    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [June 21, 1999]
    [Page 987]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 987]]

    Videotaped Address to the People of Albania
    June 21, 1999

        To the people of Albania, on behalf of all the American people, I
    want to express our gratitude for the courageous stand you have taken
    for peace, tolerance, and freedom in southeastern Europe. And I want to
    pledge my support for your own efforts to build a strong and prosperous
    democracy.
        This spring, when Mr. Milosevic
    launched his bloody campaign of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, no country
    bore a greater burden than Albania, and no country did more to help
    humanity prevail. You opened your skies to the NATO aircraft that
    brought this nightmare to an end. You opened your ports and your
    airfields to the troops and aid workers who came here to help the
    refugees.
        And most important, you opened your homes and your hearts to more
    than 300,000 victims of ethnic cleansing, giving them shelter and food
    and hope, even though your own country still faces enormous challenges.
    History will record that one of the greatest acts of barbarity Europe
    has seen in this century was defeated with the help of one of the
    greatest acts of compassion we have seen.
        The whole world knows what you have done in the last several months.
    And we also know that you have done it while struggling to overcome
    perhaps the most cruel legacy of isolation and repression of any of
    Europe's formerly Communist states.
        We still have much work to do. We have to work together to get the
    Kosovar refugees back to their homes safely. We'll have to keep helping
    those who must remain a while longer in Albania. We'll need to station
    more NATO troops in your country to support those keeping the peace in
    Kosovo. For the people of Albania, there will be a continuing burden,
    but there will also be an opportunity to deepen your partnership with
    NATO and your integration with Europe and the future prosperity that
    will bring.
        America will do all it can to help you recover from the economic and
    social upheaval caused by the war, to help you strengthen your
    democracy, to enshrine the rule of law, and to attract new investment to
    create new jobs and new opportunities. And we'll work with you to build
    a southeastern Europe that is coming together around the promise of
    freedom and prosperity, instead of being torn apart by hatred and
    bloodshed. We want you to be on the front lines of democracy and
    prosperous development in southeastern Europe, not on the front line of
    aggression and tyranny.
        You have shown in this crisis that a nation's standing in the world
    is measured not just by its wealth, its power, or its size but also by
    the principles it upholds and the responsibilities it is willing to
    assume. The world's admiration for Albania has risen immeasurably in the
    last few months. If you stay on the path you have chosen, we will stay
    by your side.
        I thank you for all you have done and for all we will do together in
    the months and years ahead.

    Note: The address was videotaped at approximately 5:40 p.m. in the
    Bibliotek Room at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Cologne, Germany, on June
    20 for later broadcast on the U.S. Information Agency WORLDNET. The
    transcript was embargoed for release until 4 p.m. on June 21. A tape was
    not available for verification of the content of this address.