    is being turned back.
        When I ordered our Armed Forces into combat, we had three clear
    goals: to enable the Kosovar people, the victims of some of the most
    vicious atrocities in Europe since the Second World War, to return to
    their homes with safety

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    and self-government; to require Serbian forces responsible for those
    atrocities to leave Kosovo; and to deploy an international security
    force, with NATO at its core, to protect all the people of that troubled
    land, Serbs and Albanians, alike. Those goals will be achieved. A
    necessary conflict has been brought to a just and honorable conclusion.
        The result will be security and dignity for the people of Kosovo,
    achieved by an alliance that stood together in purpose and resolve,
    assisted by the diplomatic efforts of Russia. This victory brings a new
    hope that when a people are singled out for destruction because of their
    heritage and religious faith and we can do something about it, the world
    will not look the other way.
        I want to express my profound gratitude to the men and women of our
    Armed Forces and those of our Allies. Day after day, night after night,
    they flew, risking their lives to attack their targets and to avoid
    civilian casualties when they were fired upon from populated areas. I
    ask every American to join me in saying to them, thank you, you've made
    us very proud.
        I'm also grateful to the American people for standing against the
    awful ethnic cleansing, for sending generous assistance to the refugees,
    and for opening your hearts and your homes to the innocent victims who
    came here.
        I want to speak with you for a few moments tonight about why we
    fought, what we achieved, and what we have to do now to advance the
    peace and, together with the people of the Balkans, forge a future of
    freedom, progress, and harmony.
        We should remember that the violence we responded to in Kosovo was
    the culmination of a 10-year campaign by Slobodan Milosevic, the leader of Serbia, to exploit ethnic and
    religious differences in order to impose his will on the lands of the
    former Yugoslavia. That's what he tried to do in Croatia and in Bosnia,
    and now in Kosovo. The world saw the terrifying consequences: 500
    villages burned; men of all ages separated from their loved ones to be
    shot and buried in mass graves; women raped; children made to watch
    their parents die; a whole people forced to abandon, in hours,
    communities their families had spent generations building. For these
    atrocities, Mr. Milosevic and his top
    aides have been indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal for
    war crimes and crimes against humanity.
        I will never forget the Kosovar refugees I recently met. Some of
    them could barely talk about what they had been through. All they had
    left was hope that the world would not turn its back.
        When our diplomatic efforts to avert this horror were rebuffed and
    the violence mounted, we and our Allies chose to act. Mr.
    Milosevic continued to do terrible things
    to the people of Kosovo, but we were determined to turn him back. Our
    firmness finally has brought an end to a vicious campaign of ethnic
    cleansing, and we acted early enough to reverse it, to enable the
    Kosovars to go home.
        When they do, they will be safe. They will be able to reopen their
    schools, speak their language, practice their religion, choose their
    leaders, and shape their destiny. There'll be no more days of foraging
    for food in the cold of mountains and forests, no more nights of hiding
    in cellars, wondering if the next day will bring death or deliverance.
    They will know that Mr. Milosevic's army
    and paramilitary forces will be gone, his 10-year campaign of repression
    finished.
        NATO has achieved this success as a united alliance, ably led by
    Secretary General Solana and General
    Clark. Nineteen democracies came together
    and stayed together through the stiffest military challenge in NATO's
    50-year history.
        We also preserved our critically important partnership with Russia,
    thanks to President Yeltsin, who opposed our
    military effort but supported diplomacy to end the conflict on terms
    that met our conditions. I'm grateful to Russian Envoy
    Chernomyrdin and Finnish President
    Ahtisaari for their work, and to Vice
    President Gore for the key role he played
    in putting their partnership together. Now, I hope Russian troops will
    join us in the force that will keep the peace in Kosovo, just as they
    have in Bosnia.
        Finally, we have averted the wider war this conflict might well have
    sparked. The countries of southeastern Europe backed the NATO campaign,
    helped the refugees, and showed the world there is more compassion than
    cruelty in this troubled region. This victory makes it all the more
    likely that they will choose a future of democracy, fair treatment of
    minorities, and peace.
        Now we're entering a new phase, building that peace, and there are
    formidable challenges. First, we must be sure the Serbian authorities
    meet their commitments. We are prepared to

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    resume our military campaign should they fail to do so. Next, we must
    get the Kosovar refugees home safely. Minefields will have to be
    cleared; homes destroyed by Serb forces will have to be rebuilt;
    homeless people in need of food and medicine will have to get them. The
    fate of the missing will have to be determined. The Kosovar Liberation
    Army will have to demilitarize, as it has agreed to do. And we in the
    peacekeeping force will have to ensure that Kosovo is a safe place to
    live for all its citizens, ethnic Serbs as well as ethnic Albanians.
        For these things to happen, security must be established. To that
    end, some 50,000 troops from almost 30 countries will deploy to Kosovo.
    Our European Allies will provide the vast majority of them; America will
    contribute about 7,000. We are grateful that during NATO's air campaign
    we did not lose a single serviceman in combat. But this next phase also
    will be dangerous. Bitter memories will still be fresh, and there may
    well be casualties. So we have made sure that the force going into
    Kosovo will have NATO command and control and rules of engagement set by
    NATO. It will have the means and the mandate to protect itself while
    doing its job.
        In the meantime, the United Nations will organize a civilian
    administration while preparing the Kosovars to govern and police
    themselves. As local institutions take hold, NATO will be able to turn
    over increasing responsibility to them and draw down its forces.
        A third challenge will be to put in place a plan for lasting peace
    and stability in Kosovo and through all the Balkans. For that to happen,
    the European Union and the United States must plan for tomorrow, not
    just today. We must help to give the democracies of southeastern Europe
    a path to a prosperous, shared future, a unifying magnet more powerful
    than the pull of hatred and destruction that has threatened to tear them
    apart. Our European partners must provide most of the resources for this
    effort, but it is in America's interest to do our part, as well.
        A final challenge will be to encourage Serbia to join its neighbors
    in this historic journey to a peaceful, democratic, united Europe.
        I want to say a few words to the Serbian people tonight. I know that
    you, too, have suffered in Mr. Milosevic's wars. You should know that your leaders could have
    kept Kosovo as a part of your country without driving a single Kosovar
    family from its home, without killing a single adult or child, without
    inviting a single NATO bomb to fall on your country. You endured 79 days
    of bombing not to keep Kosovo a province of Serbia but simply because
    Mr. Milosevic was determined to eliminate Kosovar Albanians from Kosovo,
    dead or alive.

        As long as he remains in power, as
    long as your nation is ruled by an indicted war criminal, we will
    provide no support for the reconstruction of Serbia. But we are ready to
    provide humanitarian aid now and to help to build a better future for
    Serbia, too, when its Government represents tolerance and freedom, not
    repression and terror.

        My fellow Americans, all these challenges are substantial, but they
    are far preferable to the challenges of war and continued instability in
    Europe. We have sent a message of determination and hope to all the
    world. Think of all the millions of innocent people who died in this
    bloody century because democracies reacted too late to evil and
    aggression. Because of our resolve, the 20th century is ending not with
    helpless indignation but with a hopeful affirmation of human dignity and
    human rights for the 21st century.

        In a world too divided by fear among people of different racial,
    ethnic, and religious groups, we have given confidence to the friends of
    freedom and pause to those who would exploit human difference for
    inhuman purposes.

        America still faces great challenges in this world, but we look
    forward to meeting them. So, tonight I ask you to be proud of your
    country and very proud of the men and women who serve it in uniform. For
    in Kosovo, we did the right thing; we did it the right way; and we will
    finish the job.

        Good night, and may God bless our wonderful United States of
    America.

    Note: The President spoke at 8 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to President Slobodan Milosevic of
    the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro); NATO
    Secretary General Javier Solana; Gen. Wesley K. Clark, USA, Supreme
    Allied Commander Europe; President Martti Ahtisaari of Finland; and
    former Prime Minister and Special Envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin and
    President Boris Yeltsin of Russia. The President also

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    referred to the Military Technical Agreement Between the International
    Security Force (KFOR) and the Governments of the Federal Republic of
    Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia.