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| SAMUEL BERGER | |
 October 2, 1998 
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As fighting continues to escalate in the war-torn Yugoslavian province
of Kosovo, NATO is once again discussing possible military intervention.
National Security Adviser Samuel Berger discusses the latest developments
in the region.
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MARGARET WARNER: Mr. Berger and other top administration officials briefed U.S. senators yesterday on possible NATO military action in the Serbian province of Kosovo, where Serb attacks against ethnic Albanians have left an estimated 800 dead and 300,000 homeless. Mr. Berger is here to brief us now. Welcome, Mr. Berger. SAMUEL BERGER: Good to be here. MARGARET WARNER: These attacks have been going on for months, these Serb attacks. Why is NATO threatening military action now? |
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NATO prepares for action. |
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MARGARET WARNER: If it comes to this, are we talking about air strikes only? SAMUEL BERGER: Well, we have - what we contemplate is, first of all, we obviously would still like a diplomatic negotiated solution. And I think Sec. Cohen earlier on your show outlined the things that President Milosevic would need to do to avoid military action - pull back his troops, put his troops in garrison that are still there, that have been in Kosovo, help with the displaced persons, bringing them back into their homes and engaging in a serious negotiation with the Kosovars about their future. But if that were not successful, what would be contemplated would be an air campaign against Serbian assets. MARGARET WARNER: Well, let's go on to what Mr. Milosevic has to do. Is the U.S. actively involved in trying to avert the possibility of air strikes? For instance, are you in serious conversations with Milosevic -- SAMUEL BERGER: We have been - Ambassador Chris Hill, who is our ambassador to Macedonia, has been engaged now for a number of months in trying to begin a negotiation between President Milosevic and the Kosovars to restore the autonomy that they had before 1989, perhaps even a higher degree of autonomy where they can -- 90 percent of Kosovo is Albanians. And they simply want to be able to practice their ethnic and religious and other traditions in a way that is not suppressed by Belgrade. They want a high degree of autonomy for that region. We have been trying very hard to get a negotiation going, but it's very difficult for the Kosovars to negotiate when their villages are being wiped out, when they're being driven out of their homes, and when there is a massive assault going on. So we have to first stop the fighting so that we can resume the negotiation. MARGARET WARNER: I mean, are you all or perhaps through another country now actively talking to the Milosevic government and saying, now this is really serious? SAMUEL BERGER: We are and other governments are. We have made this clear to President Milosevic. I think until recently he has not believed that the use of force was credible. I think he believed that perhaps some of the European countries would hold back, perhaps the Russians would be able to block our moving in NATO by holding up UN action. I think he's coming to the conclusion that the threshold of tolerance of the international community has been exceeded here. MARGARET WARNER: Do you have evidence that he's come to that conclusion? I mean, what makes you think that - because, as you said, he's been pressured over and over to do all of this and hasn't? |
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Mr. Milosevic: the great manipulator. |
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 SAMUEL
BERGER: He's a great manipulator and I think that the only thing that
matters here is results and what he actually does. He has in recent days
withdrawn some forces from Kosovo. I have no illusion that that is - constitutes
a serious effort on his part to remove all of his troops from Kosovo to
help the humanitarian assistance, to help with the displaced persons,
and to begin negotiations. And I think until he really comes to see that
the planes are on the runway, so to speak, he will try to slip the punch.
MARGARET WARNER: Why is NATO essentially giving him two more weeks, or at least that's the way it looks? You have Secretary Cohen saying it would happen within two weeks. But why another two weeks? SAMUEL BERGER: Well, I don't want to prescribe a particular time line here. We have a lot of consultation to do with our allies, with the Congress on this. Yesterday the -- NATO took an ultimate step, which is to go out to its 16 member nations and say designate the forces that you would use, the aircraft and the pilots that you would use in this operation, so that they can essentially assemble the force. The final step is actually giving the supreme allied commander of Europe, the head of the NATO military commander, the authority to use that force. That could happen next week or the week after. MARGARET WARNER: What would be the division of labor militarily if it came to that? Would it be mostly U.S. -- SAMUEL BERGER: There would be a participation from most of the NATO countries. MARGARET WARNER: So do you have all the NATO countries on board? SAMUEL BERGER: I believe we do. I think that -- I expect that what will happen as the temperature rises here, President Milosevic, as he has done in the past, he will make some nominal concessions in an effort to find the weakest link in NATO and hope that we will back away. But I think there is a good deal of solidarity now within NATO, particularly with winter coming on in three weeks. There are, as you pointed out earlier, Margaret, there are 300,00 people in Kosovo who have been driven from their homes. But there are 50,000 people who are without any shelter. They're up in the mountains. They're wandering in the forests of that area, and as the cold weather sits in two or three weeks, we could see a humanitarian catastrophe. MARGARET WARNER: Does the US believe that NATO would have to get further authorization from the UN before doing this? |
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MARGARET WARNER: Now you mentioned the Russians earlier. They - the new prime minister, Primakov, said today he didn't think force was called for, and the Russian lower parliament passed a resolution I think saying they would consider it aggression, and they're saying you've got to go back to the UN. Is NATO ready to go ahead over Russia's objections? SAMUEL BERGER: Well, I think NATO cannot be a hostage to the United Nations or to any other nation not part of NATO, that is, if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has been the most successful military alliance over the last half century, by unanimity of its 16 believe that something is a threat to the region, and this clearly is, we believe they have the authority to act. MARGARET WARNER: So your answer is essentially no? SAMUEL BERGER: We would not be blocked by the Russian objection here. Obviously, we would - we'll continue to talk to the Russians. The Russians objected to our activities in Bosnia, our use of force against Milosevic in Bosnia, which resulted in part in his ultimately coming to a peace agreement. But today Russian soldiers and American soldiers serve side by side in Bosnia in a peacekeeping force. So, I think they mean that they oppose this, I think they're serious about it, but I don't think it is something that ought to preclude our acting. |
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SAMUEL
BERGER: Well, the pace and intensity has increased in recent months.
We have been seeking to persuade our allies in NATO for several months
to be prepared to take military action unless President Milosevic's
assault on the Kosovars is stopped. I think the massacres that we've
seen in the last few weeks have really galvanized the Europeans. And
I think they now share our view that we simply cannot permit this to
continue. 
SAMUEL
BERGER: No. The United Nations last week passed a resolution, 1199 it's
called, which both prescribed the steps that Milosevic needed to take
-- it was a resolution under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which is the
resolution that involves use of force. We feel we have all of the international
authority that we need here to act. There may be some further discussion
in the UN. The Secretary-General on Monday will be reporting back to
the Security Council on whether Mr. Milosevic has complied with those
conditions. I suspect he will get a highly negative report card, and
that I hope will help to galvanize the international community even
further.