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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President


For Immediate Release March 29, 1999

STATEMENT BY VICE PRESIDENT GORE

Chicago, IL -- We abhor the ethnic cleansing that is now occurring in Kosovo.

What we feared would happen when we saw 40,000 troops deployed in and around Kosovo -- based on what happened last year in Kosovo and Rachak earlier this year -- is now happening again in Kosovo on a massive scale.

Ethnic Albanians are being driven from their homes, forced to flee their country in large numbers, and in many cases are being murdered in cold blood.

In response to these atrocities, it is vital that NATO maintain its steadiness and seriousness as it conducts its military campaign.

In this regard, I am pleased that NATO has begun to use airpower to strike military forces in the field in Kosovo.

We must stay the course. We must make the cost to Milosevic so great that he changes his calculations. He must see that he cannot pursue with impunity this campaign of ethnic cleansing -- the likes of which he has launched in Bosnia and also before in Kosovo.

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