Clinton speaks to Kosovars in Urosevac on Tuesday

November 23, 1999
Web posted at: 9:29 a.m. EST (1429 GMT)

UROSEVAC, Kosovo (CNN) -- Five months after their province was wrested from Yugoslav control by NATO bombs, President Clinton urged the people of Kosovo on Tuesday to bury the history of ethnic strife that led to the conflict.

Since the Western bombardment ended in June, the hundreds of thousands of displaced ethnic Albanians have turned the tables on the Serb minority that once repressed them. On Tuesday, Clinton urged Kosovars to step back from the cycle of retribution that has plagued the territory since Yugoslav troops left.

"The time for fighting is past," he said. "Kosovo is for you to shape now. The international community will stand by you, but you must take the lead."

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But the wild applause that greeted the U.S. leader faded significantly as the told the crowd at a school in Urosevac to forgive their former adversaries.

"You can never forget the injustice that was done to you. No one can force you to forgive what was done to you. But you must try," he said.

"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," Clinton said. "All over the world, not just here in Kosovo ... it is children who bear the brunt of their parents blind hatred."

Clinton arrived in Pristina, the province's capital, Tuesday morning for a day-long visit that caps his 10-day European trip. He met earlier with German Gen. Klaus Reinhardt, the commander of the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping mission; and Bernard Kouchner, the head of Kosovo's U.N. administration.

Clinton was scheduled to share an early Thanksgiving dinner with some of the 6,000 U.S. troops stationed in Kosovo before returning to Washington on Tuesday.

Despite chronic outages and a struggle to maintain law and order in the territory, Clinton praised the U.N. administration in Kosovo for "doing a good job under tough conditions."

"The United Nations troops and international organizations that have come here to help will stand with you every step of the way," Clinton said, "And the coming winter in Kosovo is going to be a lot better than the last winter was."

In Belgrade, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's ruling party said the visit was Clinton's "return to the scene of the crime."

The troops are preparing for their first Balkan winter as NATO peacekeepers, trying to maintain order between ethnic Albanians and ethnic Serbs.

Children wave U.S. flags during Clinton's speech in Urosevac

Albanians, back from months in hiding or refugee camps, have carried out violent reprisals against the Serbs. The Clinton administration has blamed some of the lawlessness on Albanian organized crime syndicates crossing over into Kosovo.

"When you deal with these problems in the Balkans, I mean, it's like pounding some warped floorboards. You get one down and another one pops up somewhere," said White House security adviser Christopher Hill.

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