The New York Times

Thursday, June 3, 1999

THE WHITE HOUSE

Clinton Warns Milosevic to 'Cut His Losses'

By JOHN M. BRODER

COLORADO SPRINGS -- President Clinton on Wednesday urged Slobodan Milosevic to "cut his losses" by bending to allied demands for ending the NATO attacks on Yugoslavia.

The alternative, Clinton warned the Yugoslav President,is the military and economic devastation of Serbia.

In an address to the 944 graduates of the Air Force Academy in Falcon Stadium here, Clinton asserted again that the NATO air campaign is grinding down the Serbian army and vowed that it would prevail if the allies and their people do not grow weary of the costly operation, now in its 10th week.

"Day by day, night by night, our air campaign is succeeding," Clinton told the newly commissioned second lieutenants in their new blue-and-white uniforms. "There is a clear choice before the Serbian leader: He can cut his losses now and accept the basic requirements of a just peace, or he can continue to face military failure and economic ruin on his people. In the end, the outcome will be the same."

Clinton also formally announced a NATO plan to dispatch about 50,000 troops to the Balkans to escort more than 800,000 refugees back to their homes in Kosovo after the conflict ends. The United States will contribute 7,000 troops, Clinton said.

Administration officials said it had not been determined precisely what forces the United States would contribute, but they said the contingent would include armed troops trained for combat as well as engineering units to clear mines, build roads and provide shelter.

With the snow-frosted summit of Pike's Peak as a backdrop, the President responded to critics in the United States and Europe who say the removal of human-rights observers from Kosovo and the beginning of the air attacks in March touched off Mr. Milosevic's expulsions of non-Serbs from Kosovo, the province in southern Serbia.

The President said the assaults on the Kosovars were planned for months before the allied air strikes began. He said that Milosevic had driven thousands of Kosovars of Muslim descent from their homes last fall, and that Serbian troops had massacred civilians in Rajac in January.

"Ethnic cleansing in Kosovo was not a response to bombing," Clinton said. "It is the 10-year method of Mr. Milosevic's madness. Had we done nothing, the tragedy would have been permanent, accepted and in effect condoned by the world community.

"He could not be prevented, therefore, from driving the Kosovars from their land. But he can be prevented from keeping them out of their land. His 10-year cleansing campaign will end once and for all."

By tradition, the President addresses the graduates at one of the four military academies each year, on a rotating basis. Clinton also spoke here in 1995.

In 1997 Clinton used his address at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., to emphasize the benefits of the expansion of NATO to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. He said NATO's growth would insure a more stable and peaceful Europe and noted that many ethnic and border conflicts in eastern and southern Europe had been resolved since the end of the cold war.

"That in turn," Clinton told the new Army officers then, "makes it less likely that you will ever be called to fight in another war across the Atlantic."

Two years later, at Wednesday's Air Force Academy commencement, Clinton announced the planned deployment of the 7,000 Americans to the Balkans. He also saluted two academy graduates who are flying missions in the region.

"I am very proud of them and very proud of you for following in their tradition," Clinton told Wednesday's graduates.

Clinton repeated pledges of reconstruction aid for Albania, Macedonia and other nations that have borne the tide of refugees from Kosovo.

He said the United States and its European allies have moral and strategic interests in bringing peace and prosperity to the poorest corner of Europe. He even promised help to rebuild Serbia after the war "if, but only if, it practices democracy, respects human rights and has leaders who uphold the basic standards of human conduct."

He did not condition that aid on the overthrow or departure of President Milosevic. But Joe Lockhart, the White House press secretary, said, "It's hard to see a role for someone like Milosevic in a democratic Serbia."