[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 24 (Monday, June 21, 1999)]
[Page 1097]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Videotape Address to the Kosovar Refugees

June 12, 1999

    To all the people of Kosovo, who have suffered so much in the face 
of Mr. Milosevic's savage campaign of ethnic cleansing, I'm happy to say 
that the time of return is near. The Serb forces who drove you from your 
homes are leaving Kosovo. All are required to leave. The NATO-led troops 
who will protect you are beginning to go in. Mr. Milosevic has failed 
utterly in his efforts to erase your history, your culture, your 
presence from your land. Soon, you will be going home.
    Now we must make sure you can return safely. I know you're anxious 
to reunite with your loved ones, to find out what condition your homes 
are in, to reclaim your land. But before you do, we must be certain all 
the Serbian forces have left and see to it that international forces are 
in place throughout Kosovo. We must start clearing the landmines, some 
of which may be in your homes, in your community buildings, along roads 
and bridges. We need to make sure there's enough food, water, and 
shelter to meet your needs. And we most urgently need to reach the 
desperate people who have been trapped in the hills and forests of 
Kosovo.
    Until all of you can return in safety, we will provide aid in 
Albania and Macedonia. And we will not forget the kindness of the 
nations that have given you shelter, or their own needs for assistance 
and stability.
    As you prepare to go home, I know you have many reasons to be bitter 
and full of anger. But I ask you not to let Mr. Milosevic have the 
victory of seeing your spirits broken and your hearts turn to stone. No 
one should do to the ethnic Serbs who live in Kosovo what their leaders 
did to you. Do not prove Mr. Milosevic right, that people of different 
ethnic and religious groups are inevitably enemies.
    No human being should ever have to experience what you have been 
forced to endure. We will seek effective justice through law for the 
perpetrators of these crimes. But we must have an end to ethnic 
cleansing and the beginning of a Kosovo where every child can go to 
school, every family can practice its faith, every community can live a 
normal life in peace. That is what we fought for. That is what NATO 
peacekeepers will help build when they go in. That is the future we now 
have a chance to shape together.
    I thank you for your courage and your endurance, and I look forward 
to seeing you go home.

Note: The address was videotaped at approximately 6:35 p.m. on June 11 
in the Roosevelt Room at the White House for later broadcast on the U.S. 
Information Agency WORLDNET in the Balkan region. The transcript was 
embargoed for release until 2 a.m., e.d.t., on June 12. In his remarks, 
the President referred to President Slobodan Milosevic of the Federal 
Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). A tape was not available 
for verification of the content of this address.