[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 19 (Monday, May 17, 1999)]
[Pages 889-890]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in a Telephone Conversation With Americans at Camp Hope, Albania

May 14, 1999

    Maj. Gen. William Hinton. Hello, Mr. President. This is General Bill 
Hinton from Camp Hope in Albania.
    The President. Hi, General Hinton. And are you there with Mr. Sykes?
    Maj. Gen. Hinton. Yes, Mr. Chris Sykes is here with me from CARE.
    The President. Well, first of all, I just wanted to call to applaud 
your efforts in building and managing Camp Hope. I think it's a very 
important example of our commitment to give shelter and assistance to 
the refugees until they can go home. And I'm very proud you were able to 
do it in such a short time. I know you had a lot of constraints finding 
the right site and getting the infrastructure up. I think this will help 
us to get our NATO Allies to do more on other camps as well.
    How are you doing with the rest of the work there?
    Maj. Gen. Hinton. Sir, the work is coming along very well. We're 
progressing with the rest of the camp, and we hope to complete the camp 
for up to 20,000----

[At this point, the telephone connection was interrupted.]

    Maj. Gen. Hinton. ----hello, Mr. President. Are you there?
    The President. Yes.
    Maj. Gen. Hinton. In any case, we hope to complete the rest of the 
camp by the first of June.

[[Page 890]]

    The President. That's great. Well, it's good to talk to you again. I 
hope you will tell all the people in Joint Task Force Shining Hope that 
I'm very grateful for a job well done.
    Maj. Gen. Hinton. Mr. Sykes is here, sir, and of course, he already 
has 400 refugees on board.
    Chris Sykes. How are you, Mr. President?
    The President. I'm fine.
    Mr. Sykes. Okay. It's been a great exercise----
    The President. Well, I really appreciate the way you've worked with 
our military to organize and design the camp. And I want to thank CARE 
and all the NGO's that are working there.
    Exactly how many are there now?
    Mr. Sykes. We've got exactly 409 now, and we'll be receiving another 
500, which we're in the process of receiving as you speak.
    The President. Well, that's good news. I think it's good for them--
go ahead.
    Mr. Sykes. Yes--we're moving right ahead on schedule, and we should 
be able to speed up our rate or reception. The initial influx has come 
in from Kukes, and we're prepared for any influx from Macedonia, as 
well.
    The President. Well, that's great. I think we may have a little 
influx from Macedonia. The situation there is not the best, and we've 
got a lot of pressure. So I hope we can really do a good job of getting 
as many people as possible there.
    Mr. Sykes. Well, sir, we'll keep this camp going on schedule, and 
we're looking for sites for two more camps rights now.
    The President. That's great. I know they need all the help they can 
get. They've taken a lot of folks, and I know a lot of them are in 
homes, but I think from here on out we're going to have to have more 
camps and good ones.
    Mr. Sykes. Yes, sir. We've got a good contractor here helping to 
build these camps and we'll keep trying to find the right sites.
    The President. Well, I appreciate it. I know it's tough work, but 
you're doing something really important. And it will be temporary, but 
it may be a while. And so we've got to do the best we can. And I'm very 
grateful to both of you.
    Mr. Sykes. Thank you, sir.
    The President. Thank you, Chris, and thank you, General. It's good 
to hear your voice. Take care.
    Maj. Gen. Hinton. Thank you, thank you, Mr. President.
    The President. Bye-bye.

Note: The teleconference began at 9:40 a.m. The President spoke from the 
Oval Office at the White House to Maj. Gen. William S. Hinton, Jr., 
USAF, Commander, Joint Task Force Shining Hope, and Chris Sykes, camp 
manager, CARE, at the Camp Hope refugee site, located 60 miles from the 
city of Fier, Albania.