March 23, 1999
Brussels -- Ambassador Richard Holbrooke told NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana and the press here March 23 that with "the fighting intensifying" in Kosovo, President Clinton and Secretary of State Albright "asked us to come to Brussels to meet with you and your colleagues and General Clark to bring you up-to-date and exchange views.
"The process now is handed both symbolically and formally back to you. It's NATO's issue," Holbrooke said.
"I would simply say that diplomatic channels will always remain open, but our mission, the one that we completed a few hours ago, was not, in our view, likely to produce any further movement even if we stayed, and that is why President Clinton and Secretary Albright asked us to return."
Following is the NATO transcript:
(begin transcript)
STATEMENT BY U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY RICHARD HOLBROOKE WITH NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL SOLANA
FOLLOWING VISIT TO YUGOSLAVIA TO MEET WITH PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC
BRUSSELS
4:30 P.M. EST
TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1999
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke:
Thank you, Mr. Secretary General, Javier. Yesterday you sent us with your support to Belgrade to attempt to persuade the Yugoslav authorities that peace was better than the alternatives that now confront us. We attempted, without notable success, at least to this point, to make clear that a NATO-led force, invited into Kosovo under your leadership and responsible to NATO was the best way to keep Albanians and Serbs from killing each other.
I must tell you and the press here, that in Yugoslavia and in Serbia tonight they interpret our position differently. They misrepresent it and they view it as a force that would have taken sides. In this the Serb people have been misled by their press and by public statements of senior officials, who have misrepresented the Rambouillet agreements and misunderstood what you and your colleagues at NATO were offering. And with that misunderstanding, the Serb assembly rejected that offer today, and the Yugoslav leadership and President Milosevic rejected it.
With the fighting intensifying, President Clinton and Secretary Albright asked us to come to Brussels to meet with you and your colleagues and General Clark to bring you up-to-date and exchange views. And I think the meeting we just had, while its contents must remain confidential, is extremely valuable.
The process now is handed both symbolically and formally back to you. It's NATO's issue. I would simply say that diplomatic channels will always remain open, but our mission, the one that we completed a few hours ago, was not, in our view, likely to produce any further movement even if we stayed, and that is why President Clinton and Secretary Albright asked us to return.
Thank you.
(end transcript)
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