24 years since NATO intervention in Kosovo, USA: Use of force, necessary and legitimate

Yesterday marked the 24th anniversary of the start of NATO airstrikes against military and police targets in Serbia and Montenegro. The order for the beginning of the bombing campaign was given by the president of the United States of America, Bill Clinton, and the date is rooted in the history and memory of the Albanians of Kosovo. Therefore, yesterday, the US Mission to the OSCE published a press release. In this reaction, it is emphasized that NATO launched this operation to end a decade of bloodshed in the Balkans. This NATO intervention, as the announcement states, had come after all diplomatic avenues had been exhausted to end the brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Kosovo Albanians. The American mission to the OSCE says that NATO's use of force in this case was necessary and legitimate. "The UN Security Council expressed its concerns about the grave humanitarian situation in Kosovo, the growing number of refugees and the threat it poses to international peace and security. "Remember the hundreds of thousands of innocent people driven from their homes and the thousands killed or disappeared due to the violence of the ethno-nationalist regime of Milosevic and his forces," the communiqué reads. Likewise, the Political Advisor at the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna, Elisabeth Rosenstock-Siller, said that the United States strongly supports a democratic, prosperous and peaceful future for the Western Balkans and welcomes the agreement reached by Kosovo and Serbia through facilitation of the European Union for the implementation of the Agreement on the path of Normalization of Relations.