    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [March 25, 1999]
    [Pages 454-455]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Videotaped Address to the Serbian People
    March 25, 1999

        As you know, the United States and its NATO Allies have begun a
    military campaign to reduce President Milosevic's ability to make war on the people of Kosovo. I want
    to speak candidly to all Serbian people, to explain our reasons for this
    action and how there could be a quick resolution of the crisis.
        First, I cannot emphasize too strongly that the United States and
    our European allies have no quarrel with the Serbian people. We respect
    your proud history and culture. We joined together on many occasions,
    including our victory over nazism in World War II. Our own history has
    been honored by the contributions of Serb families who came to America
    to start a new life.
        But our common future has been put in jeopardy by a war that
    threatens the peace of Europe and the lives of thousands of innocent
    people in Kosovo. After exhausting every other option, all 19 members of
    NATO--from France to Poland, from Italy to Greece, from across Europe to
    Canada and the United States in North America--all of us agree that only
    swift action can save peace in the Balkans.
        Let us turn from Serbia's history to the facts of the last 10 years.
    There has been too much propaganda and too little plain truth. President
    Milosevic has spoken often of Serbia's
    standing in the world, but by his every action he has diminished your
    country's standing, exposed you to violence and instability and isolated
    you from

    [[Page 455]]

    the rest of Europe. He waged senseless wars in Bosnia and Croatia, which
    only ended after enormous bloodshed on all sides. And he launched a
    cruel campaign against the Albanian people of Kosovo. It was not simply
    a war against armed Kosovar forces but also a campaign of violence in
    which tanks and artillery were unleashed against unarmed civilians.
        Now, one out of eight people in Kosovo have been driven from their
    homes; entire villages have been burned and cleared of their people.
    Thousands of Serbs also have suffered and been forced from their homes.
    As a result, the bitterness in Kosovo is deeper than ever, and the
    prospect that Kosovars and Serbs will be able to live together in the
    same country has been harmed. No one has benefited from all this,
    certainly not Serbia.
        We understand the region has more than its share of painful history,
    and we know that all peoples of the former Yugoslavia have their
    legitimate grievances. The NATO Allies support the desire of the Serbian
    people to maintain Kosovo as part of your country. With our Russian
    partners, we insisted on that in the peace talks in France. The result
    was a fair and balanced agreement that would guarantee the rights of all
    people in Kosovo, ethnic Serbs and Albanians alike, within Serbia.
        The Kosovar leaders accepted that. They agreed to demilitarize their
    forces and to end the paramilitary attacks on Serbs that also have
    contributed to the crisis. At the invitation of Serbs and Kosovars, NATO
    troops, under the agreement, would be deployed in Kosovo as keepers of
    the peace, not as some occupying force.
        Now, I know the Serb Government and many Serbian people may not see
    NATO that way. And it is true that it was the Kosovar Albanians who
    insisted on NATO peacekeeping forces, but largely because of President
    Milosevic's violations of his own
    commitments regarding the use of police and military units.
        Nevertheless, I want you to understand that NATO only agreed to be
    peacekeepers on the understanding that its troops would ensure that both
    sides kept their commitments and that terrorism on both sides would be
    brought to an end. They only agreed to serve with the understanding that
    they would protect Serbs as well as ethnic Albanians and that they would
    leave when peace took hold.
        Now, only President Milosevic
    rejected this agreement. He could have kept Kosovo and Serbia and given
    you peace. But instead, he has jeopardized Kosovo's future and brought
    you more war. Right now he's forcing your sons to keep fighting a
    senseless conflict that you did not ask for and that he could have
    prevented. Every time he has summoned Serbia's history as a
    justification for such action, he has imperiled your future. Hopefully,
    he will realize that his present course is unsustainable; ultimately, it
    is self-destructive.
        The sooner we find a peaceful resolution of this dispute, preserving
    Kosovo within Serbia while guaranteeing the rights of its people under
    your law, the sooner Serbia can join the rest of Europe and build a
    nation that gives all its citizens a voice and a chance at prosperity.
        The NATO nations have tried to avert this conflict through every
    means we knew to be available. Each of us has ties to Serbia. Each
    respects the dignity and the courage of the Serb people. In the end, we
    decided that the dangers of acting are outweighed by the dangers of
    allowing this conflict to continue, to worsen, to claim the lives of
    more innocent civilians, including children, to result in tens of
    thousands of more homeless refugees.
        Now all of us--Americans, Europeans, Serbs, Kosovars--must join
    together to stop driving wedges between people simply because they
    belong to different ethnic groups and to start accepting that our
    differences are less important than our common humanity and our common
    aspirations.
        I call on all Serbs and all people of good will to join with us in
    seeking an end to this needless and avoidable conflict. Instead, let us
    work together to restore Serbia to its rightful place as a great nation
    of Europe; included, not isolated, by the world community; respected by
    all nations for having the strength to build peace.

    Note: The address was videotaped at approximately 7:30 p.m. in the
    Roosevelt Room for later broadcast on the U.S. Information Agency
    WORLDNET. In his remarks, the President referred to President Slobodan
    Milosevic of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro).
    A tape was not available for verification of the content of this
    address.