When Clinton gave the warrant for the bombing: Kosovo's people to live in peace at home

To honour this day, former President Bill Clinton and former Madeleine Albright are staying in Kosovo.

Various activities are planned for today, where Clinton and Albright will be welcomed to Pristina Square, broadcast the Indexline.

On this day, he is remembering Clinton's historic speech about the launch of the bombing campaign against Serbian forces.

With March 24th 1999, NATO forces launched the first missiles against the Serbian Army.

The order for the launch of the bomber campaign was given by the president of the United States, Bill Clinton.

Following is his complete speech translated into Albanian.

March 24, 1999

Full speech:

My American contemporaries today, our armed forces joined our NATO allies in air strikes against Serbian forces responsible for the brutality in Kosovo. We have acted decisively for several reasons.

We act to protect thousands of innocent people in Kosovo from a growing military offensive.

We act to prevent a broader war, to distribute a dust box into the heart of Europe that has erupted twice in this century with catastrophic results.

We act to remain united with our allies for peace. Acting now, we are maintaining our values, protecting our interests and advancing the cause of peace.

Tonight I want to talk 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 we're responding to. Kosovo is a province of Serbia, in the middle of Southeast Europe and about 160 miles east of Italy. This is less than the distance between Washington and New York, and only about 70 miles north of Greece.

Its people are mostly ethnic Albanians and mainly Muslims.

In 1989, Serbia's leader, Slobodan Milosevic, the same leader who started wars in Bosnia and Croatia and moved against Slovenia in the last decade, removed Kosovo from constitutional autonomy that pleased the people, thus denying their right to speak their own language, forms their daily lives. For years, Kosovo fought peacefully to return its rights. When President Milosevic sent troops and police to crush them, the war became violent.

Last fall, our diplomacy, supported by the threat of force from our NATO alliance, stopped fighting for a while and saved tens of thousands of people from freezing and hunger in the hills they had fled to save their lives. And last month, with our allies and Russia, we proposed a peace agreement to end fighting for the better. Kosovo leaders signed that agreement last week.

Although he did not give them everything they wanted, although their people were continuing to fight, they found that a righteous peace is better than a long and invincible war.

Serbian leaders, on the other hand, even refused to discuss key elements of the peace agreement. While Kosovars were saying yes to peace, Serbia deployed 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 are starting to move from village to village, attacking civilians and lighting up their homes. We have seen innocent people get out of their homes, forced to kneel in the dust and cover themselves with bullets. Kosovo men withdrew from their families, fathers and boys together, lined up and shot in cold blood. This is not war in the traditional sense. It is an attack by tanks and artillery for a very vulnerable people whose leaders have already agreed to peace.

The outcome of this tragedy is a moral necessity. It's also important for the national interests of America. Take a look at this map. Kosovo is a small country, but it stands on a major line between Europe, Asia and the Middle East, at the site of the meeting of Islam and the Western and Orthodox branches of Christianity.

To the south are our allies, Greece and Turkey. In the north, our new democratic allies in Central Europe. And throughout Kosovo, there are other small countries, struggling with their economic and political challenges, countries that can be overthrown by a large new wave of refugees from Kosovo.

All the ingredients for a big war are there. The old polls, fighting democracies and, above all, a dictator in Serbia, who has done nothing since the end of the Cold War, but begins new wars and pours gasoline into 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 included the region. In both wars Europe was slow to recognize the dangers, and the United States waited longer to get into conflict. Just imagine if leaders back then had acted wisely and at first, how many lives could have been saved? How many Americans shouldn't die?

We learned some of the same lessons in Bosnia just a few years ago. The world did not act as early as it could to stop that war. And let's not forget what happened. Innocent people were put in camps, children were killed by snipers on their way to school, soccer fields, and parks were turned into cemeteries. A quarter of a million people were killed, not because of anything they had done, but because of who they were. Two million Bosniaks became refugees.

This was genocide in the heart of Europe, not in 1945, but in 1995. Not in some breaking news of the time of our parents and grandparents, but in our time, challenging our humanity and our determination.

At that time, many people believed that nothing could be done to end the bloodshed in Bosnia. They said: “Y, that's what those people in the Balkans are like.” But when we and our allies joined Bosnians bravely to stay to the aggressors, we helped end the war. We learned that in the Balkans, inaction in the face of brutality simply invites brutality. But determination can stop armies and save lives.

We must apply that lesson in Kosovo, before it happens in Bosnia, it happens there as well.

Over the past few months, we have done everything we can to solve this problem peacefully. Secretary Albright has worked hard for a negotiated agreement. Mr. Milosevic has refused.

On Sunday I have sent Ambassador Dick Holbrooke to Serbia to make it clear to him again on behalf of the United States and our NATO allies that he must honour his vows and stop his depression 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 should do to restore peace. Our mission is clear to demonstrate the seriousness of NATO's goal so that Serbian leaders can understand the necessity of changing the course, preventing an even more bloody offensive against innocent civilians in Kosovo, and if it is necessary to seriously damage the Serbian Army's capacity to harm the people of Kosovo.

In short, if President Milosevic does not make peace, we will limit his ability to wage war.

Now I want to be clear with you, there are risks to this military action, danger to our pilots and people on the ground. Serbia's air defence is strong. It may decide to intensify its attack on Kosovo, or seek to harm us or our allies elsewhere. If so, we will give a strong answer.

We hope that Mr. Milosevic will realise that his current course is self-structuring and unstable. If he decides to accept the peace agreement and demilitarise Kosovo, NATO has agreed to help implement it with a peacekeeping force.

If NATO is invited to do so, our troops should participate in that mission to maintain peace, but I have no intention of putting our troops in Kosovo to fight a war.

Do our interests in Kosovo justify the dangers to our armed forces? I thought a lot about that. I am convinced that the dangers of action are far greater than the dangers of failing to act dangerously for vulnerable people and for our national interests.

If we and our allies allowed this war to continue unanswered, President Milosevic would read our hesitation as a license to kill. There will be many massacres, tens of thousands of refugees, who cry for revenge. For now, our sustainability is the only hope that the people of Kosovo should be able to live in their own country without fearing for their lives.

Remember, we asked them to accept peace, and they did. We asked them to promise to put their arms on, and they agreed. We pledged that we, the United States and the other 18 NATO nations would stay close to them if they did the right thing. We can't leave them now.

Imagine what would happen if we and our allies decided to look the other way, as these people were massacred at the NATO threshold. This would discredit NATO, the cornerstone on which our security has been based for 50 years.

We also need to remember that this is a conflict without national natural boundaries. Let me ask you to look back on a map. Red dots are cities that Serbs have attacked. Arrows show the movement of refugees north, east and south. Currently, this move is threatening the new democracy in Macedonia, which has the Albanian minority and a Turkish minority.

Already, Serbian forces have made efforts in Albania, of which Kosovars have found support. Albania has a Greek minority. Let a fire burn here in this area and the flames will spread.

Eventually, the main allies of the United States. A. - can be drawn into a broader conflict... a war we will be forced to face later, only at far greater risk and greater cost.

I have a responsibility as president to deal with such problems before they do permanent damage to our national interests. America has a responsibility to stay with our allies when they try to save innocent lives and preserve peace, freedom and stability in Europe. That's what we're doing in Kosovo.

If we've learned anything from the approaching century, it's that if America is going to be prosperous and secure, we need a Europe that is prosperous, secure, inseparable and free.

We need a Europe that is joining, not dividing. A Europe that shares our values and shares the burden of leadership. This is the foundation upon which our children's safety depends. So I have supported Europe's political and economic union. That is why we brought Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to NATO, and redefined its mission. And he arrived in Russia and Ukraine for new partnerships.

Now what are the challenges for that vision of a quiet, secure, united and sustainable Europe? The challenge of strengthening a partnership with democratic Russia, which despite our disagreements, is a constructive partner in the peace-building work. The challenge of resolving tensions between Greece and Turkey, and building bridges with the Islamic world.

And finally, the challenge of ending instability in the Balkans, so that these bitterly, ethnic problems in Europe can be solved by the power of argument, not by the force of bombs. So future generations of Americans must not cross the Atlantic to fight another terrible war. It is this challenge that we and our allies are facing in Kosovo.

That's why we've acted now because we care about saving innocent life because we have an interest in avoiding an even more severe and costly fight and because our children need and deserve a quiet, stable and free Europe.

Our thoughts and prayers tonight must be with the men and women of our armed forces who are embarking on this mission for the sake of our children's values and future.