THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release January 5, 1999

TEXT OF A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE

January 5, 1999

Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)

On June 9, 1998, by Executive Order 13088 (63 Fed. Reg. 32109, June 12, 1998), I declared a national emergency to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy

of the United States constituted by the actions and policies of the Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), and the Republic of Serbia with respect to Kosovo. The order

blocks all property and interests in property of the Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro within the United

States or within the possession or control of United States persons, and prohibits all new investment in the territory of the Republic of Serbia by United States persons, and the approval or other facilitation

by United States persons of other persons' new investment in the territory of the Republic of Serbia.

1. The declaration of the national emergency on June 9, 1998, was made pursuant to the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, including the International Emergency

Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code. The emergency declaration was reported

by message to the Congress dated June 10, 1998, pursuant to section 204(b) of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1703(b)).

The present report is submitted pursuant to 50 U.S.C. 1641(c) and 1703(c) and covers the period from June 9 through December 8, 1998. It discusses only Administration actions and expenses directly

related to the exercise of powers and authorities conferred by the declaration of a national emergency in Executive Order 13088.

2. The Ofﬁce of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), acting under authority delegated by the Secretary of the Treasury, implemented the sanctions imposed under the foregoing statutes and Executive Order

13088 and has issued the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) Kosovo Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 586 (the "Regulations") (63 Fed. Reg. 54575, October 13, 1998). A copy of

the Regulations is attached to this report.

The Regulations block all property and interests in property of the Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Republic of Serbia, and the Republic of Montenegro that

are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of United States persons, including their overseas branches. The

Regulations also prohibit ﬁnancial transactions with, including trade ﬁnancing for, the Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Republic of Serbia, and the Republic

of Montenegro by United States persons. However, the Regulations provide an exemption, contained in section 2 of Executive Order 13088, for ﬁnancial transactions, including trade ﬁnancing, by United

States persons within the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) that are (a) conducted exclusively through the domestic banking system within the Federal Republic of

Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) in local currency (dinars), or (b) conducted using bank notes or barter.

The Regulations also prohibit all new investment in the territory of the Republic of Serbia by United States persons, and the approval or other facilitation by United States persons of other persons' new

investment in the territory of the Republic of Serbia. The term "new investment," means (a) the acquisition of debt or equity interests in, (b) a commitment or contribution of funds or other assets to, or (c) a

loan or other extension of credit to, a public or private undertaking, entity, or project, other than donations of funds to charitable organizations for purely humanitarian purposes. Any transaction by a United

States person that evades or avoids, or that has the purpose of evading or avoiding, or attempts to violate, any of the prohibitions set forth in Executive Order 13088 is prohibited. Finally, the Regulations

provide a general license, authorizing all transactions by United States persons involving property or interests in property of the Government of the Republic of Montenegro, except as provided pursuant to

the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) and Bosnian Serb-Controlled Areas of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 585.

3. Since the issuance of Executive Order 13088 on June 9, 1998, OFAC has issued 73 speciﬁc licenses, the majority of which (55) authorized ﬁnancial transactions with respect to personal remittances by

individuals to the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) and funding of humanitarian operations by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) within the Federal Republic of

Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). Other licenses authorized certain diplomatic transactions, transactions related to air safety issues and payment of overﬂight fees, the closure of Federal Republic of

Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) entities formerly operating within the United States and the liquidation and maintenance of blocked tangible property, and intellectual property protection for U.S. ﬁrms

operating in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). OFAC also instituted a mechanism for NGOs to continue to support humanitarian operations in Yugoslavia and administers a

registration program for NGOs to route money and supplies there as appropriate.

Since June 9, 1998, U.S. banks and banks in the United States have reported to OFAC that they have blocked 877 transactions totaling $20,361,767 pursuant to the sanctions. Most of the blockings were of

funds transfers originating from, or destined for, Serbian banks.

4. The expenses incurred by the Federal Government in the 6-month period from June 9 through December 8, 1998, that are directly attributable to the declaration of a national emergency with respect to the

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) and the Republic of Serbia in connection with the situation in Kosovo are estimated at approximately $715,000, most of which represents wage and

salary costs for Federal personnel. Personnel costs were largely centered in the Department of the Treasury (particularly in OFAC and its Chief Counsel's Ofﬁce), the Department of State, and the National

Security Council.

5. The situation reviewed above continues to present an extraordinary and unusual threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. The declaration of the national emergency with

respect to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) and the Republic of Serbia contained in Executive Order 13088 was made in reaction to the unacceptable actions and policies of the

Belgrade authorities in Kosovo, and continues to apply. The current situation in Kosovo is fragile and, as yet, unresolved. It is of particular importance that developments in Kosovo should not disrupt

progress in implementing the Dayton peace agreement. This threat to the peace of the region constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security of the United States.

With this in mind and in support of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1099 and 1203, I shall continue to exercise the powers at my disposal with respect to the measures against the Government

of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Republic of Serbia, and the Republic of Montenegro, as long as these measures are appropriate, and will continue to report periodically to

the Congress on signiﬁcant developments pursuant to 50 U.S.C. 1703(c).

Sincerely,

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release January 16, 1999

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

I condemn in the strongest possible terms the massacre of civilians by Serb security forces that took place last night in the village of Racak in Kosovo. This was a deliberate and indiscriminate act of murder

designed to sow fear among the people of Kosovo. It is a clear violation of the commitments Serbian authorities have made to NATO. There can be no justiﬁcation for it.

The perpetrators must be brought to justice. The Serb authorities must act immediately to identify those responsible. They must cooperate with the Kosovo Veriﬁcation mission and the International War

Crime Tribunal. They must withdraw security forces, carry out all the commitments they have made to NATO and cease their repression.

We are in close contact with Secretary-General Solana and our NATO allies. Together, we will work to stop the repression and prevent an escalation of ﬁghting.

It is urgent that these murders not trigger a spiral of reprisals. Both sides have a responsibility to work towards a peaceful resolution of this crisis, and for a settlement that allows the people of Kosovo the

self-government they so clearly deserve.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(St. Louis, Missouri)

________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release January 26, 1999

January 25, 1999

Presidential Determination

No. 99-10

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE

SUBJECT: Determination Pursuant to Section 2(c)(1) of the

Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962, as Amended

Pursuant to section 2(c)(1) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962, as amended, 22 U.S.C. 2601(c)(1), I hereby determine that it is important to the national interest that up to $25 million be

made available from the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund to meet the urgent and unexpected needs of refugees and migrants.

These funds may be used to meet the urgent and unexpected needs of refugees, displaced persons, victims of conﬂict, and other persons at risk due to the Kosovo crisis. These funds may be used, as

appropriate, to provide contributions to international and nongovernmental organizations.

You are authorized and directed to inform the appropriate committees of the Congress of this determination and the use of funds under this authority, and to arrange for the publication of this determination

in the Federal Register.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release February 13, 1999

RADIO ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT

TO THE NATION

The Oval Office

10:06 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week the warring parties in Kosovo have been meeting at a 14th century castle in France, in search of a 21st century peace. They've come together because of the

determination of the United States, our European allies, and Russia, to help end Kosovo's bloodshed and build a peaceful future there. Today I want to speak to you about why peace in Kosovo is important

to America.

World War II taught us that America could never be secure if Europe's future was in doubt. We and our allies formed NATO after the war, and together we've deterred aggression, secured Europe, and

eventually made possible the victory of freedom all across the European continent. In this decade, violent ethnic conﬂicts in the former Yugoslavia have threatened Europe's stability and future.

For four years Bosnia was the site of Europe's bloodiest war in half a century. With American leadership and that of our allies, we worked to end the war and move the Bosnian people toward reconciliation

and democracy. Now, as the peace takes hold, we've been steadily bringing our troops home. But Bosnia taught us a lesson: In this volatile region, violence we fail to oppose leads to even greater violence

we will have to oppose later at greater cost.

We must heed that lesson in Kosovo. In 1989, Serbia stripped away Kosovo's autonomy. A year ago, Serbian forces launched a brutal crackdown against Kosovo's ethnic Albanians. Fighting and atrocities

intensiﬁed and hundreds of thousands of people were driven from their homes.

Last fall, using diplomacy backed by the threat of NATO force, we averted a humanitarian crisis and slowed the ﬁghting. But now it's clear that only a strong peace agreement can end it. America has a

national interest in achieving this peace. If the conﬂict persists, there likely will be a tremendous loss of life and a massive refugee crisis in the middle of Europe. There is a serious risk the hostilities would

spread to the neighboring new democracies of Albania and Macedonia, and reignite the conﬂict in Bosnia we worked so hard to stop. It could even involve our NATO allies, Greece and Turkey.

If we wait until casualties mount and war spreads, any effort to stop it will come at a higher price, under more dangerous conditions. The time to stop the war is right now.

With our NATO allies and Russia, we have offered a comprehensive plan to restore peace and return self-government to Kosovo. NATO has authorized air strikes if Serbia fails to comply with its previous

commitments to withdraw forces and fails to support a peace accord. At the same time, we've made it clear to the Kosovo Albanians that if they reject our plan or continue to wage war, they will not have

our support.

There are serious obstacles to overcome at the current talks. It is increasingly clear that this effort can only succeed if it includes a NATO-led peace implementation force that gives both sides the conﬁdence

to lay down their arms. It's also clear that if there is a real peace, American participation in the force can provide such conﬁdence, particularly for Kosovo's Albanians. For them, as for so many people

around the world, America symbolizes hope and resolve. Europeans would provide the great bulk of any NATO force, roughly 85 percent. Our share would amount to a little less than 4,000 personnel.

Now, a ﬁnal decision on troops, which I will make in close consultation with Congress, will depend upon the parties reaching a strong peace agreement. It must provide for an immediate cease-ﬁre, rapid

withdrawal of most Serbian security forces, and demilitarization of the insurgents. The parties must agree to the NATO force and demonstrate that they are ready to implement the agreement.

NATO's mission must be well-deﬁned, with a clear and realistic strategy to allow us to bring our forces home when their work is done. Anytime we send troops we must be mindful of the risks, but if these

conditions are met, if there is an effective agreement and a clear plan, I believe America should contribute to securing peace for Kosovo. And I look forward to working with Congress in making this ﬁnal

decision.

America cannot be everywhere or do everything overseas. But we must act where important interests are at stake and we can make a difference. Peace in Kosovo clearly is important to the United States, and

with bipartisan support in Congress and the backing of the American people, we can make a difference.

Thanks for listening.

END 10:11 A.M. EST

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release February 23, 1999

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

The peace talks in Rambouillet, France are a signiﬁcant step forward in the search for a fair and lasting peace in Kosovo. In the last three weeks, the negotiations have produced more progress than we have

seen in the decade since Kosovo's autonomy was stripped away by the government in Belgrade.

By agreeing in principle to a strong plan that would provide substantial self-government for the people of Kosovo, the negotiators on the Albanian side have shown courage and leadership. The agreement by

the Serb side to substantial autonomy for Kosovo also represents an important, but incomplete, recognition that only by allowing the people in Kosovo control over their day-to-day lives can there be a

lasting peace.

The Kosovar negotiators have asked for time to consult with their constituents before formally signing the peace plan. I believe that the Kosovar Albanian people will strongly support what their negotiators

have done, because the agreement represents the opportunity for a better life after years of repression and fear. The Serbs should be prepared to return to the negotiations on March 15 with a commitment to

sign the full agreement -- including the indispensable provisions on the withdrawal of most Serb security forces from Kosovo, and the deployment of a NATO-led peace implementation force.

In the meantime, it is imperative that all sides avoid provocations that would imperil this progress. NATO Secretary General Javier Solana retains the authority given to him by the NATO Council to act if

necessary.

I want to thank Secretary Albright and all her negotiators for their tireless efforts that led to hopeful developments, and commend British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and French Foreign Minister Hubert

Vedrine, the co-chairs of Rambouillet, for their leadership.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 19, 1999

PRESIDENT CLINTON PROPOSES $6.049 BILLION

IN EMERGENCY FUNDING FOR MILITARY

AND HUMANITARIAN COSTS OF KOSOVO

President Clinton today proposed a $6.049 billion dollar emergency supplemental package to fund the military and humanitarian costs of the action in Kosovo to sustain the current military effort against

Slobodan Milosevic and to aid the Kosovar refugees.

The President's package:

ensures our military has the full measure of resources necessary to carry out the Kosovo air campaign;

maintains the military readiness of those forces in the Balkan theater and all other U.S. forces; and

funds the U.S. commitment to provide humanitarian relief now and responds to potential future refugee assistance needs.

Defense Department

The request provides $5.458 billion for the Department of Defense, an amount sufﬁcient to fund the ongoing military operations in Kosovo at current levels, and replenish munitions used during the conﬂict.

These allocations are designed to fully fund the costs of the conﬂict, and will protect the nation's military readiness.

A readiness and munitions contingency fund is also included in the package to any additional funding needs -- consistent with current policy -- while maintaining the current high level of military readiness.

This emergency package, including the contingency fund, is designed to provide full resources to sustain current policy. The request also contains $335 million in funding for humantarian efforts by the

Department of Defense. The request includes:

$3.301 billion for Military Operations, which provides full funding to sustain current U.S. force levels and operations;

$698 million for Munitions, to replenish or upgrade certain types of munitions, including cruise missiles, used in the Kosovo and Iraq conﬂicts, including past and anticipated use;

$850 million for Readiness and Munitions Contingency Reserve Fund, available on a contingency basis, so that readiness will continue to be maintained, and that the supply of all munitions, an

essential element of readiness, remains sufﬁcient for future operations.

The funding in this request is based on the assumption that US military force levels in the Balkans will remain at current levels. The request for emergency funding will provide resources through the end of

the 1999 Fiscal Year.

Humanitarian Assistance

The request provides $721 million to fund humanitarian operations, principally to aid the Kosovar refugees, carried out by the State Department, the Department of Defense, and USAID.

$386 million for the Department of State and USAID to supply critical provisions to the refugees, including food, shelter, water, and medicine, and to support efforts organized by the U.S.

government, international organizations and non-governmental organizations.

$335 million for the Department of Defense to provide assistance to Kosovar refugees consistent with US participation in the multilateral commitment for temporary resettlement, including housing,

provision of food and medical care for 20,000 refugees during the conﬂict, and repayment of costs already incurred for supplies and transportation.

In addition, the package provides $150 million to secure the Front-Line States -- providing urgent assistance needed by countries, including Albania and Macedonia, due to disruption from the conﬂict; and

$55 million for State Department operations, including upgrading security for facilities and personnel in the region, and police and justice programs.

This package also provides $274 million to cover operations related to Iraq, including the costs of Desert Fox and Desert Thunder late last year, and activity related to Enhanced Northern and Southern

Watch, in light of Iraq's continued deﬁance of the no-ﬂy zones.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release March 25, 1999

VIDEOTAPED REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

TO THE SERBIAN PEOPLE

The Roosevelt Room

THE PRESIDENT: As you know, the United States and its NATO allies have begun a military campaign to reduce President Milosevic's ability to make war on the people of Kosovo. I want to speak

candidly to all Serbian people, to explain our reasons for this action and how there could be a quick resolution of the crisis.

First, I cannot emphasize too strongly that the United States and our European allies have no quarrel with the Serbian people. We respect your proud history and culture. We joined together on many

occasions, including our victory over Naziism in World War II. Our own history has been honored by the contributions of Serb families who came to America to start a new life.

But our common future has been put in jeopardy by a war that threatens the peace of Europe and the lives of thousands of innocent people in Kosovo. After exhausting every other option, all 19 members of

NATO -- from France to Poland, from Italy to Greece, from across Europe to Canada and the United States in North America -- all of us agree that only swift action can save peace in the Balkans.

Let us turn from Serbia's history to the facts of the last 10 years. There has been too much propaganda and too little plain truth. President Milosevic has spoken often of Serbia's standing in the world; but by

his every action he has diminished your country's standing, exposed you to violence and instability, and isolated you from the rest of Europe. He waged senseless wars in Bosnia and Croatia, which only

ended after enormous bloodshed on all sides. And he lost a cruel campaign against the Albanian people of Kosovo. It was not simply a war against armed Kosovar forces, but also a campaign of violence in

which tanks and artillery were unleashed against unarmed civilians.

Now, one out of eight people in Kosovo have been driven from their homes, entire villages have been burned and cleared of their people. Thousands of Serbs also have suffered and been forced from their

homes. As a result, the bitterness in Kosovo is deeper than ever and the prospect that Kosovars and Serbs will be able to live together in the same country has been harmed. No one has beneﬁtted from all

this, certainly not Serbia.

We understand the region has more than its share of painful history, and we know that all peoples of the former Yugoslavia have their legitimate grievances. The NATO allies support the desire of the

Serbian people to maintain Kosovo as part of your country. With our Russian partners, we insisted on that in the peace talks in France. The result was a fair and balanced agreement that would guarantee the

rights of all people in Kosovo -- ethnic Serbs and Albanians alike, within Serbia.

The Kosovar leaders accepted that. They agreed to demilitarize their forces and to end the paramilitary attacks on Serbs that also have contributed to the crisis. At the invitation of Serbs and Kosovars,

NATO troops, under the agreement, would be deployed in Kosovo as keepers of the peace -- not as some occupying force.

Now, I know the Serb government and many Serbian people may not see NATO that way. And it is true that it was the Kosovar Albanians who insisted on NATO peacekeeping forces -- but largely because

of President Milosevic's violations of his own commitments regarding the use of police and military units.

Nevertheless, I want you to understand that NATO only agreed to be peacekeepers on the understanding that its troops would ensure that both sides kept their commitments and that terrorism on both sides

would be brought to an end. They only agreed to serve with the understanding that they would protect Serbs as well as ethnic Albanians, and that they would leave when peace took hold.

Now, only President Milosevic rejected this agreement. He could have kept Kosovo and Serbia and given you peace. But, instead, he has jeopardized Kosovo's future and brought you more war. Right now

he's forcing your sons to keep ﬁghting a senseless conﬂict that you did not ask for and that he could have prevented. Every time he has summoned Serbia's history as a justiﬁcation for such action he has

imperiled your future. Hopefully, he will realize that his present course is unsustainable; ultimately, it is self-destructive.

The sooner we ﬁnd a peaceful resolution of this dispute, preserving Kosovo within Serbia while guaranteeing the rights of its people under your law, the sooner Serbia can join the rest of Europe and build a

nation that gives all its citizens a voice and a chance at prosperity.

The NATO nations have tried to avert this conﬂict through every means we knew to be available. Each of us has ties to Serbia. Each respects the dignity and the courage of the Serb people. In the end we

decided that the dangers of acting are outweighed by the dangers of allowing this conﬂict to continue, to worsen, to claim the lives of more innocent civilians -- including children -- to result in tens of

thousands of more homeless refugees.

Now all of us -- Americans, Europeans, Serbs, Kosovars -- must join together to stop driving wedges between people simply because they belong to different ethnic groups and to start accepting that our

differences are less important than our common humanity and our common aspirations.

I call on all Serbs and all people of good will to join with us in seeking an end to this needless and avoidable conﬂict. Instead, let us work together to restore serbia to its rightful place as a great nation of

Europe; included, not isolated, by the world community; respected by all nations for having the strength to build peace.

END

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Aboard Air Force One)

________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release March 11, 1999

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

I am pleased with the House vote which demonstrates the broad, bipartisan support for our efforts to bring peace to Kosovo. This vote sends a clear message to both parties that it is time now to sign an

agreement that stops the ﬁghting in Kosovo and creates real self-government for the Kosovar people. The vote conﬁrms the strong commitment of the United States to continue our efforts to provide the

leadership necessary to bring about a peaceful resolution to this conﬂict.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release March 22, 1999

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

ON THE SITUATION IN KOSOVO

The South Lawn

1:50 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: I want to give you a brief update about that situation in Kosovo and make a few comments.

It is clear that Serb forces are now engaged in further attacks on Kosovar civilians. Already more than 40,000 Serb security forces are poised in and around Kosovo, with additional units on the way. These

actions are in clear violation of commitments Serbia made last October when we obtained the cease-ﬁre agreement.

As part of our determined efforts to seek a peaceful solution, I asked Ambassador Holbrooke to see President Milosevic and make clear the choice he faces. That meeting is either going on now or should

start in the next few minutes. If President Milosevic continues to choose aggression over peace, NATO's military plans must continue to move forward.

I will be in close consultation with our NATO allies and with Congress. Over the weekend, I met with my national security team to discuss the military options. I also spoke with other NATO leaders by

telephone. There is strong unity among the NATO allies. We all agree that we cannot allow President Milosevic to continue the aggression with impunity. I have also sent a letter to President Yeltsin about

the urgency of the situation.

Our objective in Kosovo remains clear: to stop the killing and achieve a durable peace that restores Kosovars to self-government, the self-government that President Milosevic stripped away from them a

decade ago. We and our NATO allies, and Russia, all agree that this is the right goal. The Kosovar Albanians have accepted this course. Only President Milosevic and Serbia stand in the way of peace.

Serbia's mounting aggression must be stopped.

Since the adjournment of the peace talks in Paris less than a week ago, an estimated 30,000 more Kosovars have ﬂed their homes. The number now exceeds more than a quarter of a million people, one out

of every eight people in Kosovo. Many of them now are in neighboring Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro, all of which could be quickly drawn into this conﬂict. So could other nations in the region,

including Bosnia where allied determination ended a terrible war, and our allies, Greece and Turkey.

Seeking to end this tragedy in Kosovo and ﬁnding a peaceful solution is the right thing to do. It is also the smart thing to do, very much in our national interests, if we are to leave a stable, peaceful and

democratic Europe to our children. We have learned a lot of lessons in the last 50 years. One of them surely is that we have a stake in European freedom and security and stability. I hope that can be achieved

by peaceful means. If not, we have to be prepared to act. Thank you.

END 1:55 P.M. EST

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release March 24, 1999

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

TO THE NATION

The Oval Ofﬁce

8:01 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: My fellow Americans, today our Armed Forces joined our NATO allies in air strikes against Serbian forces responsible for the brutality in Kosovo. We have acted with resolve for

several reasons.

We act to protect thousands of innocent people in Kosovo from a mounting military offensive. We act to prevent a wider war; to diffuse a powder keg at the heart of Europe that has exploded twice before in

this century with catastrophic results. And we act to stand united with our allies for peace. By acting now we are upholding our values, protecting our interests and advancing the cause of peace.

Tonight I want to speak to you about the tragedy in Kosovo and why it matters to America that we work with our allies to end it. First, let me explain what it is we are responding to. Kosovo is a province of

Serbia, in the middle of southeastern Europe, about 160 miles east of Italy. That's less than the distance between Washington and New York, and only about 70 miles north of Greece. Its people are mostly

ethnic Albanian and mostly Muslim.

In 1989, Serbia's leader, Slobadan Milosevic, the same leader who started the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, and moved against Slovenia in the last decade, stripped Kosovo of the constitutional autonomy its

people enjoyed; thus denying them their right to speak their language, run their schools, shape their daily lives. For years, Kosovars struggled peacefully to get their rights back. When President Milosevic

sent his troops and police to crush them, the struggle grew violent.

Last fall our diplomacy, backed by the threat of force from our NATO Alliance, stopped the ﬁghting for a while, and rescued tens of thousands of people from freezing and starvation in the hills where they

had ﬂed to save their lives. And last month, with our allies and Russia, we proposed a peace agreement to end the ﬁghting for good. The Kosovar leaders signed that agreement last week. Even though it

does not give them all they want, even though their people were still being savaged, they saw that a just peace is better than a long and unwinnable war.

The Serbian leaders, on the other hand, refused even to discuss key elements of the peace agreement. As the Kosovars were saying "yes" to peace, Serbia stationed 40,000 troops in and around Kosovo in

preparation for a major offensive -- and in clear violation of the commitments they had made.

Now, they've started moving from village to village, shelling civilians and torching their houses. We've seen innocent people taken from their homes, forced to kneel in the dirt and sprayed with bullets;

Kosovar men dragged from their families, fathers and sons together, lined up and shot in cold blood. This is not war in the traditional sense. It is an attack by tanks and artillery on a largely defenseless

people, whose leaders already have agreed to peace.

Ending this tragedy is a moral imperative. It is also important to America's national interest. Take a look at this map. Kosovo is a small place, but it sits on a major fault line between Europe, Asia and the

Middle East, at the meeting place of Islam and both the Western and Orthodox branches of Christianity. To the south are our allies, Greece and Turkey; to the north, our new democratic allies in Central

Europe. And all around Kosovo there are other small countries, struggling with their own economic and political challenges -- countries that could be overwhelmed by a large, new wave of refugees from

Kosovo. All the ingredients for a major war are there: ancient grievances, struggling democracies, and in the center of it all a dictator in Serbia who has done nothing since the Cold War ended but start new

wars and pour gasoline on the ﬂames of ethnic and religious division.

Sarajevo, the capital of neighboring Bosnia, is where World War I began. World War II and the Holocaust engulfed this region. In both wars Europe was slow to recognize the dangers, and the United States

waited even longer to enter the conﬂicts. Just imagine if leaders back then had acted wisely and early enough, how many lives could have been saved, how many Americans would not have had to die.

We learned some of the same lessons in Bosnia just a few years ago. The world did not act early enough to stop that war, either. And let's not forget what happened -- innocent people herded into

concentration camps, children gunned down by snipers on their way to school, soccer ﬁelds and parks turned into cemeteries; a quarter of a million people killed, not because of anything they have done, but

because of who they were. Two million Bosnians became refugees. This was genocide in the heart of Europe -- not in 1945, but in 1995. Not in some grainy newsreel from our parents' and grandparents'

time, but in our own time, testing our humanity and our resolve.

At the time, many people believed nothing could be done to end the bloodshed in Bosnia. They said, well, that's just the way those people in the Balkans are. But when we and our allies joined with

courageous Bosnians to stand up to the aggressors, we helped to end the war. We learned that in the Balkans, inaction in the face of brutality simply invites more brutality. But ﬁrmness can stop armies and

save lives. We must apply that lesson in Kosovo before what happened in Bosnia happens there, too.

Over the last few months we have done everything we possibly could to solve this problem peacefully. Secretary Albright has worked tirelessly for a negotiated agreement. Mr. Milosevic has refused.

On Sunday I sent Ambassador Dick Holbrooke to Serbia to make clear to him again, on behalf of the United States and our NATO allies, that he must honor his own commitments and stop his repression, or

face military action. Again, he refused.

Today, we and our 18 NATO allies agreed to do what we said we would do, what we must do to restore the peace. Our mission is clear: to demonstrate the seriousness of NATO's purpose so that the Serbian

leaders understand the imperative of reversing course. To deter an even bloodier offensive against innocent civilians in Kosovo and, if necessary, to seriously damage the Serbian military's capacity to harm

the people of Kosovo. In short, if President Milosevic will not make peace, we will limit his ability to make war.

Now, I want to be clear with you, there are risks in this military action -- risks to our pilots and the people on the ground. Serbia's air defenses are strong. It could decide to intensify its assault on Kosovo, or

to seek to harm us or our allies elsewhere. If it does, we will deliver a forceful response.

Hopefully, Mr. Milosevic will realize his present course is self-destructive and unsustainable. If he decides to accept the peace agreement and demilitarize Kosovo, NATO has agreed to help to implement it

with a peace-keeping force. If NATO is invited to do so, our troops should take part in that mission to keep the peace. But I do not intend to put our troops in Kosovo to ﬁght a war.

Do our interests in Kosovo justify the dangers to our Armed Forces? I've thought long and hard about that question. I am convinced that the dangers of acting are far outweighed by the dangers of not acting

-- dangers to defenseless people and to our national interests. If we and our allies were to allow this war to continue with no response, President Milosevic would read our hesitation as a license to kill. There

would be many more massacres, tens of thousands more refugees, more victims crying out for revenge.

Right now our ﬁrmness is the only hope the people of Kosovo have to be able to live in their own country without having to fear for their own lives. Remember: We asked them to accept peace, and they did.

We asked them to promise to lay down their arms, and they agreed. We pledged that we, the United States and the other 18 nations of NATO, would stick by them if they did the right thing. We cannot let

them down now.

Imagine what would happen if we and our allies instead decided just to look the other way, as these people were massacred on NATO's doorstep. That would discredit NATO, the cornerstone on which our

security has rested for 50 years now.

We must also remember that this is a conﬂict with no natural national boundaries. Let me ask you to look again at a map. The red dots are towns the Serbs have attacked. The arrows show the movement of

refugees -- north, east and south. Already, this movement is threatening the young democracy in Macedonia, which has its own Albanian minority and a Turkish minority. Already, Serbian forces have made

forays into Albania from which Kosovars have drawn support. Albania is a Greek minority. Let a ﬁre burn here in this area and the ﬂames will spread. Eventually, key U.S. allies could be drawn into a wider

conﬂict, a war we would be forced to confront later -- only at far greater risk and greater cost.

I have a responsibility as President to deal with problems such as this before they do permanent harm to our national interests. America has a responsibility to stand with our allies when they are trying to

save innocent lives and preserve peace, freedom and stability in Europe. That is what we are doing in Kosovo.

If we've learned anything from the century drawing to a close, it is that if America is going to be prosperous and secure, we need a Europe that is prosperous, secure undivided and free. We need a Europe

that is coming together, not falling apart; a Europe that shares our values and shares the burdens of leadership. That is the foundation on which the security of our children will depend.

That is why I have supported the political and economic uniﬁcation of Europe. That is why we brought Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into NATO, and redeﬁned its missions, and reached out to

Russia and Ukraine for new partnerships.

Now, what are the challenges to that vision of a peaceful, secure, united, stable Europe? The challenge of strengthening a partnership with a democratic Russia, that, despite our disagreements, is a

constructive partner in the work of building peace. The challenge of resolving the tension between Greece and Turkey and building bridges with the Islamic world. And, ﬁnally, the challenge of ending

instability in the Balkans so that these bitter ethnic problems in Europe are resolved the force of argument, not the force of arms; so that future generations of Americans do not have to cross the Atlantic to

ﬁght another terrible war.

It is this challenge that we and our allies are facing in Kosovo. That is why we have acted now -- because we care about saving innocent lives; because we have an interest in avoiding an even crueler and

costlier war; and because our children need and deserve a peaceful, stable, free Europe.

Our thoughts and prayers tonight must be with the men and women of our Armed Forces who are undertaking this mission for the sake of our values and our children's future. May God bless them and may

God bless America.

END 8:15 P.M. EST

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release March 24, 1999

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

ON KOSOVO

The Brieﬁng Room

2:15 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. United States forces, acting with our NATO allies, have commenced air strikes against Serbian military targets in the Former Yugoslavia.

I will address the nation more fully tonight on why this action is necessary, but I wanted to say a few words now.

We and our NATO allies have taken this action only after extensive and repeated efforts to obtain a peaceful solution to the crisis in Kosovo. But President Milosevic, who over the past decade started

terrible wars against Croatia and Bosnia, has again chosen aggression over peace. He has violated the commitments he, himself, made last fall to stop the brutal repression in Kosovo. He has rejected the

balanced and fair peace accords that our allies and partners, including Russia, proposed last month -- a peace agreement that Kosovo's ethnic Albanians courageously accepted.

Instead, his forces have intensiﬁed their attacks, burning down Kosovar Albanian villages and murdering civilians. As I speak, more Serb forces are moving into Kosovo, and more people are ﬂeeing their

homes -- 60,000 in just the last ﬁve weeks, a quarter of a million altogether. Many have headed toward neighboring countries.

Kosovo's crisis now is full-blown, and if we do not act, clearly, it will get even worse. Only ﬁrmness now can prevent greater catastrophe later.

Our strikes have three objectives: First, to demonstrate the seriousness of NATO's opposition to aggression and its support for peace. Second, to deter President Milosevic from continuing and escalating his

attacks on helpless civilians by imposing a price for those attacks. And, third, if necessary, to damage Serbia's capacity to wage war against Kosovo in the future by seriously diminishing its military

capabilities.

As I have repeatedly said to the American people, this action is not risk-free; it carries risks. And I ask for the prayers of all Americans for our men and women in uniform in the area. However, I have

concluded that the dangers of acting now are clearly outweighed by the risks of failing to act -- the risks that many more innocent people will die or be driven from their homes by the tens of thousands; the

risks that the conﬂict will involve and destabilize neighboring nations. It will clearly be much more costly and dangerous to stop later than this effort to prevent it from going further now.

At the end of the 20th century, after two world wars and a Cold War, we and our allies have a chance to leave our children a Europe that is free, peaceful and stable. But we must -- we must -- act now to do

that. Because if the Balkans once again become a place of brutal killing and massive refugee ﬂights, it will be impossible to achieve.

With our allies, we used diplomacy and force to end the war in Bosnia. Now trouble next door in Kosovo puts the region's people at risk again. Our NATO allies unanimously support this action. The United

States must stand with them, and stand against ethnic violence and atrocity.

Our Alliance is united. And I am particularly grateful for the support we have received from members of Congress from both parties. As we go forward I will remain in close contact with Congress -- I have

spoken with all the leaders today -- and in contact with our friends and allies around the world. And I will have more to say about all of this tonight.

Thank you.

END 2:20 P.M. EST

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release March 25, 1999

PRESS BRIEFING BY

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR SANDY BERGER

The Brieﬁng Room

1:50 P.M. EST

MR. BERGER: Let me simply start by telling you that earlier this morning, as you know, the President was briefed on yesterday's operation by Secretary of Defense Cohen and General Shelton. He received

a brieﬁng on the situation on the ground in Kosovo from the Director of Central Intelligence, Mr. Tenet, and a brieﬁng on the diplomatic situation from the Secretary of State. That lasted roughly 35 or 40

minutes.

The President was satisﬁed with the brieﬁng, but I'm not going to characterize, obviously, an ongoing operation. I will try to answer your questions.

Q Mr. Berger, can you conﬁrm that day two of the bombing campaign has started?

MR. BERGER: No.

Q Why not?

MR. BERGER: Because it hasn't.

Q Sandy, can you give us some speciﬁcs on why the United States appears to believe that Milosevic has not stopped his assault on Kosovo?

MR. BERGER: Well, the fact that you assert is true. The operations by the Serbs in Kosovo have continued today. There have been some further burning of villages, further sweep operations, some shelling

into Albania, and it's obviously very disturbing to us. But I would not speculate as to what his intent is.

Q Would you say that Milosevic's assault on Kosovo has accelerated because of the NATO air strikes?

MR. BERGER: I think it has increased somewhat over the past day. I think that's the way I would characterize it. There has been a pattern over the past several days of localized, but intense ﬁghting, and I

think that pattern has continued and, if anything, has somewhat increased.

Q The President, pressed today on whether Milosevic must come to the negotiating table, has a precondition for the bombing to end, and Mr. Clinton replied, "he knows what he has to do." Can you

enlighten the rest of us as to whether that is a precondition, or not?

MR. BERGER: I will answer it this way: I think there are two circumstances under which the bombing will end. One is that Mr. Milosevic embraces peace, and that means ending the ﬁghting in Kosovo and

it means a peace agreement within the framework of Rambouillet, which provides for a high degree of self-government for the Kosovars and an international security presence to enforce it. That one path is

a path which is entirely in his hands.

The other path, if he does not choose peace, as the President indicated both last night and today, is to engage in military action which will severely diminish his capacity to wage war against Kosovo.

Q May I follow up on that last point?

MR. BERGER: Certainly.

Q If he doesn't choose the path to peace, and the military action continues to diminish his ability to wage war on Kosovo, would there come a point where that had been diminished, so that then the bombing

stops?

MR. BERGER: I think that if the military commanders believe that we've achieved that objective, then the mission will have been completed. We would obviously much prefer the ﬁrst option to the second

option.

Q One line of thought is that Milosevic is counting on the resolve of NATO weakening before his military is destroyed. And already, you've got the Italian Prime Minister saying the time to give politics and

diplomacy their say is fast approaching. I mean, are we already seeing cracks in NATO, one day into the bombing campaign?

MR. BERGER: Let's put this in perspective. NATO is an extraordinary alliance, now of 19 countries who have come together with extraordinary solidarity to engage in this mission -- a wide range of

countries. And I believe that they continue to accept its mission, and accept its purpose.

I noticed in Prime Minister D'Alema's statement that he suggested that the ﬁghting in Kosovo has ended, for example. That's not correct. We'll obviously point that out to him. But there are varying

perspectives in any alliance, but I believe that there is clarity and solidarity about this mission.

Q Can Milosevic's ability to wage war in Kosovo be degraded enough just through air strikes? He has the people on the ground already. They talk about 40,000 troops pre-positioned. Doesn't it take some

NATO ground force to counter that?

MR. BERGER: We believe, and General Clark I think said this earlier in a press conference in Brussels, the his military capability can be seriously and substantially damaged by air power. And that's what

would happen if he does not choose the path of peace. We do not have, as the President indicated, an intention to put ground forces in Kosovo in a combat situation.

Q Primakov, in his statement to the press today, referred to the second discussion he had with the Vice President on the plane when he turned the plane around. He said, ﬁrst of all, that the Vice President had

offered to sign a joint statement cancelling the meeting, which Primakov found unacceptable since it would seem as if he were accepting the fact of this bombing.

And, secondly, he said that the Vice President was talking as if he was reading from a script. I'm just wondering, with regard to that very important second conversation -- (laughter) -- had a decision been

made to decide what to tell Primakov in order to put the decision in his court? And, secondly, why was not the visit cancelled at an earlier stage when it was clear we were approaching a critical point where

this visit may have had to have been cancelled?

MR. BERGER: Let me say several things. First of all, the Russians had been extremely helpful in the Contact Group, full participants in trying to fashion a peace agreement, bring Milosevic to the table, get

him to sign a peace accord. They were very strong and very ﬁrm with him.

Second of all, they also made it clear to us from the beginning that they would oppose military strikes. Number three, the interaction between us and the Russians through this period was extraordinarily

transparent with respect to where things were in the process -- that is, since we knew that Primakov was coming, we were talking every day -- Secretary Albright to Foreign Minister Ivanov, the Vice

President, Ambassador Collins, Deputy Secretary Talbott and others, making it very clear, particularly after Holbrooke's mission failed that military action was likely, it was likely within the time frame that

Primakov would be here. So we felt it was our obligation to be clear and honest with him every step of the way.

We also felt it was his decision, not ours, and we accept that decision. But we certainly -- we're not dis-inviting Mr. Primakov. We wanted him to make that choice based on his own judgment. Now, I would

say, ﬁnally, that today, about 12:00 p.m. our time, the Prime Minister issued some statements from Moscow which, while in no way diminishing their opposition to this enterprise, said that Russia had no

intention of going in an isolationist direction and that it needed to remain engaged with the international community. We obviously believe that's true. We're pleased that Mr. Camdessus is going to Moscow

this weekend, and this is a very important relationship which we hope to continue to nurture, and do not believe that Mr. Milosevic should be able to tear asunder.

Q The President said that they would move to the end of the phase where you would try to diminish his military capabilities if necessary. Secretary Cohen said essentially the same thing, saying that if he

doesn't pull back his forces from Kosovo, that we'd move on to that phase. Is NATO saying that it will escalate the attacks on the Serbian military, broaden its attacks on the Serbian military if forces are not

pulled back? And has that been communicated speciﬁcally to Milosevic?

MR. BERGER: Well, a great deal -- some of this depends upon decisions he makes. If he embraces peace, it will not be necessary to proceed with the military bombing operation that would severely damage

his military operation. We hope that he will do that.

Q But does he have -- if you don't have phased parts of this plan, what incentive is there for him not to just kill every Kosovar in sight, and then come back to the table? Do you have any leverage over him?

MR. BERGER: Because I think, were he, certainly, to escalate from where he is against Kosovo, that would affect the nature of NATO's actions.

Q In what way? In what way?

MR. BERGER: It wouldn't make them lighter.

Q Sandy, you said that he is escalating.

MR. BERGER: He's escalated today. I think what -- the reference here is to a full-scale military offensive. But so long as the ﬁghting continues -- as I say, there are two paths here; one is a path of peace.

Peace means stopping ﬁghting, and embracing a peace agreement, within the framework of the Rambouillet agreement. He can do that tomorrow. He can do that, you know, in 10 minutes. If he doesn't do

that, we will proceed, and how we proceed, at what intensity, at what pace, will be decisions that we make, that NATO makes, as we go forward.

Q Is there any evidence at all that day one of the bombing has had any impact on Slobodan Milosevic's position in coming to terms with what the NATO allies want?

MR. BERGER: I don't want to speculate about that.

Q What's the answer to your --

Q Sandy, John McCain and others have said that you don't have a plan B, in other words, that you haven't thought through what happens if the bombing does not achieve your objectives. Is that a fair

criticism?

MR. BERGER: Well, I have great respect for John, but I don't think it is a fair criticism. Let's talk about end states here. There is one end state if we do nothing. If we do nothing, I think there is widespread

belief that he will launch not only the kind of localized offensive that he's engaged in now, but a massive offensive against Kosovo. That's what he's got the 40,000 troops there; that's what he has hundreds

of tanks there for. That will cause the kind of death and destruction, refugee ﬂows, instability in the region which will have as its end state either chaos in the middle of Europe, or a wider war.

So that's the end state in one direction. I think you have to compare realities here. The end state in the other direction is either a peace, which we hope to be the case, or a severely diminished military

capacity for Kosovo, which we believe can be achieved. And I think -- if some have suggested that we go further than that, and put an American, or NATO ground military force into the region, to invade the

region, that is something we do not intend to do.

Q Our reporters are now reporting explosions on the ground right now, Sandy. Has the second day started?

Q Hello --

Q Our reporters are reporting explosions on the ground.

MR. BERGER: Let me do Sam, and then we'll do Scott.

Q No, answer that question. He's insisting. (Laughter.)

Q Our reporters are now reporting explosions on the ground in Serbia, in Kosovo. Is the second day now underway?

MR. BERGER: Let me say this. I don't want to be in an awkward position for either you or me up here. I would say that we certainly intend to continue this operation. As to whether further operations have

begun, I would prefer that you get that from the Pentagon.

Q Then may I just now proceed?

MR. BERGER: Yes.

Q Thank you, Mr. Berger.

Q Sandy?

MR. BERGER: No -- Mr. Donaldson, then we'll go back here.

Q The point that I wanted to ask you about tied in with what you were saying previously. What's the answer to the argument that by saying that ground forces would not be introduced, it's an incentive for

Milosevic to simply ride it out, knowing that there isn't a further crush if he can sustain the air offensive, and then lying low, come back again?

MR. BERGER: Because he will sustain the most serious damage if he thinks he can ride out an air attack.

Q Sandy, the Secretary of State said in her brieﬁng that the U.S. embassy in Skopje was attacked today. Could you discuss what happened there?

MR. BERGER: She probably has better details than I. As I understand it, there was a demonstration of ethnic Serbs in Macedonia at our embassy. I think there was some penetration of the perimeter of the

embassy. The Macedonian government provided reinforcements for our folks, and it is my understanding that Ambassador Hill and the people there are now safe and secure.

Q Sandy, when this administration came into ofﬁce it was full of high praise for the United Nations in its role, even turned over a peacekeeping mission in Somalia to the U.N. What happened? Koﬁ Annan

looked very lonely.

MR. BERGER: You mean, the Somalia operation that was started unilaterally by the -- go ahead --

Q Our policy towards the U.N. -- what happened?

MR. BERGER: Let me say, ﬁrst of all, the U.N. has spoken to the issue of Kosovo. I would refer you to at least two Security Council resolutions -- 1199 and 1203. Thank you. That's what I keep them

around for -- (laughter) -- 1199 speciﬁcally says that the situation in Kosovo is a threat to the stability and peace of the region. So the United Nations has expressed itself on this issue.

We always prefer to operate pursuant to a U.N. resolution. But we've also always taken the position that NATO has the authority in situations it considers to be threats to the stability and security of its area

to act by consensus without explicit U.N. authority. And that is the case here as well.

We have 19 members of NATO, all democracies, having authorized this action. We have a U.N. resolution speaking to this. We have the Congress of the United States now having expressed themselves

about this. So I think there's plenty of authority here.

Q Is the President for intervening in civil wars?

MR. BERGER: Here and then here.

Q Everyone in the administration is using the phrase "embrace the accord that the Albanians signed last Friday." Is there any room for negotiation on that, or is there any way to start dialogue, short of

embracing that thing as it is written?

MR. BERGER: Any changes that would be made would have to be accepted by the Kosovars. The Kosovars have signed an agreement. If there were proposed changes in the agreement, that would be

something that the Kosovars would have to accept.

Q Has this established a precedent for intervening in civil wars where you fear some sort of humanitarian disaster?

MR. BERGER: I think this is quite a unique situation, and in this sense, on the issue speciﬁcally of civil war. As the President, I think, said yesterday -- I guess it was in one of the drafts -- this is a man,

President Milosevic, who invaded Croatia, who invaded the independent, sovereign nation of Bosnia, who started a small war against Slovenia and who stripped Kosovo of its constitutional autonomy and is

now engaged in a massive offensive or a massive attack on Kosovo.

So I think for Slobodan Milosevic to invoke sovereignty as a defense for the international community saying "enough" I think is a rather weak argument.

Q You're saying that you can engage in preventive wars to avoid ethnic cleansing, to avoid any sort of genocide?

MR. BERGER: I think every situation has to be taken on its own merits. And I think the President has said many times that it depends upon whether America's national interests are involved, as well as our

values. I think in this case, both our values and our interests are involved.

Our values are involved in preventing what I believe would be a humanitarian catastrophe. Our interests are involved in avoiding a wider conﬂict in Southeastern Europe, which I think would most likely

involve us at some later point with far greater cost and with far greater risk.

Thank you.

END 2:14 P.M. EST

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release March 26, 1999

TEXT OF A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

AND THE PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE SENATE

March 26, 1999

Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)

At approximately 1:30 p.m. eastern standard time, on March 24, 1999, U.S. military forces, at my direction and in coalition with our NATO allies, began a series of air strikes in the Federal Republic of

Yugoslavia (FRY) in response to the FRY government's continued campaign of violence and repression against the ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo. The mission of the air strikes is to demonstrate the

seriousness of NATO's purpose so that the Serbian leaders understand the imperative of reversing course; to deter an even bloodier offensive against innocent civilians in Kosovo; and, if necessary, to

seriously damage the Serbian military's capacity to harm the people of Kosovo. In short, if President Milosevic will not make peace, we will limit his ability to make war.

As you are aware, the Government of the FRY has been engaged in a brutal conﬂict in Kosovo. In this conﬂict, thousands of innocent Kosovar civilians have been killed or injured by FRY government

security forces. The continued repression of Kosovars by the FRY military and security police forces constitutes a threat to regional security, particularly to Albania and Macedonia and, potentially, to

Greece and to Turkey. Tens of thousands of others have been displaced from their homes, and many of them have ﬂed to the neighboring countries of Bosnia, Albania, and Macedonia. These actions are the

result of policies pursued by President Milosevic, who started the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, and moved against Slovenia in the last decade.

The United States, working closely with our European allies and Russia, have pursued a diplomatic solution to this crisis since last fall. The Kosovar leaders agreed to the interim settlement negotiated at

Rambouillet, but the FRY government refused even to discuss key elements of the peace agreement. Instead, the Government of the FRY continues its attacks on the Kosovar population and has deployed

40,000 troops in and around Kosovo in preparation for a major offensive and in clear violation of the commitments it had made.

The FRY government has failed to comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions, and its actions are in violation of its obligations under the U.N. Charter and its other international commitments. The FRY

government's actions in Kosovo are not simply an internal matter. The Security Council has condemned FRY actions as a threat to regional peace and security. The FRY government's violence creates a

conﬂict with no natural boundaries, pushing refugees across borders and potentially drawing in neighboring countries. The Kosovo region is a tinderbox that could ignite a wider European war with

dangerous consequences to the United States.

United States and NATO forces have targeted the FRY government's integrated air defense system, military and security police command and control elements, and military and security police facilities and

infrastructure. United States naval ships and aircraft and U.S. Air Force aircraft are participating in these operations. Many of our NATO allies are also contributing aircraft and other forces.

In addition, since this air operation began, the U.S. Embassy in Skopje, Macedonia, has been subjected to increasingly hostile demonstrations by a large number of Serbian sympathizers. In response, I have

authorized a unit consisting of about 100 combat-equipped Marines from USS NASSAU (LHA 4), which is supporting the air operations in Kosovo, to deploy to Skopje to enhance security at our embassy.

These Marines will remain deployed so long as is necessary to protect our embassy and U.S. persons.

We cannot predict with certainty how long these operations will need to continue. Milosevic must stop his offensive, stop the repression, and agree to a peace accord based on the framework from

Rambouillet. If he does not comply with the demands of the international community, NATO operations will seriously damage Serbia's military capacity to harm the people of Kosovo. NATO forces will

also use such force as is necessary to defend themselves in the accomplishment of their mission.

I have taken these actions pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct U.S. foreign relations and as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive. In doing so, I have taken into account the views and

support expressed by the Congress in S. Con. Res. 21 and H. Con. Res. 42.

I am providing this report as part of my efforts to keep the Congress fully informed, consistent with the War Powers Resolution. I appreciate the support of the Congress in this action.

Sincerely,

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

# # #

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release March 26, 1999

TEXT OF A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE

March 25, 1999

Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)

This is a report under section 8115 of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 1999 (Public Law 105-262), to inform you of my decision to send certain U.S. forces to Macedonia to enhance force

protection for U.S. and other NATO forces in that nation, to support U.S. and NATO military activities in the region, to deter attacks on U.S. and NATO forces already in Macedonia, and to assist in

preparing for a possible NATO peace implementation force in Kosovo. Over the past several weeks, non-U.S. NATO countries began a consensual deployment of national forces to Macedonia to prepare to

implement a peace agreement in Kosovo, should one be signed. Approximately 10,000 non-U.S. NATO forces are now deployed to Macedonia and have been placed under NATO's operational control.

As you know, the mandate for the U.N. Preventive Deployment (UNPREDEP) expired on February 28, 1999. Approximately 400 U.S. personnel are currently stationed in Macedonia in Task Force Able

Sentry (TFAS). We expect that some elements of these forces will redeploy out of the area and that others, together with certain of the enabling forces described below, will continue to maintain the current

TFAS infrastructure and will begin to prepare Camp Able Sentry as a potential staging area in Macedonia for a U.S. contribution to a NATO-led implementation force in Kosovo, if it is decided to provide

one. Operational control of these forces for force protection purposes only has been transferred to NATO, as has been the case for the forces of certain other nations whose forces are participating in

UNPREDEP.

NATO, during the past month, decided to deploy elements of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps Headquarters (ARRC HQ) Rear Command Post to provide a command element in Macedonia and to ensure

that there will be unity of command and a single NATO commander on the ground who will be in a position to allocate infrastructure, coordinate training facilities, and provide a single point of contact for

liaison with the Macedonian authorities. In addition, the ARRC commander has been designated as the NATO commander responsible for protection of forces and reaction to possible threats in Macedonia.

The ARRC HQ's Rear Command Post element includes approximately 30 U.S. personnel who occupy key positions on the staff, but who have not yet deployed to Macedonia to assume their roles there.

Having those ofﬁcers serving in their regular positions will enhance the safety of U.S. and other friendly military personnel and increase the effectiveness of the NATO presence.

Sound military planning may also call for sending a limited number of additional U.S. military personnel to Macedonia in support of ongoing operations including Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR),

intelligence support, surveillance and reconnaissance, command and control, and logistical support, and selected forces and equipment to deter Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) attacks on NATO

personnel in Macedonia. In addition, it may become advisable to send U.S. military personnel to Macedonia as part of an enabling force in anticipation of the possible signing of a peace agreement, which

remains our ultimate objective. These forces could include (besides those U.S. forces attached to the ARRC HQ), logistical support and survey elements and liaison ofﬁcers, CSAR, intelligence support,

surveillance and reconnaissance, command and control, as well as U.S. forces conducting rotational training at facilities in Macedonia. Their presence would not commit the United States to participating in

a possible NATO-led peace implementation force; but prudent and limited preparatory activities in Macedonia would enhance the effectiveness of such a force, should we decide to participate, as well as

enhance the effectiveness of NATO's air campaign and protection of the U.S. forces in TFAS that are already there. In regard to the elements of section 8115(a)(1)-(8), I am providing the following

information:

1 & 2. National Security Interests. I hereby certify that the deployment of additional personnel to Macedonia as described above is necessary in the national security interests of the United States. These

actions will preserve and protect critical infrastructure and Camp Able Sentry facilities, and will enhance the effectiveness of NATO's air campaign by ensuring U.S. forces are fully integrated into the

ARRC HQ command and control structure; improving CSAR, reconnaissance and surveillance, and other capabilities to support the air operations by enhancing force protection from U.S. and other NATO

personnel in Macedonia by helping deter attacks on Macedonia and NATO forces there, and by strengthening U.S. leadership in NATO.

3. Numbers. The number of U.S. personnel who will assume their functions in the ARRC HQ is approximately 30. At this point, no decisions have been made on numbers of personnel who would be

deployed for other functions. I will ensure that the Congress is informed in a timely manner about such additional deployments described in this report if these prove necessary. If U.S. personnel were sent as

part of an enabling force, the number would likely not exceed 2,000.

4. Mission/Objectives. The overall objective of our efforts with our allies is to maintain stability in the region and prevent a humanitarian disaster resulting from the ongoing FRY offensive against the

people of Kosovo. The speciﬁc military mission of the forces to be deployed would be to enhance force protection both for NATO (including U.S. former UNPREDEP) military personnel in Macedonia and

for allied ﬂiers participating in the air operations, to contribute to the effectiveness of those operations, and to help deter FRY attacks on Macedonia and on NATO (including U.S.) forces in Macedonia. In

addition, these forces will likely assist in preparations necessary for a NATO-led implementation force to be effective, if a decision were made to deploy one, after an agreement was reached.

5. Schedule. At this point, it is not possible to determine how long NATO air operations will need to continue, and therefore how long the support and deterrence functions will need to be maintained.

However, it is important to be clear that it is the U.S. position, shared by our allies, that NATO will continue air operations as long as necessary to meet the military objectives to demonstrate the seriousness

of NATO's purpose so that the Serbian leaders understand the imperative of reversing course; to deter an even bloodier offensive against innocent civilians in Kosovo; and, if necessary, to seriously damage

the Serbian military's capacity to harm the people of Kosovo.

6. Exit Strategy. The duration of the requirement for U.S. military presence in Macedonia will depend on the course of events, and in particular, on Belgrade's reaction to the air operations. So long as air

operations continue, force protection, support for those operations, and deterrence from possible FRY acts of violence will continue to be required.

7. Costs. The costs of the deployments covered by this notice like other costs of the air operations will be paid initially from FY99 Defense O&M appropriations. An estimate of likely costs for these limited

deployments is being prepared, and I will ensure that it is provided to the Congress as soon as it is available.

8. Effect on Morale, Retention and Readiness. In the ﬁrst instance, these deployments will have a positive effect on morale, retention and readiness because they will demonstrate the commitment of the

necessary resources to maximize force protection for our personnel engaged in the air operations. United States forces participating in Task Force Able Sentry, as well as U.S. forces deployed to other

locations in the region, are dedicated professionals serving with great pride and enthusiasm. Given the importance of the mission in Macedonia, we anticipate that U.S. forces would maintain the highest

morale and effectiveness, just as they have in respect to other missions in the Balkans. Indeed, it has been our experience that personnel serving in these important and demanding positions experience higher

retention rates than in other, less challenging assignments. However, we recognize that even deployments for the best of reasons increase the periods of separation from family and add other burdens to

military service. The Department of Defense has underway extensive and effective programs to do what is necessary to manage personnel and other resources so as to reduce these problems. As with any

operational deployment, the effects on readiness for other operations are mixed. On the one hand, the personnel involved gain invaluable real world experience. On the other hand, normal training programs

are interrupted. The numbers of personnel covered by this report are sufﬁciently limited, however, that any effect on the overall readiness of our U.S. Armed Services to meet other requirements, including

major theater war contingencies, will be marginal.

Finally, in accordance with sections 8115(b)(2) and (c), I have determined that it is necessary to order a Marine FAST team to Skopje, Macedonia, to protect our Embassy and U.S. persons at the Embassy.

This team will remain deployed for as long as is necessary to protect our Embassy and U.S. persons.

Sincerely,

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

# # #

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release March 27, 1999

RADIO ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT

TO THE NATION

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Three days ago I decided the United States should join our NATO allies in military air strikes to bring peace to Kosovo. In my address to the nation last Wednesday, I

explained why we have taken this step -- to save the lives of innocent civilians in Kosovo from a brutal military offensive; to defuse a powder keg at the heart of Europe that has exploded twice before in this

century with catastrophic results; to prevent a wider war we would have to confront later, only at far greater risk and cost; to stand with our NATO allies for peace.

Our military operation has been underway for several nights now. In this time, Serb troops have continued attacks on unarmed men, women and children. That is all the more reason for us to stay the course.

We must, and we will, continue until Serbia's leader, Slobodan Milosevic, accepts peace or we have seriously damaged his capacity to make war.

As always, America's military men and women are performing with courage and skill. Their strength comes from rigorous training, state of the art weaponry and hard-won experience in this part of the

world. This is the same brave and tested force that brought stability to Bosnia after four years of vicious war. I am conﬁdent they will once again rise to the task.

Some of them are ﬁghter pilots, some are bombers, some are mechanics, technicians, air trafﬁc controllers and base personnel. Every time I visit our troops around the world I am struck by their

professionalism, their quiet, unassuming determination. They always say, this is the job I was trained to do. They don't see themselves as heroes, but we surely do.

I've also been deeply impressed by the solidarity of NATO's purpose. All 19 NATO nations are providing support, from Norway to Turkey, from England to Italy, from Germany and France to our neighbors

in Canada, including our three allies from Central Europe, the new NATO members: Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic.

And we should remember the courage of the Kosovar people today, still exposed to violence and brutality. Many Americans, now, have heard the story of a young Kosovar girl trying to stay in touch with a

friend in America by e-mail, as a Serb attack began in her own village. Just a few days ago she wrote, "at the moment, just from my balcony, I can see people running with suitcases, and I can hear some

gunshots. A village just a few hundred meters from my house is all surrounded. As long as I have electricity, I will continue writing to you. I'm trying to keep myself as calm as possible. My younger brother,

who is nine, is sleeping now. I wish I will not have to stop his dreams."

We asked these people of Kosovo to accept peace, and they did. We promised them we would stick by them if they did the right thing, and they did. We cannot let them down now.

Americans have learned the hard way that our home is not that far from Europe. Through two World Wars and a long Cold War, we saw that it was a short step from a small brushﬁre to an inferno, especially

in the tinderbox of the Balkans. The time to put out a ﬁre is before it spreads and burns down the neighborhood. By acting now, we're taking a strong step toward a goal that has always been in our national

interest -- a peaceful, united, democratic Europe. For America there is no greater calling than being a peacemaker. But sometimes you have to ﬁght in order to end the ﬁghting.

Let me end now by repeating how proud all Americans are of the men and women in uniform risking their lives to protect peace in the Balkans. Our prayers are with them. And our prayers are with all the

people of the Balkans searching for the strength to put centuries of divisions to rest, and to join Europe and North America in building a better future together.

Thanks for listening.

END

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Vice President

For Immediate Release March 29, 1999

STATEMENT BY VICE PRESIDENT GORE

Chicago, IL -- We abhor the ethnic cleansing that is now occurring in Kosovo.

What we feared would happen when we saw 40,000 troops deployed in and around Kosovo -- based on what happened last year in Kosovo and Rachak earlier this year -- is now happening again in Kosovo

on a massive scale.

Ethnic Albanians are being driven from their homes, forced to ﬂee their country in large numbers, and in many cases are being murdered in cold blood.

In response to these atrocities, it is vital that NATO maintain its steadiness and seriousness as it conducts its military campaign.

In this regard, I am pleased that NATO has begun to use airpower to strike military forces in the ﬁeld in Kosovo.

We must stay the course. We must make the cost to Milosevic so great that he changes his calculations. He must see that he cannot pursue with impunity this campaign of ethnic cleansing -- the likes of

which he has launched in Bosnia and also before in Kosovo.

-30-

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Norfolk, Virginia)

________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release April 1, 1999

March 31, 1999

Presidential Determination

No. 99-20

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE

THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

SUBJECT: Drawdown of Articles and Services to Support International

Relief Efforts Relating to the Kosovo Conﬂict

Pursuant to the authority vested in me by section 552(c)(2) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended (the "Act"), I hereby determine that:

(1) as a result of an unforeseen emergency, the provision of

assistance under Chapter 6 of Part II of the Act in amounts in

excess of funds otherwise available for such assistance is

important to the national interests of the United States; and

(2) such unforeseen emergency requires the immediate provision of

assistance under Chapter 6 of Part II of the Act.

I therefore direct the drawdown of up to $25 million in commodities and services from the inventory and resources of the Department of Defense to support international relief efforts for Kosovar refugees.

The Secretary of State is authorized and directed to report this determination to the Congress and to arrange for its publication in the Federal Register.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

# # #

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 2, 1999

FACT SHEET

U.S. Humanitarian Relief Efforts

for Kosovar Albanians

Since the eruption of hostilities in Kosovo in February 1998, the United States has been at the forefront of international efforts to address the humanitarian needs of persons displaced within Kosovo and

refugees ﬂeeing Kosovo:

To date, the United States has contributed an estimated $150 million to the humanitarian relief efforts for the Kosovar Albanians.

This sum include the provision of $50 million announced by the Clinton Administration on March 31:

Half of these funds ($25 million) comes from the Refugee Emergency and Migration Account (ERMA) and will be used to support international organizations such as the U.N. High Commissioner for

Refugees as well as nongovernmental organizations.

The other $25 million is comprised of goods and services, including transport, shelter and logistical support, to be provided by the Department of Defense pursuant to Section 552(c)(2) of the Foreign

Assistance Act.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has sent Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DART) to Macedonia and Albania. These teams are evaluating needs and coordinating our

humanitarian response.

USAID is sending to Macedonia 200 boxes of plastic sheeting (480,000 sq. ft.), 20,000 hygiene kits and 39,000 blankets for use in relief efforts.

USAID is also shipping 700 tents and 20,000 water jugs for use by the refugee population in Albania.

The U.S. Government is working closely with our NATO allies to ensure a stable and secure environment in which relief operations can take place in both Albania and Macedonia.

###

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 2, 1999

PRESS BRIEFING BY

ERIC SCHWARTZ, NSC SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR

MULTILATERAL AND HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS;

JULIA TAFT, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR

POPULATION, REFUGEES AND MIGRATION;

HATTIE BABBITT, THE DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR OF

U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT;

AND LT. GENERAL JOHN MCDUFFIE, CHAIRMAN'S DIRECTOR OF

LOGISTICS AT THE JOINT CHIEFS

ON HUMANITARIAN RELIEF EFFORTS

The Brieﬁng Room

12:37 P.M. EST

MR. SCHWARTZ: I'm Eric Schwartz, on the NSC staff. I think each of us will speak for about a minute or two, and then we'll take your questions.

I think it's worth emphasizing again that the efforts of the ofﬁcial U.S. agencies that are represented here represent the commitment of the American people to alleviate the suffering of victims of repression

anywhere in the world. It's also very much worth mentioning that these ofﬁcial efforts are largely successful, due to a unique partnership between the ofﬁcial agencies here represented and the private

voluntary organizations that met with the President an hour or two ago.

These organizations, who often at tremendous risk and are largely staffed by American citizens, are really on the front lines of America's humanitarian commitment. As these agency reps will indicate, the

U.S. government has led the international effort on humanitarian assistance for Kosovar refugees. We contributed about $100 million last year, supplemented by the President's announcement of a $50

million commitment this week. And as I said, agencies here will describe them.

Finally, I think it's critical to reafﬁrm a point that the President touched on. While the pictures of the suffering in Kosovo have dominated the media over the past nine days, the suffering, and in particular the

terrible and large-scale population displacements due to the horrors perpetrated by the Serb forces, have been underway for over a year.

At the end of last year, there were more than 400,000 displaced Kosovars. Some 260,000 Kosovars were displaced within their own country; ﬂight that resulted from the killings of civilians, the burnings of

homes, and other means of forced and brutal displacement. Another 160,000 at the end of last year, or so, were displaced outside of Kosovo, throughout the region, and by year's end, for example, there were

80,000 displaced in Western Europe.

The agencies represented here today have been on the scene for the long term, and better than most can attest to the long-term strategy begun well before the events of the past nine days to force the

Albanians out of Kosovo.

With that, I'd like to ask Julia Taft of our State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration to say a few words. She'll be followed by Hattie Babbitt from AID, and then Lieutenant General

McDufﬁe from the Joint Staff.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAFT: Thank you, Eric. What's driving this crisis is a concerted ethnic cleansing campaign. You've seen -- well, you've probably written the stories -- about the trains that have

been coming now, four trains in the last two days from Pristina to the border at Macedonia. There are more trains on the way. The people who get on those trains are forced on those trains, they are routed

out of their houses by guns and marched into the stadium or right down directly to the railway station, and they are put on the train, packed like sardines.

This is like a pogrom. And these people have been taken to the border. Fortunately, Macedonia has been having them get off the train and coming across the border where the one thing that we give is

freedom and protection. Water, food is being distributed, although it's starting to be very difﬁcult to ﬁnd onward movement for shelter for these people.

I go out today with the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and we'll be looking ﬁrsthand at the conditions out there. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, AID personnel, military personnel and

all of these relief agencies are on the ground. It's just a question of making sure that the structure is in place to be able to receive these people.

Let me just say one thing and then I'll turn it over to Hattie. The question has come up whether all this was a surprise. I've been involved in this program for over a year now, and we have worked very, very

hard with the relief agencies and the U.N. agencies to make sure that the humanitarian requirements inside of Kosovo and Montenegro were taken care of.

We had prepared and in place enough food, logistics and personnel to distribute food and support for six months for 400,000 people. Now, we have this new crisis. We are no longer able to give that

assistance inside of Kosovo, but much of it has been prepositioned, and all of the relief agencies that were in Kosovo have now gone out to Macedonia.

So we've asked the military and a variety of other U.N. agencies to shift where the warehouses were, shift the commodities so that they are in place to receive these people as they come into Albania and into

Macedonia. It is a story of great bravery by the agencies, good planning, but we have on the horizon probably another 200,000 people that might come out fairly soon; so we're really working, all together, to

make sure that the international community is ready to receive those people who have been expelled by the Serbs. Thank you.

MS. BABBITT: Thank you. My name is Hattie Babbitt. I'm the Deputy Administrator of USAID, and thought I would talk to you a little bit about the logistics on the ground. The logistics, from the USAID

standpoint, are handled by the DART team, the Disaster Assistance Relief Team, that goes out to coordinate assistance by the United States with the rest of the international community, with UNHCR, with

the NGOs with whom we met earlier in the day.

They are tough people who have done this around the world and who know how to do it. The woman who is leading the DART team in Macedonia is a smoke jumper from Boise; the DART team leader in

Albania is Bill Garver Lincoln, an old pro at this sort of thing. We work very closely with the PRM folks from the Department of State and with Mike McDufﬁe and his folks in the military and with the rest

of the international community.

I stress this because the logistics of dealing with tens of thousands of refugees are incredible. Yes, we've prepositioned an enormous amount of food and, yes, we have been working in the region for a long

time, but the logistics are an enormous challenge on the ground and we need this teamwork which we have.

You talked to the NGOs earlier today; they are very supportive of what we as a government have been doing, what we as part NATO have been doing and work with us very closely. We have since 1991

spent $150 million on these kinds of issues in Kosovo. I restate this because of this sense that this is all a new phenomenon. It's not a new phenomenon. There's a new urgency to it, there's a new scale to it,

but it's not a new phenomenon.

We are in the process of reprogramming money which had been programmed for Kosovo in Macedonia as we speak. We are steadfast. The NGOs with whom we work are steadfast, and we are operating in

the face of a deliberate, systematic campaign to depopulate a country of its ethnic -- of an ethnic portion of its population. That's an extraordinary challenge, and we are determined with our international

colleagues to meet it, and we will. Thank you very much.

General McDufﬁe.

GENERAL MCDUFFIE: I'd just like to bring you up to date on DOD's role in this. We are in a supporting role. Speciﬁcally, General Clark now has tasked through NATO to F South and Admiral Ellis and

the are, as we speak, conducting assessments in Macedonia and also in Albania with forces that are on the ground there and, again, in a supporting role.

We rely on the U.N. relief agencies that are on the ground, quit often reporting through the United Nations High Commission to Refugees through our U.S. mission in Geneva which, in fact, reports back to

the Department of State and it comes across to us.

To provide the needed assistance as required, what we don't want to do is just provide something that's not needed in a knee-jerk reaction. The process is ongoing. As these NATO assessments are being

made, we actually have now U.S. assessments going on. We have a humanitarian assessment team that will go -- a U.S. humanitarian assistance team that will go into Macedonia tomorrow and then follow

on into Albania as part of this NATO assessment.

While that's going on, we're actually doing things. We're in the process of airlifting humanitarian daily rations, we're in the process of moving tentage out of the central region in Europe into Macedonia and

we continue to provide assistance as required, but again, in a coordinated manner by the U.N. relief agencies and the Department of State in a supporting role.

Q General McDufﬁe, are the refugees in Macedonia now being protected by U.S. forces on the ground? Is the Army protecting these people?

GENERAL MCDUFFIE: I really can't answer that. I mean, the fact that in Macedonia we have 12,000-man allied force there, so there's certainly a lot of lateral security there, so compared to where they've

come from it would be a very safe environment. But as far as a direct mission to support refugees, I really don't know at this time.

Q Ms. Taft, you said you were offering them freedom and protection when they came across. Who is providing the protection?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAFT: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is there with relief agencies and they provide the protective cover. It's really the government of Macedonia that is

ensuring that the people, when they get across, are physically protected. The UNHCR has the legal protection mandate.

One of the things that I think is really important to know is that the lucky people are the ones who got out of Kosovo, and we are very concerned about the people who are still in Kosovo. We've gone to the

UNHCR and to the World Food Program to see if they are still able to negotiate corridors with the Serbs, corridors back into Kosovo to feed some of the people who have remained.

The last food delivery those people got was on March 23rd, so we have to now rely on safe access granted by the Serbs to go and feed the Serb population.

Q Is there any kind of deal? Are you saying they're starving them out? And certainly the people who are being pushed out on these boxcars don't think they're lucky.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAFT: I think they're lucky to be alive and I think they think they're lucky. They've come across glad to be out, grieving because they're very sad they had to leave. Many of them

had members of their family taken away from them; we're going to have a real challenge trying to do tracing.

Q But they are going to keep a certain element there? A certain percentage of the --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAFT: No, I think what's going to happen is they're going to try to push out all of the ethnic Albanians, which as you know was 90 percent of the population. Even some of the

Kosovar Serbs have left Kosovo. Thirty thousand have gone into Serbia proper as well.

Everybody is affected there. Everybody.

Q Along those lines, is there any evidence that it's happened in Bosnia that young men are being singled out, detained and taken off someplace?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAFT: We've heard reports of that, but of course, we have no witnesses on the ground to tell that that is the story that the refugees are telling when they come across.

Q And the refugee ﬂows coming out -- is there a disproportionately small number of men in that ﬂow?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAFT: There were originally, but in the last two or three days, it's interesting -- we have found many more younger men than we did originally.

Q Can you talk about Serb access, giving you access to bring in things? What was the situation before? Has it changed? And there has been some discussion of air dropping humanitarian supplies inside

Kosovo, where does that stand?

GENERAL MCDUFFIE: As I'm sure you know, with a hostile environment ongoing, and an air campaign ongoing, as part of Allied Force, while we understand that there is a great difﬁculty with refugees,

an air drop operation has many, many, many drawbacks.

One, the threat is really signiﬁcant, with the air defense. But I'll tell you, most importantly is the effectiveness of that operation. If you think about air drop in that type of environment, one, you might be, in

fact, resupplying the VJ and the MUP. And concentrating possible Kosovars into harm's way. So we don't see that as an alternative right now, based on threat, nor its effectiveness. It's not ruled out.

MR. SCHWARTZ: Let me say something on the issue of the displacement, and whether it's a new problem. In fact, in October, we confronted the same situation, reafﬁrming the point that I made earlier.

There were tens of thousands of displaced Kosovars inside Kosovo, and displaced but out in the open -- not in anyone else's homes.

And, although there were, and there continue to be, stocks in Kosovo, the challenge -- it becomes very, very difﬁcult, when people are out in the open, to get food to them. So the problem that we will be

experiencing, and are experiencing now, is one, again, that was imposed upon the Kosovars by the Serbs last year as well.

Q Do you have access now? Inside Kosovo?

MR. SCHWARTZ: We do not.

Q Mr. Schwartz, given where we are now, and given the current rate of depopulation, how much longer does it take to depopulate Kosovo?

MR. SCHWARTZ: I would really hesitate to speculate on that. It is a horrendous practice, and the more -- the greater the disregard for the most minimal standards of civilized behavior, the more numbers

you can move. And, unfortunately, Milosevic has not demonstrated a great deal of regard for the norms of civilized behavior.

But I would hesitate to speculate. The people are moving. We've seen evidence of large-scale movements toward Macedonia. We're concerned about it, but I wouldn't try to make a prediction.

Q What's left? You have about a million, about a million Kosovars left?

MR. SCHWARTZ: Julia, do you have numbers?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAFT: So far, as of today, we believe 689,830 people have become either internally displaced or refugees. Of that 689,000, 344,830 are refugees -- in other words, they have left

Kosovo and Montenegro, and have gone outside the region.

Internally displaced, which was what Eric was talking about, internally displaced in Montenegro, in Kosovo, and in Serbia, the total right now is 345,000. So already, a million people have been displaced or

sent as refugees. If you're looking at how many are left -- which is, I think, what your question is --

Q Kosovars.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAFT: -- Kosovars, we think that there are probably about 900,000 left.

Q More than half have been displaced -- is that --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAFT: No, no, I didn't say that.

Q Well, there are about 2 million Kosovars --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAFT: Well, we think about 180,000. When we get these numbers, it gets confusing. The U.N. is saying about a third of the population has been -- has gone or left, or been

displaced externally. A third of the population of the 1.8.

Q And this doesn't include the number killed? Because you don't know what that number is.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAFT: We don't know what that number is. But you know what? The President was really interesting today when he was talking to the NGOs about this.

We thought -- we had a ﬁgure, we were carrying a ﬁgure of about 2,000 people who had been killed in this conﬂict. For the past year -- since March of '98 -- what's been really interesting, in watching this

troublesome terror unfold, is that this has been a strategy to displace, terrorize, and disrupt people's lives. It hasn't been one of massive killing -- unlike Bosnia. And one of the impetuses for going in now

was when the huge amounts of tanks and military were going in for a major incursion. There were obviously going to be large numbers of lives.

So I think that we are seeing, now, we are seeing notices of executions, et cetera. But this is really against people that they want to get out, rather than just kill in place.

MR. SCHWARTZ: Let me just clarify two points, if I may. First, in terms of the numbers, because the numbers get all over the place, so it's important that when we talk about displaced people we're talking

about people who have to leave their home. And they can leave their home and stay in Kosovo, or they can leave their home and go across the borders.

Our best estimates are, before March 24, there were over 400,000 displaced, including people outside and inside. It looks at this point that the number is between 600,000 and 700,000. So I restate the point I

made earlier that the majority of displacement seems to have taken place before March 24.

And in terms of the issue of atrocities, our best information is that there are many, many reports of atrocities; that in the context of forcing people from their homes, the Serb forces or Serb-associated forces

have engaged in atrocities. Atrocities can include things like burning of homes while people are still in them. It can include shooting people who resist. It can include a range of wanton acts. And we have

rather credible information that those kinds of activities have been going on.

Q Have you heard anything about the ﬂow of Serb refugees from the Krajina region of Croatia going into repopulate parts of Kosovo?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAFT: No. I've heard of the Sandrak Bosnians going from Serbia back into Sarajevo.

Q It was in the British brieﬁng this morning. They were talking about ﬂows of Serbs from Krajina coming into Kosovo.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAFT: No. As a matter of fact, when the Krajina Serbs were ﬁrst displaced in the Bosnian War, they were displaced into Serbia proper. And the authorities in Serbia had them go

into Kosovo. It was really kind of against their will. And the United States Head Start been resettling those refugees, those Krajina Serb refugees, for the past several years.

As a matter of fact, a few months ago, I said let's accelerate the processing, let's get these people up to Belgrade so we can get them processed out to come to the United States. Obviously, that has had to

stop.

But I haven't heard about anybody going back into Kosovo from anywhere.

Let me just say, I didn't mean to diminish the killings and the atrocities. There are terrible stories. We don't know how many people have been killed. But what we have to do is to do systematic interviews of

these refugees on an ongoing basis so we can document these crimes against humanity. And we're working with Louise Arbor at ICTY to make sure that as soon as the people get settled and sheltered and

fed, that they can then have these interviews.

UNICEF is on the scene -- not doing the interviews, but trying to deal with the trauma. There are a lot of traumatized people that have come across into Albania and Montenegro, and so that healing has to

happen before all of the debrieﬁngs.

Q -- saying this is very different from what happened in Bosnia in terms of the scale of the killing?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAFT: The killing. This time we got in before all the massive killings, but then, the last -- in the last few weeks, two weeks, you have seen how absolutely brutal the retaliation

has been from the Serbs.

Q If the Serbs are burning the Kosovars' villages, if they're taking their identiﬁcation papers, their deeds, could you tell us how in the world these people can be repatriated?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAFT: Well, let me just say one thing about that. There has been a lot of attention on the issue of the ID cards being taken away and destroyed, as though that was going to be

their passport to get back in. I can assure you, having worked in refugee programs for many years, that most refugees do not have documents when they leave, and that none of these people are going to go

back until they can go back into a place that is secure and safe for them to return, which means that the authorities that are taking away their identities and terrorizing them will not be the authorities that they

will have to deal with.

Q What about the burned homes? Is there someplace to go back to?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAFT: Well, we had a lot of burned homes over the past year. As a matter of fact, AID's programs of shelter material -- our ofﬁce's contributions -- have gone in to trying to help

them in reconstructing their houses. I think Hattie is the best person to talk about longer-term reconstruction.

But remember, this is a place where people have lived for generations. Everyone knows their neighbors. It is a place the size of Connecticut, and the challenges for reconstruction are great. The challenges

for reconciliation are immense.

MS. BABBITT: I might just say a little bit about that because at the point -- the President spoke about a time when Kosovo would be secure and the Kosovar Albanians could return to their homes -- to their

home. As you point out, there may not be literally homes. But this is the kind of thing where we at USAID and other members in the international community -- remember, this is a NATO action, this is

Europe. There are large contributions from other parts of the international community now operating in Macedonia and Albania, as well as the U.S. contribution, and surely there will be.

We have shelter -- small infrastructure projects, all that kind of capacity. We've been doing it in Bosnia; we do it all around the world; and we would certainly be -- hope to be asked to do it when the security

situation is right in Kosovo.

Q What is being done on the diplomatic front? Is there any movement on the part of the European leaders to try to get to this man?

MR. SCHWARTZ: Let me ﬁrst say that the amount of alliance solidarity on this has really been remarkable. And the best evidence of it is to look at the situation in theater and the progressive development

of what NATO is doing.

On the humanitarian side, we are working very closely with the allies. NATO, for example, has taken on the task of a humanitarian planning to assist the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. NATO is

also -- we're also looking at ways with other European governments to cooperate on security issues in front-line states. And we've had very good conversations, discussions, with NATO governments on

those issues.

On the relief effort, the British, the Italians, several other NATO and non-NATO members are also contributing. So I really think the one area where we have been just tremendously gratiﬁed is the degree of

allied cooperation, not only on the political strategic objectives, but also in the humanitarian area.

Q How about political end? Is anybody going to see Milosevic?

MR. SCHWARTZ: Now, you're going sort of beyond the humanitarian brief here. So save it for Joe.

Q Has there been any effort to get anything to help those people --

MR. SCHWARTZ: Let me ask Julia to address that.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY TAFT: In Montenegro, there are four relief agencies that we have funded for the past year that are still operational on the ground. The UNHCR is on the ground; International

Committee for the Red Cross is on the ground.

When we started looking at access questions a couple of weeks ago, most of the international community had to be withdrawn because of security concerns. But they left their local staffs there. Now, in

those agencies, ex-patriot staff are going back.

There is in the Port of Bar, which was a big transit port for us for the World Food Program and for the Food for Peace Program -- had several thousands of metric tons. There are 8,000 metric tons left in the

port -- 3,000 will be taken out and sent to Albania, and the remainder will stay in the port for distribution of the internally displaced persons in Montenegro.

Now, our big concern, of course, is Montenegro and whether there will be further displacements of both Kosovar Albanians going into Montenegro or Albanian Montenegrans wanting to leave. We're

working on contingencies on that, and this is one of the issues that the NGOs raised with the President as well. And we will be working closely with them on options.

Thank you.

END 1:06 P.M. EST

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 2, 1999

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

ON UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS AND

ON THE SITUATION IN KOSOVO

The Briefing Room

12:23 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to make some fairly brief comments today about the situation in Kosovo and the humanitarian issue, and also about the good news today we received

on the domestic economy. Let me make the economic remarks ﬁrst, and then I will talk about Kosovo and refer to the folks from the administration who are here to my right.

As I think all of you know by now, it was reported today that last month the unemployment rate in the United States dropped to 4.2 percent, the lowest in this long expansion and the lowest monthly

employment rate the United States has enjoyed since 1970. This is also an expansion that is widening the circle of opportunity.

We had, among other things in this last monthly report, the lowest Hispanic unemployment rate ever recorded. Now we know also that real wages went up last year at the highest rate in two decades.

Now, these economic indicators are more than just economic indicators; they mean wider opportunity and a better chance for millions of Americans to have stronger families and give their children a better

chance. It is a reminder of the gains we have made because we have done the right things economically for the long run. And now we must act to extend that prosperity.

That means, among other things, we have to be very, very smart about how we deal with the question of the surplus. In the coming months, I will continue to insist that a substantial portion of the surplus --

the majority -- as I have outlined since the State of the Union, be set aside in a way that will save Social Security and Medicare and will enable us to pay down the debt, to keep interest rates low, to keep

investment high, to keep the economy going.

I hope that today this good news on unemployment will remind us of how we got here and not make us forget how we got here.

Now, let me say a few words about Kosovo, and in particular the humanitarian situation. I am glad to be joined by the folks to my right -- Hattie Babbitt, the Deputy USAID Administrator; Julia Taft, the

Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration; General John McDufﬁe, the Chairman's Director for Logistics of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Eric Schwartz, who is our Director for

Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs at the NSC.

The humanitarian situation, as all of you know, remains grave in Kosovo. Since last year, nearly one in three people there have been pushed from their homes.

I met this morning with representatives of humanitarian organizations that are leading relief efforts in the area. They are doing courageous work under difﬁcult circumstances. We want to support them in

every way we can.

I can tell you that I was very impressed that they reported that the refugees coming out strongly support the action that NATO has taken and clearly understand that that action did not provoke the attempt to

remove them from their homes, that that is part of an operation that has been going on since last year; that there were 40,000 troops and nearly 300 tanks -- Serbian troops and tanks -- massed in and around

Kosovo at the time the peace talks in France broke up. And they are quite clear that what has happened to them was what was planned for quite a log while. And I appreciate the support and the great

difﬁculty of maintaining it of these people who have suffered so much.

Now, what are we doing about this? This week I authorized an additional $50 million in emergency aid to augment our contributions to the UNHCR and to the other relief organizations, and to ensure that

our military can do more to help them get aid to the people in need.

Today NATO agreed that its forces in Macedonia should support the relief effort there by providing transport, shelter, and logistical support.

While many people are arriving in neighboring countries, and Macedonia and Albania are especially burdened, with are able to provide help there -- although we need more countries to join us in providing

help there. We must be increasingly concerned about the plight of displaced people who are actually trapped inside Kosovo and are under attack or certainly vulnerable to attack by Serbian forces.

That is why our air strikes are now increasingly focused on military targets there. There's no doubt that what Mr. Milosevic wants to do is to keep the land of Kosovo and rid it of its people. We cannot let

that happen with impunity.

I said yesterday in Virginia to our troops and I want to say again, we must be determined, we must be persistent, we must be patient if we expect to see this mission through. And I am absolutely determined

to do that.

We have to make sure that Mr. Milosevic pays a heavy price for this policy of repression. We have to seriously diminish his capacity to maintain that policy. Ultimately, we want to make it possible for the

victims to return home, to live in security, and enjoy self-government.

Let me also reafﬁrm what I said yesterday about the three Army infantrymen who were seized on Wednesday, as they were carrying out a completely peaceful mission in Macedonia. There was no basis for

them to be taken; there is no basis for them to be held; there is absolutely no justiﬁcation for putting them on trial or displaying them in public, in violation of the Geneva Convention. As long as they are

detained, they have the status of POWs and are entitled to all the protections that come with that status.

As I made clear yesterday, we will hold President Milosevic and his government responsible for their safety and well-being.

Q Mr. President, is Kosovo lost, sir?

Q Mr. President, those same refugees you just cited a moment ago are, by and large, also saying that they believe that only NATO ground forces will be able to get them back into their country. Do you still

feel the same way you do about ground forces?

THE PRESIDENT: I still believe that we have a good possibility of achieving our mission with the means that we have deployed. Remember, we have been at this for a week. I see all of you, and I don't

blame you for doing this because everybody is trying to get their hands around a very complex problem, referring to Desert Storm or other historical analogies. This is like the Persian Gulf; this is like

Vietnam; what is it like -- is it like what happened in World War II?

Let me remind you, for those people who talk about ground forces, the ground forces that were deployed in the Middle East were deployed after the objective had been achieved by Saddam Hussein, after he

had captured Kuwait. It took, as I remember, maybe more than ﬁve months to do the preparatory deployment before any action could be taken.

So this air campaign has been much more rapid in getting up and getting underway than any sort of ground operation could be. And it seems to me we have a real obligation to try to keep the NATO allies

together and to vigorously pursue this. We are making the air campaign more intense; we are adding targets; we are keeping the NATO allies together. And I believe we have quite a good chance of

achieving our objectives of the return of the Kosovars to live in security with a measure of self-government that they enjoyed under the old Yugoslav Constitution before Mr. Milosevic took it away from

them. And I believe that is what we should continue to do. That is what I intend to continue to do.

Q Mr. President, with villages burning, sir, and refugees coming out at a rate of nearly 100,000 a day, is it not unfair to say that Kosovo is already lost? And if it is lost, sir, is it your policy to get it back?

THE PRESIDENT: My policy is to stick with the NATO allies to provide for return of the Kosovars in conditions of security where they have the self -- the autonomy that they had before Mr. Milosevic

took it away. That is my policy.

Keep in mind, this campaign of his started last year. There were hundreds of thousands of refugees before the peace talks in France started. Before that happened, there were 40,000 troops and nearly 300

tanks in Kosovo or on the borders. So there has been a lot of speculation -- was this -- I don't think anybody in our military was under any illusion that he did not have the capacity to do what has been done.

And what we have tried to do is to gear up this air campaign as quickly as we could, and given the limitations of the weather, proceed.

We have strong allied unity. We have real ﬁrm determination today in Europe that these objectives will be achieved. And we intend to stay after them until they are.

I do not believe -- I think that -- I do not believe that anyone should expect, or should have expected -- we recognized when we started that this campaign, this air campaign, would not be a week or two

proposition.

Q But, sir, even many of those who advised and represented the Kosovars at Rambouillet say that process is now dead, given what has happened on the ground. Will there have to be some new security and

political arrangement beyond what was envisioned at those peace talks? And what will the U.S. --

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think there will have to be some sort of security arrangement in order for them to live safely. And then there will have to be some sort of agreement that entails the autonomy to

which they are entitled. That is clearly right.

So the elements that were discussed at the peace talks in France are still elements that have to be resolved before the Kosovars can either stay home or go home, for those who have left, and do so peacefully,

and do so with some measure of autonomy. And it seems to me that will require, clearly, for some period of time, some sort of international force that will be able to protect their security.

So the elements, the framework that we dealt with in France is still the framework people are going to have to deal with; whatever label you put on it, the objectives that we seek to achieve will require

certain means to realize.

Helen.

Q Mr. President, what about the deepening Russian involvement? Apparently, we understand they are now going to offer aid, they're sending ships into the Mediterranean. Are they ready for a ﬁght?

THE PRESIDENT: I don't believe so. I believe that -- as I said before and I'll say again, one of the unfortunate side effects of this whole crisis -- and we saw it a little bit in Bosnia, but we were able to

resolve it, thank goodness, in Bosnia in a way that brought us together with the Russians in the peacekeeping force there -- is that this whole issue has put great strains on the domestic politics of Russia in

the Russian Duma because of the religious and cultural identity and the ethnic identity of the Russians with the Serbs.

But I think that, based on my experience in dealing with this in the last few days, and my experience in dealing with the Russians over the last six years, and what appear to be the facts now, they are looking

for ways to continue to oppose what NATO is doing, but to leave open the prospect that they could play a very constructive role in making a peace. I don't think anyone wants to see this conﬂict escalate, and

I certainly don't believe the Russian government does.

Thank you.

Q Mr. President, what do you say to critics who say those troops weren't adequately armed on the border of Macedonia?

END 12:36 P.M. EST

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 3, 1999

RADIO ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT

TO THE NATION

The Oval Ofﬁce

THE PRESIDENT: As we gather in our homes during this sacred week to observe Easter and Passover, let us take a moment to think about the plight of the people in Kosovo, who have been forced from

their homes by a campaign of violence and destruction, and who look to us for help and hope.

The tragedy in Kosovo has been mounting for over a year now. Over the last two weeks, Serbian forces have intensiﬁed their attacks against innocent civilians there, leaving no doubt about the cold, clear

goal of their leader, Slobodan Milosevic -- to keep Kosovo's land while ridding it of its people.

Nearly one out of every three people in Kosovo has been made homeless since the start of this conﬂict. Even before the recent surge, well over a quarter of a million people had been displaced. Every hour of

every day more arrive at Kosovo's borders, tired, hungry, shaken by what they have been through.

Among them are elderly people, who have lived their whole lives in peace with their neighbors, only to be told now to leave everything behind in minutes or to be killed on the spot. Among them are small

children who walked for miles over mountains, sometimes after watching their fathers and uncles and brothers taken from them and shot before their eyes.

Some have been shelled by artillery on their long trek to safety. Many have had their identity papers and family records stolen and destroyed, their history in Kosovo erased, their very existence denied.

Our nation cannot do everything. We can't end all suffering; we can't stop all violence. But there are times when looking away simply is not an option. Right now, in the middle of Europe, at the doorstep of

NATO, an entire people are being made to abandon their homeland or die -- not because of anything they've done, but simply because of who they are.

If there's one lesson we've learned in this century, it's that that kind of poison will spread if not stopped. If there's one pledge that binds the past and future generations, it is that we cannot allow people to be

destroyed because of their ethnic or racial or religious groups -- when we do have the power to do something about it.

Our military mission in Kosovo is a difﬁcult and dangerous one, but it's necessary and right, and we must stand with all our NATO allies to see it through. Our goal is to exact a very high price for Mr.

Milosevic's policy of repression and to seriously diminish his military capacity to maintain that policy.

We also must open our hearts and our arms to the innocent victims of this conﬂict. This week I authorized the expenditure of $50 million in emergency funds to support the relief effort, and directed our

military to do its part to get critical supplies to people in need. We'll work with the United Nations and with the many courageous volunteers working on the ground with non-governmental organizations

from all around the world.

You can help, too. I urge you to call your local Red Cross or church-based charity and ask them how you can get involved. Together we'll provide food, water, and medicine, blankets, clothing and shelter to

Kosovar refugees. We'll remind the victims of this conﬂict that for all they have lost they have not been abandoned or forgotten.

European countries are helping as well. Kosovo's neighbors, Macedonia and Albania, are taking the refugees in, despite the huge burden this places on these poor, struggling nations; so are Greece, Bosnia

and Bulgaria -- showing there's more mercy than madness in the Balkans, more compassion than cruelty in this troubled region of the world.

All of us want to provide for the refugees; all of us want to make it possible for them to return home. Let us do our part for all the innocent people whose lives have been shattered by this conﬂict. And let us

give our thanks to our men and women in uniform who are risking their lives today for our ideals, our interests, and their lives.

Let us keep in our prayers the three brave American servicemen now being held without justiﬁcation in Belgrade that they may return to us soon. Let us do what we can -- and what we must -- for peace to

prevail. And let us stay the course until it does.

Thanks for listening.

END

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 5, 1999

TEXT OF A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE

April 3, 1999

Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)

Since I reported to the Congress on March 25, 1999, under section 8115 of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 1999 (Public Law 105-262), there have been dramatic and very serious

developments in Kosovo and the region, particularly Macedonia and Albania. Belgrade's sustained and accelerating repression and ethnic cleansing in Kosovo has created a humanitarian crisis of staggering

dimensions. Estimates are that more than 800,000 Kosovars have been displaced from their homes and villages, with large concentrations in Albania, Macedonia, and Montenegro, and with the numbers

rising dramatically every day. Throughout Kosovo, Serb forces have burned villages. Homes throughout the region have been looted and are smoldering. In Pristina, Kosovars are being forced into rail cars

and shipped to the Macedonian border.

As the refugee ﬂow out of Kosovo has surged, the limited ability of Albania and Macedonia to deal with the situation has been overwhelmed. The international organizations engaged in refugee assistance

do not currently have in the region the ability and resources to deal with a refugee crisis of this magnitude. Unless adequate care can be provided for these refugees, a humanitarian disaster of immense

proportions will result. In addition to the human suffering involved, such a disaster carries with it the very real possibility of destabilizing the governments and societies of Albania and Macedonia. This

disaster could have the effect of spreading violence in the region that NATO is determined to prevent.

In the light of these disturbing events, I have directed that additional U.S. forces be deployed to Albania and Macedonia in order to support disaster relief by, among other activities, delivering food and

essentials, constructing shelter, providing coordination and assisting in onward movement, and when necessary, providing protection for relief supplies and refugees. In regard to the elements of section

8115(a)(1)-(8), I am providing the following information:

1 & 2. National Security Interests. I hereby certify that the deployment of additional forces to Albania and Macedonia as described above is necessary in the national security interests of the United States.

These actions will provide additional forces to aid in the relief efforts supporting Kosovar refugees. They also will contribute to the overall effort to stabilize this region that has historically been a tinderbox,

thereby helping to preserve peace and security in the region.

3. Numbers. The number of U.S. personnel who will be deployed for these purposes cannot be deﬁnitively provided at this time, since planning for the deployment is ongoing. I would anticipate, at a

minimum, a deployment of 1,000 personnel. It can be anticipated that headquarters elements, air crews, airlift control elements, selected transport and rotary wing aircraft, security personnel, civil affairs and

psychological operations personnel, medical and engineer forces, and logistics support forces may become involved in the operation. These forces will operate under U.S. and NATO operational control. I

will ensure that the Congress is informed in a timely manner about deployments described in this report when the information is available.

4. Mission/Objectives. As stated above and in my report to the Congress of March 25, the overall objective of our efforts with our allies is to maintain stability in the region and prevent a humanitarian

disaster resulting from the ongoing offensive against the people of Kosovo. The speciﬁc military mission of the forces deployed as described in this report would be to support disaster relief operations to aid

in the care and protection of Kosovar refugees and to provide for their own security.

5. Schedule. At this point, it is not possible to determine how long these deployments to Albania and Macedonia in response to this dire need will be required. This will be affected by how long Belgrade

continues its campaign of ethnic cleansing and how long beyond the cessation of that campaign it will take before the Kosovar refugees will be able to return to their homes or resettle elsewhere.

Circumstances permitting, it will be our objective to transfer responsibility for the refugees to other organizations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as soon as possible.

6. Exit Strategy. The duration of the requirement for a U.S. military presence in Albania and Macedonia for these purposes will depend on the course of events, and in particular, on Belgrade's conduct on the

ground in Kosovo. So long as Belgrade forces the Kosovar refugees to remain dispossessed, and the enormity of the situation continues to overwhelm the ability of Albania, Macedonia, and the international

relief community to deal with the situation, it is likely that U.S. forces deployed for these purposes will be required. Nevertheless, as stated above, it will be our objective to transfer responsibility for the

refugees to other organizations as soon as the emergency has subsided. In addition, we are working with our European partners to provide temporary asylum to some of the refugees in third countries.

7. Costs. The costs of the deployment described in this notice will be paid initially from FY99 Defense appropriations, including the provision of defense commodities and services directed pursuant to

Presidential Determination 99-20 of March 31, 1999. An estimate of likely costs for these deployments is being prepared, and I will ensure that it is provided to the Congress as soon as it is available.

necessary resources to those aspects of operations relating to response to the worsening conditions brought by the refugee crisis in the area.

United States forces participating in these operations, as well as U.S. forces deployed for other purposes in the region are dedicated professionals serving with great pride and enthusiasm. Given the

importance of these activities, particularly in humanitarian terms, we anticipate that U.S. forces would maintain the highest morale and effectiveness. It has been our experience that personnel serving in

these types of operations manifest great pride and satisfaction in demonstrating America's capacity to ensure care and protection for people in need.

However, we recognize that even deployments for the best of reasons increase the periods of separation from family and add other burdens to military service.

The Department of Defense has underway extensive and effective programs to do what is necessary to manage personnel and other resources so as to reduce these problems. As with any operational

deployment, the effects on readiness are mixed. In these operations, U.S. forces will be conducting one of the missions they have been trained to perform, which will provide an unparalleled opportunity to

apply their skills in a unique environment. We believe that this will contribute signiﬁcantly to a high state of morale and readiness.

Sincerely,

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 5, 1999

FACT SHEET

Additional U.S. Humanitarian Relief

for Kosovar Albanians

Today, the President announced a variety of new initiatives designed to enhance and expedite the international humanitarian response to the worsening plight of the nearly 1 million Kosovar Albanian

refugees and displaced persons.

First, the President announced the appointment of Brian Atwood, the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, to coordinate the U.S. Government's overall humanitarian response to

the Kosovar refugee crisis. Administrator Atwood will chair a coordinating council to include: Julia Taft, Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, who will take the lead in the

response by the civilian agencies to the refugee crisis; James Lee Witt, Director of our Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), who will coordinate private donations to the aid effort and ensure

their proper delivery; and Lieutenant General John "Mike" McDufﬁe, who will be the coordinator for our military assistance to the relief operation.

Second, at the President's urging, NATO has put its 11,000 troops in Macedonia to work in addressing the humanitarian crisis, and is planning to deploy several thousand troops to Albania, not only to

provide aid, but to provide security for relief operations.

Third, the President has ordered the U.S. military to send on an urgent basis various forms of relief to the region, including in the next several days:

500,000 humanitarian daily rations (HDRs) -- specially prepared meals packaged for speedy distribution to at-risk civilian populations -- to Albania, which we are currently ﬂying into that country at

the rate of 90,000 a day;

600,000 HDRs to Macedonia;

Tents, sleeping bags, blankets, comforters and cots to both Albania and Macedonia.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has established Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DART) in Macedonia and Albania. These teams are evaluating needs and coordinating our

humanitarian response on the ground.

The U.S. government has provided over $150 million in humanitarian assistance to displaced Kosovars since February of last year. This sum includes the provision of $50 million authorized by President

Clinton on March 31. Half of this aid will be used to provide ﬁnancial support to international organizations such as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees as well as numerous nongovernmental

organizations. The other half is comprised of goods and services, including transport, shelter and logistical support, to be provided by the Department of Defense.

President Clinton ordered the prepositioning of humanitarian supplies in the region well in advance of the current refugee crisis in preparation for a variety of contingencies. The United States established

stockpiles that would feed 500,000 people for three months. The U.S. also sought to ensure that U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was prepared for the humanitarian crisis. UNHCR had

stocks ready in locations such as Copenhagen, Macedonia, and Albania that included tents, blankets, plastic sheeting, jerry cans, kitchen sets, stoves, soap, mattresses, and radio equipment, among other

items.

The President also announced 1-800-USAID-RELIEF -- a new USAID phone number, run by USAID Public Information, for those who want to contribute to the humanitarian response.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 5, 1999

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

Roosevelt Room

2:45 P.M. EDT

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 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 three months. We worked with the United nations to ready life-

saving 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 and 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 ten 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 Lt. 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. 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 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 Pan 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.

Q Mr. President, do your military share your goals in the operation on Kosovo? We've got there are 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 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 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 -- Secretary Cohen?

Q Will you come back after they answer, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: No. (Laughter.)

Q Can we just --

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, 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 debate 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 of 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 -- 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.

Q Sir, the President said that the Kosovars will be returned to Kosovo under safe and secure conditions -- If Milosevic doesn't knuckle under and air power has limitations, how are you going to do it?

END 3:05 P.M. EDT

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 7, 1999

TEXT OF A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

AND THE PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE SENATE

April 7, 1999

Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)

I reported to the Congress on March 26, 1999, on the participation of U.S. military forces in the series of air strikes conducted by NATO in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in response to the FRY

government's campaign of violence and repression against the ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo. Since my report on March 26, there have been dramatic and very serious developments in the FRY.

Belgrade's sustained and accelerating repression is creating a humanitarian disaster of staggering dimensions. Estimates now are that well over one million Kosovars have been displaced from their homes

and villages. At this time, more than 400,000 Kosovars are in Albania, Macedonia, and Montenegro.

The worsening instability in Kosovo directly threatens peace in the region. We will continue to intensify our actions to achieve the objectives I described in my report to the Congress of March 26 and to

support the international relief efforts being conducted in the region. I have directed U.S. military forces to deploy to Albania and Macedonia in order to support humanitarian disaster relief operations for

the Kosovar refugees. These relief efforts will include delivering food and supplies, constructing shelters, providing coordination and assisting in logistics movement of displaced persons and relief supplies,

and when necessary, providing protection for displaced persons and relief supplies. As a force protection measure, the U.S. military forces will be equipped for combat.

Separate from this effort, I have also ordered additional U.S. forces to Albania. These forces consist of rotary wing aircraft, artillery, and tactical missile systems and will be stationed in Albania to provide a

deep strike task force to enhance NATO's ability to conduct effective air operations in the FRY. Approximately 2,500 soldiers and aviators will deploy as part of this task force. The mission of the force does

not include deploying into the FRY.

It is not possible to predict how long either of these operations will continue. The duration of the deployments depend upon the course of events in Kosovo, and in particular, on Belgrade's conduct with

respect to its campaign of ethnic cleansing and the duration of the threat posed to peace and security in the region. It is our objective to transfer responsibilities for the relief effort to other organizations over

time, and to redeploy those U.S. forces, in all circumstances, as soon as the situation permits.

support expressed by the Congress in S. Con. Res. 21 and H. Con. Res. 42.

I am providing this report as part of my efforts to keep the Congress fully informed, consistent with the War Powers Resolution. I appreciate the continued support of the Congress in this action.

Sincerely,

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 12, 1999

PRESIDENT CLINTON ANNOUNCES A PLAN

TO PROVIDE SPECIAL TAX BENEFITS TO MILITARY PERSONNEL

IN THE KOSOVO AREA OF OPERATIONS

April 12, 1999

Today, President Clinton announced his intention to issue an

Executive Order designating the Kosovo area of operations as a "combat zone" for tax relief beneﬁts.

The Kosovo area of operations encompasses the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Albania, the Adriatic Sea and the northern Ionian Sea. It also encompasses the airspace above these areas, thus covering the

aircrews of long-range bombers and naval aircraft ﬂying missions into the combat zone from outside the area.

This designation will provide several tax beneﬁts to United States military personnel serving in the designated area, including the following:

Their deadline for ﬁling and paying taxes will be extended;

Their military pay for months served in the combat zone will be

exempt from income tax (subject to a dollar limit for commissioned

officers), and will not be subject to income tax withholding; and

Their toll telephone calls originating in the combat zone will be

exempt from the telephone excise tax.

The extension of tax deadlines will also apply to U.S. military

personnel deployed overseas in support of operations in the combat zone, and others, such as Red Cross personnel. The President's authority to confer these beneﬁts lies in various provisions of the Internal

Revenue Code. In addition, U.S. military personnel who are serving in this area will be eligible for Imminent Danger Pay of $150 per month. Personnel serving in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and

Macedonia are already receiving these beneﬁts under 1996 legislation designating those countries as a Qualiﬁed Hazardous Duty Area.

Once the President issues the Executive Order, the Department of Defense, in conjunction with the Commander in Chief U.S. European Command, the military services and the Department of Treasury, will

take the necessary steps to implement the Order, including designation of speciﬁc units to be covered.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 13, 1999

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

The Rose Garden

1:45 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. I have just had a long and very good meeting with a large number of members of Congress to discuss America's effort, along with our NATO allies, to stand against

ethnic cleansing, save lives, and bring peace in Kosovo. I'm grateful for the support we have received from members of Congress from both parties, and also very grateful for the questions, the comments,

the advice that came out of this and previous meetings.

Our objectives here are clear, but I want to restate them. We want the Serb forces out of Kosovo. We want the refugees to be able to go home, protected by an international security force, as they work

toward self-government.

This is Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day let us resolve not to let this ethnic cleansing and killing by Mr. Milosevic go unanswered.

You know, yesterday I had the privilege of meeting at Barksdale Air Force Base with air crews participating in the allied campaign. They and all our forces are performing with extraordinary courage and

skill. They are very well prepared, and their morale is high. They know they and our allies are ﬁghting to end human suffering, and for a Europe that is united, democratic and at peace.

Our campaign is diminishing and grinding down Mr. Milosevic's military capabilities. We have weakened Serbia's air defenses and command and control. We have reduced his ability to move, sustain and

supply the war machine in Kosovo. We have damaged his reﬁneries and diminished his capacity to produce ammunition. We are striking now at his tanks, and at his artillery, and have destroyed half his

advanced MiG-29 aircraft.

Now we are taking our allied air campaign to the next level, with more aircraft in the region, with a British carrier joining our USS Roosevelt and a French carrier in the area. Our humanitarian effort is also

increasing to meet the daunting challenge of providing food and shelter for the hundreds of thousands of refugees.

All of us would like the conﬂict to end, especially for the suffering people of Kosovo. We would also like to end the trials for the people of Serbia, who have been forced into confrontation by a cynical

leader who has no regard for their welfare and who, I am absolutely convinced, has not even told them the truth about what he has done to the people of Kosovo.

We and our allies did everything possible to end this crisis peacefully, but now we are at arms. We and our allies are united on this point: we must stay the course and persist until we prevail.

Again I say, Mr. Milosevic can end this crisis right now -- by withdrawing his forces, permitting deployment of an international security force, and allowing the unconditional return of all displaced persons.

As I told the members of Congress today, I will shortly submit to them an emergency supplemental budget request to fund our military operations and munitions needs while maintaining our military

readiness; to provide urgently needed assistance to the frontline states, nations bordering Kosovo, that are struggling to preserve their own stability as they cope with refugees and turmoil in the region; and

of course, to fund our portion of caring for the hundreds of thousands of refugees.

These expenses are an immediate and urgent emergency. They are necessary so that we and our NATO allies can continue to pursue this mission. I look forward to working with members of both parties in

both Houses to pass this appropriation soon, and to continuing our mission to free the people of Kosovo of the oppression to which they have been subject, and meet the conditions which I have outlined.

Thank you very much.

Q Mr. President, the lawmakers said that you haven't taken ground troops off the table.

Q Mr. President, can you reach the refugees in Kosovo, Mr. President -- inside Kosovo -- can you reach those refugees, and does it have to be done by land?

THE PRESIDENT: Let me answer that. The real answer to that question is that it is a very hard one and we are working on it. We are quite concerned about the hundreds of thousands of refugees in Kosovo.

The ones that are out of Kosovo, there is a big problem in providing food and housing and medical care, dealing with the ones that are just dehydrated. But at least we are now organized and we're moving

on that.

There is a much bigger problem with the people within Kosovo, and there are any number of problems with providing aid from the air. First of all, there is the possibility that if we airdrop supplies, they

won't actually get to the refugees, that the Serbian forces will take them up. Secondly, there is the problem of risk to our aircraft of going into Kosovo airspace to try to air-drop the supplies. So we are

looking at both of those problems and what can be done about them, and what other options we have.

It is a huge problem. For the last couple of days, we've been working very hard on it. As soon as we have more to say on it, I'll be glad to make the appropriate announcements and our people will be at work

on it. It is a very large problem. We're aware of it. We know what the obstacles are and we're doing our best to overcome them.

Thank you.

END 1:52 P.M. EDT

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 19, 1999

KOSOVO EMERGENCY FUNDING PACKAGE

TOTAL FUNDING: $6.049 Billion

April 19, 1999

Defense Department Funding = $5.458 billion DOD Military Funding = $5.123 billion; DOD Refugee Assistance Funding = $335 million

Military :

This emergency funding package provides funds to permit the Department of Defense to sustain its current operations against Serbia. To provide maximum ﬂexibility to our military commanders, the

Administration is providing the capability to continue operations at the currently approved force and operational levels.

US force levels in the Balkans would be funded to include a carrier battle group; 600+ Air Force and Marine Crops aircraft, 1 Marine Expeditionary Unit, several Army helicopter battalions and

missile batteries, and other support forces.

Key Elements of Military Funding:

Operations: $3.301 billion

$287 million for costs of operations to date, from the start of the initial air campaign on March 24 through the end of April. It includes deployment of ships, personnel and equipment, unit operations,

supplies, fuel, spare parts and special pay and allowances for personnel deployed to the region.

$3.014 billion for continued air operations. This will cover future costs, including operating aircraft and ships, providing protection of troops and bases, spare parts, transportation, logistics,

maintenance, special pay and allowances, and other support costs for US forces in the Balkans.

Munitions: $698 million

$698 million for usage of munitions will cover upgrades and replenishment of Tomahawk cruise missiles and replenishment of Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missiles, Joint Direct Attack

Munitions, and towed decoys. This applies to past and anticipated usage of these munitions. A portion of these funds will also go to pay for munitions used against Iraq.

Readiness and Munitions Contingency Reserve Fund: $850 million

$850 million in additional contingency reserve funds are set aside for military readiness, including restoring inventories of certain munitions which have not yet -- but which may be -- used in the

conﬂict. While assumptions regarding Administration policy remain consistent, prudent planning for operations calls for setting aside additional funding on a contingency basis to assure that a high

level of military readiness will continue to be maintained, and that the supply of munitions, an essential element of readiness, remains sufﬁcient for future operations.

Additional costs related to Iraq: $274 million

Operations Desert Fox and Desert Thunder: $134 million to fund costs caused by the deployment of US forces to the region to conduct operations against Iraq, and the preparations and pre-positioning

for Desert Thunder in November and the missile strike in Desert Fox in December. These costs include unit operations, transportation, logistics, fuel, and spare parts, and special pay and allowances

for personnel deployed to the region.

Enhanced Northern and Southern Watch: $140 million to fund costs, in the wake of Desert Fox and Iraq's continued deﬁance of no-ﬂy zones, of increased U.S. activity. These costs include special pay

and allowances for personnel deployed to the region, unit operations, transportation, logistics, fuel and spare parts.

Refugee Assistance (DOD)

The Defense Department will also provide assistance to Kosovar refugees (see below.)

Refugee and Humanitarian Operations = $721 Million (including $335 million for DOD Refugee Assistance)

Resources are provided for the U.S. share of multi-lateral civilian relief and humanitarian assistance) to provide shelter, food, medicine, and other assistance for an estimated 650,000 refugees.

The Administration is concerned about the hundreds and thousands of refugees who remain at dire risk inside Kosovo itself. Therefore this emergency package contains funding that could be used to

meet their needs.

Elements of Humanitarian Funding:

Refugee Relief and Assistance (Department of Defense): $335 million

$335 million for the Department of Defense to provide assistance to Kosovar refugees, consistent with the U.S. participation in the multilateral commitment for temporary resettlement, including

housing, provision of food and medical care. These funds will provide temporary resettlement for 20,000 refugees, and could also be used for additional logistical support, supplies and assistance.

Also included in this package are costs already incurred by the Defense Department fortical supplies and transportation to provide assistance to the refugees.

Refugee Relief and Assistance (Department of State/USAID:) $386 million

$386 million for State Department and USAID to supply critical provisions to refugees, including food, shelter, water, and medicine and to support efforts organized by the U.S. government,

international organizations and non-governmental organizations.

Additional Funding:

Securing Front Line States: $150 million. These funds will be available to provide urgent assistance for countries, (Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Bosnia, and for Montenegro) whose citizens,

economies and infrastructure, have been affected by the inﬂux of refugees and by disruptions to commerce and transport caused by the conﬂict. Fund will also be used for the region's needs to provide for

well-being, safety and return of Kosovo refugees once a settlement is reached.

Diplomatic Operations and Other Stabilization Efforts: $55 million

This package contains funding for enhanced security in US diplomatic facilities due to the conﬂict, and for previously incurred expenses. For example, funding will emergency temporary security personnel,

and for facilities directly related to protecting personnel responding to the crisis. In addition, funds will provide for costs associated with the Kosovo Diplomatic Observer Mission, and the evacuation and

shutdown of Belgrade and other posts. Funds will also cover police and justice programs, principally to provide independent police training.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 21, 1999

April 21, 1999

MEMORANDUM FOR ALL FEDERAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES

SUBJECT: Humanitarian Relief for Kosovar Refugees

As you are no doubt aware, Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic cleansing of Kosovo has resulted in a grave humanitarian disaster, the displacement of almost 1.4 million Kosovar Albanians, and the slaughter of

thousands. The refugees now in Macedonia and Albania, and those who continue to arrive each day, are in urgent need of food, shelter, and clothing. Relief organizations are working around the clock to

provide this assistance, but these organizations and the refugees they serve need support from all of us.

I have heard from many Federal employees who want to know what they can do to help in this time of crisis. We can best help alleviate the suffering in the Balkans by providing ﬁnancial support to relief

agencies on the front lines. The Federal Government has established a toll-free telephone hotline, 1-800-USAID-RELIEF, that you may call to be referred to a number of private humanitarian organizations

that are providing vital relief. The organizations are also located on the USAID Internet website, www.info.usaid.gov, under the listing for Kosovo. The organizations are on site, they know how to deliver

the relief, and they need ﬁnancial support.

Together we can provide the humanitarian assistance that the people so urgently need, while we work with our NATO allies to create the conditions that will allow them to return safely to their homes and

rebuild their lives.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 23, 1999

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AND SECRETARY GENERAL SOLANA

AT OPENING OF WORKING SESSION ON KOSOVO

The Pavilion

International Trade Center

Washington, D.C.

9:20 A.M. EDT

SECRETARY GENERAL SOLANA: Good morning. Allow me to welcome you all to this ﬁrst meeting of NATO, heads of state and government of 19. I send a special warm greeting to those representing

their country for the ﬁrst time at the NATO Summit, and in particular to the leaders of the three new members of the Alliance. I should also like to thank the government of the United States of America for

its arrangement of the summit.

We have gathered here in Washington for an historic 50th anniversary. This Alliance for half a century has assured peace, stability and freedom of the European continent. As we celebrate past achievement,

we are determined to see these principles carried into the next century.

As we meet in Washington today, Europe is confronting a very serious crisis. Images of hundreds of thousands of deported people, burned homes, and destroyed villages recall scenes we had hoped never to

see again. The crisis in Kosovo represents a fundamental challenge to the values of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law for which the Alliance has its truth since its foundation. That is why the 19

democratic nations around this table could not remain indifferent. That is why we had to act.

As we continue our military operations, with the ultimate aim of securing a just political solution to the crisis, NATO allies are united in their resolve to see this challenge through. The Alliance must and

will prevail. Milosevic must know there is no place for his policies in Europe on the eve of the 21st century. The vision of this Europe is one which all nations can live together in peace and in prosperity. It

is a Europe whose people feel secure, threatened neither by their neighbors, nor by their rulers.

NATO is playing its part to help this vision come true together with its partners in the Eur-Atlantic community. I'm conﬁdent that our meeting today and of the next few days will continue to this goal.

I would like now to give the ﬂoor to our host, the President of the United States, President Clinton.

President Clinton, the ﬂoor is yours.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary General. Mr. Secretary General, fellow leaders, let me begin by welcoming you warmly to the United States. We are honored to host this 50th

Anniversary Summit of NATO. We meet to honor NATO's past, to chart its future, to reafﬁrm our mission in Kosovo, where NATO is defending our values and our vision of a Europe free, undivided and at

peace.

Today, we send a clear message of unity and determination -- to sustain our air campaign for as long as it takes; to stand ﬁrm in our conditions for ending it; to pursue diplomatic intitiatives to meet those

conditions; to increase political and economic pressure against the regime in Belgrade; to stand by the frontline nations threatened by Belgrade's actions; and to work with them for stability, democracy and

prosperity in Southeastern Europe, so that when Mr. Milosevic's vision for the future is defeated, a better one can rise in its place.

We will seek to do this together with our European partners, and with Ukraine and with Russia. We will make clear what is at stake. Mr. Milosevic's forces burn and loot homes, and murder innocent people;

our forces deliver food and shelter, and hope to the displaced. Mr. Milosevic fans the ﬂames of anger between nations and peoples; we are an alliance of 19 nations, uniting 780 million people of many faiths

and ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds. Mr. Milosevic knows only one way to achieve his aims, through force; we have done everything we could to resolve this matter peacefully.

But when we ﬁght, we ﬁght to prevail -- to prevail in this conﬂict, and to build the undivided, democratic Europe that the founders of NATO envisioned 50 years ago.

Thank you, and welcome again.

SECRETARY GENERAL SOLANA: Thank you very much. May I ask the representatives of the media to leave the room? Thank you very much for your cooperation.

END 9:28 A.M. EDT

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 23, 1999

Statement on Kosovo

Issued by the Heads of State and Government

participating in the meeting

of the North Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C.

on 23rd and 24th April 1999

1. The crisis in Kosovo represents a fundamental challenge to the values for which NATO has stood since its foundation: democracy, human rights and the rule of law. It is the culmination of a deliberate

policy of oppression, ethnic cleansing and violence pursued by the Belgrade regime under the direction of President Milosevic. We will not allow this campaign of terror to succeed. NATO is

determined to prevail.

2. NATO's military action against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) supports the political aims of the international community, which were reafﬁrmed in recent statements by the UN Secretary-

General and the European Union: a peaceful, multi-ethnic and democratic Kosovo where all its people can live in security and enjoy universal human rights and freedoms on an equal basis.

3. Our military actions are directed not at the Serb people but at the policies of the regime in Belgrade, which has repeatedly rejected all efforts to solve the crisis peacefully. President Milosevic must:

Ensure a veriﬁable stop to all military action and the immediate ending of violence and repression in Kosovo;

Withdraw from Kosovo his military, police and para-military forces;

Agree to the stationing in Kosovo of an international military presence;

Agree to the unconditional and safe return of all refugees and displaced persons, and unhindered access to them by humanitarian aid organisations; and

Provide credible assurance of his willingness to work for the establishment of a political framework agreement based on the Rambouillet accords.

4. There can be no compromise on these conditions. As long as Belgrade fails to meet the legitimate demands of the international community and continues to inﬂict immense human suffering, Alliance air

operations against the Yugoslav war machine will continue. We hold President Milosevic and the Belgrade leadership responsible for the safety of all Kosovar citizens. We will fulﬁll our promise to the

Kosovar people that they can return to their homes and live in peace and security.

5. We are intensifying NATO's military actions to increase the pressure on Belgrade. Allied governments are putting in place additional measures to tighten the constraints on the Belgrade regime. These

include intensiﬁed implementation of economic sanctions, and an embargo on petroleum products on which we welcome the EU lead. We have directed our Defence Ministers to determine ways that NATO

can contribute to halting the delivery of war material including by launching maritime operations, taking into account the possible consequences on Montenegro.

6. NATO is prepared to suspend its air strikes once Belgrade has unequivocally accepted the above mentioned conditions and demonstrably begun to withdraw its forces from Kosovo according to a precise

and rapid timetable. This could follow the passage of a United Nations Security Council resolution, which we will seek, requiring the withdrawal of Serb forces and the demilitarisation of Kosovo and

encompassing the deployment of an international military force to safeguard the swift return of all refugees and displaced persons as well as the establishment of an international provisional administration

of Kosovo under which its people can enjoy substantial autonomy within the FRY. NATO remains ready to form the core of such an international military force. It would be multinational in character with

contributions from non-NATO countries.

7. Russia has a particular responsibility in the United Nations and an important role to play in the search for a solution to the conﬂict in Kosovo. Such a solution must be based on the conditions of the

international community as laid out above. President Milosevic's offers to date do not meet this test. We want to work constructively with Russia, in the spirit of the Founding Act.

8. The long-planned, unrestrained and continuing assault by Yugoslav military, police and paramilitary forces on Kosovars and the repression directed against other minorities of the FRY are aggravating the

already massive humanitarian catastrophe. This threatens to destabilise the surrounding region.

9. NATO, its members and its Partners have responded to the humanitarian emergency and are intensifying their refugee and humanitarian relief operations in close cooperation with the UNHCR, the lead

agency in this ﬁeld, and with other relevant organisations. We will continue our assistance as long as necessary. NATO forces are making a major contribution to this task.

10. We pay tribute to the servicemen and women of NATO whose courage and dedication are ensuring the success of our military and humanitarian operations.

11. Atrocities against the people of Kosovo by FRY military, police and paramilitary forces represent a ﬂagrant violation of international law. Our governments will cooperate with the International Criminal

Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to support investigation of all those, including at the highest levels, responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. NATO will support the ICTY in its

efforts to secure relevant information. There can be no lasting peace without justice.

12. We acknowledge and welcome the courageous support that states in the region are providing to our efforts in Kosovo. The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania have played a

particularly important role, not least in accepting hundreds of thousands of refugees from Kosovo. The states in the region are bearing substantial economic and social burdens stemming from the current

conﬂict.

13. We will not tolerate threats by the Belgrade regime to the security of its neighbours. We will respond to such challenges by Belgrade to its neighbours resulting from the presence of NATO forces or their

activities on their territory during this crisis.

14. We reafﬁrm our support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all countries in the region.

15. We reafﬁrm our strong support for the democratically elected government of Montenegro. Any move by Belgrade to undermine the government of President Djukanovic will have grave consequences.

FRY forces should leave the demilitarised zone of Prevlaka immediately.

16. The objective of a free, prosperous, open and economically integrated Southeast Europe cannot be fully assured until the FRY embarks upon the transition to democracy. Accordingly, we express our

support for the objective of a democratic FRY which protects the rights of all minorities, including those in Vojvodina and Sandjak, and promise to work for such change through and beyond the current

conﬂict.

17. It is our aim to make stability in Southeast Europe a priority of our transatlantic agenda. Our governments will cooperate urgently through NATO as well as through the OSCE, and for those of us which

are members, the European Union, to support the nations of Southeast Europe in forging a better future for their region -- one based upon democracy, justice, economic integration, and security cooperation.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release April 28, 1999

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

The Rose Garden

1:20 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. I just had a good meeting with a large bipartisan delegation from both Houses of Congress on Kosovo. It was our fourth meeting since the air strikes began. We spoke

about the NATO Summit, its unity and determination to achieve our objectives in Kosovo; about the progress of our military campaign and the intensiﬁcation of economic sanctions; about the humanitarian

challenge that we face and the work that we and our allies are doing to meet it.

Just on Monday, some 3,500 Kosovar refugees, in trains and buses, arrived in Montenegro. Yesterday about 5,000 entered Macedonia; almost 3,000 arrived in Albania, exhausted, hungry, shaken, all by the

violence and abuse they experienced on the way. At one point, 1.8 million ethnic Albanians lived in Kosovo. Nearly 1.5 million have been displaced since the start of the crisis.

Our humanitarian coordinator, Brian Atwood, who just returned from the region, has described an elderly Albanian woman he met in a camp outside Tirana. She saw all the male members of her family and

most of the men in her village rounded up by Serbian authorities, tied up, doused with gasoline, and set on ﬁre in front of their families.

It's the kind of story that would be too horrible to believe if it were not so consistent with what so many refugees have been saying. What we need to remember is that this is the result of a meticulously

planned campaign, not an isolated incident of out-of-control rage. A campaign organized by the government of Belgrade for a speciﬁc political purpose -- to maintain its grip over Kosovo by ridding the land

of its people.

This policy must be defeated, and it will be defeated. That was the clear message of the NATO Summit. Nineteen democratically-elected NATO leaders came together to demonstrate their unity and

determination to prevail. We agreed to intensify the air campaign, and that is what NATO is doing -- both against military targets in Kosovo and against the infrastructure of political and military power in

Belgrade.

Our partners in Southeastern Europe, the frontline states, who are risking so much and who have borne such a heavy burden, have followed through on their pledges of support. We are also providing more

funds to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, and to NGOs to deliver food and supplies to the refugees. Our Defense Department has found a site for the facility it will build in Albania for up to

20,000 refugees. We hope it will begin taking in refugees in about two weeks.

I spoke to members of Congress about all these efforts today. I told them that now is the time to pass the supplemental funding for Kosovo that I requested nine days ago. We need it to maintain our military

readiness. Just as important, we need to sustain humanitarian relief and support for the frontline nations that have absorbed the brunt of this emergency.

Let me stress that my request fully funds our military and humanitarian needs in Kosovo. Congress should resist the temptation to add unrelated expenditures, even important ones, which could delay the

process, because that would undermine the very goals that this funding is intended to meet. We must get a Kosovo funding measure passed and to my desk now.

We also talked about other legislative initiatives pending on Kosovo in the Congress. I stressed that the 19 NATO allies are speaking with a single voice. America must continue to speak with a single voice

as well. I told them we would welcome the support of the Congress so that Mr. Milosevic will have no doubt that we had the determination and the patience to persevere until we prevail.

Each day, our military campaign takes a toll on Serbia's machinery of repression. The Serbian leadership has failed to divide us and will not outlast us. The combined military might and moral determination

of Europe and North America will endure.

We know what the ﬁnal outcome will be. The Serbian forces will leave Kosovo, an international security force will deploy to protect all the people there -- Serbs as well as Albanians. And the refugees will

return with security and self-government.

Thank you.

Q Did you say you promised Congress you would ask permission --

Q -- how can you say the strategy is working when 40,000 troops remain in Kosovo?

Q Mr. President, do you see any signs that Milosevic is losing his grip, sir? Any signs at all?

THE PRESIDENT: We have some indications that there are differences of opinion, obviously, developing in Belgrade, and we saw some of it public this week. There are some things that we know that I

think I should not comment on. But the thing I want to tell the American people is, we know objectively what damage has been done. We know now we're going to be in a position to ﬂy around the clock at

lower altitudes from all directions in better weather.

Historically, the weather is better in May than in April, better in June than in May, better in July than in June. And I feel very strongly that we should stay with and be very strong in determination to pursue

our strategy, as well as the very important decisions we made at the NATO conference to intensify the economic pressure. And I believe that if we do these things, we will be successful.

I am determined to do it. I believe our allies are all determined to do it. I think when they left here they were more determined than when they came.

As to the question the gentleman asked about the troops, keep in mind, the fact that they have mobilized more troops is an indication of the trouble they're having. If they had no problems, they wouldn't

need the troops. The initial state of play on the ground was they had 40,000 troops in and around Kosovo and nearly 300 tanks. So we always knew that if they were willing to take the bombing in the

beginning, they could do what they have done. Now, we have to stay with it to reverse that, and we can and we will, if we stay with it. I'm determined to do that.

Thank you.

Q -- promise Congress you would get their approval before sending ground troops?

Q Should Jesse Jackson go to Belgrade?

END 1:35 P.M. EDT

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release May 1, 1999

EXECUTIVE ORDER 13121

BLOCKING PROPERTY OF THE GOVERNMENTS

OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA (SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO),

THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA, AND THE REPUBLIC OF MONTENEGRO,

AND PROHIBITING TRADE TRANSACTIONS INVOLVING

THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA (SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO)

IN RESPONSE TO THE SITUATION IN KOSOVO

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.),

the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,

I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States of America, in order to take additional steps with respect to the continuing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Kosovo and the national

emergency described and declared in Executive Order 13088 of June 9, 1998, hereby order:

Section 1. Amendment to Executive Order 13088. (a) Section 1(a) of Executive Order 13088 of June 9, 1998, is revised to read as follows:

"Section 1. (a) Except to the extent provided in section 203(b)

of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)), and in regulations, orders,

directives, or licenses that may hereafter be issued pursuant to

this order, all property and interests in property of the

Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and

Montenegro), the Republic of Serbia, and the Republic of Montenegro

that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the

United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession

or control of United States persons, including their overseas

branches, are hereby blocked."

(b) Section 2 of Executive Order 13088 is hereby revoked, and a new section 2 is added to read as follows:

"Sec. 2. Except to the extent provided in section 203(b) of

IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)) and in regulations, orders, directives,

or licenses that may hereafter be issued pursuant to this order,

and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or

permit granted prior to the effective date of this order, the

following are prohibited:

"(a) the exportation, reexportation, sale, or supply, directly

or indirectly, from the United States, or by a United States

person, wherever located, to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

(Serbia and Montenegro) or the Government of the Federal Republic

of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Government of the

Republic of Serbia, or the Government of the Republic of

Montenegro, of any goods (including petroleum and petroleum

products), software, technology (including technical data), or

services;

"(b) the importation into the United States, directly or

indirectly, of any goods, software, technology (including technical

data), or services from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia

and Montenegro) or owned or controlled by the Government of the

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the

Government of the Republic of Serbia, or the Government of the

Republic of Montenegro; and

"(c) any transaction or dealing by a United States person,

wherever located, in goods, software, technology (including

technical data), or services, regardless of country of origin, for

exportation, reexportation, sale, or supply to, or exportation from

or by, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro)

or the Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and

Montenegro), the Government of the Republic of Serbia, or the

Government of the Republic of Montenegro. This prohibition

includes, without limitation, purchase, sale, transport, swap, or

brokerage transactions in such items, and approving, financing,

insuring, facilitating, or guaranteeing any such transactions."

"Sec. 4. Any transaction by a United States person that evades

or avoids, or has the purpose of evading or avoiding, or attempts

to violate, any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is

prohibited. Any conspiracy formed to violate the prohibitions of

this order is prohibited."

(d) Section 7 of Executive Order 13088 is revised to read as follows:

"Sec. 7. (a) The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with

the Secretary of State, shall give special consideration to the

circumstances of the Government of the Republic of Montenegro and

persons located in and organized under the laws of the Republic of

Montenegro in the implementation of this order.

"(b) The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the

Secretary of State, shall give special consideration to the

humanitarian needs of refugees from Kosovo and other civilians

within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro)

in the implementation of this order.

"(c) The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the

Secretary of State, is hereby directed to authorize commercial

sales of agricultural commodities and products, medicine, and

medical equipment for civilian end use in the territory of the

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) under

appropriate safeguards to prevent diversion to military,

paramilitary, or political use by the Government of the Federal

Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Government of

the Republic of Serbia, or the Government of the Republic of

Montenegro."

Sec. 2. Preservation of Authorities. Nothing in this order is intended to affect the continued effectiveness of any rules, regulations, orders, licenses, or other forms of administrative action issued, taken, or

continued in effect heretofore or hereafter under the authority of IEEPA, except as hereafter terminated, modiﬁed, or suspended by the issuing Federal agency.

Sec. 3. No rights or privileges conferred. Nothing contained in this order shall confer any substantive or procedural right or privilege on any person or organization, enforceable against the United States, its

agencies or its ofﬁcers.

Sec. 4. (a) Effective date. This order is effective at 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on May 1, 1999.

(b) Transmittal; Publication. This order shall be transmitted to the Congress and published in the Federal Register.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

THE WHITE HOUSE,

April 30, 1999.

# # #

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release May 1, 1999

FACT SHEET

New Sanctions Against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

During the Washington Summit April 23-25, NATO allies agreed to intensify economic sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and maximize the pressure on President Slobodan

Milosevic to accept NATO's conditions for securing a durable peace in Kosovo. These sanctions reinforce the military action NATO has undertaken to reverse the ethnic cleansing campaign waged by

Serbian security and paramilitary forces against the Kosovar Albanians.

To implement this agreement, President Clinton signed an Executive Order on April 30, 1999, which strengthens sanctions on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). This Executive

Order adds to the measures already in place under Executive Order 13088, which entered into effect on June 9, 1999.

The sanctions consist of:

The blocking of all property and interests in property of the Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), Serbia, and Montenegro;

A general ban on all U.S. exports and reexports to and imports from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), including speciﬁcally the export of petroleum and strategic goods;

and

The elimination of loopholes by strengthened provisions on evasion.

The current exemption from Montenegro will remain in force, reﬂecting the strong U.S. support for the democratically-elected, multi-ethnic government of that republic. Special consideration will also be

given to the humanitarian needs of refugees from Kosovo and other civilians within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Finally, the Executive Order provides appropriate licensing authority for sales of food and medicine, consistent with the President's April 28 announcement.

The State Department continues to enforce an embargo against the shipment of arms and related materiel to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) under the Arms Export Control Act.

###

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release May 1, 1999

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

Sanctions on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

At the NATO summit, the nineteen allied leaders agreed to intensify economic pressure on the Belgrade regime, in support of our united effort to stand up to ethnic cleansing and restore the people of

Kosovo to their land with security and self-government. Today I have signed an Executive Order strengthening economic sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The measures included in the Executive Order buttress U.S. sanctions already in place against the Milosevic regime. Under the expanded sanctions, we will, among other things: ban exports and re-exports

to and imports from the FRY, including petroleum and strategic goods, and freeze all property and property interests of the FRY government in the United States or controlled by U.S. entities.

We will retain the current exemptions for Montenegro, because of our strong support for its democratically-elected, multiethnic government. And we will apply these sanctions with consideration for the

humanitarian needs of displaced people in Kosovo and other civilians, and consistent with our new policy of exempting from sanctions commercial sales of food and medicine.

With these strengthened sanctions, we will diminish the Belgrade regime's ability to continue its campaign of repression and deﬁance, while allowing needed supplies to reach victims of its reckless and

brutal conduct, whatever their ethnicity or faith.

# # #

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release May 1, 1999

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:

In response to the brutal ethnic cleansing campaign in Kosovo carried out by the military, police, and paramilitary forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the NATO allies

have agreed to buttress NATO's military actions by tightening economic sanctions against the Milosevic regime. Pursuant to section 204(b) of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)

(50 U.S.C. 1703(b), I hereby report to the Congress that, in order to implement the measures called for by NATO, I have exercised my statutory authority to take additional steps with respect to the

continuing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Kosovo and the national emergency described and declared in Executive Order 13088 of June 9, 1998.

Pursuant to this authority, I have issued a new Executive order that:

expands the assets freeze previously imposed on the assets of the Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Republic of Serbia, and the Republic of

Montenegro subject to U.S. jurisdiction, by removing the exemption in Executive Order 13088 for ﬁnancial transactions by United States persons conducted exclusively through the domestic banking

system within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) or using bank notes or barter;

prohibits exports or reexports, directly or indirectly, from the United States or by a United States person, wherever located, of goods, software, technology, or services to the Federal Republic of

Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) or the Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Republic of Serbia, or the Republic of Montenegro;

prohibits imports, directly or indirectly, into the United States of goods, software, technology, or services from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) or owned or controlled by

the Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Republic of Serbia, or the Republic of Montenegro;

prohibits any transaction or dealing, including approving, ﬁnancing, or facilitating, by a United States person, wherever located, related to trade with or to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia

and Montenegro) or the Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Republic of Serbia, or the Republic of Montenegro.

The trade-related prohibitions apply to any goods (including petroleum and petroleum products), software, technology (including technical data), or services, except to the extent excluded by section 203(b)

of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)).

The ban on new investment by United States persons in the territory of Serbia -- -imposed by Executive Order 13088 -- continues in effect.

The Executive order provides that the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, shall give special consideration to the circumstances of the Government of the Republic of

Montenegro. As with Executive Order 13088, an exemption from the new sanctions has been granted to Montenegro. In implementing this order, special consideration is also to be given to the humanitarian

needs of refugees from Kosovo and other civilians within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro).

In keeping with my Administration's new policy to exempt commercial sales of food and medicine from sanctions regimes, the Executive order directs the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the

Secretary of State, to authorize commercial sales of agricultural commodities and products, medicine, and medical equipment for civilian end use in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and

Montenegro). Such sales are to be subject to appropriate safeguards to prevent diversion to military, paramilitary, or political use by the Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and

Montenegro), the Republic of Serbia, or the Republic of Montenegro.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

THE WHITE HOUSE,

April 30, 1999.

# # #

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Frankfurt, Germany)

________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release May 6, 1999

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

TO THE KOSOVAR REFUGEES

Refugee Reception Center

Ingelheim, Germany

1:40 P.M. (L)

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. Let me begin by thanking Chancellor Schroeder, the representatives of his government who are here and all the people of Germany for their strong, strong leadership in

NATO, in defense of the people of Kosovo and for making this place of refuge and shelter for people in need.

I thank Minister President Beck and the government of Rheinland-Pfalz and the townspeople of Ingelheim for making this center available, as well, and for supporting your presence here.

Most of all, I would like to express my respect to the families who are here today from Kosovo; and my very special thanks for those who met earlier with Chancellor Schroeder and me. To those of you who

told us the stories of your lives -- the heartbreak, the nightmare, the cruelty, the uncertainty; those who are young, those who are old and those who are in the middle of their lives. I listened very carefully to

all of you.

I hope that as you mustered the courage to meet with us you know that because you have done so, the world will hear your stories. It is very important that every freedom-loving person in the entire world

know the story of Kosovo. It is important that people not forget that what is called ethnic cleansing is not some abstract idea; it is real people with real families and real dreams being uprooted from their

homes, their schools, their work, their children, their parents, their husbands and wives. NATO has acted in Kosovo because we believe ethnic cleansing must be opposed, resisted, reversed.

We are doing all we can to bring aid to the victims of the violence. We are helping as many as we can in Albania and Macedonia. Both Germany and the United States and our other allies are taking refugees

out of the camps in Macedonia into our nations. We are helping relief groups to improve their registration systems so those of you who have missing family members can ﬁnd them, and so that we can

restore identity papers.

I know you will understand what a difﬁcult task this is. More people are pouring into Macedonia every day. More people are pouring into Albania every day. And then we are taking some people from the

camps into Germany, into the United States, into other countries. But we know this is an agony for those of you who do not know what has happened to your family members, and we are working on it. Just

this week, we will begin to put in computer terminals, here and in other refugee centers so that you can constantly get news in your own language on the situation in Kosovo and the status of the NATO

campaign.

Let me say on a very personal level, Chancellor Schroeder and I understand that what has been done to you and your children and your homeland cannot be undone. But you must know that you have not

been forgotten or abandoned. Mr. Milosevic has not succeeded in erasing your identity from the pages of history, and he will not succeed in erasing your presence from the land of your parents and

grandparents. You will go home again -- in safety and in freedom. (Applause.)

Now, in closing, I would like to ask of all of you something I asked of the smaller group with whom I just met. When you have gone through something as awful as this, it is very easy to have your spirit

broken, to spend the rest of your life obsessed with anger and resentment. But if you do that, you have already given those who oppressed you a victory.

I am of Irish heritage. The great Irish poet, William Butler Yeats, once said this -- I hope you can remember this. He said, "Too long a sacriﬁce can make a stone of the heart."

I ask you all to work with each other, to support each other, not to let your hearts turn to stone, to be determined to go home to a Kosovo where all the children can go to school and all the children can laugh

and play; and we can have a future that is not only free of the bad things that have happened to you, but is full of hope and opportunity, where you're a part of Europe and a free world, where all the children

can pursue their faith, their religion and their dreams. We are working hard for that day.

God bless you and thank you very much. (Applause.)

END 1:50 P.M. (L)

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release May 12, 1999

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:

Section 1203 of the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 1999, Public Law 105-261 (the Act), requires submission of a report to the Congress whenever the President

submits a request for funds for continued operations of U.S. forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In connection with my Administration's request for funds for FY 2000, the attached report fulﬁlls the requirements of section 1203 of the Act.

I want to emphasize again my continued commitment to close consultation with the Congress on political and military matters concerning Bosnia and Herzegovina. I look forward to continuing to work with

the Congress in the months ahead as we work to establish a lasting peace in the Balkans.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

THE WHITE HOUSE,

May 12, 1999.

# # #

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release May 13, 1999

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

TO VETERANS GROUPS ON KOSOVO

Eisenhower Hall

Ft. McNair

11:00 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Commander Pouliot. I am grateful to you and to Veterans of Foreign Wars for your support of America's efforts in Kosovo.

General Chilcoat, Secretary Albright, Secretary Cohen, Secretary West, National Security Advisor Berger, Deputy Secretary Gober, General Shelton and the Joint Chiefs, and to the members of the military

and members of the VFW who are here. I'd also like to thank Congressman Engel and Congressman Quinn for coming to be with us today.

I am especially honored to be here with our veterans who have struggled for freedom in World War II and in the half-century since. Your service inspires us today, as we work with our allies to reverse the

systematic campaign of terror, and to bring peace and freedom to Kosovo. To honor your sacriﬁces and fulﬁll the vision of a peaceful Europe, for which so many of the VFW members risked your lives,

NATO's mission, as the Commander said, must succeed.

My meetings last week in Europe with Kosovar refugees, we allied leaders, with Americans in uniform, strengthened my conviction that we will succeed. With just seven months left in the 20th century,

Kosovo is a crucial test: Can we strengthen a global community grounded in cooperation and tolerance, rooted in common humanity? Or will repression and brutality, rooted in ethnic, racial and religious

hatreds dominate the agenda for the new century and the new millennium?

The World War II veterans here fought in Europe and in the Paciﬁc to prevent the world from being dominated by tyrants who use racial and religious hatred to strengthen their grip and to justify mass

killing.

President Roosevelt said in his ﬁnal Inaugural Address: "We have learned that we cannot live alone. We cannot live alone at peace. We have learned that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being

of other nations far away. We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human community."

The sacriﬁces of American and allied troops helped to end a nightmare, rescue freedom and lay the groundwork for the modern world that has beneﬁted all of us. In the long Cold War years, our troops stood

for freedom against communism until the Berlin Wall fell and the Iron Curtain collapsed.

Now, the nations of Central Europe are free democracies. We've welcome new members to NATO and formed security partnerships with many other countries all across Europe's East, including Russia and

Ukraine. Both the European Union and NATO have pledged to continue to embrace new members.

Some have questioned the need for continuing our security partnership with Europe at the end of the Cold War. But in this age of growing international interdependence, America needs a strong and peaceful

Europe more than ever as our partner for freedom and for economic progress, and our partner against terrorism, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and instability.

The promise of a Europe undivided, democratic and at peace, is at long last within reach. But we all know it is threatened by the ethnic and religious turmoil in Southeastern Europe, where most leaders are

freely elected, and committed to cooperation, both within and among their neighbors.

Unfortunately, for more than 10 years now, President Milosevic has pursued a different course for Serbia, and for much of the rest of the former Yugoslavia. Since the late 1980s, he has acquired, retained,

and sought to expand his power, by inciting religious and ethnic hatred in the cause of greater Serbia; by demonizing and dehumanizing people, especially the Bosnian and Kosovar Muslims, whose history,

culture and very presence in the former republic of Yugoslavia impede that vision of a greater Serbia.

He unleashed wars in Bosnia and Croatia, creating 2 million refugees and leaving a quarter of a million people dead. A decade ago, he stripped Kosovo of its constitutional self-government, and began

harassing and oppressing its people. He has also rejected brave calls among his own Serb people for greater liberty. Today, he uses repression and censorship at home to stiﬂe dissent and to conceal what he

is doing in Kosovo.

Though his ethnic cleansing is not the same as the ethnic extermination of the Holocaust, the two are related -- both vicious, premeditated, systematic oppression fueled by religious and ethnic hatred. This

campaign to drive the Kosovars from their land and to, indeed, embrace their very identity is an affront to humanity and an attack not only on a people, but on the dignity of all people.

Even now, Mr. Milosevic is being investigated by the International War Crimes Tribunal for alleged war crimes, including mass killing and ethnic cleansing. Until recently, 1.7 million ethnic Albanians --

about the population of our state of Nebraska -- lived in Kosovo among a total population of 2 million, the others being Serbs.

The Kosovar Albanians are farmers and factory workers, lawyers and doctors, mothers, fathers, school children. They have worked to build better lives under increasingly difﬁcult circumstances. Today,

most of them are in camps in Albania, Macedonia and elsewhere -- nearly 900,000 refugees -- some searching desperately for lost family members. Or they are trapped within Kosovo itself, perhaps 600,000

more of them, lacking shelter, short of food, afraid to go home. Or they are buried in mass graves dug by their executioners.

I know we see these pictures of the refugees on television every night and most people would like another story. But we must not get refugee fatigue. We must not forget the real victims of this tragedy. We

must give them aid and hope. And we in the United States must make sure -- must -- make sure their stories are told.

A Kosovar farmer told how Serb tanks drove into his village. Police lined up all the men, about 100 of them, by a stream and opened ﬁre. The farmer was hit by a bullet in the shoulder. The weight of falling

bodies all around him pulled him into the stream. The only way he could stay alive was to pretend to be dead. From a camp in Albania, he said, my daughter tells me, "Father, sleep. Why don't you sleep?"

But I can't. All those dead bodies on top of mine.

Another refugee told of trying to return to his village in Kosovo's capital, Pristina. "On my way," he said, "I met one of my relatives. He told me not to go back because there were snipers on the balconies.

Minutes after I left, the man was killed -- I found him. Back in Pristina no one could go out, because of the Serb policemen in the streets. It was terrible to see our children, they were so hungry. Finally, I

tried to go shopping. Four armed men jumped out and said, we're going to kill you if you don't get out of here. My daughters were crying day and night. We were hearing stories about rape. They begged me,

please get us out of here. So we joined thousands of people going through the streets at night toward the train station. In the train wagons, police were tearing up passports, taking money, taking jewelry."

Another refugee reported, "The Serbs surrounded us. They killed four children because their families did not have money to give to the police. They killed them with knives, not guns."

Another recalled, "The police came early in the morning. They executed almost a hundred people. They killed them all, women and children. They set a ﬁre and threw the bodies in."

A pregnant woman watched Serb forces shoot her brother in the stomach. She said, "My father asked for someone to help this boy, but the answer he got was a beating. The Serbs told my brother to put his

hands up, and then they shot him ten times. I saw this. I saw my brother die."

Serb forces, their faces often concealed by masks, as they were before in Bosnia, have rounded up Kosovar women and repeatedly raped them. They have said to children, go into the woods and die of

hunger.

Last week in Germany, I met with a couple of dozen of these refugees, and I asked them all, in turn, to speak about their experience. A young man -- I'd say 15 or 16 years old -- stood up and struggled to

talk. Finally, he just sat down and said, "Kosovo, I can't talk about Kosovo."

Nine of every 10 Kosovar Albanians now has been driven from their homes; thousands murdered; at least 100,000 missing; many young men led away in front of their families; over 500 cities, towns and

villages torched. All this has been carried out, you must understand, according to a plan carefully designed months earlier in Belgrade. Serb ofﬁcials prepositioned forces, tanks and fuel and mapped out the

sequence of attack: what were the soldiers going to do; what were the paramilitary people going to do; what were the police going to do.

Town after town has seen the same brutal procedures -- Serb forces taking valuables and identity papers, seizing or executing civilians, destroying property records, bulldozing and burning homes, mocking

the ﬂeeing.

We and our allies, with Russia, have worked hard for a just peace. Just last fall, Mr. Milosevic agreed under pressure to halt a previous assault on Kosovo, and hundreds of thousands of Kosovars were able

to return home. But soon, he broke his commitment and renewed violence.

In February and March, again we pressed for peace, and the Kosovar Albanian leaders accepted a comprehensive plan, including the disarming of their insurgent forces, though it did not give them all they

wanted. But instead of joining the peace, Mr. Milosevic, having already massed some 40,000 troops in and around Kosovo, unleashed his forces to intensify their atrocities and complete his brutal scheme.

Now, from the outset of this conﬂict, we and our allies have been very clear about what Belgrade must do to end it. The central imperative is this: The Kosovars must be able to return home and live in

safety. For this to happen, the Serb forces must leave; partial withdrawals can only mean continued civil wars with the Kosovar insurgence.

There must also be an international security force with NATO at its core. Without that force, after all they've been through, the Kosovars simply won't go home. Their requirements are neither arbitrary nor

overreaching. These things we have said are simply what is necessary to make peace work.

There are those who say Europe and its North American allies have no business intervening in the ethnic conﬂicts of the Balkans. They are the inevitable result, these conﬂicts, according to some, of

centuries-old animosity which were unleashed by the end of the Cold War restraints in Yugoslavia and elsewhere. I, myself, have been guilty of saying that on an occasion or two, and I regret it now more

than I can say. For I have spent a great deal of time in these last six years reading the real history of the Balkans. And the truth is that a lot of what passes for common wisdom in this area is a gross

oversimpliﬁcation and misreading of history.

The truth is that for centuries these people have lived together in the Balkans and Southeastern Europe with greater or lesser degree of tension, but often without anything approaching the intolerable

conditions and conﬂicts that exist today. And we do no favors to ourselves or to the rest of the world when we justify looking away from this kind of slaughter by oversimplifying and conveniently, in our

own way, demonizing the whole Balkans by saying that these people are simply incapable of civilized behavior with one another.

Second, there is -- people say, okay, maybe it's not inevitable, but look there are a lot of ethnic problems in the world. Russia has dealt with Chechnya, and you've got Abkhazia and Ossetia on the borders of

Russia. And you've got all these ethnic problems everywhere, and religious problems. That's what the Middle East is about. You've got Northern Ireland. You've got the horrible, horrible genocide in

Rwanda. You've got the war, now, between Eritrea and Ethiopia. They say, oh, we've got all these problems, and, therefore, why do you care about this?

I say to them, there is a huge difference between people who can't resolve their problems peacefully and ﬁght about them, and people who resort to systematic ethnic cleansing and slaughter of people

because of their religious or ethnic background. There is a difference. There is a difference.

And that is the difference that NATO -- that our allies have tried to recognize and act on. I believe that is what we saw in Bosnia and Kosovo. I think the only thing we have seen that really rivals that, rooted

in ethnic or religious destruction, in this decade is what happened in Rwanda. And I regret very much that the world community was not organized and able to act quickly there as well.

Bringing the Kosovars home is a moral issue, but it is a very practical, strategic issue. In a world where the future will be threatened by the growth of terrorist groups; the easy spread of weapons of mass

destruction; the use of technology including the Internet, for people to learn how to make bombs, and wreck countries, this is also a signiﬁcant security issue. Particularly because of Kosovo's location, it is

just as much a security issue for us as ending the war in Bosnia was.

Though we are working hard with the international community to sustain them, a million or more permanent Kosovar refugees could destabilize Albania, Macedonia, the wider region, become a fertile

ground for radicalism and vengeance that would consume Southeastern Europe. And if Europe were overwhelmed with that, you know we would have to then come in and help them. Far better for us all to

work together, to be ﬁrm, to be resolute, to be determined to resolve this now.

If the European community and it's American and Canadian allies were to turn away from, and therefore reward, ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, all we would do is to create for ourselves an environment

where this sort of practice was sanctioned by other people who found it convenient to build their own political power, and therefore, we would be creating a world of trouble for Europe and for the United

States in the years ahead.

I'd just like to make one more point about this, in terms of the history of the Balkans. As long as people have existed there have been problems among people who are different from one another, and there

probably always will be. But you do not have systematic slaughter and an effort to eradicate the religion, the culture, the heritage, the very record of presence of the people in any area unless some politician

thinks it is in his interest to foment that sort of hatred. That's how these things happen -- people with organized political and military power decide it is in their interest that they get something out of

convincing the people they control or they inﬂuence to go kill other people and uproot them and dehumanize them.

I don't believe that the Serb people in their souls are any better -- I mean, any worse -- than we are. Do you? Do you believe when a little baby is born into a certain ethnic or racial group that somehow they

have some poison in there that has to, at some point when they grow up, turn into some vast ﬂame of destruction? Congressman Engel has got more Albanians than any congressman in the country in his

district. Congressman Quinn's been involved in the peace process in Ireland. You think there's something about the Catholic and Protestant Irish kids that sort of genetically predisposes them to -- you know

better than that, because we're about to make peace there, I hope -- getting closer.

Political leaders do this kind of thing. You think the Germans would have perpetrated the Holocaust on their own without Hitler? Was there something in the history of the German race that made them do

this? No.

We've got to get straight about this. This is something political leaders do. And if people make decisions to do these kinds of things, other people can make decisions to stop them. And if the resources are

properly arrayed it can be done. And that is exactly what we intend to do. (Applause.)

Now, last week, despite our differences over the NATO action in Kosovo, Russia joined us, through the G-8 foreign ministers, in afﬁrming our basic condition for ending the conﬂict, in afﬁrming that the

mass expulsion of the Kosovars cannot stand. We and Russia agreed that the international force ideally should be endorsed by the United Nations, as it was in Bosnia. And we do want Russian forces, along

with those of other nations, to participate, because a Russian presence will help to reassure the Serbs who live in Kosovo -- and they will need some protection, too, after all that has occurred.

NATO and Russian forces have served well side-by-side in Bosnia, with forces from many other countries. And with all the difﬁculties, the tensions, the dark memories that still exist in Bosnia, the Serbs,

the Muslims, the Croats are still at peace, and still working together. Nobody claims that we can make everybody love each other overnight. That is not required. But what is required are basic norms of

civilized conduct.

Until Serbia accepts these conditions, we will continue to grind down its war machine. Today, our allied air campaign is striking at strategic targets in Serbia, and directly at Serb forces in Kosovo, making it

harder for them to obtain supplies, protect themselves, and attack the ethnic Albanians who are still there. NATO actions will not stop until the conditions I have described for peace are met.

Last week, I had a chance to meet with our troops in Europe -- those who are ﬂying the missions, and those who are organizing and leading our humanitarian assistance effort. I can tell you that you and all

Americans can be very, very proud of them. They are standing up for what is right. They are performing with great skill and courage and sense of purpose. And in their attempts to avoid civilian casualties,

they are sometimes risking their own lives. The wing commander at Spangdahlem Air Force Base in Germany told me, "Sir, our team wants to stay with this mission until it's ﬁnished."

I am very grateful to these men and women. They are worthy successors to those of you in this audience who are veterans today.

Of course, we regret any casualties that are accidental, including those at the Chinese Embassy. But let me be clear again: These are accidents. They are inadvertent tragedies of conﬂict. We have worked

very hard to avoid them. I'm telling you, I talked to pilots who told me that they had been ﬁred at with mobile weapons from people in the middle of highly-populated villages, and they turned away rather

than answer ﬁre because they did not want to risk killing innocent civilians.

That is not our policy. But those of you who wear the uniform of our country and the many other countries represented here in this room today, and those of you who are veterans, know that it is simply not

possible to avoid casualties of noncombatants in this sort of encounter. We are working hard. And I think it is truly remarkable -- I would ask the world to note that we have now ﬂown over 19,000 sorties,

thousands and thousands of bombs have been dropped, and there have been very few incidents of this kind. I know that you know how many there have been because Mr. Milosevic makes sure that the

media has access to them.

I grieve for the loss of the innocent Chinese and their families. I grieve for the loss of the innocent Serbian civilians and their families. I grieve for the loss of the innocent Kosovars who were put into a

military vehicle that our people thought was a military vehicle, and they've often been used as shields.

But I ask you to remember the stories I told you earlier. There are thousands of people that have been killed systematically by the Serb forces. There are 100,000 people who are still missing. We must

remember who the real victims are here and why this started.

It is no accident that Mr. Milosevic has not allowed the international media to see the slaughter and destruction in Kosovo. There is no picture reﬂecting the story that one refugee told of 15 men being tied

together and set on ﬁre while they were alive. No, there are no pictures of that. But we have enough of those stories to know that there is a systematic effort that has animated our actions, and we must not

forget it.

Now, Serbia faces a choice. Mr. Milosevic and his allies have dragged their people down a path of racial and religious hatred. This has resulted, again and again, in bloodshed, in loss of life, in loss of

territory, and denial of the Serbs' own freedom -- and now, in an unwinnable conﬂict against the united international community.

But there is another path available -- one where people of different backgrounds and religions work together, within and across national borders; where people stop redrawing borders and start drawing

blueprints for a prosperous, multiethnic future.

This is the path the other nations of Southeastern Europe have adopted. Day after day, they work to improve lives, to build a future in which the forces that pull people together are stronger than those that

tear them apart. Albania and Bulgaria, as well as our NATO ally, Greece, have overcome historical differences to recognize the independence of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Romania,

Bulgaria, Macedonia and others have deepened freedoms, promoted tolerance, pursued difﬁcult economic reforms. Slovenia has advanced democracy at home, and prosperity; stood for regional integration,

increased security cooperation, with a center to defuse land mines left from the conﬂict in Bosnia.

These nations are reafﬁrming that discord is not inevitable, that there is not some Balkan disease that has been there for centuries, always waiting to break out. They are drawing on a rich past where peoples

of the region did, in fact, live together in peace.

Now, we and our allies have been helping to build that future, but we have to accelerate our efforts. We will work with the European Union, the World Bank, the IMF and others to ease the immediate

economic strains, to relieve debt burden, to speed reconstruction, to advance economic reforms and regional trade. We will promote political freedom and tolerance of minorities.

At our NATO Summit last month we agreed to deepen our security engagement in the region, to adopt an ambitious program to help aspiring nations improve their candidacies to join the NATO Alliance.

They have risked and sacriﬁced the support the military and humanitarian efforts. They deserve our support.

Last Saturday was the anniversary of one of the greatest days in American history and in the history of freedom -- VE Day. Though America celebrated that day in 1945, we did not pack up and go home.

We stayed -- to provide economic aid, to help to bolster democracy, to keep the peace -- and because our strength and resolve was important as Europe rebuilt, learned to live together; faced new challenges

together.

The resources we devoted to the Marshall Plan, to NATO, to other efforts, I think we would all agree have been an enormous bargain for our long-term prosperity and security here in the United States -- just

as the resources we are devoting here at this institution -- to reaching out to people from other nations, to their ofﬁcers, to their military, in a spirit of cooperation are an enormous bargain for the future

security of the people of the United States.

Now, that's what I want to say in my last point here. War is expensive; peace is cheaper. Prosperity is downright proﬁtable. We have to invest in the rebuilding of this region. Southeastern Europe, after the

Cold War, was free but poor. As long as they are poor, they will offer a less compelling counterweight to the kind of ethnic exclusivity and oppression that Mr. Milosevic preaches.

If you believe the Marshall Plan worked, and you believe war is to be avoided whenever possible, and you understand how expensive it is and how proﬁtable prosperity is, how much we have gotten out of

what we have done -- then we have to work with our European allies to rebuild Southeastern Europe, and to give them an economic future that will pull them together.

The European Union is prepared to take the lead role in Southeastern Europe's development. Russia, Ukraine, other nations of Europe's East are building democracy -- they want to be a part of this.

We are trying to do this in other places in the world. What a great ally Japan has been for peace and prosperity, and will be again as they work to overcome their economic difﬁculty. Despite our present

problems, I still believe we must remain committed to building a long-term strategic partnership with China.

We must work together with people where we can, as we prepare -- always -- to protect and defend our security if we must. But a better world and a better Europe are clearly in America's interests.

Serbia and the rest of the Balkans should be part of it. So I want to say this one more time: Our quarrel is not with the Serbian people. The United States has been deeply enriched by Serbian Americans.

Millions of Americans are now cheering for some Serbian Americans as we watch the basketball play-offs every night on television. People of Serbian heritage are an important part of our society. We can

never forget that the Serbs fought bravely with the allies against fascist aggression in World War II; that they suffer much; that Serbs, too, have been uprooted from their homes and have suffered greatly in

the conﬂicts of the past decade that Mr. Milosevic provoked.

But the cycle of violence has to end. The children of the Balkans -- all of them -- deserve the chance to grow up without fear. Serbs simply must free themselves of the notion that their neighbors must be

their enemies. The real enemy is a poisonous hatred unleashed by a cynical leader, based on a distorted view of what constitutes real national greatness.

The United States has become greater as we have shed racism, as we have shed a sense of superiority, as we have become more committed to working together across the lines that divide us, as we have

found other ways to deﬁne meaning and purpose in life. And so has every other country that has embarked on that course.

We stand ready, therefore, to embrace Serbia as a part of a new Europe -- if the people of Serbia are willing to invest and embrace that kind of future; if they are ready to build a Serbia, and a Yugoslavia,

that is democratic, and respects the rights and dignity of all people; if they are ready to join a world where people reach across the divide to ﬁnd their common humanity and their prosperity.

This is the right vision, and the right course. It is not only the morally right thing for America, it is the right thing for our security interests over the long run. It is the vision for which the veterans in this

room struggled so valiantly, for which so many others have given their lives.

With your example to guide us, and with our allies beside us, it is a vision that will prevail. And it is very, very much worth standing for.

Thank you, and God bless you. (Applause.)

END 11:35 A.M. EDT

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release May 18, 1999

REMARKS BY THE FIRST LADY

ON BRIEFING ON HER TRIP TO THE BALKANS

Presidential Hall

1:12 P.M. EDT

MRS. CLINTON: Welcome. Please be seated. We are very pleased to have you here for this event. I am delighted to be joined by several members of Congress -- Senator Lautenberg and Senator

Hutchinson, Senator Voinovich, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. Julia Taft I see as well. Ken Hackett, the Executive Director of the Catholic Relief Services, and other members of the government and

many representatives of non-governmental organizations, as well as Albanian Americans and refugees from Kosovo.

As you know, I just returned from visiting Stankovac I, one of the refugee camps in Macedonia. And it certainly was an experience that I and those who traveled with me will never, and could never forget.

I wanted to tell you brieﬂy about what I saw and heard in my meetings there -- for two reasons. First, because these heartbreaking stories of families separated, of girls raped, of men executed, of homes

destroyed -- these tragic stories are happening every day and happening even today. And they must be told and retold and never forgotten.

Nothing makes the case more powerfully for why the United States and our NATO allies are pursuing their mission in Kosovo, and why we cannot give up until the evils perpetrated by Milosevic and his

regime have been stopped and the refugees returned home in peace and safety.

The second reason I wanted to come and speak with you today is to thank all of you. I saw a lot of extraordinarily hard work going on at that one camp in Macedonia. And I know it is being replicated in the

other camps in Macedonia, and in Albania, in the relief work being carried out in Montenegro, and in many other locations where refugees are being moved. None of that would have been possible without

the commitment and the compassion and the resources that so many of you have brought to bear on dealing with this humanitarian crisis.

I particularly want to thank the members of Congress who are here -- we will hear from two of the senators in just a moment -- and the other ofﬁcials from State, DOD, HHS, INS, USAID, and others who

are leading the government's response to this crisis.

And I also want to thank many American citizens, some representatives of whom are with us today. But to the literally thousands and thousands of Americans who have made contributions, who have

opened their hearts and their homes and their wallets, I want to thank you.

And I'd like to highlight a few particular Americans who have made some real contributions. We have with us some students from St. Peter's Inner Parish School on Capitol Hill. They gathered over 100

emergency kits, including soap, candles and bandages, for the refugees in the camps.

There are students here from the Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C. They are in the process of planning a school-wide fundraising effort to supplement some of their individual work. And then

there are students here from Stoneridge School of the Sacred Heart, who, with a little help from a concert by Peter Yarrow, raised $15,000 for trucks in Albania and Macedonia.

I'd like to ask these young people to stand, and I'd like to express our appreciation to them. (Applause.) I also want to thank their teachers and their parents for obviously setting such a good example for their

involvement.

We're also joined today by two refugee families who are living in Manassas, Virginia. They are the ﬁrst families to be relocated to the Washington, D.C., area. They were part of the ﬁrst group of refugees

with relatives in the U.S. to come over. I met that ﬁrst group of refugees at Fort Dix and I'm delighted that we could be joined by two of the families. And we will hear from one of them, Veton Sylejmani,

who will be speaking on his own behalf, on behalf of his extended family and on behalf of many other refugees.

I don't know that any of us who have not endured what these men, women and children have can really fully comprehend what they have suffered, or the courage it takes to speak about their experiences. I

found it difﬁcult in the refugee camp to ask and then listen to the stories that the refugees told me, because it's a very painful experience for them to have to relive that. But they are willing to do so because

they want all of us to know what has happened to them and is still happening to their loved ones.

So I'm particularly grateful to these two families and also to the Ethiopian Community Development Council, who has helped to make their stay as comfortable as possible.

We will also hear from the Executive Director of Catholic Relief Services, Ken Hackett, who just returned from Albania. I saw some of his colleagues at work in Macedonia and I'm extremely grateful to all

of them.

As these men and women will tell their stories here today, as they told their stories to me, as they told them to the two senators on their recently concluded trip, I know that all of us have those images and

those words really emblazoned in our own minds. A 63-year-old woman told me she doesn't know where her daughter and grandchildren are. After her son-in-law was killed by Serb police action in January,

her daughter stayed with his parents. And then when the Serbian police came, they held guns to their throats, burned down their house, and ordered her family to leave.

She's not sure that her grandchildren and other son are still in Kosovo, but she doesn't know where they are, and hopes only that they're safe.

Another family that left their village before paramilitary forces arrived were driven from village to village before arriving in Macedonia six weeks ago. One of the men in the group talking to me cried as he

remembered the funeral of one of the Albanians in the village. Serb police surrounded the mourners as they sit at the grave, threatening to kill them all, and then stripping them of their money and their

valuables.

In another tent I met a man who spoke English, who told me that his wife and children had been visiting their grandfather when the Serbs arrived at his house, forcing him to leave without his family. He,

too, moved from village to village and is still waiting for news of where his family is.

And in the ﬁnal tent, I sat down with an extended family and listened to their stories. And maybe what affected me the most of all these horrors that were related to me was being told by a woman how, when

they were being pushed in this huge crowd in Pristina, heading toward the train station, she was holding on to her children, she was supporting her mother-in-law, and her husband had other children and

relatives, and they were trying to stay together. And all of a sudden she felt the hand of her older daughter slip out, and the older daughter had been holding on to two younger siblings. And she turned, and

she couldn't turn and she was hemmed in and the police were continuing to push them forward. She couldn't go back, she was screaming for her children; she couldn't ﬁnd them. They were pushed onto the

train. And there they were in a refugee camp in Macedonia, not knowing where her children are. And her husband, who went looking for them, she can't ﬁnd him, either.

Time and again these haunting images remind us of what is at stake and what is going on here. When I was in London with Prime Minister and Mrs. Blair, I met with two refugee families who have made

their way to London, who told me how this all started. This is not something that started just a few weeks ago, nor even just last year when we saw the pictures of people being pushed into the mountains. It

started as long ago as 10 years, when ﬁrst Kosovars were forbidden to go to the theater or the sports stadium; then their schools were closed; then they were afraid to drive their cars on the streets because

they would be stopped and harassed and robbed.

Then a couple of years ago they started being pushed out of their homes -- a family at a time, a block at a time. They took refuge in the mountains. That was where we saw the ﬁrst wave of refugees coming

over the borders -- I can remember visiting with a pediatrician who cared for those people while they were up in the mountains -- and then, ﬁnally, the great expulsion that we have seen in the last two

months.

When I arrived in Macedonia, I sat down with representatives from the NGOs such as CRS, UNHCR, IOC -- many of the others who are on the frontlines. And many of them had been in Kosovo; they had

actually been operating in Pristina and other places. So we not only have the eyewitness accounts and stories of the refugees themselves. We have the corroboration of the NGOs, who actually were there and

stayed there as long as they could, until they, too, were ordered out or required to leave for their own safety.

It was very sad to hear them talking about how they felt so bad leaving their colleagues in the medical ofﬁces they had set up, in the food relief operations they were running. And they, too, were searching to

make sure that they knew what had happened to them.

But now, here they are. They're in Macedonia, they're working together, they are literally coming from all over the world. I saw an Israeli organization, called Israeli Council for Youth Movements, who

helped give the young people something to do in the camps. The children can now attend UNICEF-run schools. The German Red Cross was running a hospital there. Medical teams have arrived from

everywhere from France to Taiwan. An Iranian group has even cooperated by installing a portable shower. I mean, this has been an outpouring of humanitarian relief from every kind of country, from every

part of the world.

But the bottom line is these people want to go home. I mean, no matter how well organized these camps are becoming and how many more services are being provided, they want to go home. And I'm very

hopeful that we'll be able to see that come about, so that these people can return in safety and peace.

The United States assistance to the refugees is now over $200 million. Yesterday the administration, with Julia Taft and others, announced $4 million to help support Albanian and Macedonian families who

are hosting refugees, who are really the unsung heroes of this refugees crisis. Because if it were not for the Macedonian and the Albanian families who have taken people into their very poor homes, then the

camp crisis and the refugee problem would be even greater. So we're going to try this program on a beginning basis to help fund these families so that they can meet their own needs as well as the refugee

needs.

But if we're going to fully implement what we need to do both militarily and in terms of humanitarian and economic support, then we need to have the President's supplemental budget actually signed into

law so that the money can start moving. And we hope that by the end of this week, Congress will act favorably on the supplemental that has been negotiated.

I'm pleased to announce that today an additional $15 million will be given to help the refugees from Kosovo. It will be given to U.N. organizations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and other

international and non-governmental organizations who are providing refugee relief. It will also help support our efforts to provide a safe haven for up to 20,000 refugees here.

I'm also pleased to announce that this week the United States will establish an Internet information center at Fort Dix, New Jersey. It's a public-private partnership headed by the United States Information

Agencies. It will help the refugees get information in their own language so that they can ﬁnd out more about what's going on back at home and perhaps even locate missing family members.

I'm delighted that many of the computer companies who are helping to lead this effort are here with us today, and I want to thank them.

I'm also pleased to announce that Reebok is donating a thousand pairs of shoes and a thousand duffel bags to the refugees, who often arrive at Fort Dix with little more than the clothes on their back. And I'd

like to thank Reebok CEO Paul Fireman for this commitment.

When Senator Lautenberg and I visited Fort Dix, the General in charge of Operation Open Arms talked about how he hoped to treat the refugees there -- to welcome them to Fort Dix, as his grandparents

had been welcomed at Ellis Island.

Today's announcements will make sure that we're continuing to help service the needs of the refugees, here in the United States as well as in the camps that have been established for them, and also to

continue to elicit the kind of support we need from business, young people, relief organizations, government leaders, Albanian Americans, and others who are helping to make this humanitarian effort work.

It's now my great honor to introduce the person who has just headed up the congressional delegation that returned from visiting six countries in 72 hours, which is I think probably a record of some sort --

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson has shown great leadership, standing up to ensure that we honor our humanitarian commitment to the refugees. And it's my great pleasure to introduce Senator Hutchinson.

(Applause.)

MRS. CLINTON: Well, I want to thank everyone who came this afternoon. I especially want to thank all of the speakers.

Those of us lucky enough to be up on the stage can look right at Veton's little child, and we can see those big eyes, and that look that babies have, about the world being just wide open to them, no matter

where they're going.

And that is -- Kay and I were sitting there, remarking about how beautiful the children are, that we saw. And we hope that we don't have to face a winter in tents, Ken, because I can just imagine -- I was

standing in the refugee camp, and you could look over the hills of Macedonia and see the mountains of Kosovo, and they still have snow on them. So I know that the snow doesn't leave until July or so, and

it's back by September or October. So it will be a great challenge. We're hoping that we don't have to meet that challenge.

But I'm conﬁdent that with the continuing support, the broad-based citizen concern that we've seen in our country and around the world, that whatever the needs that these people have, we will be able to

address them until the day ﬁnally arrives when they're able to go home and resume their lives in peace and security.

So, to all of you who are on the frontlines making that happen in all your various ways, I want to thank you for your hard work. And thank you for being here this afternoon. (Applause.)

END 1:55 P.M. EDT

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the First Lady

For Immediate Release May 18, 1999

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton Announces

New U.S. Initiatives To Assist Kosovar Refugees

May 18, 1999

Today, the First Lady announced new U.S. initiatives to assist Kosovar refugees. These projects reafﬁrm the U.S. commitment to assist the victims of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo until they can return to their

homes and rebuild their lives. The new initiatives bring total U.S. assistance to over $200 million.

ERMA Assistance

The President has authorized the expenditure of an additional $15 million from the Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund (ERMA) to assist Kosovar refugees. The State Department's Bureau

for Population, Refugees and Migration will channel these funds through U.N. organizations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international and non-governmental organizations who

are providing refugee relief. The funds will also support efforts to relocate up to 20,000 refugees to the United States. The President has previously approved $70 million from this account to assist Kosovar

refugees.

Refugee Internet Information Center

This week, the United States will establish an Internet Information Center in Ft. Dix, New Jersey, to help refugees access information in their language on the situation in Kosovo, communicate with other

Kosovar refugees and locate missing family members. The U.S. Information Agency (USIA) is spearheading this public-private partnership, which links government agencies, technology companies,

foundations and international relief organizations in a coordinated effort to bring to refugee communities the hardware and software necessary to establish internet-based platforms and support humanitarian

efforts. Additional information centers will be established in Macedonia, Albania, Poland, Germany and France.

The initiative is coordinated with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Organization for Migration. Leading companies

include Apple Computer, Inc., Autometric, Inc., Canon, Cisco Systems Inc., The David Sarnoff Corporation, The Document Company, Xerox, Gateway and the Waitt Family Foundation, Hewlett-Packard,

International Data Group, Interpacket Group, Inc., the Markle Foundation, the National Technology Alliance, Northwest Airlines, Riso, Inc., SGI, UPS and 3M.

###

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Littleton, Colorado)

________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release May 20, 1999

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

Today, the Senate approved the emergency resources I requested to support our mission in Kosovo. Congressional support for this mission means our military forces can sustain the air campaign until we

prevail. It sends a clear signal to the Milosevic regime that the Congress and the American people are committed to this mission. And the resources I requested for the Defense Department will keep our

military readiness strong.

At the same time the bill includes resources critical to helping the international community and the frontline countries of Southeast Europe cope with the massive humanitarian crisis and other immediate

spillover effects of the conﬂict and Milosevic's brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing.

This emergency funding package will also provide urgently needed resources to help Central Americans repair and rebuild after the devastation of Hurricane Mitch. With these funds, farmers can plant new

crops in the ﬁnal weeks of the growing season; roads, hospitals, and schools can be rebuilt; and Central Americans can look to the future with hope, knowing that America is standing with them. The

legislation will support the improving prospects for peace in the Middle East by providing additional assistance to strengthen Jordan's economy and security. This emergency funding also provides resources

for victims of natural disasters at home, and for our farmers in distress due to depressed crop prices.

While I am pleased that Congress has ﬁnally acted to fund our mission in the Balkans, to support the Middle East peace process and to help American farmers and the victims of Hurricane Mitch, it is

unfortunate that Members tacked unnecessary and ill-advised special projects onto essential emergency legislation. Were it not for the pressing needs in Kosovo, Central America, the Middle East and

America's heartland, I would have rejected several of these measures that reward special interests, weaken environmental protection, and undermine our campaign to stop teen smoking. This is no way to do

the people's business, and I will not tolerate this kind of special interest meddling as we complete the annual budget process.

This ﬁnal legislation does show signiﬁcant improvement upon Congress's earlier versions. Gone are the Congress's proposed cuts that weakened anti-terrorism programs, especially embassy security

upgrades; that threatened to undermine global economic stability by denying U.S. funds to multi-lateral development banks; and that imperiled the government's ability to continue ﬁxing its computers for

the Year 2000. Congress also removed or modiﬁed certain objectionable riders that, for example, would have blocked our efforts to protect the sensitive waters in Alaska's Glacier Bay, and weakened the

Endangered Species Act.

It is a mistake for Congress to use this bill as a vehicle for a range of special interest provisions harmful to the environment and to the prudent stewardship of our nation's natural resources. Several highly

objectionable provisions remain in the ﬁnal bill. For example, there are provisions that undermine our ability to ensure that mining on federal lands is done in an environmentally responsible manner. And by

extending a moratorium on the Department of Interior's proposed oil valuation rules, the Congress is preventing the collection of fair royalty payments from the oil companies that extract oil from public

lands. Again, I want to be clear that were it not for the truly emergency needs to which this bill responds I would be rejecting these environmental riders. I call on Congress to end these stealth attempts to

weaken environmental and public health protections. I have vetoed bills in the past because they contained anti-environmental riders and, if necessary, am fully prepared to do so again.

Finally, Congress passed up an important opportunity to protect our children from the death and diseases caused by tobacco. This is wrong. I am also extremely disappointed that the Congress acted against

recoupment of funds collected by the States from tobacco manufacturers and does not require States to use even a portion of those funds to prevent youth smoking. Even though 3,000 young people become

regular smokers every day and 1,000 will have their lives cut short as a result, most states still have no plans to use tobacco settlement funds to reduce youth smoking. I will closely monitor state efforts in

this area and I will continue to ﬁght for a nationwide effort to reduce youth smoking through counter-advertising, prevention activities, and restrictions on youth access to tobacco products.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Aboard Air Force One)

________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release May 25, 1999

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

I believe that our air campaign in Kosovo is working and will ultimately succeed in its objective of returning the people of Kosovo to their homes with security and self government. With that in mind, we

are planning with our allies for success. Today, NATO endorsed an updated plan for implementing the peace in Kosovo when its conditions are met.

The force that NATO plans to deploy -- KFOR -- will deter renewed hostilities and provide the security and conﬁdence the refugees need to return and get on with their lives. To be credible and effective,

KFOR will have NATO at the core.

Given the new circumstances, including the enormous humanitarian crisis caused by Mr. Milosevic, KFOR will need to be larger than we originally foresaw. We expect the American contribution to increase

proportionately but our European allies will still provide the vast bulk of the force. We also hope that Russia and other non-NATO countries will participate.

The headquarters and leading elements of KFOR are already in the region, where they are helping to relieve the refugee crisis. NATO's military authorities will now work with allied countries to determine

what additional forces will be required so that the Alliance is ready when the time comes for the refugees to return. Make no mistake, that time will come, in accordance with the conditions we have

repeatedly laid out.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Aboard Air Force One)

________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release May 25, 1999

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

are planning with our allies for success. Today, NATO endorsed an updated plan for implementing the peace in Kosovo when its conditions are met.

KFOR will have NATO at the core.

proportionately but our European allies will still provide the vast bulk of the force. We also hope that Russia and other non-NATO countries will participate.

what additional forces will be required so that the Alliance is ready when the time comes for the refugees to return. Make no mistake, that time will come, in accordance with the conditions we have

repeatedly laid out.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Yulee, Florida)

_______________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release May 27, 1999

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:

Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President

publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. In accordance with this provision, I have sent the

enclosed notice to the Federal Register for publication, stating that the emergency declared with respect to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) is to continue in effect beyond May

30, 1999, and the emergency declared with respect to the situation in Kosovo is to continue in effect beyond June 9, 1999.

On December 27, 1995, I issued Presidential Determination 96-7, directing the Secretary of the Treasury, inter alia, to suspend the application of sanctions imposed on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

(Serbia and Montenegro) and to continue to block property previously blocked until provision is made to address claims or encumbrances, including the claims of the other successor states of the former

Yugoslavia. This sanctions relief, in conformity with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1022 of November 22, 1995 (hereinafter the "Resolution"), was an essential factor motivating Serbia and

Montenegro's acceptance of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina initialed by the parties in Dayton, Ohio, on November 21, 1995, and signed in Paris, France, on

December 14, 1995 (hereinafter the "Peace Agreement"). The sanctions imposed on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) were accordingly suspended prospectively, effective

January 16, 1996. Sanctions imposed on the Bosnian Serb forces and authorities and on the territory that they control within Bosnia and Herzegovina were subsequently suspended prospectively, effective

May 10, 1996, also in conformity with the Peace Agreement and the Resolution.

Sanctions against both the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) and the Bosnian Serbs were subsequently terminated by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1074 of October 1,

1996. This termination, however, did not end the requirement of the Resolution that blocked those funds and assets that are subject to claims and encumbrances remain blocked, until unblocked in

accordance with applicable law. Until the status of all remaining blocked property is resolved, the Peace Agreement implemented, and the terms of the Resolution met, this situation continues to pose a

continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy interests, and the economy of the United States. For these reasons, I have determined that it is necessary to maintain in

force these emergency authorities beyond May 30, 1999.

On June 9, 1998, I issued Executive Order 13088, "Blocking Property of the Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Republic of Serbia, and the Republic of

Montenegro, and Prohibiting New Investment in the Republic of Serbia in Response to the Situation in Kosovo." Since then, the government of President Milosevic has rejected the international

community's efforts to ﬁnd a peaceful settlement for the crisis in Kosovo and has launched a massive campaign of ethnic cleansing that has displaced a large percentage of the population and been

accompanied by an increasing number of atrocities. President Milosevic's brutal assault against the people of Kosovo and his complete disregard for the requirements of the international community pose a

threat to regional peace and stability.

President Milosevic's actions continue to pose a continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy interests, and the economy of the United States. For these reasons, I have

determined that it is necessary to maintain in force these emergency authorities beyond June 9, 1999.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

THE WHITE HOUSE,

May 27, 1999.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Yulee, Florida)

________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release May 27, 1999

NOTICE

CONTINUATION OF EMERGENCY WITH RESPECT TO THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF

YUGOSLAVIA (SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO)

On May 30, 1992, by Executive Order 12808, President Bush declared a national emergency to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the

United States constituted by the actions and policies of the Governments of Serbia and Montenegro, blocking all property and interests in property of those Governments. President Bush took additional

measures to prohibit trade and other transactions with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) by Executive Orders 12810 and 12831, issued on June 5, 1992, and January 15, 1993,

respectively. On April 25, 1993, I issued Executive Order 12846, blocking the property and interests in property of all commercial, industrial, or public utility undertakings or entities organized or located in

the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), and prohibiting trade-related transactions by United States persons involving those areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina controlled by Bosnian Serb

forces and the United Nations Protected Areas in the Republic of Croatia. On October 24, 1994, because of the actions and policies of the Bosnian Serbs, I expanded the scope of the national emergency by

issuing Executive Order 12934 to block the property of the Bosnian Serb forces and the authorities in the territory that they control within Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the property of any entity

organized or located in, or controlled by any person in, or resident in, those areas.

(Serbia and Montenegro) pursuant to the above-referenced Executive orders and to continue to block property previously blocked until provision is made to address claims or encumbrances, including the

claims of the other successor states of the former Yugoslavia. This sanctions relief, in conformity with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1022 of November 22, 1995 (hereinafter the

"Resolution"), was an essential factor motivating Serbia and Montenegro's acceptance of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina initialed by the parties in Dayton on

November 21, 1995, and signed in Paris on December 14, 1995 (hereinafter the "Peace Agreement"). The sanctions imposed on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) were

accordingly suspended prospectively, effective January 16, 1996. Sanctions imposed on the Bosnian Serb forces and authorities and on the territory that they control within Bosnia and Herzegovina were

subsequently suspended prospectively, effective May 10, 1996, also in conformity with the Peace Agreement and the Resolution. Sanctions against both the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and

Montenegro) and the Bosnian Serbs were subsequently terminated by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1074 of October 1, 1996. This termination, however, did not end the requirement of the

Resolution that those blocked funds and assets that are subject to claims and encumbrances remain blocked, until unblocked in accordance with applicable law. Until the status of all remaining blocked

property is resolved, the Peace Agreement implemented, and the terms of the Resolution met, the national emergency declared on May 30, 1992, as expanded in scope on October 25, 1994, and the measures

adopted pursuant thereto to deal with that emergency must continue beyond May 30, 1999.

On June 9, 1998, following attacks and repression directed by the government in Belgrade against the people of Kosovo, I issued Executive Order 13088, "Blocking Property of the Governments of the

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Republic of Serbia, and the Republic of Montenegro, and Prohibiting New Investment in the Republic of Serbia in Response to the Situation in

Kosovo." Since then, the government of President Milosevic has rejected the international community's efforts to ﬁnd a peaceful settlement for the crisis in Kosovo and has launched a massive campaign of

ethnic cleansing that has displaced a large percentage of the population and been accompanied by an increasing number of atrocities. In light of President Milosevic's brutal assault against the people of

Kosovo, his complete disregard for the requirements of the international community and the threat his actions pose to regional peace and stability, I have determined that it is necessary to maintain in force

these emergency authorities beyond June 9, 1999.

Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing the national emergency declared on May 30, 1992, as expanded on October 24, 1994, and

the national emergency declared on June 9, 1998, with respect to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the

Congress.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

THE WHITE HOUSE,

May 27, 1999.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Yulee, Florida)

_______________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release May 27, 1999

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

White Oaks Plantation

Yulee, Florida

1:45 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. I welcome the decision of the International War Crimes Tribunal to indict Slobodan Milosevic and other senior Serbian leaders for crimes against humanity and war

crimes. This says to the hundreds of thousands of victims of Belgrade's atrocities in Kosovo that their voices have been heard. It will help to deter future war crimes by establishing that those who give

orders will be held accountable. It will make clear to the Serbian people precisely who is responsible for this conﬂict and who is prolonging it.

It speaks to the world in saying that the cause we are ﬁghting for in Kosovo is just. I call on all nations to support the Tribunal's decision and to cooperate with its efforts to seek justice.

For six years, the United States has strongly supported the work of this Tribunal. We've urged it to pursue its investigation of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia as far up the chain of command as the

evidence leads, and we've helped to provide that evidence. The Congress recently approved my request for supplemental funding for the Tribunal, which will provide $9 million for the Tribunal trust fund,

$4 million for technology that will speed up our providing information to the Tribunal, $10 million to interview Kosovar refugees, and $5 million for forensic teams to go into Kosovo once conditions allow

for the gathering of evidence.

Now, the objectives of NATO's military campaign remain unchanged: The Kosovar refugees must be able to go home with security and self-government; Serb forces must withdraw; and an international

security force with NATO at its core must deploy there.

Day and night, NATO air strikes are imposing a heavy price on Mr. Milosevic and his forces in Kosovo. We see the impact they're having in the protests against his policies, the desertions in his army, the

difﬁculties his troops in Kosovo are having in maintaining their grip on the area. Our forces have shown courage and skill. We and our allies have shown determination. Both will persist until we achieve our

goals.

Thank you very much.

END 1:51 P.M. EDT

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Yulee, Florida)

________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release May 27, 1999

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT CLINTON IN A RADIO MESSAGE

TO THE KOSOVAR PEOPLE

"On behalf of all Americans, Hillary and I send a message of hope and solidarity to the Kosovar people. Over the last few months, you have been forced from your homes. You have seen terrible violence.

Many of you are still searching for friends and family members.

I met with Kosovar refugees in Germany last month. My wife recently met with another group in Macedonia. Your stories ﬁlled us with sorrow. Stories of decent people whose lives have been violently

uprooted by scenes we thought we would never again see in Europe.

Stories of innocent people beaten and brutalized for no reason but their ethnicity and faith -- people rounded up in the middle of the night, forced to board trains for unknown destinations, separated from

their families. Stories of people arriving in refugee camps with nothing but a ﬁerce determination to ﬁnd their loved ones and return to their villages with their culture intact.

But you have not been defeated. You have not given in to despair. And you have not allowed the horror you have seen to harden your hearts or destroy your faith in a better life in the land of your birth.

You left Kosovo with one goal: to return in safety. The United States and its NATO allies are working for the same goal. It will take time. But with your strength and our determination, there is no doubt

what the outcome will be. The campaign of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo will end. You will return.

Our military campaign is daily increasing the pressure on the Serbian leadership and on Serbian forces in Kosovo. They know we will persevere until the Serbian forces leave and you are allowed to return

home, with NATO there to prevent a return to violence.

In the meantime, nations across the world have come together to bring aid to you and your families. The United States has just ﬁnished building a new facility in Albania called Camp Hope, which will

house up to 20,000 people. Our Congress has just approved more than $700 million in humanitarian assistance to make sure we can meet your needs both now and when you go home.

We are grateful to the people of Albania and Macedonia for accepting refugees into their countries and their homes. It is not easy for any nation to absorb huge numbers of people; and it is certainly not easy

for two nations still struggling to meet the needs of their people. We recognize your sacriﬁces and we are committed to help, by easing your burden, and helping you build security, prosperity and democracy

at home and in your neighborhood.

A great challenge can draw people together. The 19 NATO nations are not alike. But we hold the same essential values in common.

And on the eve of a new century, we refuse to be intimidated by a dictator who is trying to revive the worst memories of the century we are leaving. Thank you for you strength, and remember that no matter

what has happened to you, you are not alone. The United States and NATO are with you, and we will stay with you long after you return home.

###

NOTE: Sound from this message is available on the White House Press Ofﬁce Radio Actuality Line at 202/456-5671.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Yulee, Florida)

________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release May 28, 1999

STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY

Elie Wiesel To Visit Refugee Camps

in Macedonia and Albania

The President announced today that Mr. Elie Wiesel will travel to Macedonia and Albania next week at the President's request to meet with Kosovar refugees and to hear ﬁrsthand their accounts of ethnic

cleansing and other atrocities. Mr. Wiesel also plans to meet with representatives of international human rights and relief organizations to discuss the humanitarian situation in Kosovo and the impact of

refugees on neighboring states.

Mr. Wiesel is one of the world's foremost moral philosophers. A Holocaust survivor, he has written and spoken widely on genocide and on related questions of moral responsibility in international affairs. In

1985, Mr. Wiesel was awarded the Congressional Medal of Freedom, and, in 1986, the Nobel Peace Prize. He is the Andrew Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University.

Mr. Wiesel will be in Macedonia and Albania from Monday, May 31 to Thursday, June 3. Upon his return to the United States, he will present his ﬁndings to the President.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(New York, New York)

________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release September 21, 1999

September 21, 1999

Presidential Determination

No. 99-40

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE

THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

SUBJECT: Drawdown of Commodities and Services Under

Section 552(c)(2) of the Foreign Assistance

Act of 1961, as Amended, for the United Nations

Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo

Pursuant to the authority vested in me by section 552(c)(2) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended, 22 U.S.C. 2348a(c)(2) (the "Act"), I hereby determine that:

(1) as a result of an unforeseen emergency, the provision of

assistance under Chapter 6 of Part II of the Act in amounts in

excess of funds otherwise available for such assistance is

important to the national interests of the United States; and

(2) such unforeseen emergency requires the immediate provision of

assistance under Chapter 6 of Part II of the Act.

Therefore, I direct the drawdown of up to $5 million in commodities and services from the inventory and resources of the Department of Defense for the United Nations Interim

Administration Mission in Kosovo.

The Secretary of State is authorized and directed to report this determination to the Congress and to arrange for its publication in the Federal Register.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Ofﬁce of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release September 30, 1999

As Prepared for Delivery

REMARKS BY SAMUEL R. BERGER

ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR NATIONAL SECURITY AFFAIRS

ON THE CHALLENGES IN KOSOVO

The U.S. Institute of Peace

Washington, DC

September 30, 1999

Thank you, very much, Dick Solomon. I am grateful to you and to the U.S. Institute of Peace for having me here today. Please forgive me if I was a few minutes late. I was trying

to leave for the speech, but members of my staff only wanted to talk about which actor played them in last night's episode of "The West Wing." No one played me, apparently,

despite the fact that, as I understand it, the episode involved a foreign terrorist act. Maybe that's just as well, considering how Hollywood has presented national security advisers

recently: A stuffed shirt in "The Peacemaker." An egomaniac killed off in "Air Force One." A self-promoter in "Contact." A zealot in "Murder at 1600." I can't imagine who the

model was for these characters, but let me stress that each of these movies was in process before I assumed this job.

Let me congratulate the Institute on your 15th anniversary and for all the valuable work you have done to strengthen peace around the world. Just a few weeks ago, you hosted a

remarkable discussion, bringing together a diverse group of Kosovar Albanian leaders, skillfully assisting as they fashioned a declaration of principles for a democratic society.

Today I want to talk to you about the effort to build peace in Kosovo, how we're doing, and why. Kosovo is mostly out of the headlines now -- but it must not be out of our

thoughts.

On the morning of June 10th, President Clinton received word that Serb forces had begun their withdrawal from Kosovo. Soon after, he announced that NATO had suspended the

air campaign against Serbia. He thanked our troops for their skill and bravery. He expressed pride that we had achieved our goals -- Serb forces out, a NATO-led force in,

refugees to return -- and that we did so in a way that advanced other important national interests: maintaining NATO unity; preventing the collapse of new democracies in

southeast Europe; keeping Russia engaged in reaching peace. But the President made clear that it was not time to rest. "We have a moment of hope," he said. "Now ... we have to

ﬁnish the job and build the peace."

As the President recognized, it is no simple task to create security from the ashes of violent tyranny ... to build self-government where for so long there had been repression ... to

foster tolerance after unspeakable intolerance. And we have seen all of those obstacles since the end of the conﬂict. Some ethnic Albanians, still burning with anger over the

atrocities committed by Serb forces, have engaged in deplorable acts of violence, such as the grenade attack two days ago at an outdoor market crowded with Serbs. Many Serbs

have ﬂed Kosovo, some with exiting Serb forces and others since. There have been some armed confrontations between Kosovars and KFOR, the international security force.

And the effort to transform the Kosovo Liberation Army into a positive component of a new democratic society has been painstaking.

But, in the face of these challenges, we already have come a great distance. Kosovo now is engaged in a struggle of rebirth, no longer a struggle with death. The people have a

future again. We have an opportunity to move from success on the battleﬁeld to lasting victory in meeting the goals for which we fought, in Kosovo and in southeast Europe as a

whole.

Having won the war, we must not now lose the peace. Protecting our national interests requires us not only to act in a crisis, but to take advantage of the opportunity our military

success created to prevent future crises. Victory will not come until Kosovo and southeast Europe are so tightly integrated into the rest of Europe that another war is

inconceivable.

Let me try to capture the dimensions of this challenge by brieﬂy describing Kosovo's troubled past. Keep in mind that no living resident of Kosovo has ever seen genuine

democracy or broad prosperity in the province. In this century, Kosovo has been dominated by one repressive regime after another, and a mainly agricultural economy has done

little to lift people from poverty. Kosovo has experienced extended periods of peace in modern times, but there has been no tradition of strong integration among Kosovo's ethnic

groups -- at best, there was uneasy coexistence.

Conditions greatly worsened a decade ago, when Milosevic stripped Kosovo of its autonomy; stripped the Kosovar Albanians of their jobs; stripped their children of the right to

study in their own language. Then, in early 1998, after a decade of non-violent resistance to Serb oppression gave way to the KLA's armed resistance, Serb forces sharply

intensiﬁed their violence, murdering civilians, driving Kosovars from their homes. Finally, early this year, as we and the Europeans struggled to obtain peace, Belgrade

systematically planned for all-out war -- and then launched its campaign to rid the land of its ethnic Albanians, dead or alive.

The Kosovo that existed before KFOR troops arrived on June 12 was a living nightmare -- the debris, living and dead, of a crime against humanity. Having ended this nightmare,

we have been working every day since to meet the clear goals of the international community for the future:

First, a fully deployed KFOR must establish a secure environment across the province.

Second, all of the Kosovo residents displaced by the conﬂict who wish to return should be able to do so, including, over time, the ethnic Serbs who have left.

Third, there must be sufﬁcient humanitarian aid to sustain the people and help them rebuild their homes and resume productive lives.

Fourth, the United Nations must establish an effective civil administration to carry out government functions for a transition period.

Fifth, we must aid the people of Kosovo in establishing self-government and building a democratic society where the rights of minority group members are protected.

Finally, Kosovo's ultimate status must be decided peacefully, with the participation of its people.

How is it going? There are problems, but a little over 100 days into this effort, there has been considerably more progress than most Americans realize.

KFOR is fully deployed, with some 41,000 troops from more than 20 countries. There have been occasional confrontations between its troops and Kosovo residents, but security

has signiﬁcantly improved and KFOR has the cooperation and respect of the great majority of Kosovo's people. Russian troops have played a constructive role, helping to keep

the peace, standing up to violence, including from Serbs, maintaining impartiality.

KFOR's success in creating stability has allowed the return of over 800,000 Kosovar Albanian refugees -- more than 8 in 10 -- and allowed hundreds of thousands more who had

been hiding in Kosovo's hills to come home to their villages. But they have returned to a shattered land. They have had to face the agony of loved ones lost. Many found their

homes and businesses destroyed, their wells polluted, their schools and hospitals razed by Milosevic's attacks.

The UN and relief agencies are working with the people of Kosovo to rebuild homes. Some 50,000 houses are beyond repair, another 50,000 severely damaged. The strategy now

underway will give each family at least one warm, dry room through the spring. The UN is also revitalizing Kosovo's energy sector, so residents will be ensured electricity and

heat this winter.

Rehabilitation of hospitals and clinics is moving forward. The UN and the World Health Organization are working with local ofﬁcials to immunize 240,000 children against

disease. International teams already have cleared more than a million square meters of land for mines, including 3000 homes and 500 schools. 350 Kosovo residents are

undergoing training to join demining efforts.

Kosovo's children are back at school. Mail service has been restored. Farmlands are alive with tractors and livestock. Factories and stores are back in business. Radio-Television

Kosovo will resume broadcasting this month, with participation by Serbs as well as ethnic Albanians. If you walked down the streets of Pristina or Pec or Prizren today, you

would hear the sounds of hammers, building and repairing, and people gathered in the cafes and squares.

There are many ways in which life in Kosovo remains far from normal, but in all these ways, life for the vast majority of Kosovo's people actually is more normal than before the

war. At last, children are learning in their own language; parents are going back to their jobs; citizens are shaping their own future. This is not a return to the frightening twilight

of the past, but the birth of something new in Kosovo: it is freedom.

The UN's civil administration, under France's Bernard Kouchner, formerly head of Doctors Without Borders, and America's Jock Covey, has deployed far more quickly than

previous missions, such as Bosnia or Cambodia. Nearly 300 UN professional staff are in place, and the UN Mission is in every part of Kosovo.

Already, it has laid the groundwork for institutions of self-government. It has begun to build a local court system, with some 50 Kosovo residents, including Serbs, serving as

justice ofﬁcials. Courts are functioning in Pristina and Prizren, and two mobile courts hear emergency cases. More than 1000 international police ofﬁcers are already in Kosovo,

with 2000 more expected soon. Their work is showing results: Crime, particularly arson, has steadily declined, though violence continues. Kosovo's police academy will graduate

its ﬁrst class of 168 cadets next month, the start of a local force that we hope will have 3000 ofﬁcers by next September. As in Bosnia, capable police will allow us to draw down

peacekeeping troops as time goes on.

Kosovo residents are drafting the legal framework for Kosovo's economy. UN authorities are collecting sales and excise taxes and customs duties, a ﬁrst step toward building

banking and ﬁscal systems.

Kosovo's political and civic leaders have been meeting in a Kosovo Transitional Council, which will lay the groundwork for local autonomy. Regrettably, its Serb members

resigned last week, and we must work to bring them back to this important body soon. Meanwhile, the UN begins registering citizens tomorrow, as a step toward free elections,

likely to be next year.

All-in-all, we are on track in rebuilding physical structures and building new political structures. But that won't guarantee a stable Kosovo. We must also address three

fundamental, interconnected, and difﬁcult challenges: channeling the energy of former KLA members into building a just society; protecting the safety of all groups in Kosovo;

and encouraging a democratic Serbia that will allow Serbs and Kosovars alike to determine their future peacefully. The three challenges embrace a single one: keeping a brutal

past from engulﬁng a hopeful future.

First, we must see that ex-KLA members work with us in building a strong, democratic Kosovo. The task of integrating former rebels into the political process is not, of course,

unique to Kosovo. We have seen it accomplished successfully in places like El Salvador and Nicaragua. But here the challenge is different, for the old order has been swept away,

and some former KLA may think they are better off without the international community.

That is why the agreement reached last week to end the KLA and form the Kosovo Protection Corps is an important step, critical to preventing formation of an active,

obstructionist rebel underground. The new corps will work on reconstruction and humanitarian assistance, not armed resistance. The agreement sharply limits the number of self-

defense weapons available to them and caps their full-time membership.

Most former KLA now appear ready to assume roles in a democratic Kosovo -- as part of the new corps, or in the new local police, as members of political parties, or seizing

opportunities to study and work that they were long denied. This will isolate those who, hardened by life under a brutal and corrupt tyranny, would prefer a future where violence

and intolerance carry the day.

Fostering such a climate is essential if we are to address the second challenge I noted: protecting the security of all Kosovo's people, including the Serbs and other minorities, so

those who have left will see the possibility of returning. Today, most Kosovar Albanians can enjoy their lives after ten years of oppression, though there continue to be Kosovar

victims of violence by Serbs. At the same time the Serb minority is suffering. About half of the 200,000 Kosovo Serbs have ﬂed. Many who have stayed live in fear. Serbs have

been harassed and assaulted and murdered.

We must be clear: NATO did not ﬁght in Kosovo for one ethnic group over another. We fought for a stable, peaceful Europe -- and for the principle that no people should be

destroyed or driven out because of their ethnicity or faith. The violence and terror we have seen against Kosovo's Serbs does not match the scale of Milosevic's rampage. But it is

no less contemptible. And we have told Kosovar Albanian leaders that if they fail to oppose it, they will lose the support of the international community.

Ending the cycles of hate and revenge also will require, I believe, a vigorous commitment to seeing justice done. More than 200 atrocity sites have been identiﬁed. In the short-

term, focusing on war crimes may create some more polarization. But if the people of Kosovo see that there can be justice through law, they will be less likely to seek justice

through vengeance.

Still, in the end, despite all of the work we are doing in Kosovo, a stable and enduring peace in the Balkans is impossible without a transition to democracy in Serbia.

Milosevic continues to stoke conﬂict. Serb paramilitary violence in Kosovo has persisted, particularly in areas bordering the rest of Serbia. There has been continued Serb

pressure on Montenegro.

And Milosevic continues to violently suppress the Serb people. Yesterday's contemptible attacks on peaceful demonstrators in Belgrade shows Milosevic's desperation, his fear

that forces of democracy will turn the tide. After all the suffering Milosevic has caused the Serb people, he can no longer beat them into submission. His brutality is helping to

unite opposition forces. They are meeting today in Belgrade to try to forge a common strategy.

Only by uniting can they bring change. We are seeking to promote unity ... aiding democratic opposition parties, civic and student groups, unions and independent media ...

broadcasting honest news into Serbia ... targeting economic sanctions at Milosevic and his corrupt cronies. And we will continue the war crimes investigations until there is

justice.

Our efforts to promote democracy in Serbia and Kosovo are part of a larger effort to strengthen democracy, opportunity and integration across southeast Europe. We advanced this

work over the summer when President Clinton and leaders from more than 35 other nations came together in Sarajevo -- a city once ﬁrmly in the grip of war and atrocities -- to

launch the Stability Pact, a framework for a better future for the region.

There are those who say the only solution to the region's ethnic problems is to redraw its borders around ethnically-based states. Some want to partition Kosovo into separate

zones. We rejected that solution in Bosnia. And we reject it in Kosovo. Partition would be a disaster, uprooting people into ethnic cantons, causing more bloodshed, suffering, and

anger.

The people of Kosovo should never again be ruled by Milosevic or his ilk. But as the President has said, the last thing the Balkans needs is more Balkanization. That is why we do

not support independence.

But that is not a decision to be made now. Indeed, trying to force resolution would only disrupt and endanger the difﬁcult and fundamental work we now face: Helping the people

of Kosovo live in safety and dignity ... build democratic institutions that are inclusive and protect minorities ... and create an economy that can sustain their people. In the future,

Kosovo's status will be decided with the participation of its residents and the international community. We should not assume what the outcome of that process will be, because it

will depend in part on events we cannot predict today, including Serbia's progress toward democracy and Southeast Europe's progress toward integration.

Ultimately, Kosovo's future depends on the people who live there. I have talked today about our responsibilities, but let me say something more about theirs.

The international community expects the Kosovar Albanians to do everything possible to encourage Serbs to return to the Kosovo Transitional Council, to participate in the police

force, the courts, and other institutions of government. Public statements to this effect would be good, but concrete actions are also necessary.

Kosovo's Albanians must accept that Russian troops are an integral part of KFOR and have proved themselves able and impartial in fulﬁlling their duties. We expect the blockade

of the city of Orahovac -- which ethnic Albanians have maintained since August to keep Russian troops from entering -- to be lifted. And the Kosovar Protection Corps must

serve all Kosovo's communities, including Serbs.

Meanwhile, Kosovo's Serbs must understand that partition is not in the cards. Threats to create a parallel government or armed forces must cease. They must work to resolve the

stand-off in Mitrovica, where Serbs and ethnic Albanians repeatedly have clashed.

The people of Kosovo -- Serbs, Albanians, and others -- must struggle against the cycles of hate. They must stop occupying each other's houses, confronting each other in the

street, destroying each other's property, and inﬂicting on each other brutal acts of ethnic violence. We cannot expect Kosovo to achieve a state of multiethnic harmony any time

soon. But Kosovo should be a place where people of every ethnic group can live their lives without fear.

The people of Kosovo must take responsibility. And as Kosovo and the international community continue on the path of progress, it is essential that the United States walk with

them.

Some in Congress question why our country should participate in this work. I think the reason is clear: Building democracy, opportunity and stability in Kosovo and the region is

strongly in America's national interest. We have a historic opportunity to ﬁnish the work we have been doing over the past decade: building a peaceful, undivided, democratic

Europe. Integrating the Balkans and southeast Europe into Europe's mainstream -- just as we did with Central Europe over the last decade -- will make it far less likely that our

troops will be asked to ﬁght another, costlier European war down the road. We must not settle for a victory in combat but let the larger prize of a safer, better Europe slip away.

This effort will require funding. The European Union has committed to provide the lion's share for Kosovo's reconstruction and for southeast Europe. It must meet that

commitment. But the United States must meet our responsibilities as well. For the people of Kosovo, for people of the region, the United States is a powerful symbol of hope and

resolve.

We want to work with the Congress, with members in both parties who see that our prosperity and security at home depends in great measure on our ability to solve critical

problems overseas -- and that a wise investment now can save money -- and lives -- down the road.

Americans should be proud of what we stood for and what we achieved in the Kosovo conﬂict. We and our allies reversed a campaign of ethnic terror -- and created an enormous

opportunity to make a safer world. It would be tragic if we squandered this hard-won opportunity. We owe it to the troops who fought so courageously -- and to our children -- to

ﬁnish the job and build a lasting peace.

# # #

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Sofia, Bulgaria)

________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release November 22, 1999

PRESS BRIEFING

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR SAMUEL "SANDY" BERGER

AND

NSC SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE CHRIS HILL

Kempinski Hotel

Sofia, Bulgaria

3:35 P.M. (L)

MR. LEAVY: We're going to have a brieﬁng from National Security Advisor Berger, and Ambassador Chris Hill, the NSC's Senior Director for Southeastern Europe.

MR. BERGER: What I would propose to do is give you a, with Chris, three pieces here and then take your questions.

One is a brief readout from meetings we just head with President Stoyanov and Prime Minister Kostov; and then ask Ambassador Hill to preview the day tomorrow and then

come back and review the trip as we come to the end of it, because I don't think there will be a chance to do that tomorrow given the logistics.

I think we had very good meetings with both the President and the Prime Minister and his government. The President expressed his strong admiration for what has been

accomplished here in Bulgaria, and particularly since 1997. This is a country which 10 years ago, a week ago, as the Prime Minister pointed out, these same people were

marching in the streets in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall against communist government.

After a start with one government, the government changed again, from '91 to '97, really, the country lost ground in the movement towards reform and change. Since the election

in 1997, there's been a dramatic change in direction under this leadership, and Bulgaria now has brought its inﬂation under control. It's expecting to have real growth and has put

very ﬁrmly in place its democratic institutions, not to mention a long tradition of tolerance in Bulgaria.

Bulgaria was one of the places during World War II that has quite an extraordinary record, for example, with respect to protecting Jews that were being deported from Greece and

elsewhere on the way to the camps. Many of them were spirited here in Bulgaria. And that tradition of -- and protected -- and that tradition, as well as the Bulgarian Jews who

were here, that's a tradition that they're very proud of, and it goes beyond, obviously, that experience.

The President and the Prime Minister both spoke, I think, ﬁrst about the importance of NATO membership to them as a very high priority. They have undertaken a rather

sweeping program of military reform, which includes substantially downsizing the Soviet-era military and transforming it into a more modern professional -- modern military,

more aligned with the West. And they hope very much that they will be part of a second tranche, a second wave of NATO members some time in the next few years, both for

strategic and for political and for economic reasons. It's a very powerful magnet, I think, for the countries in this region, and a good, positive force for change.

Talked about the need for regional cooperation, and the importance of the Stability Pact and other efforts that bring these countries, as the President has said so many times, bring

this region together so that it can accelerate the process by which it integrates into Europe and the EU. Bulgaria expects to be invited to become a candidate for EU membership at

the Helsinki EU meeting in a few weeks -- and, obviously, that will begin the process of negotiations with the EU over a period of time, leading ultimately to accession, they

hope.

There was discussion in both meetings about Serbia, about the Serb opposition -- which was here, I think in the last week -- meeting with the government ofﬁcials. One of them

said that the Serb opposition -- some of the Serb opposition leaders described Bulgaria as a model for the Serbia that they would like to see and build.

There obviously is a cost here -- was a cost, obviously, from the war. But an extraordinarily important stand that was taken by this government in support of the conﬂict in Kosovo

-- initially not popular here, given the proximity and the cost to this country, but once the government took a stand strongly for NATO and provided logistical support and access

through this country, public opinion shifted, strongly backed the government and, I think, from people I've talked to here, was a very important watershed for the way Bulgaria

thinks about its future.

One of the things they're obviously concerned about is clearing the Danube. The Danube is a waterway that is very important to Bulgaria, to Romania, to Macedonia. And as you

know, we have said -- the international community -- that we are prepared to clear the Danube. Milosevic, notwithstanding his obligations under international law, the Danube

Convention, to keep the river clear, has said that he would only accede to clearance of the Danube if we rebuilt the infrastructure of Serbia, particularly the bridges across the

Danube. That's not something we're prepared to do, but we made clear that we were prepared to work with them in clearing the debris. If Milosevic acceded to that, it's another

example of how he is impeding the development of this region.

Let me stop there, ask Chris to talk about Kosovo tomorrow, and then beg your indulgence to come back a bit, sum up the trip, acknowledging that we still have one stop after this

one, and then take your questions.

AMBASSADOR HILL: Thank you very much. As we're getting ready to go to Kosovo tomorrow, we have to sort of recall what Mark Twain would have said about Balkan

weather which is, if you like it, just wait a minute because it may well change. So we're all hoping that we'll have the kind of weather that will enable us to get in there tomorrow.

Our stop in Kosovo will begin in the morning with a meeting with Mr. Kouchner, who is in charge of the U.N. operation there, so-called UNMIK. And he will meet with

Kouchner as well as General Reinhardt, who is the German commander of KFOR, the ﬁrst time the Germans have had a command outside of the area.

This will be an opportunity to talk to Kouchner and Reinhardt about how they see the situation unfolding, how they see the progress and the challenges ahead. He'll then have an

opportunity to meet with Serbs and Albanians in the Transitional Council. This is a council that Mr. Kouchner has put together; it consists of Albanian leaders and leaders of the

Serb community in Kosovo. Albanian leaders will include the political director of the former KLA, Hashim Thaci, and also Ibrahim Rugova, and Bishop Artimije will be there,

the Serb Orthodox Bishop of Kosovo.

After that -- and again, this is very weather-related -- he will ﬂy down to Ferizaj, that's the Albanian name for the town of Urosevac, which may appear on your maps, and there he

will address people mainly from Ferizaj, but also from the areas around, in a sports hall down there. And after that, he will go take another trip to the U.S. Army headquarters in a

place called Bonsteel, which is about eight kilometers from Ferizaj.

For those of you who haven't been to Kosovo -- I must say, I've been there many, many times, and so for me it'll be an opportunity to see what has changed. For those of you who

haven't been there, I think you'll ﬁnd that a lot needs to be done. I must say, I spent the last year there trying to negotiate the political settlement between Serbs and Albanians.

Many occasions, I'd sit there kind of shivering in a room without heat and without electricity, because that was pretty much the standard fare in Kosovo in the last decade or so --

lots of problems there with infrastructure.

Lots of problems, of course, with the security situation. I can remember vividly, many times, going out to see KLA people out in the Prenica Valley, having to go past villages that

had been burned out, seeing refugees on the backs of these tractors being hauled around. And so for me, I think I'll see a lot of real changes, a lot of real changes for the better.

Obviously, we've got a lot further to go with Kosovo. I also had the opportunity, if you can call it that, to be in Macedonia in the spring, when these refugees just ﬂooded in, and

we had upwards of 265,000 refugees in Macedonia. I can remember very well in May sort of wondering, how were we ever going to take care of these people -- you know, as the

temperatures went up over 90 degrees, 100 degrees, we were worried about disease. Then we were worried about the issue of how we're going to winterize these camps.

And of course now, with the very pleasant surprise, people are back in their homes in Kosovo -- largely back in their homes. We've supplied winterization kits for literally tens of

thousands of homes. And we think, in terms of the immediate emergency task of getting people through the winter, we're there. I mean, obviously there are going to be some

problems. Obviously there is going to be some discomfort this winter. But believe me, as someone who's seen other winters there, this is a better winter than the ones they've

faced in the past.

Nonetheless, a lot more needs to be done. At times, there's a sense that you have to work on the urgent rather than the important. And yet now we are facing the very important

task of building civil society. And this is where Dr. Kouchner has a huge job, in terms of trying to get Kosovo ready for elections. We are hoping to have elections sometime in

mid-year next year. These will probably be elections in the local areas, to start empowering people at the local areas so they can start taking control of their lives and really

planting the seeds of democracy -- because if democracy is going to take hold in Kosovo, it's going to have to be done at the grassroots.

So it's a really good opportunity tomorrow not only to just be in the Pristina area, but fortunately to get out of Pristina, out to a place like Ferizaj, and see how some of these

grassroots efforts are going.

So with that introduction --

MR. BERGER: We can come back to your questions on any of this when we ﬁnish. I think for those of us -- all of us who have been working on this for a number of years --

"this" being the Balkans, Kosovo -- what I think Chris said is true. That is, this will be a difﬁcult winter, but it will be a hell of a lot better than last winter, when the Kosovars

were being killed, raped and driven from their homes. And I think we need to keep that in perspective, and recognize that, as Chris suggested, it is a long-term undertaking to try

to build a better life and a civil society in Kosovo.

Let me now step back for a second and talk about the trip as a whole and then let you go at us. We have -- one of the priorities of the President from the very beginning of his

administration, from the beginning of -- going back to 1994 when the President proposed enlargement of NATO, has been to get beyond the notion of this is the post-Cold War

world, and start building what comes after it.

And we've done that through NATO enlargement, we've done that through getting the Russian troops out of the Baltics and disarming the nuclear weapons out of the former

Soviet states. And now, we're dealing with some of the -- now, we're traveling last week in two areas of Europe, the Aegean and the Balkans, where further integration into

Europe is where the future lies.

I think the importance of the President's trip to Turkey is quite profound, and I think it goes beyond simply what he said and what was speciﬁcally accomplished. It's been

captured, I think, in the few of the things I've read. But if you talk to the people of Turkey and wandered around and talked to people outside of the governing circle, this was an

important validation of the direction that Turkey has been on over the last year, more than a year, and a statement that Turkey's future lies with the West.

And I think for those who are engaged in trying to move Turkey in that direction, whether it was the NGOs that the President met with or the leadership or the people, I think

what he said in his message was very important, that Turkey's future needs to be anchored in the West, needs to be deepening its democracy, and dealing with and resolving the

problems of the past, particularly with Greece.

I think the signature of the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline agreement, as the President said, I honestly believe 25 years from now, people will look back and say that -- and not even

remember who signed it, or under whose administration it moved forward. But it will create a physical and strategic infrastructure for Central Asia and the Caucasus to the West,

and I think that has profound impact, including bolstering their own independence as nations.

Finally, in Turkey, I think the importance of the President stressing the value of Turkish membership in the EU and his support for that candidacy as we move up to the Helsinki

meeting with the EU in which that issue will be decided, obviously not only resonated in Turkey, but obviously was a message, hopefully, that was also heard by others in Europe,

most of whom I think share that view today, but we would like to see that happen.

The OSCE meeting, I think was important in a couple respects. First of all, the OSCE itself becoming a relevant institution -- that one institution has legitimacy around Europe,

from Russia to the United States, through Northern Europe and Southern Europe, gives it a particular value.

It's been an institution between 1975, the Helsinki Final Act, until recently that has been mostly an institution that stood for certain things. And as it evolves into an institution that

can do certain things, that's a very important development. And as we increase its capacity to go into conﬂicts, pre-conﬂict situations for example, and deal with the challenges

within societies, which we recognized for the ﬁrst time in the document that we signed, I think that's extremely important -- as was the adaptation of the CFE agreement for the

ﬁrst time since the end of the Warsaw Pact.

For me, I think, in terms of Greece -- putting the demonstrations aside -- I think two things were striking. One is the dynamism within Greece. Greece, as you all know, 10 years

ago was one of the weakest economies in the EU; it's now one of the strongest economies. That creates a self-conﬁdence in Greece which enables it both to see itself now as a

leader of recovery of the Balkans, and able to engage Turkey in a way that it had not in the past. And we're obviously pleased that in connection with this trip we've been able to

get talks going in Cyprus for the ﬁrst time in two years. We'll see whether they produce anything. Hopefully they will.

And Bulgaria I've spoken about. I think that although this country lost time, and is behind many of its Central European neighbors, it is clearly on the right track. It clearly sees its

future with reform, with an open economy, with dealing with issues of corruption, with dealing with -- strengthening its democracy. And I think that's something we want to

support, as well as the model it provides of inter-ethnic tolerance, which I think in this region is quite important.

Kosovo and Serbia we can talk about more, in answer to your questions.

Q Mr. Berger, you said in September that it was very important that Kosovo not become a sort of mirror image of Serbia to the north. Can you tell us how many Serbs you think

are left in Kosovo? And as the KLA has reconstituted itself as this KPC, how different of an entity is it now?

MR. BERGER: Well, I think the numbers vary. I've seen numbers from 50,000 to 100,000 Serbs that remain in Kosovo -- perhaps an equal number have left. I think that it is

extremely important that we protect the rights of minorities in Kosovo, and that that be a priority for KFOR, it be a priority for the U.N., and that it be something that is embraced

by the Kosovar people. And I think the President will speak to this tomorrow when he is there.

The level of violence against Serbs -- any violence in Kosovo is unacceptable. I think the level of violence has decreased in the last two months; perhaps Chris can speak more to

that.

In terms of the transition of the KLA to a this Kosovo Protective Group, I think is a positive development. In every post-conﬂict, post-civil conﬂict situation, whether you're

talking about in Central America or elsewhere, you have the issue: how do you integrate those who were organized to ﬁght the enemy -- i.e., Milosevic -- and who therefore are

engaged in a military or quasi-military enterprise -- how do you both disarm them, and how do you integrate them into civil society, and civilian society?

I think this is an appropriate way to do that. There has been a substantial disarmament of the KLA. They're now organizing around missions which are more like -- you know,

issues such as more like a national guard, non-military missions -- that is, dealing with natural disasters, dealing with rebuilding. And I think it's a very useful and appropriate way

of transitioning from conﬂict to peace.

Chris, do you want to add anything to that?

Q Sandy, there is still a substantial amount of violence in Kosovo. And it appears as though KFOR is not tremendously effective in keeping a lid on it. So what do you say today

to the ethnic Albanians who are engaging in these reprisals, and how do you plan to try to lower the cycle of violence, or turn back the cycle of violence, in Kosovo?

MR. BERGER: Well, let me take a small crack at it, and then I'll let Chris answer. Number one, it obviously has become one of the highest priorities of KFOR. KFOR has

deployed itself now in a way that tries to maximize its protection of Serbs. Number two -- and the security of the Serb people is a very high priority for KFOR.

Number two, I think that -- I don't think that these are activities, these reprisals are the vengeance that are being carried out by the vast majority of Kosovars. But there clearly are

pockets of this. And I think we have to speak very clearly, as we have, that the Albanians should not -- Kosovar Albanians should not lose their future because they are trapped by

their past. And if they want to rebuild a future for their children with the participation of the international community, then they have to get beyond the grievances of the past.

Chris?

AMBASSADOR HILL: Yes, let me just say that anyone who saw the way the refugees, some 800,000 were unceremoniously dumped out of railroad cars into the mud on the

borders of Macedonia and Albania, understood there was going to be a real problem trying to reconcile Serbs and Albanians after that.

Nonetheless, there has been substantial progress in the last few months in terms of KFOR not only deploying throughout Kosovo, but also ﬁguring out where the hot spots are,

where they need to deploy with extra patrols, as they're doing in some key areas, to bring down this level of violence.

Clearly, I think every person in Kosovo -- Albanians and other nationalities, need to understand that we expect to see them turn away from this and toward building the

institutions that they have an opportunity to build -- an opportunity given them by KFOR.

So KFOR, I think, is -- we consider it a very successful deployment, and we're looking forward to moving on to some of the next stages of addressing what is going to be a very

difﬁcult, long-term process.

Q I hear both of you talk about progress and doubtless there has been some in terms of rebuilding. Yet, what we read -- and we're not there -- is that you really have only a

fraction of the money you need to do the rebuilding, and that you have really a fraction of the personnel and manpower you need, not only to do that job, but also to administer

the laws and make this a more livable -- or at least, a livable -- society. What is the problem, and how severe is it?

AMBASSADOR HILL: Well, ﬁrst of all, I think the military was ready to be mobilized. They went in there and they deployed throughout Kosovo. The second issue was to get

the civilian structure up and running and to create, really, from whole cloth, this U.N. operations, so-called UNMIK.

Now, a key aspect of that was getting the funding together. And, indeed, last Thursday at a funding conference in Brussels, a Kosovo pledging conference, it was agreed between

the U.S. and European states to provide over $1 billion in funding, of which $158 million is from the U.S. This will fully fund UNMIK operations through calendar year '99 and

through most of calendar year 2000. You know, we are on a ﬁscal budget, a ﬁscal year, which ends in October, and the U.N. is on a calendar year. So we believe now, as of last

Thursday, we have the funding that's required.

Funding has been a problem in the intervening months, but we think we're there now.

Q In other words, this gets us by the problem that I understand to be pledges made but not kept? Why is this --

AMBASSADOR HILL: Yes, there have been speciﬁc pledges requiring speciﬁc amounts of funding for speciﬁc purposes. We've got that in hand now as of last Thursday. And

when I talk about this, of course, this is all in addition to the humanitarian assistance, which has been considerable. This has to do with the actual funding of the U.N. institutions -

- for example, the police force, getting the international police force in there, getting the training programs for the creation of local police; indeed, the ﬁrst two classes now of

local police have graduated, and they're out on the beat now.

So we've had funding for humanitarian purposes all along, and now we've got the civil affairs funding.

MR. BERGER: I really want to emphasize the point that Chris just made. That is, obviously the ﬁrst task here was getting people back, getting them back to their homes, food,

and we've had the funding for that from our Congress, from the international community. The next stage is rebuilding, reconstruction. We now, I think, have those commitments.

Our Congress, in this bill the President fought so hard for in part because it has our share of the prospective Kosovo money.

Q There was a problem with the EU and a discussion of membership for Bulgaria, having to do with nuclear reactors. Did you discuss that this morning and is that cleared away?

MR. BERGER: This was raised this morning by the Bulgarians. There is an issue with the EU, with respect to certain nuclear reactors, which I believe the EU does not feel are up

to normal, adequate safety requirements, that they seek to have shut down. That will have a certain economic impact on Bulgaria. Obviously we're not directly engaged in the

discussions between the EU and Bulgaria. But the President said that he would ﬁnd out more about this as he talked to his European colleagues, and see if there are ways in which

we could be helpful.

Q You said earlier -- sorry, just to follow up -- that the EU membership talks were going to go ahead.

MR. BERGER: No, I said that the Bulgarians expect, are hoping for them to go ahead. It's for the European Union to make that declaration.

Q Two brief questions. Number one, does the U.S. now support NATO membership for Bulgaria? Secondly, a quick question on Egyptair. There are reports out of Egypt that

President Mubarak made a personal appeal to President Clinton not to hand the case over to the FBI, the Egyptair case. I wondered whether that was true, and if so, what his

response had been?

MR. BERGER: As to the second question, that's not true, or at least I'm certainly not aware of any contact that President Mubarak has had with President Clinton on this. There's

obviously a lot of discussion going on between our two governments.

On Bulgaria's NATO membership, I think what -- let's go back to the summit in April, in which NATO reafﬁrmed a position that we feel very strongly about, which is that NATO

enlargement should be an ongoing process. And not only should there be an open door, but people should get through the door.

In fact, at the NATO summit in Washington, there was a speciﬁc expression -- somebody's tape recorder went off -- there was a speciﬁc expression of the need to look to

Southeast Europe in terms of future expansions of NATO. I think that case is only stronger after the conﬂict in Kosovo, with the problems in this region. The value to NATO, as

well as to this region, of having participation from the nations here, I think, is very strong, I think a good case could be made for it.

But that will be a decision that will be made, presumably, in 2001, depending upon circumstances and conditions at that point. It's not a decision that we or others have made,

except to say that we are generally supportive of a continuing process of enlargement in NATO.

Q On Kosovo, do you have any sense that you've been successful with the Kosovars in convincing them that independence is just not going to happen, at least not in the short-

term -- is it something they have to think about for 10 years -- in the future, whenever?

MR. BERGER: Well, I don't know what their aspirations are. I mean, we've been very clear that independence is not something we support, it's not our policy; that what we ought

to be focused on now is rebuilding and putting into place, and helping the Kosovars put into place, the institutions of self-government -- schools, police forces, et cetera -- that

build a civil society and enable them to have a greater degree of control -- in fact, substantial control -- over their future.

And I don't think it's terribly useful to spend a lot of time on this issue at this point. Our position is clear. But our focus is also very clear, which is on what has to be done over the

next few years here to build a working democratic society.

Q Sandy, I just want to be clear on one thing -- the delay in getting things, in restoring order in Kosovo and stopping the ethnic cleansing of Serbs and so forth. Was the primary

obstacle there is getting money from the people --

MR. BERGER: First of all, Jim, I think -- ethnic cleansing of Serbs, that's a pretty big leap.

Q Well, it's what the U.N. Human Rights Commission --

MR. BERGER: Somewhere -- probably about 100,000 Serbs have left; clearly, they felt intimidated, and we would like to create an environment in which not only those who are

there can stay, but those who have left can come back. I don't want to get caught up in semantics. There certainly has been ethnic revenge; let's put it that way.

But I also think you can't compare -- and I'm not trying to condone anything -- the systematic expulsion by a government of a million people and the vengeful retaliation

thoroughly unjustiﬁed by those people when they return.

I also think it's important -- again, Chris has the best perspective, Chris has spent more time in the Kosovar mountains than in the NSC ofﬁce, I think, still. (Laughter.) Pretty good

line. He didn't have to watch his back in the Kosovo mountains. (Laughter.)

The level of violence, I think most people will agree -- obviously, this is a question we'll ask General Reinhardt and Mr. Kouchner tomorrow -- has come down; it's not going up,

it's going down; but it has not disappeared. It's not acceptable at any level and, therefore, we have to keep working this problem. But I think it is decreased; it is still unacceptable.

Q -- delay, has it moved more slowly than you anticipated?

MR. BERGER: Well, I don't know. I think the point Chris made -- and, again, it's very difﬁcult here to say this in a way, in a proper way. Having gone through what these people

went through -- and we saw it only on television in the comfort of our warm living rooms, or ofﬁces, was horrifying.

You've talked to these people, some of you who have gone to the refugee camps with us. They've seen their parents killed, their husbands killed, their daughters raped in front of

them, and dumped out into rather difﬁcult refugee camps. They've now gone back. I think the vast majority of them are serious about getting on with their lives. There is still

clearly animosity, hatred in the minds of some, and it's going to take a while. It's going to take a while.

Don't forget that what happened to the Albanians, the Kosovars last year, was not simply a kind of a tornado that came out of nowhere. I mean, since 1989 when Milosevic

basically cut off their autonomy, these people have been systematically attacked, repressed, discriminated against, arbitrarily shot. So there is an accumulated sense of bitterness.

I think the point we have to make with them is the point we've tried to make, and I think the point the President will make again tomorrow is, you've got to put that aside. You can

be consumed by it, or you can go on and build a future for yourself and your children that is different than the past.

Q Another issue, aside from the ethnic strike is crime. The U.N. says that more Albanians have been killed over the past four months than Serbs, and a lot of people interpret that

to be an inﬁltration of Kosovo of organized Albanian crime, gangs. What information do you have? How extensive is the inﬁltration of Albanian organized crime into Kosovo and

what can you do to stop it?

AMBASSADOR HILL: Well, ﬁrst of all, when you look at overall murder rates, you're looking at just that. I mean, there are political aspects to murder and then there is also just

ﬂat out criminal aspects to it.

And one of the challenges for the U.N. administration there has been to create a legal system from whole cloth. I mean, you could not take the legal system that prevailed there

before under the Serbs and say this is a good legal system, so you've had to work that through. Obviously, people are being apprehended when they can; they're being held and,

you know, as the legal system is phased in -- it's being phased in as we speak -- they'll be charged with crimes under new statutes. So that's an issue.

As for the Albanian criminal syndicates, there are a lot of them. They have always operated cross-border. This is not a new phenomenon that they're coming from Albania into

Kosovo. This has been an ongoing issue even when the Serbs were running Kosovo. I mean, there are inﬁltration routes that people know very well, smuggling routes that are

known very well.

So this is an issue. UMMIK is beeﬁng up the number of people they can put on the border. KFOR is assisting, and this is going to be an ongoing process.

We also have to take on the issue of criminality in Albania. You know, if you just try to deal with it in Kosovo you're not going to stop it in Albania. So we're working very hard

on that problem. And in many ways, some of the issues facing Albania are even more difﬁcult to deal with. So, you know, when you deal with these problems in the Balkans, I

mean, it's like you're pounding some warped ﬂoorboards: you get one down and another one pops up somewhere, so you've got to work on that one.

MR. BERGER: Enough with the analogies. (Laughter.)

AMBASSADOR HILL: So we have a number of issues to take on, working very closely with the Albanian authorities on their criminal problems. We never have a meeting with

Albanian government people without talking about criminality, so we're engaged on all of these.

Q Back on Greece, a real quick question, Sandy. Can you give us any more details -- the President apparently brought up with Tony Blair yesterday the Parthenon treasures. Can

you tell us anything about Blair's reaction and how quickly those marbles are on their way back to Greece? (Laughter.)

MR. BERGER: I don't know the answer, because I haven't asked the question whether he spoke to Blair. I haven't addressed this with the President, and I will. It was addressed at

other levels as an issue that had arisen in Greece and something that we would like them to look at. And I'll try to have that answer for you next time I get a chance to talk to him.

MR. LEAVY: This is our last question.

MR. BERGER: Since John has pre-screened the subject of his question, I want to reinforce his behavior -- (laughter.)

Q Grozny is surrounded now. What are your levels of concerns that Russia does not appear have any intentions of backing off the violence? And is it not true that there have been

discussions about whether it would be prudent, given the current circumstances, for the IMF to release this second tranche of $640 million in aid to Russia?

MR. BERGER: Well, ﬁrst of all, you're right about the situation, which is that the military offensive continues, including around Grozny. We are seriously concerned about it, as

we have been generally. I think that this can only lead to a greater level of refugees, a greater level of civilian casualties, a cycle of violence that as the President said in Istanbul,

we think is not only wrong, but also counterproductive, it won't work.

On the OSCE mission, I don't -- I know that there are discussions about Vollebaek going to the Foreign Minister -- Vollebaek going to the region and about what the purpose of

that trip would be, whether it would be -- we certainly envision it being more than simply humanitarian, but also examining the situation on the political side as well. We hope

that will go forward. The Russians did agree to that in Istanbul.

In terms of the IMF, I guess I would say this: ﬁrst of all, Russia has not yet met the economic conditions for further distribution of IMF money. So the question is really

premature. We will look at this as we always do, based upon our overall national interest -- we don't want to be counterproductive. And our national interest includes democracy

and peace and stability in Russia.

I think we'll obviously look at it at the time. But certainly one of the things that we need to be concerned about is the general question of stability in Russia, and the impact this

will have.

MR. LEAVY: All right, thank you. We've got to go.

END 4:19 P.M. (L)

This is historical material, "frozen in time." The web site is no longer updated and links to external web sites and some internal pages will not work.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Pristina Airport, Kosovo)

________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release November 23, 1999

President Clinton's Meetings in Pristina, Kosovo

November 23, 1999

Greeters on Arrival:

1. Dr. Bernard Kouchner, Special Representative of the Secretary General for Kosovo

2. General Wesley Clark, Supreme Allied Commander for Europe (SACEUR) 3. General Dr. Klaus Reinhardt, Commander, Kosovo Force (KFOR) 4. B.G. Jack Schmitt

5. Lawrence Rossin, Chief of Mission, US Ofﬁce Pristina 6. Brigadier General Craig Peterson, Commander, Task Force Falcon 7. Group Captain Mark Wordley

Meeting # 1

1. President Clinton

2. Dr Bernard Koucher, Special Representative of the Secretary General for Kosovo

3. General Dr. Klaus Reinhardt, Commander Kosovo Force (KFOR) 4. Secretary of State Albright

5. Samuel Berger, National Security Advisor 6. General Wesley Clark, Supreme Allied Commander for Europe (SACEUR) 7. Lawrence Rossin, Chief of Mission, US Ofﬁce

Pristina

Meeting #2

US / UN / NATO PARTICIPANTS

1. President Clinton

2. Dr. Bernard Kouchner, Special Representative of the Secretary General for Kosovo

3. General Dr. Klaus Reinhardt, Commanding General of Kosovo Force (KFOR)

4. Secretary of State Albright

5. Samuel Berger, national Security Advisor

6. Lawrence Rossin, Chief of Mission, US Ofﬁce Pristina

7. General Wesley Clark, Supreme Allied Commander for Europe (SACEUR)

8. John Podesta, Chief of Staff

9. Ambassador Chris Hill

10. Ambassador James Dobbins

KOSOVO LEADERS MEETING PARTICIPANTS (12 People) 1. Xhavit Haliti, Party of Democratic Progress of Kosovo 2. Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, President, Democratic League

of Kosovo 3. Kole Berisha, Vice President, Democratic League of Kosovo 4. Mehmet Hajrizi, United Democratic League 5. Rexhep Qosja, President, United Democratic League

6. Hashim Thaci, President, Party of Democratic Progress of Kosovo 7. Bishop Artemije Radosavljevic, Diocesan Bishop, Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska-Prizren

8. Momcilo Trajkovic, President, Serbian Renewal Movement 9. Numan Balic, President,Party of Democratic Action of Kosovo 10. Sezair Shaipi, President, Turkish People?s

Party 11. Veton Surroi, Publisher, Koha Ditore 12. Blerim Shala, Publisher, Zeri

Interpreters:

UNMIK Interpreters

1. Father Sava Janjic, Serbian Interpreter for Bishop Artemije 2. Pascale Depeche, Serbian Interpreter for Balic 3. Professor Kabashi, Albanian interpreter

USOP Interpreters

4. Svetlana Breca, Serbian /Albanian

5. Valon Xharra, Serbian/Albanian

6. Florina Krasniqi, Serbian/Albanian

State Department Interpreters

7. Lindita Imani, Albanian

8. Dubravka Trklja, Serbian

Notetakers

1. Jack Covey, UNMIK

2. Wendy Gilmour, KFOR

Greeters on Departure

1. Group Captain Mark Wordley

2. Canadian Commander

3. Russian General

###

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Aviano, Italy)

________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release November 23, 1999

PRESS BRIEFING

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR SAMUEL "SANDY" BERGER

AND

UNMIK PRINCIPAL DEPUTY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE

OF THE SECRETARY GENERAL, JOCK COVEY

Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo

12:25 P.M. (L)

MR. LOCKHART: Okay, everybody, let me just bring you up to date on where we are. The pool is running a little bit late, they should be up here soon. If they get delayed any

further I may grab some of you and form an ad-hoc pool, just so we keep everything covered.

What we're going to do now is -- Sandy Berger, the President's National Security Advisor is here, along with Jock Covey, who is the Principal Deputy to the Special

Representative of UNMIK. They can give you a readout of the two meetings this morning, as well as answer any other questions you may have. This is being recorded in Aviano,

so we will have a transcript, but it will take a little while to get it back here. Okay? Thank you.

MR. BERGER: I want you to know that Joe has been given authority by the President of the United States to designate an ad-hoc pool without any further legal recourse.

(Laughter.)

We had two very interesting meetings this morning, and I will try to walk through them with you. One was a meeting with the U.N. Special Representative, Bernard Kouchner;

his principal deputy, Mr. Covey, is here and I'd like him, when I get done, to talk not so much about what the exchange was at the meeting, but generally his view of what's

happening here and obviously the best source of information.

I will go through this more or less as it was presented. Mr. Kouchner began by obviously saying how pleased he was the President had come here. He wanted to give him a report

-- and I should say, throughout his report, he was quite candid both with respect to what's been done and in respect to what needs to be done.

On the power issue he said that they're now producing more power in Kosovo than was the case before the war. He said, you have to remember we started from minus-20, not

even from zero, and ﬁrst we had to get back to zero. That's not an energy measurement, it was I think a general statement about the task here. But he said that by -- I think you can

check with Mr. Covey -- by mid-December the hope is to have most of the power situation in place. Although, as I say, it's far better than it was before the war.

He said UNMIK's presence, now, is in 29 municipalities; still needed more personnel to ﬁll out and deepen presence in many places. UNMIK has promulgated 23 laws involving

a banking system, involving investment. He said the ﬁrst bank would be opening -- I think he said the ﬁrst Saturday in December, or the ﬁrst Saturday before December.

With respect to law and order, he said that 60 percent of the country is under civilian police. There are 1,700 international police. The goal is to have 5,000 international police.

And he said it's very important that we try to accelerate the deployment of the international police.

But he did indicate that -- and showed us some charts indicating that the violence rate, the crime rate, has decreased -- although, it obviously still is too high. He said that there

were 114 homicides a week at the beginning, right after UNMIK arrived, right after the Kosovars came back. That was down to about seven last week, which is lower than 32,

which was the week before.

On the judiciary, 59 judges named --

Q -- murders?

MR. BERGER: I think he was referring to all homicides. Some are common crime; some may have revenge motivations. Is that right?

Q (Inaudible.)

MR. BERGER: There were 114 a week when UNMIK arrived. It's down to seven, roughly seven, a week in the last week.

He said there have been 59 judges that he has appointed. There is the issue of what law is to be applied, the old Serbian law. He said it's like asking the blacks in South Africa to

apply the apartheid law. They will not, obviously, tolerate that, so there's been an issue of what law to apply going back, and a resolution here is to go back to the pre-'89 law --

that is when Kosovo had autonomy.

On winterization, he said it's about 70 percent complete -- complete, I guess, meaning kits that will winterize homes -- Jock can amplify -- some people in community shelters.

But he said while it will not be an easy winter, it will certainly be better than last year, as the President said in his remarks, and hopefully there would not be people who would be

freezing.

He said, on the money, that is, on the international money, there have been the humanitarian money, which is the ﬁrst money that was committed in June and July, has been

distributed; it has provided the money for winterization of homes, for food, for relocation of the refugees. Now we're moving into a new phase of reconstruction. With the $1

billion that was pledged last week in the donors' conference, the money that's been committed or expended in Kosovo will be $3.2 billion so far. But there is now a need to shift to

not only project money, Mr. Kouchner said, but also money that essentially is administrative money and enables them to take salaries for the police, salaries for the teachers. A

teacher can make more money driving an UNMIK car than teaching in the schools. And there's an important need to allocate more of the money, have the authority to allocate

more of the money to administrative costs.

The schools have been reopened, they're now teaching children in their own language for the ﬁrst time in 10 years. There are about 200 schools, he indicated, which still need

repairs. On public services, I guess I'll let my colleague discuss that.

The television is now broadcasting three hours a day. He said that -- General Reinhardt then said on the ordnance and de-mining, I believe he said 4,700 sites have been cleared --

is that right? And that, in fact, essentially all of the main transit points have been cleared.

There is still a mining problem for people who wander off into uncharted ﬁelds, but they've been able to, they've felt, do a quite good job, because most of the mining areas, most

of the mines were located in combat, in ﬁghting areas, and they had fairly good information. So the mining problem has not been solved, in the sense that there are pockets of

areas out beyond the thoroughfares. But if people stay in the main thoroughfares, there's not a problem.

He said in local administration, one of the biggest challenges that he is trying and my colleague is trying, to essentially have a co-administration with the Kosovar people; and that

there had been some resistance from New York, from the U.N., to this kind of empowerment of local citizen,s as opposed to simply U.N. operations. And there is also, obviously,

the task of building that at the local level, but he saw that as one of the important challenges going forward.

On the Kosovo police, the indigenous police force is being trained. He said the ﬁrst graduating class has graduated, another 200 begin next week. The ﬁrst class had just a few

Serbs; the next class will have more Serbs, but they need more police. And that was a problem that he came back to several times, the need for more police.

The Kosovar Protection Corps, which as you know is the conversion from the Kosovar Liberation Army, he said that that was going -- General Reinhardt felt that was going very

well. But, again, this is another place where money was needed for salaries, as opposed to project money, which is easier to raise. The Kosovar Protection Corps is rebuilding

houses, they're engaged in de-mining. He hoped that some of the countries like France had just invited a bunch of these folks to come for training in France. He urged the

President to have other countries do that. He thought the transition was quite smooth.

But he said the frustration that is felt by many people, the frustration simply not being paid -- the local economy is not -- other than the self-sufﬁcient economy, is not up and

running and people -- for example, miners have not been paid. And what they need most again is quick disbursing money for administrative expenses. And the President promised

he'd go back and work on this problem. It's a problem partly of the U.N. and partly of the donor countries.

And then, again, security -- I think Mr. Kouchner or General Reinhardt said the country is now certainly more secure than it was under Mr. Milosevic.

We then met with the Kosovar Transitional Council. This is a group that has been formed by Mr. Kouchner, my colleague, with both Serb and Kosovars included -- there are two

Serbs present of about, I think, 11 -- Bishop Artimije and Mr. Trajkovic.

The President started out by saying that he appreciated this opportunity, and he appreciated seeing them all together. He wanted to know what their continuing difﬁculties were.

He said he understood that the violence had dropped, but it was still too high, and there was still too much focus on ethnic differences. He said to them, the Serbs deserve the

same chance to live in peace as you sought when you were here, the Albanians, and that we fought for you to have. That's a quote from the President.

He said, I understand there are differences among you, but it's imperative that you join in a partnership with each other, and with the U.N. -- with UNMIK. He said, NATO

became involved; I pushed NATO to become involved not so that we would make decisions for you, but so that you would be able to make decisions for yourself. And that's why

it's important that you give vitality to this transitional council, and to local administration. He was grateful for their efforts to put their lives back together, but they need

partnership.

Then he heard -- it sort of went around the table -- Mr. Surroi said he was very honored to meet the President. He met him before in the White House. He said, you promised that

Bosnia would not be repeated. We met Mr. Surroi -- when was that, do you remember? May '98? Thank you. We met Mr. Surroi in '98. He said, the President promised to them

that Bosnia would not be repeated in Kosovo, and you've kept that promise. He said, the responsibility now falls on us.

Three challenges he identiﬁed: crisis administration, is how we make this transition to democracy. Kouchner needs all the support, and an adequate budget. We need to create a

consensus on the way to Kosovar-ize the U.N. administration. And eventually we need to deal with the status issues. But he said he thought it was right not to try to deal with

them now. And he urged the President to have the same energy in building the peace as the United States had -- the same energy and urgency as the United States had in

prosecuting the war.

Bishop Artimije noted that he had met the President in Sarajevo during the ﬁrst Stability Pact conference in July. He spoke about the difﬁculties being faced by the Serbs. He said

that freedom has not been returned for the Serbs, that there still continue to be Serbs being killed, continue to be Serbs being kidnapped. Eighty churches had been destroyed. And

he valued the efforts of KFOR and UNMIK, but he said that we needed to see even more results.

Mr. Rugova -- Ibrichim, is his ﬁrst name -- he's met with the President several times in the White House, met with myself, Secretary Albright. He said, welcome to a free Kosovo,

Mr. President, this is an historic event for us. This is happening, thanks to God and thanks to the United States.

Let's see, wait a minute --

Q -- in that order?

MR. BERGER: He said in that order, yes -- I think that's only appropriate. Now, I'm going to have to get my cards together here for a second. Why don't you pick up from here

until I get myself back organized.

AMBASSADOR HILL: Dr. Rugova continued by saying our duty now is to build a peace and to create a better future for ourselves in this postwar period. The security is much

better, there are incidents, but I want to assure you that there is no organized campaign against any ethnic communities. He noted that some Serbs had left and said that they very

much want to see Serbs return.

He said that they will need to begin the rebuilding process, and they will continue to do that and will work to establish a multiethnic society.

The next person to speak was Hashim Thaci. He said many of the same things that Dr. Rugova said. He very warmly thanked the President, especially his role and the role of the

United States generally. He talked about how we are moving ahead and working with KFOR and UNMIK.

MR. BERGER: He said that in some ways, the fact that our people came back very soon created additional problems, particularly in terms of getting their housing, but he felt they

were making progress on this. He said that the KLA had complied and had reached an agreement on demilitarization, which had achieved success, and he was committed to the

transformation of the KLA to the KPC, the Kosovar Protection Corps, and also the formation of a political party.

He said in response to something the President said about the need for -- in his earlier remarks, about the need for clarity with respect to not seeking vengeance. He said that we --

and speaking out against violence, he said that they had put out statements on multiethnic tolerance. They are not happy with the incidents of violence. He believed that a Kosovar

police force, once it was fully operational, the local police force, will help stabilize the situation -- we cannot allow anarchy to rule, which is a bit of an oxymoron, but it's

interesting.

And the President said, I have a practical question: Bishop Artimije had said -- a number of churches that were burned, he said, if we can get the money to rebuild these churches,

will you assure me, all of you, how can you assure me they won't be destroyed again. And Mr. Rugova said he would guarantee that no one will touch them. Thaci said, it's

important that we have a tolerant atmosphere and that he believed that many of the churches that had been built had been newer churches built during the Milosevic age, that that

was wrong, but they were not the -- they're not the older churches, but even so, they needed to be protected. and General REINHARDT passed me a note saying that all of the

Serb churches now and religious sites are being protected by KFOR.

Mr. Kosja, an Albanian intellectual, spoke; then, the Serb, Mr. Trajkovic. He said, we have been working even before. He was certainly no supporter, notwithstanding being a

Serb leader here, was not a supporter of Milosevic there. He said that they had been working for democracy in Kosovo for many years, but now it was difﬁcult for the Serb

people, and he said that the violence and harassment of Serbs only helps Milosevic.

The President then spoke again, said I want the refugees -- he asked the Serbs whether they will come back and stay in the transitional council -- they've been back and forth --

that they needed to be inside, engaged with one community to another. It's not just, by the way, Serbs and Albanians. There's a Turkish community here. There's a Bosniac

community here. They were also represented on the Council. And he said, you have to come together and work together.

Okay. I think that essentially gets it.

Q Well, what was the answer he -- he told him to come back --

MR. BERGER: I think it was unclear.

Q Sandy, what's the hassle over the $2.3 billion not being used for administrative stuff, teachers and that sort of thing?

MR. BERGER: $2.3 billion is the overall amount of money. Do you want to -- okay. Okay. Jock is going to give a brieﬁng after. But as I understand the situation, $2.3 billion is

the entire amount of money that has either been spent or committed to Kosovo, including $1 billion that was committed last week for next year.

The ﬁrst wave of money was humanitarian -- get the refugees back, get them fed, get the winterization. That, I think, is going along pretty rapidly. What he's saying is, now we've

got to shift, and not only have money from that $2.3 billion that goes into projects -- rebuilding the water system, rebuilding a new electrical system, getting their factory going.

But there had to be money for administrative costs, so you could pay teachers and pay policemen and others. And he was seeking a greater degree of ﬂexibility in terms of how

the money is allocated. But Mr. Covey can give you a more precise answer.

Q Sandy, do you think now in Bosnia, it appears in many regions the only thing that keeps the Muslims and the Serbs living apart and in peace is the stabilization force there. Do

you get a sense that we're in this for a period of years as opposed to months?

MR. BERGER: Well, ﬁrst of all, I don't think that's an accurate statement about Bosnia. And I would point out Mr. Covey also is the Deputy high Rep in Bosnia, so can ask him

about Bosnia, as well.

The fact is, a lot of refugees have not gone back to Bosnia. They were out of the country for four or ﬁve years. But the number of minority refugees going back -- that is, Bosnians

to Serb areas, Serbs to Bosnian areas -- is actually increasing, and reached, in the ﬁrst six months of this year, the highest level that it has been so far. So I don't think that it is

quite as black and white as you point out.

In terms of how long we'll be here, well, I think you have to separate out KFOR and the international community. I mean, the international community generally should be

involved for the long term, in terms of having to rebuild KFOR. But I can imagine the need for 40,000 soldiers here -- of which we're about 6,000 -- to ramp down over time as

the security situation stabilizes, and as a Kosovar police force gets stood up. And we're now putting 200 people into that system -- I don't know, how often, Jock, once a week?

Every week. And you need a force of several thousand, and you need to train them.

So we've never set a deadline. We've set benchmarks, and when we meet those benchmarks, the military will be able to withdraw. But it will not be simply all at once. Just as in

Bosnia we've come down dramatically, so, too, here we'll be able to come down over time.

Q Was the issue of independence brought up by the Kosovars?

MR. BERGER: No. There was no -- there was only a very, very oblique reference to status. As I said, Mr. Surroi said this is a very important issue. But he thinks it's right not to

focus on it now. And it was not a central theme.

Q Did you get any ﬁgures of how many Serbs are left in Kosovo?

MR. BERGER: Why don't you ask my Jock.

Q Sandy, did you pick up any tension between Thaci and Rugova? Did they talk at all about the relationship between the military and the political?

MR. BERGER: Well, they sat next to each other. I certainly didn't get any sense of tension between the two of them. On the other hand, they weren't holding hands. I mean, they

obviously have different -- come from different experiences and have different political support. But they were certainly working together in the context of this meeting.

Q Sandy, Iran says today that the United -- that they turned down a United States request to have diplomats stationed in the interest section in Teheran. Have we made such a

request?

MR. BERGER: No.

Q What was the question? (Laughter.)

MR. BERGER: That we station diplomats in Teheran.

Q Have we made them such -- for anything -- is there anything close to that?

MR. BERGER: We've not made any -- we are represented in Teheran through the Swiss.

Q Sandy, the President got a lot of applause this morning, except when he said that the Kosovars must forgive the Serbs. What did you make of that?

MR. BERGER: Well, I guess -- my honest answer, I made two things of it. I think there is -- there's obviously some receptivity -- I think receptivity to a message of tolerance

from the President, and non-vengeance that the President was giving at that school. Don't forget, most Kosovars want to get on with their lives, and they've seen what happens

from this violence. And I think to hear that from the President was important.

I also think that there was obviously a great deal of admiration and respect for the President in that room, and in Kosovo. And I think part of that was respect for him. But I do

think -- I was pleased that there was a kind of a positive reaction to that message. He certainly conveyed the same message to the leaders in very, I thought, stark terms.

MR. LEAVY: All right, thanks guys. Thank you. We'll have Jock brief after the speech, so in about a half-hour, we'll put my colleague back on.

MR. BERGER: Covey is great. Come back.

Q Did you ever ask the President about the Elgin marbles and raise it with Tony Blair?

MR. BERGER: Before we land, I'll have an answer to that question. The answer is no, I have not asked him.

Q Does the President have --

MR. BERGER: Not as of now. If he's asked -- no, but I wouldn't be surprised at some point if he does it.

Q -- called him, as far as you know?

MR. BERGER: Not as far as I know.

MR. LEAVY: We're going to start Jock now --

MR. HAMMER: Jock Covey is the Deputy to Kouchner here at UNMIK.

MR. COVEY: Okay. The news for us today is that today is the day that the ﬁrst power plant in Kosovo B comes on line. This may sound mundane, but it's something of a

metaphor for what we do. Bear in mind that even with our rickety capacity that everybody complains about, right now we are presently generating more electricity in Kosovo than

Kosovo generated itself at this time last year when it pretended to be a functioning entity.

When Kosovo B comes on line today, it will almost triple the amount of electricity that Kosovo has generated for the last few years. This is part of a long campaign. Let me take a

minute on it, because this is the way we do our work.

When we arrived here, KFOR and UNMIK, there was nothing functioning -- no utilities, no power. The infrastructure we found had been savagely exploited by the Belgrade

regime, cannibalized and big chunks of it had been ripped off by the departing troops. The generators were down and they were physically unsafe. The workers were afraid to ﬁre

them up for fear the turbines would disintegrate and explode like a bomb.

We patched together that equipment, we patched together a work force from Kosovars who had been ﬁred from these jobs ﬁve and 10 years ago, got the equipment going at one

of the complexes -- the so-called "A complex" -- it's ﬁve different turbines. But "patched" is the right word.

Let me tell you how tough this is. The mean time to failure for the Kosovo power plants at Complex A is six days. You ﬁre it up, you get the turbine running, it runs for maybe six

days before something shuts it down. These things were grossly mistreated in the last decade, and the big generators in the B complex are much the same.

Okay, we pick this up in a minute -- in 30 minutes. Okay.

END 12:55 P.M. (L)

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View Header

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

(Ferizaj (Urosevac) Area, Kosovo)

For Immediate Release November 23, 1999

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

TO THE STUDENTS, ORGANIZATION LEADERS

AND COMMUNITY LEADERS

OF THE FERIZAJ (UROSEVAC) AREA

Sports Pavilion

Ferizaj (Urosevac) Area, Kosovo

11:15 A.M. (L)

STUDENT: Thank you, Madam Secretary. And thank you, President Clinton. My name is Ramadan Ilazi, and I am a student of the 8th grade in elementary school Ganimet

Terbeshi. Mr. President, thank you very much for coming to Ferizaj and for having the opportunity to visit with us. (Applause.)

You promised that you will bring us to our homes safe. You kept your promise. (Applause.) We will never forget that you brought us home. (Applause.) You are a great friend of

our people and we love you very much. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you. I want to begin by thanking you for your wonderful welcome. I thank Ramadan for his introduction -- I think maybe some day he will

be an elected ofﬁcial if he speaks so well from now on. (Applause.) I thank Luljeta for her equally ﬁne introduction of Secretary Albright. And I thank your principal, Shaﬁje

Hajdari, for welcoming us here. We are honored to be here with all of you today, especially with the school children. (Applause.)

When I was introduced, Ramadan said -- he thanked me for making it possible for you to come home. There are some other people who were largely responsible, and I would like

to introduce them, as well. We have four members of the United States Congress: Representative Peter Deutsch of Florida; Representative Eliot Engel of New York;

Representative Jack Kingston of Georgia; Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York. They voted for the funds that enabled our military to come here and end this terrible

ethnic cleansing. I'd like to ask them to stand up. Please stand. Thank you. (Applause.)

In addition to Secretary Albright -- whom I know you know, because you gave her such a wonderful reception -- was the strongest advocate of the stand we took in Kosovo -- I'd

like to thank Sandy Berger, my National Security Advisor, and Larry Rossin, who is the Chief of Mission for the United States government in Pristina, and ask them to stand.

Thank you. (Applause.)

And, ﬁnally, I want to thank all the members of our Armed Forces and our allies who are serving here with the U.N., and those who were here previously in the NATO campaign.

And I would like to introduce the Commander of all of our NATO forces, General Wes Clark, and thank him for what he has done. Thank you. (Applause.)

I know with all these people here and all the children here it is difﬁcult to listen to a long speech, but I hope you can listen to a short speech. (Applause.)

Mr. Milosevic wanted to keep control of Kosovo by getting rid of all of you, and we said, no. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE: Clin-ton! Clin-ton!

THE PRESIDENT: Now he has lost his grip on Kosovo and you have returned. No more days hiding in cellars, no more nights freezing in mountains and forests. (Applause.)

I know that for those who have lost their homes, perhaps homes where your parents and grandparents were born, this is still a difﬁcult time. I know it is hard for children to feel a

sense of security and happiness when they have seen too much killing and hatred. (Applause.)

But I know this, too: the United Nations troops and international organizations that have come here to help will stand with you every step of the way, and the coming winter in

Kosovo is going to be a lot better than the last winter was. (Applause.)

There is still a lot of work to do, but it is important that the world know what has already been done since you came home a few short months ago. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE: Clin-ton! Clin-ton!

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. We are preparing houses for the winter, ﬁxing schools, bringing in police ofﬁcers, KLA ﬁghters are returning to civilian life, radio stations and

newspapers are operating, the U.N. is doing a good job under tough conditions. And last week, the international community pledged another $1 billion American dollars to help

Kosovo, to fully fund the U.N. operation next year. (Applause.)

With all the problems that remain, we should remember: Kosovar children are going back to school, learning in their language, in communities that answer to their parents. That

is in some ways better than it was before. And we can do better still. (Applause.)

I want to make one last point, more important than anything else I have to say, to the children and to the parents. (Applause.) You can never forget the injustice that was done to

you. (Applause.) No one can force you to forgive what was done to you. (Applause.) But you must try. And let me tell you why.

First of all, all the schoolchildren will soon be learning in their biology classes that all the people in the world -- all the people in the world, in terms of their genetic makeup,

scientiﬁcally, are 99.9 percent the same -- the Serbs, the Albanians, the Irish, the Africans, the Latins, the Asians. (Applause.)

Children are not born hating those who are different from them, and no religion teaches them to do so. They have to be taught to hate by people who are already grown.

(Applause.) But all over the world -- not just here in Kosovo, all over the world -- it is children who bear the burden of their parents' blind hatred. (Applause.)

I have been in Africa, with a young man who lost his arm to someone of a different ethnic group, who cut it off with a machete simply because of his family heritage. I have been

in Israel with schoolchildren staring at the pictures of their classmates who were blown up in buses simply because they were Jewish. I have been in Ireland, with a beautiful,

beautiful 16-year-old girl playing and singing to me, but her eyesight was gone, because she was blown up in a bomb just because of the religious differences in Ireland. We owe

the children in Kosovo a better future than that. (Applause.)

Now, you cheered for us when we came in because when you were being oppressed, we stood by you. And we exercised military power to defeat the aggression of Mr. Milosevic.

We won the war. But, listen: only you can win the peace. (Applause.)

The time for ﬁghting has passed. Kosovo is for you to shape now. The international community will stand by you. But you must take the lead. What will you think about? Will

you be focused on hatred and past wrongs and getting even? Or will you be thinking about good schools for your children, new homes for them, new businesses, the effort to

create genuine self-government to eradicate corruption and violence and give your children the joys of a normal life?

I beg you who are parents to teach your children that life is more than the terrible things that are done. It is how you react to them. Do not let the children's spirits be broken. Do

not let their hearts harden. The future we fought to save for you is the future we see here today -- smiling, cheering, happy children. Give them the tomorrow they deserve.

(Applause.)

The American people have been honored to stand with you, and we will stand with you every step of the way. Thank you, and God bless you all. (Applause.)

END 11:30 A.M. (L)

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