    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [May 8, 1999]
    [Pages 732-733]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 732]]

    Remarks on Departure From Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, and an
    Exchange With Reporters

    May 8, 1999

    Bombing of Chinese Embassy in Belgrade

        The President. Ladies and gentlemen, as all of you know, last night
    the NATO airstrikes included a number of command and control targets in
    Belgrade, targets that involved Mr. Milosevic's ability to do what he has done in Kosovo to run the
    people out and repress them. Unfortunately, the Chinese Embassy was
    inadvertently damaged, and people lost their lives, and others have been
    injured.
        It was a tragic mistake, and I want to offer my sincere regret and
    my condolences to both the leaders and the people of China.
        Having said that, let me also remind you that it is clear that we're
    doing everything we can to avoid innocent civilian casualties. Because
    the television and other media are in Belgrade, you know every one
    that's occurred, but I would remind you that well over 10,000 sorties
    have now been flown, with massive ordinance having been dropped. And
    that is evidence that we're working very hard to avoid this.
        It doesn't remove the sadness from the people in China and from the
    other innocent civilians that have been hurt, but we are doing our best.
    And I think it's important to remember why these airstrikes are
    necessary. Many thousands of Kosovars have been killed. There have been
    rapes; they have been burned out of their homes; their records have been
    destroyed; and hundreds of thousands have been turned into refugees.
        This can all end tomorrow with an agreement that meets the minimum
    conditions to restore Kosovo to civilized life; that is, the Serb forces
    have to leave; a multinational security force with NATO involvement has
    to come in; the Kosovars have to be able to go home with security and
    autonomy.
        And we're working hard to achieve that goal. We made some progress
    last week, diplomatically. And meanwhile, I think it's important that
    NATO stay the course.
        Q. There are protests around the world. Russia is calling this
    barbaric. Could this derail the diplomatic efforts you're making toward
    a peace deal?
        The President. Well, it wasn't barbaric. What is barbaric is what
    Mr. Milosevic has done. It's tragic. It's
    awful. But it's a tragedy, and it was an accident. What is barbaric is
    the intentional ethnic cleansing that he has provoked for a decade now,
    first in Bosnia where a quarter of a million people lost their lives and
    2\1/2\ million people were made refugees, and now here. That is what is
    barbaric.
        And I believe that Russia recognizes that, which is why they've
    shown so much leadership on the diplomatic front. And I would encourage
    them to stay on that course. If they want the bombing to end, then the
    Kosovars need to come home. We need to reverse the ethnic cleansing. We
    need to know they'll be secure.
        And that's what I would urge everyone to think about here. You know,
    I'd like to see a few more demonstrations against the helpless--I mean,
    the treatment against the helpless Kosovars.
        I don't blame people for being upset about it; I'm upset about it.
    But it is clearly--if you remember that over 10,000 sorties have been
    flown here, it is obvious that the NATO--the generals and the pilots
    have worked very hard to avoid this.
        I know when I was in Germany, I talked to pilots that literally had
    risked their own lives to avoid innocent civilian casualties when
    weapons being fired against them were being fired from heavily populated
    civilian areas--on roofs and things like that--and they didn't fire
    back. They risked their own lives to avoid this sort of thing.
        So this will happen if you drop this much ordinance over this period
    of time. I think the campaign is necessary. And what we need to do to
    end it is to meet the conditions necessary for the Kosovars to go home
    with safety and autonomy.
        Q. Is this a setback for peace?
        The President. No. What I hope it will do--I'm convinced that NATO
    should continue its mission. And what I think it should do is to make
    everybody who's interested in peace redouble their efforts to get Mr.
    Milosevic to reverse ethnic cleansing
    here. We need some sense of proportion here. Look at the numbers of
    people involved: thousands of people killed--

    [[Page 733]]

    of Kosovars; hundreds of thousands driven out of their homes, their
    homes burned, their records burned--coming on top of what happened in
    Bosnia. Let's not forget what the record is here.
        And I hate this. And as I said, I send my regrets and my profound
    condolences to the leaders and the people of China, and to the innocent
    people in Serbia who have perished. I hate it. But someone sometime has
    got to stand up against this sort of ethnic cleansing and killing people
    wholesale and uprooting them and trashing them and destroying their
    lives by the hundreds of thousands solely because of their religion and
    ethnicity. Otherwise, there will be far greater tragedies.
        You know, these things are not easy. But someone had to do it
    sometime. And the answer is for everyone who wants an end to it to put
    some pressure on the Serbs and get this diplomatic thing even more
    energized. And let's keep working and put it behind us. No one would be
    happier than me when it's over. But what we're doing is the right thing
    to do.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:35 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to
    President Slobodan Milosevic of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
    (Serbia and Montenegro).