(12 Jun 1999) English/Nat
President Clinton said on Saturday that the United States looks forward to working with Russia on maintaining peace in Kosovo.
He avoided comment on Russia's surprise decision to send troops into Kosovo in advance of the arrival of NATO forces.
Moscow opposed NATO airstrikes against its ally Yugoslavia, which ended last week after 79 days.
On a sweltering Saturday, a relaxed President Clinton arrived in Chicago to give a commencement (graduation) speech.
He was guest speaker at the University of Chicago where 820 students were graduating.
There, he expressed regret for waiting four years before his administration intervened militarily to stop the Bosnian war.
And again stressed why NATO had taken action in Kosovo.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We intervened militarily in Kosovo because I believe that when ethnic hatred turns into the mass slaughter and uprooting of totally innocent civilians, if we have the power to stop it we ought to. It took us four years before action was taken in Bosnia when the same thing happened, and by that time a quarter of a million people had died, two and a half million people had become refugees."
SUPER CAPTION: President Bill Clinton
"We are determined to reverse the ethnic cleaning," Clinton said before turning to the main theme of address - the global economy.
He also spoke about Russia - who helped broker a peace deal and pledged to participate in maintaining order as Serbian forces withdraw from the Yugoslav province.
The Clinton administration said Saturday that Russia's surprise march into Kosovo ahead of NATO peacekeepers was not militarily significant and allied officials are working with Moscow to ensure NATO will be in clear command of the international operation.
President Clinton, putting the best face on the confusion in Kosovo, said the United States looks forward to working with Russia on maintaining peace.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Today, the NATO forces, the British, the French, the Americans and others to come, soon to be nearly thirty countries moved into Kosovo. We are determined to reverse the ethnic cleansing, we troops, entered Kosovo. We look forward to working with Russia and others who may not have agreed with our military campaign but do agree with the proposition that all the people of that tiny land - Serb and Albanian alike - should be able to live in peace and dignity.
SUPER CAPTION: President Bill Clinton
He did not mention Moscow's preliminary move into the Serbian province.
The peacekeepers will protect some 1 (m) million ethnic Albanians as they return to the Serbian province, which will gain a degree of autonomy under the peace agreement with Yugoslavia.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"There are serious people who say that we should not have done this because nominally Kosovo is a part of Serbia, so matter how lamentable the human suffering was no one should have done anything about it. We should have just said, we are very sorry about it and wish you would stop and if you will do it no one will stop you. I think that would have been a terrible mistake."
SUPER CAPTION: President Bill Clinton
The remarks drew light applause from the graduates and others attending the ceremony.
Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin were to discuss the situation during a phone called planned for Sunday morning.
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