Albright's Oct. 8 Interview on CNN's Late Edition
INTERVIEW OF SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE K. ALBRIGHT
BY CNN'S LATE EDITION
October 8, 2000
Washington, D.C.
MR. BLITZER: Let's talk about the situation in Yugoslavia. Many people
have described the war in Kosovo and Bosnia in effect, but really in
Kosovo, "Madeleine's War," or "Madeleine Albright's War."
When you take a look at the situation now, a new president
democratically elected, but Slobodan Milosevic an indicted war
criminal may be allowed to stay in Belgrade, may be allowed to
exercise political power in the opposition. Would that cause the US to
reconsider lifting economic sanctions against Yugoslavia if he's
allowed to walk free in Belgrade?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, first of all, I think we really should be
very congratulatory to the Yugoslav people who actually went out on
the streets in huge numbers, voted, and under very difficult
circumstances, voted Milosevic out. The signs that they carried made
very clear that they wanted him to go. They wanted more than that. I
mean, a lot of them basically wanted him to end in some way or
another. They have shown their feelings by their votes and by their
feet, and President Kostunica now has the very difficult job of
consolidating his power. As your correspondent pointed out very
accurately, there are myriad problems out there that he has to deal
with and we want to be as helpful as possible.
The Serb people are not the ones that are responsible for what
happened. It was Milosevic who basically was an ethnic cleanser and
ordered these things. So they need to have some sense of reward for
what they have done. Their economy is a disaster and the Danube is
blocked, and so we want to give them assistance and lift the economic
sanctions.
MR. BLITZER: Even if Milosevic stays in Belgrade?
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that there are a variety of
sanctions, and the immediate economic ones would be ones that help the
people and help Kostunica consolidate his regime.
MR. BLITZER: You probably saw the editorial in The New York Times
yesterday. Let me read a sentence from that editorial. "In recent
days, Dr. Albright has been unusually quiet in her public comments
about Mr. Milosevic's extradition."
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I liked the other parts of the editorial a lot.
But let me say this, I have not been quiet. I have said that our
position has not changed, is very clear, there is no statute of
limitations. I have been a great supporter of the war crimes tribunal.
In fact, one of the things I'm proudest of at the United Nations was
having been there at the founding of it.
There has to be accountability, and there will never be a completely
normal Yugoslavia until it's able to deal with that. The importance of
the war crimes tribunal is that what it does is erase collective guilt
and assign individual guilt. All these countries that have gone
through changes, where they've gone from a communist dictatorship to a
new democratic era, look at their past and deal with it. Yugoslavia
has to do it, and former President Milosevic's time is coming. There
is, as I said, no statute of limitations and you will not hear me
being silent on this subject.
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