NATO Press Conference, 25 May, 1999
Question: Yugoslavs facing enormous difficulties related to their power generators in their hospitals, and who are therefore ultimately accusing the Alliance of holding the civilian population hostage, of holding innocent people hostage, by the very act of bombing power plants, transformers, or even drinking water pipelines.
Answer: President Milosevic has got plenty of back-up generators. His armed forces have hundreds of them. He can either use these back-up generators to supply his hospitals, his schools, or he can use them to supply his military. His choice. If he has a big headache over this, then that is exactly what we want him to have and I am not going to make any apology for that.
Question: If you say that the Army has a lot of back-up generators, why are you depriving 70% of the country of not only electricity, but also water supply, if he has so much back-up electricity that he can use because you say you are only targeting military targets?
Answer: I'm afraid electricity also drives command and control systems. If President Milosevic really wants all of his population to have water and electricity all he has to do is accept NATO's five conditions and we will stop this campaign. But as long as he doesn't do so we will continue to attack those targets which provide the electricity for his armed forces. If that has civilian consequences, it's for him to deal with.
I don’t want to hear another word from anyone in Europe about the Russian targeting of Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
After all, Russia is only using the NATO precedent.
If Ukraine wants its electricity and water turned back on, all it has to do is accept Russia’s conditions.
What’s good for the goose…