Balkan Repository Project

It Wasn't Your Victory, Mr. Clinton

Clinton: My fellow Americans, tonight, for the first time in 79 days, the skies over Yugoslavia are silent. The Serb army and police are withdrawing from Kosovo. The 1 million men, women and children driven from their land are preparing to return home. The demands of an outraged and united international community have been met.

Clinton: I can report to the American people that we have achieved a victory for a safer world, for our democratic values, and for a stronger America.

Our pilots have returned to base. The airstrikes have been suspended. Aggression against an innocent people has been contained and is being turned back.

When I ordered our armed forces into combat, we had three clear goals: to enable the Kosovar people, the victims of some of the most vicious atrocities in Europe since the Second World War, to return to their homes with safety and self-government; to require Serbian forces responsible for those atrocities to leave Kosovo; and to deploy an international security force, with NATO at its core, to protect all the people of that troubled land, Serbs and Albanians alike.

Those goals will be achieved. Unnecessary conflict has been brought to a just and honorable conclusion.

Clinton:Acting To End The Crisis In Kosovo. President Milosevic's forces have intensified their attacks of burning down Kosovar Albanian villages and murdering innocent civilians. As a result, 60,000 Kosovars have fled their homes in the past five weeks, and a million of them are refugees in neighboring countries like Albania and Macedonia. The United States and NATO allies' air strikes have three objectives:

To deter President Milosevic from continuing to escalate his attacks on helpless civilians by imposing a price for those attacks Complete Failure - There were NO Ethnic Albanians in Refugee Camps on March 24, 1999

To demonstrate the seriousness of NATO's opposition to aggression and its support for peace. Complete Failure. The entire world now realizes NATO has turned into an out of control war machine

If necessary, to damage Serbia's capacity to wage war against Kosovo in the future by seriously diminishing its military capabilities. Milosevic's military capabilities, we see as they leave Kosovo, are intact

The result will be security and dignity for the people of Kosovo, achieved by an alliance that stood together in purpose and resolve, assisted by the diplomatic efforts of Russia.

This victory brings a new hope that when a people are singled out for destruction because of their heritage and religious faith and we can do something about it, the world will not look the other way.

Clinton: I want to express my profound gratitude to the men and women of our armed forces and those of our allies. Day after day, night after night, they flew, risking their lives to attack their targets and to avoid civilian casualties when they were fired upon from populated areas.

I ask every American to join me in saying to them, "Thank you. You've made us very proud."

I'm also grateful to the American people for standing against the awful ethnic cleansing, for sending generous assistance to the refugees and for opening your hearts and your homes to the innocent victims who came here.

I want to speak with you for a few moments tonight about why we fought, what we achieved and what we have to do now to advance the peace and, together with the people of the Balkans, forge a future of freedom, progress and harmony.

We should remember that the violence we responded to in Kosovo was the culmination of a 10-year campaign by Slobodan Milosevic, the leader of Serbia, to exploit ethnic and religious difference in order to impose his will on the lines of the former Yugoslavia.

That's what he tried to do in Croatia and Bosnia and now in Kosovo. The world saw the terrifying consequences: five hundred villages burned; men of all ages separated from their loved ones to be shot and buried in mass graves; women raped; children made to watch their parents die; a whole people forced to abandon in hours communities their families had spent generations building.

Clinton: For these atrocities, Mr. Milosevic and his top aides have been indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

I will never forget the Kosovar refugees I recently met. Some of them could barely talk about what they had been through. All they had left was hope that the world would not turn its back.

When our diplomatic efforts to avert this horror were rebuffed, and the violence mounted, we and our allies chose to act. Mr. Milosevic continued to do terrible things to the people of Kosovo. But we were determined to turn him back. Our firmness finally has brought an end to a vicious campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Clinton: And we acted early enough to reverse it, to enable the Kosovars to go home. When they do, they will be safe. They will be able to reopen their schools, speak their language, practice their religion, choose their leaders and shape their destiny.

There will be no more days of foraging for food in the cold mountains and forests. No more nights of hiding in cellars, wondering if the next day will bring death or deliverance. They will know that Mr. Milosevic's army and paramilitary forces will be gone, his 10 years of repression, finished.

NATO has achieved this success as a united alliance, ably led by Secretary General Solana and General Clark. Nineteen democracies came together and stayed together through the stiffest military challenge in NATO's 50-year history.

Clinton: We also preserved our critically important partnership with Russia. Thanks to President Yeltsin, who opposed our military effort, but supported diplomacy to end the conflict on terms that met our conditions. I'm grateful to Russian envoy Chernomyrdin and Finnish President Ahtisaari for their work, and to Vice President Gore for the key role he played in putting their partnership together.

Now, I hope Russian troops will join us in the force that will keep the peace in Kosovo, just as they have in Bosnia.

Finally, we have averted the wider war this conflict might well have sparked. The countries of Southeastern Europe backed the NATO campaign, helped the refugees, and showed the world there is more compassion than cruelty in this troubled region. This victory makes it all the more likely that they will choose a future of democracy, fair treatment of minorities, and peace.

Clinton: There are formidable challenges.

First, we must be sure the Serbian authorities meet their commitments. We are prepared to resume our military campaign, should they fail to do so.

Next, we must get the Kosovar refugees home safely. Minefields will have to be cleared. Homes destroyed by Serb forces will have to be rebuilt. Homeless people in need of food and medicine will have to get them. The fate of the missing will have to be determined. The Kosovar Liberation Army will have to demilitarize as it has agreed to do. And we in the peacekeeping force will have to ensure that Kosovo is a safe place to live for all its citizens, ethnic Serbs as well as ethnic Albanians.

Clinton: For these things to happen, security must be established. To that end, some 50,000 troops from almost 30 countries will deploy to Kosovo. Our European allies will provide the vast majority of them. America will contribute about 7,000.

We are grateful that during NATO's air campaign, we did not lose a single serviceman in combat. But this next phase also will be dangerous. Bitter memories will still be fresh, and there may well be casualties.

Clinton: So we have made sure that the force going into Kosovo will have NATO command and control and rules of engagement set by NATO. It will have the means and the mandate to protect itself while doing its job.

In the meantime, the United Nations will organize a civilian administration while preparing the Kosovars to govern and police themselves.

Clinton:As local institutions take hold, NATO will be able to turn over increasing responsibility to them and draw down its forces.

Our third challenge will be to put in place a plan for lasting peace and stability in Kosovo and through all the Balkans. For that to happen, the European Union and the United States must plan for tomorrow, not just today.

We must help to give the democracies of Southeastern Europe a path to a prosperous shared future, a unifying magnet more powerful than the pull of hatred and destruction that has threatened to tear them apart.

Our European partners must provide most of the resources for this effort, but it is in America's interest to do our part as well.

Clinton: A final challenge will be to encourage Serbia to join its neighbors in this historic journey, to a peaceful democratic united Europe.

I want to say a few words to the Serbian people tonight. I know that you too have suffered in Mr. Milosevic's war. You should know that your leaders could have kept Kosovo as a part of your country without driving a single Kosovar family from its home, without killing a single adult or child, without inviting a single NATO bomb to fall on your country.

You endured 79 days of bombing, not to keep Kosovo a province of Serbia, but simply because Mr. Milosevic was determined to eliminate Kosovar Albanians from Kosovo, dead or alive.

As long as he remains in power, as long as your nation is ruled by an indicted war criminal, we will provide no support for the reconstruction of Serbia. But we are ready to provide humanitarian aid, and to help to build a better future for Serbia too, when its government represents tolerance and freedom, not repression and terror.

Clinton: My fellow Americans, all these challenges are substantial, but they are far preferable to the challenges of war and continued instability in Europe. We have sent a message of determination and hope to all the world. Think of all the millions of innocent people who died in this bloody century because democracies reacted too late to evil and aggression.

Because of our resolve, the 20th century is ending, not with helpless indignation, but with a hopeful affirmation of human dignity and human rights for the 21st century. In a world too divided by fear among people of different racial, ethnic and religious groups, we have given confidence to the friends of freedom and pause to those who would exploit human difference for inhuman purposes.

America still faces great challenges in this world, but we look forward to meeting them. So tonight I ask you to be proud of your country and very proud of the men and women who serve it in uniform. For in Kosovo we did the right thing. We did it the right way. And we will finish the job.

Good night and may God bless our wonderful United States of America.

Milosevic:"Dear citizens, the aggression is over. Peace has prevailed over violence. Dear citizens, may you enjoy peace!

At this moment, our first thoughts should be devoted to the heroes who sacrificed their lives to defend the country, and fight for freedom and dignity of their people. All their names will be made public.

But at this moment, I would like to inform you that in the war that lasted exactly 11 weeks, since 24 March until today, 462 members of the Army of Yugoslavia and 114 members of the police of the Republic of Serbia were killed. We shall never be able to pay our debt to them. However, we have to do what we can, and that is our duty - to take care of their families and always be poised to defend freedom, dignity and independence of this country for which they placed their lives on the line.

Entire people took part in this war. The babies in maternity hospitals and serious patients in intensive care units, soldiers in the trenches, air defense soldiers and guards on the border. The courage of those who defended bridges with their bodies, the citizens who defended factories, squares, their towns, their jobs, their state, their people, shall never be forgotten. People is a hero - perhaps this is, in a nutshell, what this war was all about. People is a hero and it should feel like a hero and act like a hero. That means with dignity, generosity and responsibility.

Since the beginning of this year, throughout the country there have been many rallies. On all of them, there was a single slogan - WE SHALL NOT GIVE KOSOVO AWAY. We have not given Kosovo away.

The sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country is guaranteed by Group-8, major industrial countries of the world and the United Nations. That guarantee is contained in the draft resolution. Open questions of a possible independence of Kosovo from the times preceding the aggression have been closed by the Belgrade agreement. The territorial integrity of our country cannot be questioned. We have stood our ground and defended the country while we have taken the problem to the very top of the world pyramid of authority - before the United Nations, to have it resolved under the auspices of the United Nations, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. Under the auspices of the United Nations, international forces will be deployed in Kosovo with a view to taking care equally of security of all citizens. Also under the auspices of the United Nations there will be a political process, based on the principles arising from earlier discussions, but equally on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country.

It means that there can be discussion only on autonomy and nothing more than that.

By going before the United Nations we not only defended our country but also returned to the international scene the United Nations that has failed functioned for 80 days from the onset of this aggression. This is our contribution to the efforts of the entire peace-loving world, this is our contribution to the tendency of creating a multipolar world and not accept the creation of a world guided by the "diktat" of force from a single center. I think that this contribution will go down in history as a great one and that heroism of our people in resisting many times bigger and mightier enemy will mark the end of the 20th century. I am convinced of that. We have demonstrated that were have an invincible army and, I am positive, the best army in the world. When I say army, it should be understood in a wider sense. I mean army, police and all forces of the State defense. They have demonstrated before the entire world how our people defends itself, how firmly and united it stands because our people is our army and because army was our people.

Never before in the history, like in this war, have our people been so united and never in the history did we have less cowards who fled the country to wait out there safely for the war to end.

At this moment, we are faced with a lot of new problems which will open up a lot of new tasks at the end of the aggression and at the beginning of peace. These are, above all, to take care of all who need that the most, to take care of the families of those who had been killed and those who had been wounded or partially disabled to do their jobs, but also to take care of all those workers and peasants, citizens of all trades who have been affected by this war and who should be helped, starting with those most in need. But all of them should be helped.

The tasks that lie ahead include the reconstruction of the country. We shall start immediately to build our bridges, we shall start immediately to build our roads, our factories, to embark upon a new development which will reflect the capability and vitality of our people, of our citizens, our state and all its residents.

Speaking of our people, I mean all citizens of Yugoslavia and all nationalities. We have also defended a multinational community, the only multinational community that remained from the former Yugoslavia.

I also consider this to be one of great achievements of our defense.

The forces coming to Kosovo shall be in the service of peace, regardless which country they are coming from. Army always obeys its command and the command here is - to defend the citizens and protect peace.

The great tasks that lie ahead shall require a great mobilization. I consider that the unity at this difficult moment, a great achievement which we have to preserve during reconstruction because we need unity and great mobilization to carry out reconstruction and embark successfully upon a new development. In all of that, I wish all the citizens of Yugoslavia a lot of happiness and luck.