NATO Is Justified and Determined

We say that NATO is an alliance based on values that its member countries hold in common. But do these words carry real meaning? Slobodan Milosevic forced the countries of the alliance to give an unequivocal answer to this question.

We decided that values do not only have to be preached but upheld. That is why the allies supported the effort to achieve a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Kosovo. Indeed, the Rambouillet talks were largely the result of the patient and persistent diplomacy of allied nations. But it is also why the alliance opted to use military force against the Yugoslav security forces and the government in Belgrade once these negotiations had failed.

It was a decision we did not enter into lightly. The humanitarian tragedy was not likely to be stopped within a few days. The military risks to our soldiers would be significant. Civilian casualties might occur. Our important relationship with Russia was likely to suffer. And NATO would be charged by some with taking international law into its own hands.

Yet despite these risks, we had to go ahead for three reasons.

First and foremost, we acted to stop the humanitarian tragedy. To stand idly by while a brutal campaign of forced deportation, torture and murder is going on in the heart of Europe would have meant declaring moral bankruptcy. Imagine the public outcry had NATO decided to just look the other way. The entire logic of turning Europe into a common political, economic and security space would have been revealed as empty rhetoric had we tolerated the barbaric ethnic cleansing on our doorstep. One of the lessons of Bosnia was that acting earlier might have been less costly in the end. We learned this lesson. Second, all other means--political and economic--had been exhausted before we reverted to military action. Milosevic’s refusal to sign the Rambouillet agreement made it clear that he had no interest in a political solution. He has tried instead to create a new ethnic reality on the ground. Any honest observer realizes that military force was the only option left to stop him and, hopefully, make him reconsider. The allies have to stand firm, leaving Milosevic with no alternative but to accept a just peace.

Finally, we acted to prevent a further destabilization in the Balkans. As the United Nations Security Council confirmed months ago, the destabilization caused by the onslaught of Milosevic’s brutal security forces constitutes a threat to the entire region. No one should forget that the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo began many months before NATO launched its first strike. It was to stop Milosevic from writing the final chapter in his campaign for the systematic depopulation of Kosovo that NATO decided it could no longer postpone military action.

It would not be the first time that a regional crisis in the Balkans turned bigger and nastier. With several hundreds of thousands of refugees being driven into neighboring countries by Milosevic’s brutal actions, the entire region faces a serious threat of general conflict. Those neighboring countries, which themselves face political and economic problems, have long since reached the limits of their ability to cope with this exceptional burden. In short, if Belgrade’s policy of deliberate displacement of the Kosovo Albanians had not been energetically opposed, even more instability and bloodshed would have been the result.

NATO’s military actions will be pursued until Milosevic accedes to the demands of the international community:

* a verifiable stop to all military action and the killing;

* the withdrawal of Serb military, police and paramilitary forces;

* the deployment of an international security presence;

* the return of all refugees to Kosovo;

* putting into place a political framework for Kosovo on the basis of the Rambouillet accords.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, the countries of the European Union and NATO agree: Without all of these steps, there can be no peaceful multiethnic democratic Kosovo in which all of its people live in security. NATO is ready to help implement such an agreement. It is not too late to achieve it. Milosevic knows what he has to do.

The bulk of our military efforts are concentrated on bringing about a lasting political solution in Kosovo. But we are also doing our best to alleviate the suffering of the victims of this crisis--the Kosovo Albanians who have been brutally expelled from their country. NATO is supporting the U.N. high commissioner for refugees by providing and transporting food and supplies. The alliance is also providing medical support and is helping to set up refugee centers in the neighboring countries. We will sustain and intensify our humanitarian relief operations as necessary, in support of the many other organizations working to succor the victims of Belgrade’s policy.

I am aware that many inside Yugoslavia do not understand what is happening. They believe that their country is being victimized by the international community. However, NATO is not at war with Yugoslavia. Our quarrel is not with its people but with the government, which has abused its power and has waged war against its own citizens in Kosovo. If Serbian TV would show the same images of suffering refugees that we see night after night on our own television screens, many Serbs would undoubtedly be as outraged as people in our NATO countries, and indeed across the whole world, have been. When this conflict is over and a political settlement is in place, the people of Yugoslavia will see better than they do today that they have entrusted their fate to a criminal political leader who in the course of 10 painful years has led his country into war, isolation and increased economic deprivation. This will be the moment when our hearts and minds must be open, to bring a democratic Yugoslavia back into the European family, where it belongs. Kosovo is a defining moment not only for NATO but for the kind of Europe we wish to live in. We will not enjoy peace and prosperity if we tolerate barbarism from another age.

There are moments when there is no alternative to engagement. Peace, stability and justice in the Balkans is a crucial interest of all the peoples of the Euro-Atlantic region. Success will require patience, perseverance and the continuing unity and determination of the alliance. But let there be no doubt: Justice will prevail and ethnic cleansing will be reversed.