[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 19 (Monday, May 17, 1999)]
[Pages 854-856]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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

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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.

International Reaction

    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.

Impact on Balkan Peace Process

    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--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).

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