Clinton Q&A on Serbia at Press Availability Oct. 5
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
October 5, 2000
Q&A FOLLOWING REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON EDUCATION
The Rose Garden
1:27 A.M. EDT
Q: Mr. President, the situation in Belgrade appears very critical.
Citizens have stormed the Parliament building. What message today,
sir, do you have both to those folks who have stormed the Parliament
and to President Milosevic himself?
THE PRESIDENT: The United States stands with people everywhere who are
fighting for their freedom. We believe in democracy. I have said
before, the opposition candidate who, according to all unbiased
reports, clearly won the election, obviously also has strong
differences with us. This is not a question of whether he agrees with
us. All we want for the Serbian people is what we want for people
everywhere -- the right to freely choose their own leaders.
And it's been a hard-core dictatorship. They had an election. The
election results were then, apparently, altered, and then now the
court has made this decision. I think the people are trying to get
their country back. And we support -- we support democracy and the
will of the Serbian people.
Q: -- Sir, will the U.S. in any way intervene if force is used against
the citizens in Belgrade or other parts of Serbia?
THE PRESIDENT: I don't believe it's an appropriate case for military
intervention, and I don't believe that the United States should say or
do anything which would only strengthen Mr. Milosevic's hand. The
people of Serbia have made their opinion clear. They did it when they
voted peacefully and quietly, and now they're doing it in the streets
because people tried to -- there's been an attempt to rob them of
their vote.
And I think if the world community will just stand with -- stand for
freedom, stand for democracy, stand for the will of the people, I
think that will prevail. It did all over Eastern Europe. We've had a
peaceful transition, democratic transition, with an election in
Russia. The world is moving toward freedom and democracy, and the
United States should support those forces, and we will do so strongly.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
