[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 23 (Monday, June 14, 1999)]
[Pages 1074-1077]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Address to the Nation on the Military Technical Agreement on Kosovo

June 10, 1999

    My fellow Americans, tonight for the first time in 79 days, the 
skies over Yugoslavia are silent. The Serb army and police are 
withdrawing from Kosovo. The one million men, women, and children driven 
from their land are preparing to return home. The demands of an outraged 
and united international community have been met.
    I can report to the American people that we have achieved a victory 
for a safer world, for our democratic values, and for a stronger 
America. Our pilots have returned to base.

[[Page 1075]]

The airstrikes have been suspended. Aggression against an innocent 
people has been contained and is being turned back.
    When I ordered our Armed Forces into combat, we had three clear 
goals: to enable the Kosovar people, the victims of some of the most 
vicious atrocities in Europe since the Second World War, to return to 
their homes with safety and self-government; to require Serbian forces 
responsible for those atrocities to leave Kosovo; and to deploy an 
international security force, with NATO at its core, to protect all the 
people of that troubled land, Serbs and Albanians, alike. Those goals 
will be achieved. A necessary conflict has been brought to a just and 
honorable conclusion.
    The result will be security and dignity for the people of Kosovo, 
achieved by an alliance that stood together in purpose and resolve, 
assisted by the diplomatic efforts of Russia. This victory brings a new 
hope that when a people are singled out for destruction because of their 
heritage and religious faith and we can do something about it, the world 
will not look the other way.
    I want to express my profound gratitude to the men and women of our 
Armed Forces and those of our Allies. Day after day, night after night, 
they flew, risking their lives to attack their targets and to avoid 
civilian casualties when they were fired upon from populated areas. I 
ask every American to join me in saying to them, thank you, you've made 
us very proud.
    I'm also grateful to the American people for standing against the 
awful ethnic cleansing, for sending generous assistance to the refugees, 
and for opening your hearts and your homes to the innocent victims who 
came here.
    I want to speak with you for a few moments tonight about why we 
fought, what we achieved, and what we have to do now to advance the 
peace, and together with the people of the Balkans, forge a future of 
freedom, progress, and harmony.
    We should remember that the violence we responded to in Kosovo was 
the culmination of a 10-year campaign by Slobodan Milosevic, the leader 
of Serbia, to exploit ethnic and religious differences in order to 
impose his will on the lands of the former Yugoslavia. That's what he 
tried to do in Croatia and in Bosnia, and now in Kosovo. The world saw 
the terrifying consequences: 500 villages burned; men of all ages 
separated from their loved ones to be shot and buried in mass graves; 
women raped; children made to watch their parents die; a whole people 
forced to abandon, in hours, communities their families had spent 
generations building.
    For these atrocities, Mr. Milosevic and his top aides have been 
indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal for war crimes and 
crimes against humanity. I will never forget the Kosovar refugees I 
recently met. Some of them could barely talk about what they had been 
through. All they had left was hope that the world would not turn its 
back.
    When our diplomatic efforts to avert this horror were rebuffed and 
the violence mounted, we and our Allies chose to act. Mr. Milosevic 
continued to do terrible things to the people of Kosovo, but we were 
determined to turn him back. Our firmness finally has brought an end to 
a vicious campaign of ethnic cleansing, and we acted early enough to 
reverse it, to enable the Kosovars to go home.
    When they do, they will be safe. They will be able to reopen their 
schools, speak their language, practice their religion, choose their 
leaders, and shape their destiny. There'll be no more days of foraging 
for food in the cold of mountains and forests, no more nights of hiding 
in cellars, wondering if the next day will bring death or deliverance. 
They will know that Mr. Milosevic's army and paramilitary forces will be 
gone, his 10-year campaign of repression finished.
    NATO has achieved this success as a united alliance, ably led by 
Secretary General Solana and General Clark. Nineteen democracies came 
together and stayed together through the stiffest military challenge in 
NATO's 50-year history.
    We also preserved our critically important partnership with Russia, 
thanks to President Yeltsin, who opposed our military effort but 
supported diplomacy to end the conflict on terms that met our 
conditions. I'm grateful to Russian envoy Chernomyrdin and Finnish 
President Ahtisaari for their work, and to Vice President Gore for the 
key role he played in putting their partnership together.

[[Page 1076]]

Now, I hope Russian troops will join us in the force that will keep the 
peace in Kosovo, just as they have in Bosnia.
    Finally, we have averted the wider war this conflict might well have 
sparked. The countries of southeastern Europe backed the NATO campaign, 
helped the refugees, and showed the world there is more compassion than 
cruelty in this troubled region. This victory makes it all the more 
likely that they will choose a future of democracy, fair treatment of 
minorities, and peace.
    Now we're entering a new phase, building that peace, and there are 
formidable challenges. First, we must be sure the Serbian authorities 
meet their commitments. We are prepared to resume our military campaign 
should they fail to do so. Next, we must get the Kosovar refugees home 
safely; mine fields will have to be cleared; homes destroyed by Serb 
forces will have to be rebuilt; homeless people in need of food and 
medicine will have to get them; the fate of the missing will have to be 
determined; the Kosovar Liberation Army will have to demilitarize, as it 
has agreed to do. And we in the peacekeeping force will have to ensure 
that Kosovo is a safe place to live for all its citizens, ethnic Serbs 
as well as ethnic Albanians.
    For these things to happen, security must be established. To that 
end, some 50,000 troops from almost 30 countries will deploy to Kosovo. 
Our European Allies will provide the vast majority of them; America will 
contribute about 7,000. We are grateful that during NATO's air campaign 
we did not lose a single serviceman in combat. But this next phase also 
will be dangerous. Bitter memories will still be fresh, and there may 
well be casualties. So we have made sure that the force going into 
Kosovo will have NATO command and control and rules of engagement set by 
NATO. It will have the means and the mandate to protect itself while 
doing its job.
    In the meantime, the United Nations will organize a civilian 
administration while preparing the Kosovars to govern and police 
themselves. As local institutions take hold, NATO will be able to turn 
over increasing responsibility to them and draw down its forces.
    A third challenge will be to put in place a plan for lasting peace 
and stability in Kosovo and through all the Balkans. For that to happen, 
the European Union and the United States must plan for tomorrow, not 
just today. We must help to give the democracies of southeastern Europe 
a path to a prosperous, shared future, a unifying magnet more powerful 
than the pull of hatred and destruction that has threatened to tear them 
apart. Our European partners must provide most of the resources for this 
effort, but it is in America's interest to do our part, as well. A final 
challenge will be to encourage Serbia to join its neighbors in this 
historic journey to a peaceful, democratic, united Europe.
    I want to say a few words to the Serbian people tonight. I know that 
you, too, have suffered in Mr. Milosevic's wars. You should know that 
your leaders could have kept Kosovo as a part of your country without 
driving a single Kosovar family from its home, without killing a single 
adult or child, without inviting a single NATO bomb to fall on your 
country. You endured 79 days of bombing, not to keep Kosovo a province 
of Serbia, but simply because Mr. Milosevic was determined to eliminate 
Kosovar Albanians from Kosovo, dead or alive.
    As long as he remains in power, as long as your nation is ruled by 
an indicted war criminal, we will provide no support for the 
reconstruction of Serbia. But we are ready to provide humanitarian aid 
now and to help to build a better future for Serbia, too, when its 
Government represents tolerance and freedom, not repression and terror.
    My fellow Americans, all these challenges are substantial, but they 
are far preferable to the challenges of war and continued instability in 
Europe. We have sent a message of determination and hope to all the 
world. Think of all the millions of innocent people who died in this 
bloody century because democracies reacted too late to evil and 
aggression. Because of our resolve, the 20th century is ending not with 
helpless indignation but with a hopeful affirmation of human dignity and 
human rights for the 21st century.
    In a world too divided by fear among people of different racial, 
ethnic, and religious groups, we have given confidence to the friends of 
freedom and pause to those who

[[Page 1077]]

would exploit human difference for inhuman purposes.
    America still faces great challenges in this world, but we look 
forward to meeting them. So, tonight I ask you to be proud of your 
country and very proud of the men and women who serve it in uniform. For 
in Kosovo, we did the right thing; we did it the right way; and we will 
finish the job.
    Good night, and may God bless our wonderful United States of 
America.

Note: The President spoke at 8 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to President Slobodan Milosevic of 
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro); NATO 
Secretary General Javier Solana; Gen. Wesley K. Clark, USA, Supreme 
Allied Commander Europe; President Martti Ahtisaari of Finland; and 
former Prime Minister and Special Envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin and 
President Boris Yeltsin of Russia.