Summary

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman hold a news conference about aid to Kosovo refugees.

Source CONUS Archive
Record ID 252999
Story Slug Madeleine Albright, Dan Glickman / Aid to Refugees / News Conference (1999)
Location WASHINGTON, DC
Format TVD
Date 5/17/1999
Archive Time 11:16
TRT 6:14
Supers 1) Madeleine Albright / Secretary of State 2) Dan Glickman / Secretary of Agriculture
Video Description News conference
Description Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman hold a news conference about aid to Kosovo refugees.
Script (SUGGESTED TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO) Our purpose is to save lives, alleviate suffering reunite families and help the refugees prepared to return safely to their homes. We're also working to relieve the immense stress that this crisis has placed on Macedonia and Albania, two of the poorest countries in Europe. Since the end of March, roughly 750,000 refugees have departed Kosovo, the largest sudden mass movement of people in Europe since the Second World War. The result has been a race against time to provide food, water, shelter and medical care. It's taken an enormous effort and generosity from official donors and private citizens around the world and situation in many of the camps is still difficult. But the bottom line is that refugees are receiving the care they need to survive. Children are being fed shelter is being provided, and outbreaks of malnutrition and disease have been rare. Unfortunately, the crisis continues and so must our efforts. We are urging Macedonia and Albania to keep their borders open. To help them cope, we've increased our assistance. We're also determined to do more to help families that have agreed to host refugees. These families are providing a vital and humane alternative to life in the camps for more than half the refugees in Macedonia, and roughly three fourths of those in Albania. A number of other steps are being taken to improve security and reduce overcrowding. First, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has helped 48,000 Kosovo hours move from the Kokesh region in northern Albania to areas further south. Second nations around the world have pledged to provide temporary refuge for 130,000 refugees and thus far, almost 50,000 humanitarian evacuations from Macedonia have occurred. The US has pledged to admit 20,000 refugees of whom 2900 have arrived to date. And third, we are working to increase the capacity of the current camps and to build new ones. For example, the United States is building camps in Albania with a capacity of up to 60,000 refugees. The first of these camp hope opened on May 13, and received more than 500 people the first day, lending even greater urgency to our efforts as the knowledge that there may be 700,000 or more internally displaced persons in Kosovo. We continue to explore options for reaching these people with humanitarian aid and are preparing for the possibility that they too may cross the borders before the military confrontation ends. We're also supporting efforts to assist the 60,000 internally displaced persons in Montenegro. To summarize, the international community, including the United States is responding to an immense human tragedy in Kosovo with an immense effort that is saving lives and preserving hope. That effort is ongoing. And I urge everyone who has contributed to this effort to contribute more, whether directly through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees or the many non governmental organizations that are at work in the region, as so many of the refugees have attested. The responsibility for this crisis rests with the Serb President Milosevic and the way to end the crisis is for Melosh KOVITCH to accept the conditions NATO has set. That is the only way the refugees will be able to return home safely the only way to make unnecessary NATO's military campaign and the only way to begin healing the wounds of war and moving towards a brighter future for the entire region. 03:44 The US will be providing 14,000 tons of food per month to people in refugee camps and those staying with host families and Albania and Macedonia. That's enough food to feed a quarter of a million people per month. The first shipment should be going out late this month or in the early part of June. And on top of that we have plans to offer 160,000 additional tons of food and animal feed to countries in the region who are experiencing economic hardship because of the ongoing conflict. The major commodities we plan to provide our wheat and wheat flour for bread, rice, vegetable oil, corn, soybean meal, peas and beans and a corn soy blend which is a special high protein food for children. We are prepared to increase our donations if necessary. USDA and USA ID are taking steps to stockpile another month supply of extra food in the region in the event that it is needed. When all of a sudden done us food donations through the end of the year are likely to reach 250,000 tons with a total value of about $100 million. But I would point out this is not a one time ad hoc effort This administration has a strong and aggressive food aid program. Earlier today, we US State Department US Department of Agriculture announced 400,000 tons of food aid for North Korea. All told, the US will provide nearly 10 million tons of food aid to meet needy people around the world this year. If you can see from this chart that we've provided in tons the previous four years, although in 1994, it was almost 5 million tons. But we have we expect to triple our food aid effort this year, over last year and frankly, over the previous four years.
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