[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
[April 5, 1999]
[Pages 499-502]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on the Situation in the Balkans and an Exchange With Reporters
April 5, 1999

    The President.  Good afternoon. I want to speak for a few moments 
today about the situation in Kosovo, the goals of our mission, and our 
efforts to respond to the humanitarian crisis there.
    The weather is now clearing in the region, and the air campaign is 
continuing. We're striking hard at Serbia's machinery of repression, 
while making a deliberate effort to minimize harm to innocent people. 
Serbian forces, on the other hand, continue their deliberate, systematic 
attacks against civilians, who are guilty of nothing more than being 
ethnic Albanians.
    Mr. Milosevic has created a 
humanitarian disaster in Kosovo. He can end it today by stopping the 
killing. He could end the bombing. He could end the suffering of the 
refugees by withdrawing from Kosovo his military police and paramilitary 
forces, by accepting the deployment of an international security force, 
and making it possible for all refugees to return, as we move toward a 
political framework for Kosovo on the basis of the Rambouillet accords.
    But more empty promises and token half-measures won't do the job. A 
commitment to cease killing in a Kosovo denied its freedom and devoid of 
its people is not acceptable.
    If Mr. Milosevic does not do what is 
necessary, NATO will continue an air campaign. It will be undiminished, 
unceasing, and unrelenting. It will inflict such damage that either he 
will change his calculations, or we will seriously diminish his capacity 
to maintain his grip and impose his control on Kosovo. We are prepared 
to sustain this effort for the long haul. Our plan is to persist until 
we prevail.
    We know we are up against a dictator 
who has shown time and again that he would rather rule over rubble than 
not rule at all, someone who recognized no limits on his behavior except 
those imposed by others. We have seen this kind of evil conduct before 
in this century, but rarely has the world stood up to it as rapidly and 
with such unity and resolve as we see today with NATO's coalition of 19 
democracies, each with its own domestic pressures and procedures, but 
all united in our outrage and in our determination to see this mission 
through. In the meantime, we've got to do all we can to aid the victims 
of Mr. Milosevic's expulsion policy.
    Before the Serbian offensive began, we pre-positioned 36,000 metric 
tons of food in the region, enough to feed half a million people for 3 
months. We worked with the United Nations to ready lifesaving supplies 
at Kosovo's borders with Albania and Macedonia. But it is impossible to 
prepare fully for the chaos that this kind of cruelty inevitably 
creates.
    We now have committed another $50 million, over and above the 100 
million we had provided

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before the current crisis. Also at our urging, NATO has put its 11,000 
troops in Macedonia to work addressing the humanitarian crisis. It is 
planning to deploy several thousand troops to Albania, not only to 
provide aid but to provide security for relief operations.
    We've begun shipping 500,000 humanitarian daily rations for refugees 
in Albania, the first of which arrived in Tirana yesterday. Today a 
large shipment was delivered to Italy by the first of eight 747 flights. 
We'll be flying 10 missions daily by C-130 aircraft to Italy--from Italy 
to Tirana, and taking supplies from there to the border by helicopter.
    The first of four shipments of tents for Albania will be flown from 
Travis Air Force Base in California soon. We're also shipping supplies 
out of bases in Germany for Macedonia, and we're preparing an additional 
600,000 daily rations for that country.
    Today, in Los Angeles, the Vice President is meeting with Albanian-American families whose 
relatives are suffering in Kosovo. Today Secretary Albright and I have named Brian Atwood, who is here with us today, the Administrator for our 
Agency for International Development, to coordinate our overall 
humanitarian response in the region.
    He will head up a coordinating council 
that will include three other distinguished public officials. Julia 
Taft, our Assistant Secretary of State for 
Population, Refugees, and Migration, will take the lead in response by 
civilian agencies to this humanitarian crisis. She is now in Geneva, 
conferring with the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees. James Lee 
Witt, the Director of our Federal Emergency 
Management Agency, who is also present, will coordinate private 
donations to the aid effort and help to ensure that they go where they 
need to go. FEMA will also provide its expertise to our assessment teams 
in the region. Finally, I am announcing that Lieutenant General Mike 
McDuffie, who is here, will be our 
military coordinator for this operation, which we are calling Operation 
Sustain Hope.
    I hope American citizens will help, as well. We've established an 
800 number. It's 1-800-USAID-RELIEF. Now, I know that's got 11 numbers 
in it, but we tried it just before we came in, and it works anyway. And 
it's easier to remember: 1-800-USAID-RELIEF. Any American can call and 
make contributions to private humanitarian organizations and can get 
information about the private organizations that are providing relief. 
Many of them are represented in this room today by the people who are 
sitting here, and I want to thank all of them from the bottom of my 
heart for their commitment and their tireless efforts.
    Americans all over this country want to know what they can do. I can 
tell you, right now, in the short run, with all those people building up 
at the borders, the most important thing the American people can do 
right now is to make financial contributions to these organizations. 
They're there; they're organized; they know who the people are; they 
know how to deliver the relief; and we can get it done. We do need help. 
We're doing all we can. We need more help.
    So if we can get this 800 number out--and again, I'm hoping that the 
fact that there are more numbers than normal in it will actually 
increase the knowledge of it--1-800-USAID-RELIEF. It will help a lot. I 
know the American people are profoundly concerned about this. We can 
tell by mail and the calls coming into the White House, and I hope very 
much that we will see a big upsurge in personal donations to help the 
relief effort as well.
    Now, let me say in addition to that, we've got to do something to 
take the pressure off of Albania and Macedonia in terms of the sheer 
numbers of people that are there. Many nations, from Norway to Turkey, 
have agreed to take in large numbers of refugees temporarily, until they 
can go home. As others do their part, we should be prepared to do ours, 
as well. Today I can say that we are prepared to accept up to 20,000 
refugees. Our goal is to take some of the burden off the struggling 
frontline nations.
    But let me be clear: The ethnic cleansing of Kosovo cannot stand as 
a permanent event. We cannot say, ``Well, we just take all these folks 
and forget about their rights to go home.'' I don't believe anyone wants 
to do that. That's not what we're about. But we have to help deal with 
the practical, immediate human problems these families face and that 
these frontline nations face. The refugees belong in their own homes, on 
their own land. Our immediate goal is to provide relief; our long-term 
goal is to give them their right to return.

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1988 Pan Am 103 Bombing Suspects

    Now, before I close, I'd like to say just a word about another 
important development in another part of the world, something that's 
been of concern to me for many years. Today the two suspects 
accused of carrying out the bombing of Pam Am 103 in 1988 were delivered 
by the United Nations to the custody of Dutch authorities, to be tried 
before a Scottish court sitting in The Netherlands. This is a moment 
much awaited and long overdue.
    When I became President, we promised the families of Pan Am 103 that 
we would pursue the suspects in this case no matter how long it took. We 
have worked hard on this for years. I want to thank all the people who 
are still in the administration, and some of those who have gone on to 
other endeavors, for their passionate devotion to this effort.
    For over a decade, the families have kept the memories of their 
loved ones alive. Now our determination and that of our friends in Great 
Britain and elsewhere finally has paid off. Finally, diplomacy and 
sanctions have produced the result we wanted. Finally, we have an 
opportunity to see justice done.
    I know that I speak for all the American people when I say that our 
thoughts and prayers and support are with the families of Pan Am 103. 
And we thank all of those who are involved and who have played a role in 
making this important day come to pass.
    Thank you very much.

Pentagon Support for Kosovo Policy

    Q. Mr. President, do your military share your goals in the operation 
on Kosovo? We have read many, many stories that----
    The President. I know that.
    Q. ----the Pentagon people are not with you.
    The President. Let me say, I will answer this question, and then I 
think we might want Secretary Cohen and 
General Shelton to answer it, since they're 
here. And I want to give them a chance to comment.
    First, let me say that one of the jobs that the Secretary of Defense 
and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs have is to report to me faithfully 
the view of the Chiefs, the Service Chiefs, the members of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff. And they have performed that faithfully, so that when there is a 
difference of opinion, when there is even a nuance, they have let me 
know that, as far as I know, in every important matter. Ultimately, 
after all, I am responsible for all these decisions and must bear the 
burden of them, regardless.
    Now, in this case, everybody's first choice was diplomacy. Let me 
remind--let's do a little bit of brief history here. In February of '98, 
over a year ago, this problem started. We worked on it through diplomacy 
and with the threat of NATO force, all the way up until last fall. In 
October we finally got an agreement that allowed hundreds of thousands 
of people to come down out of the hills to avoid starvation and freezing 
with the pending winter. We all knew--no one was blind to the 
difficulties of having to carry forward with any kind of military 
sanctions.
    Now, that worked. Then the problems arose again this year. When the 
talks failed, we had a series of difficult choices. In the end, 
everybody agreed that of a bunch of bad options, our military campaign 
was the best available option to show aggressive action, to keep NATO's 
word, to keep our NATO allies together, and to give us a chance to 
preserve our objectives.
    Secretary Albright made a point--I 
believe it was yesterday--that I would like to reiterate. We have a lot 
of tough questions to answer about this operation. And I am quite sure 
that we cannot answer every one to everyone's satisfaction. But I would 
far rather be standing here answering these questions with these people 
talking about this endeavor, than I would to be standing here having you 
ask me why we are permitting a wholesale ethnic slaughter and ethnic 
cleansing and the creation of hundreds of thousands of refugees and not 
lifting a finger to do anything about it.
    So I recognize that I cannot answer every question to everyone's 
satisfaction. That is a legitimate question; all the questions are. We 
are doing the best we can to keep the Alliance together, to be 
forthright, to be clear, and to achieve our objectives. And I believe we 
will prevail.
    Q. Well, are the military with you?
    The President. My impression is--and again, I think I owe it to the 
Secretary of Defense and General 
Shelton, to give them a chance to answer, 
because they're here--that everyone agreed that while there were 
problems with the air campaign, including the weather, which all of you 
saw last week, that this was the best available option for us to 
maximize the possibility of achieving our mission of standing up

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against ethnic cleansing, fulfilling NATO's commitment, getting the 
refugees to be able to go back home, live in peace and security, and 
have some autonomy.
    So that's what I believe. But I want to--Mr. Secretary Cohen?
    Q. Will you come back after they answer, Mr. President?
    The President. No. [Laughter]
    Q. Can we just ask----
    The President. No, no--go ahead--I want Secretary Cohen to answer the question.

Note: The President spoke at 2:45 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House. In his remarks, he referred to President Slobodan Milosevic 
of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro); Lt. Gen. 
John M. (Mike) McDuffie, USA, Director for Logistics (J-4), Department 
of Defense Joint Staff; and Pan Am 103 bombing suspects Lamen Khalifa 
Fhimah and Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi. The transcript released by the 
Office of the Press Secretary also included the closing remarks of 
Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen.