AJC Kosovo Relief Fund Tops $1 Million; First Lady And Secretary Of State Praise AJC Efforts At Agency's 93rd Annual Dinner Event

American Jewish Committee
Thursday, 13 May 1999

AJC Statement Urges Continued Suport For Nato's "Noble Endeavor"

The American Jewish Committee's Kosovo Relief Fund has raised more than $1 million and donations are continuing to flow in. "The outpouring of support has been extraordinary," said AJC President Bruce M. Ramer. "Every single dollar will be used to aid ethnic Albanian refugees who were expelled to Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro." Mr. Ramer said the funds are being allotted to support relief agencies, establish educational and recreational programs for refugee children, and purchase tents, cots and blankets.

An AJC delegation led by Mr. Ramer recently returned from Macedonia with a central message from the refugees: "Please Don't Forget Us." This message was the main theme conveyed by AJC in a full-page ad in The New York Times on May 6, and in a short video produced by AJC and unveiled in the presence of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and over 1,000 people gathered for AJC's 93rd Annual Dinner in Wash-ington, DC that evening. The agency has also placed advertisements in national and international newspapers and periodicals urging continued support of NATO's action against Yugoslav forces.

"Just as with your trip to see the camps and the full-page newspaper ad today that elicited such an extraordinary response, AJC has been leading the way on behalf of so many issues of importance to human dignity and justice throughout this century that it cannot at all be surprising that once again, we find this or-ganization on the front lines of caring about the Albanians who have been expelled from their land," said Mrs. Clinton.

"You have helped us never forget," Mrs. Clinton continued, "that behind all of those statistics, all of those headlines, are real people -- little boys and girls, mothers and fathers and grandparents. You have worked to make sure that human rights is not just a slogan but is a commitment -- is a mission that each of us is obligated to help fulfill."

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who was scheduled to appear at the AJC event but was in Europe for meetings with NATO leaders, delivered her remarks to the group via videotape.

"I have seen, and I know the President has seen, the advertisements you placed in support of NATO action in Kosovo. That support is deeply appreciated, but it is also typical of the American Jewish Commit-tee. For more than 90 years, you have helped us to grasp that true democracy is less a product of theory and documents, than of relationships among human beings.

"As a celebrator of Jewish identity, you have shown that true pride in one's heritage requires respect for the heritage of others. And as a promoter of Holocaust education and remembrance, you have helped keep us before the lessons of history's most monstrous crime, and reminded us of the intolerable cost of silence."

Secretary Albright, commending the work of AJC's Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, said AJC "has been a leader in seeking to hold the perpetrators of war crimes account-able in Bosnia and around the world, and in the efforts to establish a properly constituted, non-politicized International Criminal Court."

She further said: "I salute you for all you have done and I thank you for what your are doing now to aid humanity's cause in Kosovo. For in that place, at this time, the principles cherished by your Com-mittee, and by our country, and by our allies and friends, are under attack."

During its four-day Annual Meeting, AJC's Board of Governors adopted a policy statement reaf-firming the agency's support for NATO's "noble endeavor" against Serb forces. "Confronted by the scope and horror of the Serb assaults against civilians, inaction by those capable to act -- and only NATO had and has that capability in Europe -- would have been and remains unconscionable; and cessation of the NATO effort now or in the future without the achievement of its objectives is simply unacceptable, for it would reward Milosevic's campaign of brutality and undermine the credibility of an alliance that has been the bulwark of European security since World War II," the AJC said in the statement.

The full text of AJC's "Statement on the Crisis in Kosovo" follows:

The brutalization and expulsion of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, the latest humanitarian disaster of this dark century, cries out for a response by all people of conscience - but especially by a people experienced in exile, fa-miliar with hate, and the victims of the greatest tragedy of modern history. We cannot stand by while another population, singled out by ethnicity and religion, is routed from its homes, dispossessed, dehumanized, raped and murdered.

As Jews, not far removed from the flames that engulfed our brethren across Europe earlier in the century, we identify with and are dedicated to easing the suffering of the Kosovo Albanians. As citizens of the world, we demand the commitment of the international community to confront the evil of Belgrade's policies against the Kosovars and to fulfill the human needs of those policies' hundreds of thousands of victims.

As Americans, we are proud of our own nation's role in standing up to the Yugoslav despot, Slobodan Milosevic, publicizing his and his subordinates' crimes against humanity, and leading the application of force to thwart his aim of destroying ethnic Albanian life in Kosovo.

In the weeks since the U.S.-led NATO campaign against Serb forces was launched, critics in America and abroad have questioned the timing of the military action, suggesting that preventive diplomacy might not have been given full opportunity to succeed before the resort to force; the wisdom of interceding militarily at all on behalf of one ethnic group in a region of fierce ethnic rivalries and enmities; the ramifications of outside military support for autonomy of a particular group or region within a sovereign state; the tactics of choosing air power alone as the military tool against Belgrade; and the failure to foresee and avert atrocities committed by Serb forces while NATO air strikes were underway.

In the face of Belgrade's continuing campaign against the Kosovo Albanians, and the daily evidence of air power's limits, such questions are not easily dismissed. But in judging the decisions on Kosovo that have been taken by European and American leaders in recent months, two truths stand clear, and warrant the respect of thoughtful critics: confronted by the scope and horror of the Serb assaults against civilians, inaction by those capa-ble to act - and only NATO had and has that capability in Europe - would have been and remains unconscionable; and cessation of the NATO effort now or in the future without the achievement of its objectives is simply unaccept-able, for it would reward Milosevic's campaign of brutality and undermine the credibility of an alliance that has been the bulwark of European security since World War II.

Alert to the risks posed to NATO forces and to civilians throughout Serbia as the alliance maintains its military pressure on Belgrade, but deeply committed to the defeat of tyranny and the protection of the human rights of ethnic Albanians, the American Jewish Committee affirms our support of NATO in the noble endeavor in which it is engaged. We applaud the governments of the United States and its 18 NATO allies, as well as other supportive states, for their principled stand against evil in Kosovo.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org