Bill Clinton: “Well, first of all, you have asked a very good set of questions because--but I think I need to back up and say, we very…”

“Well, first of all, you have asked a very good set of questions because--but I think I need to back up and say, we very much appreciate the role that Montenegro has played in these last difficult months. It has been in a very hard position. It has been vulnerable to invasion, as you pointed out. And the government of President Djukanovic maintained a position of independence and the position that Montenegro should acquire more and more autonomy and should be a democratic and multiethnic society; that's what we believe. Now, here's the problem. Obviously--and you've pointed out quite properly that we shouldn't punish Montenegro with withholding aid, reconstruction aid for example, just because it's part of Yugoslavia; and that's a good example of the dilemma. Here's what I'm interested in. I want the people of Montenegro to have maximum freedom and maximum self-determination. But I don't think it's a good idea for the United States, or for Western Europe generally, to get in the business of redrawing national borders right now. Who knows what is going to happen in the future? I think--we need to stand for a certain set of principles. But what I want to say to all the ethnic groups of the Balkans, and all of southeastern Europe, is that we have to build a future in which your safety, your right to freedom of religion, freedom of speech, access to education, access to a job, does not depend upon your living in a nation where everybody inside the nation's borders has the same religion you do and the same ethnic group you do. And in the past, when outside powers have attempted to redraw the lines of the Balkans and impose that, the results have been very painful for the people here. It's led to a lot of suffering. So I don't want to strip any people of their democratic aspirations, and I don't think it's right for the United States to do that. But I also don't think it's right for us or for any other outside power to come in and, in effect, say, ``Well, because we don't like Mr. Milosevic, we're going to redraw all the national boundaries,'' because the real trick here is to preserve democracy, self-determination, freedom from religious or racial or ethnic persecution in all these countries, without regard to the national borders. And what we need is--and let me just make one other point. If we had the right sort of economic and political integration in southeastern Europe and then the right ties between southeastern Europe and the rest of Europe--central and Western Europe--then it wouldn't matter so much one way or the other. That is, if you knew human rights were going to be protected, and if you knew everyone in this region was going to be tied together economically and politically, across national borders, and that the region would be tied to Europe and would have a future with the emerging European institutions, then the actual status--whether you were independent or autonomous, for example--wouldn't be nearly so important. And what I've been afraid of--the reason I've been reluctant to say anything about territorial borders is, there is a whole history in the 20th century of disaster happening in the Balkans because of outside powers redrawing the national borders. We have to change the nature of national life and the nature of international cooperation, and then I believe, over the next few years, whatever is right about the national borders will settle down. The people will somehow determine that, not outsiders. That's what I think will happen. Serbia [The journalist pointed out that the Serbian infrastructure and economy had collapsed. He asked how stability could return while Serbia was denied financial aid and the how the President planned to deal with strong anti-American sentiments in Serbia. He also asked about past meetings between the President and Mr. Milosevic. ]”