[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 14 (Monday, April 12, 1999)]
[Pages 583-587]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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

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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 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.

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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.
    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.

Military Leaders' Support

    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

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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 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.
    Secretary Cohen. Let me respond to the question. The President has 
outlined it exactly right. All of the issues, the military issues, were 
discussed by the Chiefs and amongst the Chiefs, and they looked at the 
options, and knowing that air power had limitations and knowing that 
there was going to be tough weather, a tough geography and a very robust 
air defense system.
    And so those questions were raised; they were discussed; they were 
debated within the Armed Services, so to speak, and with the Chiefs in 
the tank. They came to the conclusion, unanimously, that the only option 
available other than sitting on the sidelines was to pursue the air 
campaign, given its limitations. There was no doubt or division on that 
ultimate decision.
    That was not only made clear to the President; it was made clear to 
key Members of Congress, as both the Chairman and I briefed House 
Members and Senate Members on several occasions, and on each and every 
occasion, we raised the issues involved in waging a military campaign by 
air, everyone recognizing its limitations but ultimately understanding 
that this country could not sit on the sidelines and watch Slobodan 
Milosevic slaughter hundreds and thousands of people, which he was 
prepared to do, to drive them into the hills, to starve them, to have 
them freeze to death. We could simply not maintain any credibility as a 
moral leader in this world, and certainly not as a leader of the NATO 
force. So there was no question about the options, and this was the 
option that they unanimously agreed to.
    Q. Mr. Secretary, the President has said again today that he will 
persist until the objectives are, in fact, achieved. You, yourself, have 
now said that everyone understood that air power has limitations. If air 
power has limitations and cannot achieve the objectives, what then? 
Abandon the objectives?
    Secretary Cohen. The President did not say we could not achieve the 
objective. He laid out three----
    Q. [Inaudible]--does not have limitations?
    Secretary Cohen. He laid out--every military operation has 
limitations. There is no military operation, including ground forces, 
which does not have limitations. What the President said at the very 
beginning was that there are three objectives: Number one, that 
demonstrate resolve on the part of the NATO alliance--we've done that; 
number two, to try and deter Slobodan Milosevic from carrying out his 
campaign of ethnic cleansing and, failing that, to make him pay a 
serious, substantial price for doing so, and to take his military down 
as best we can through the air power.
    Those were the objectives laid out. That is exactly what the Chiefs 
have signed up to.

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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); and Pan 
Am 103 bombing suspects Lamen Khalifa Fhimah and Abdal Basset Ali al-
Megrahi.