[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.