MACEDONIA: ITALY: KOSOVO: CLINTON VISITS REFUGEES AND TROOPS

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• published: 23 Jul 2015
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English/Nat After a day of visiting ethnic Albanian refugees in Macedonia, President Bill Clinton paid tribute to U-S troops for their role in the NATO bombing campaign of Yugoslavia. Addressing U-S forces at Aviano air base in Italy on Tuesday evening, President Clinton warned them their new mission to enforce peace in Kosovo would not be free of danger. Clinton has now ended his trip to Europe. President Clinton arrived in Stenkovac refugee camp Tuesday morning looking to the future rather than the past. In this camp outside the Macedonian capital of Skopje, he was considered as a saviour. Clinton used that support to get through a message of rebuilding rather than revenge. If the President's visit had come at the height of the Kosovan refugee crisis, crowd control might have been a problem, but at Stenkovac camp the population is thinning rapidly. Now that the Serb pullout of Kosovo is complete, more and more people are returning home every day. The Stenkovac camp once housed over 30-thousand refugees, comparatively few of that number now remain. Stenkovac I, which despite the dwindling numbers remains the largest refugee camp in Macedonia, was also the first established by NATO to meet the needs of those fleeing Kosovo. Overall, the United States has provided more than U-S 220 (m) million dollars in humanitarian assistance for the Balkans since March 1998. Clinton wrapped up a week-long trip that won commitment from the European Union to provide the bulk of the costly reconstruction of Kosovo. Venturing as close to the Kosovo border as security would allow, Clinton also pledged to help build a better future for the Balkans. The crowd of several hundred people, many of them children, gathered among rain-soaked green, white and blue tents and chanted "U-S-A!" as Clinton told them that European nations and the American people would continue to stand by them. He told the crowd of refugees that their suffering would not be repeated and NATO would prevent any future attempts to persecute them. SOUNDBITE: (English) "We are proud of what we did, of what America stands for. We think that no one should ever, ever be punished and discriminated against or killed or uprooted because of their religion or their ethnic heritage and we are honoured to be here with you." SUPER CAPTION: Bill Clinton, U-S President Speaking within sight of Kosovo, Clinton beseeched the ethnic Albanians not to rush home to the bomb-ravaged province before land mines were cleared. SOUNDBITE: (English) "You have suffered enough. I don't want any child hurt. I don't want anyone else to lose a leg or an arm or a child because of a landmine so I ask you, please be patient with us. Give us a couple more weeks to take the landmines up if the people here ask you to do that because you are going to be able to go back in safety and security." SUPER CAPTION: Bill Clinton, U-S President After his speech the crowd cheered and mobbed him like a conquering hero. Continuing his tour of Macedonia U-S President Bill Clinton later on Tuesday visited a group of American soldiers. The flying visit, to a base just outside of the Macedonian capital, Skopje, gave Clinton a chance to meet some of the U-S troops who will be taking part in the K-FOR peacekeeping force. Clinton told the men and women that some of the hardest work still lies ahead, but that their efforts could make a huge difference, both to the lives of future Americans and to the prospects for peace all over the world. In the early evening, President Clinton arrived at Aviano air base to thank U-S airforce men and women. He told them they had won the battle over Kosovo and they had helped to build a better world for their children. SOUNDBITE: (English) You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/41784b46eeebae5fcd99effd3bde51cf Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork