U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE DAILY PRESS BRIEFING (May 24, 1995)

From: hristu@arcadia.harvard.edu (Dimitrios Hristu)

Subject: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE DAILY PRESS BRIEFING (May 24, 1995)

[...]

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

Fighting, Violence in Sarajevo; Call for Air Strikes .13

U.S. Policy on NATO Air Strikes ......................13-14

U.N. Review of UNPROFOR; Strengthening Mandate .......13

Peace Talks: Frasure-Milosevic Talks; Zotov Talks ....14-15

Russian Report on Zotov Mission ......................15-16

Contingency Plan for UNPROFOR Troop Withdrawal .......16

Contact Group's Next Steps ...........................17

[...]

TURKEY

Congress re Arms Sales, Human Rights Concerns ........25

[...]

Q Do you have anything new on Bosnia and where we stand today, new from yesterday?

MR. BURNS: I have a few things on Bosnia. I think, as you know, there was continued fighting this morning in and around Sarajevo. There were a number of people killed and some people wounded, among them a French peacekeeper. Our Embassy reports that Serb tanks have been sighted in several areas near the city. This is the first time that tanks have descended from the hills around Sarajevo into the city since the exclusion zone was established. I understand that one artillery round landed 250 meters from the U.S. Embassy but failed to explode.

I also understand that the United Nations refused to call in airstrikes, describing the exchanges of fire as evenly matched and not directed at civilians. NATO warplanes did overfly the city of Sarajevo at the U.N.'s request.

I would just remind you what we have been saying for the last couple of days, and that is we firmly believe that airstrikes are warranted in response to flagrant violations of relevant U.N. resolutions, and we stand ready to participate in any way we can to help enforce the U.N. resolutions if similar episodes take place in the future.

It's highly disturbing that the Bosnian Serbs can continue to act with impunity and continue to operate well beyond the U.N. resolutions, and in fact directly in violation of the U.N. resolutions. It is disturbing to us.

There is a review under way at the United Nations. We are awaiting the report of the U.N. Secretary General on the future of UNPROFOR. Our view is that UNPROFOR should remain in the Balkans; that it is useful. But we also believe that UNPROFOR's mandate has to be strengthened; that along with a cease-fire has to come the ability of the U.N. peacekeepers to protect themselves, and there has to be good cooperation, better cooperation and a better understanding between the U.N. and NATO so that the U.N. resolutions can be enforced, and that is presently not the case.

Q Do know why the call today for airstrikes was not answered?

MR. BURNS: As you know, there is a "dual-key" arrangement in place. I don't speak for either the United Nations or NATO, so I can't tell you why.

I think I attempted to explain it. We understand that the U.N. said today that they did not believe that strikes were warranted because they didn't believe that the level of fighting or the nature of the fighting involved civilians. I think we would submit that at any time tanks are firing into the city of Sarajevo, bombs are landing near the U.S. Embassy, they're certainly landing near civilians.

We have thought for a long time that there has to be a much more aggressive, forceful way of looking at the problem of enforcing U.N. sanctions.

I would also tell you that -- to pick up where we were yesterday, Charlie -- Secretary Christopher, in addition to calling Foreign Secretary Hurd yesterday, was in contact overnight by letter with all of his Contact Group colleagues, and that includes Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev.

We have reaffirmed to all of our Contact Group colleagues that we believe there's every reason to keep the Contact Group plan and offer to Serbia on the table.

Ambassador Frasure, who is now back in Washington, spent over 30 hours in discussion with President Milosevic. While he did not achieve the full success that he and we hoped for, we believe we've made progress. We believe there is ever reason to keep that offer on the table. Along with the presence of the Russian Contact Group negotiator, Mr. Zotov, in Belgrade today, I would just remind you that the Serbian leadership should know that the offer on the table is the only offer that the United States and the other Contact Group members -- but, specifically, in this case, France, Germany and Britain -- can support.

We do not support a lifting of sanctions, but we can support a suspension of sanctions in return for the recognition of Bosnia by Serbia; and the mutual recognition, we hope, down the line of all the former Yugoslav republics.

Q Just to clarify. Did I hear you correctly just now to say that the only offer on the table that can be supported by the U.S., Britain, and Germany -- and did you include France?

MR. BURNS: I did include France. If I didn't, let me do --

Q But you did not include Russia?

MR. BURNS: I just meant to get back to where we were yesterday, and that is that Mr. Zotov is in Belgrade. When we learned that he was in Belgrade, we contacted yesterday a senior member of the Russian Government. Subsequent to that, Secretary Christopher wrote to Foreign Minister Kozyrev to essentially report on the nature of the discussions that Bob Frasure had in Belgrade, and to suggest very strongly that we think there is every reason to keep this offer on the table with the Serb leadership.

If the Serb leadership has decided that for one reason or another it cannot support these proposals now, we are quite willing to continue these discussions when they are ready and able to continue them, and to continue to keep this offer on the table.

It is our hope here that we might be able to avoid what a lot of people fear, and that is the outbreak of a larger war this summer in Bosnia. We want to try to promote a cease-fire; we want to promote discussions for peace around the Contact Group map and plan, which remains the emphasis of the Contact Group, and we're willing to keep this other offer of limited sanctions relief, or a suspension of some sanctions, on the table if Serbia can commit itself to the recognition of Bosnia.

That's a very important principle, because, in effect, what the Serb leadership would be saying is that there are other states that have a reason and a right to exist as a result of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

Q Did Mr. Kozyrev -- has he replied to tell us anything about what Mr. Zotov is doing with Mr. Milosevic?

MR. BURNS: I don't believe that we have heard from Minister Kozyrev. This letter was just delivered today in Moscow, and I don't believe there's been a response to the Secretary.

Q Has there been any reply from the Russians on what Zotov is doing and what his message is?

MR. BURNS: We have been in contact with the Russians, both in Moscow through our Embassy and in other venues. We have simply made our views clear as to what we think Ambassador Frasure accomplished, what we think remains to be accomplished.

I'm not aware of any kind of substantive brief on the Russian side of what Mr. Zotov intends to do. It may exist; it may have been communicated to American diplomats in the area, but I have nothing to report to you on that.

Q Can we move to Pakistan?

MR. BURNS: Do you want to stay on Bosnia, just for a minute?

Q One more on Bosnia, if I could, if anybody else has got one. (Inaudible) reportedly briefed the NATO Ambassadors in detail on the four-option plan of withdrawing or protecting UNPROFOR troops. General Shalikashvili has also been quoted as making some remarks about "the decision has not yet been made."

In Sarajevo, it is reported that the increased fighting is a result of the breakdown of the talks with Frasure and Milosevic. Could you, Nick, assess where UNPROFOR is? When is UNPROFOR going to make a decision on whether to implement some kind of withdrawal -- military cover?

MR. BURNS: Let me just take that part of the question first. As we have said many times before, there are contingency plans that have been worked out between NATO and UNPROFOR for the possible, hypothetical, withdrawal of the U.N. forces from Bosnia in the future. They are contingency plans. That's exactly what they are. They are plans that would be put into use if it were ever decided that the U.N. troops should be withdrawn. That decision has not been made.

It's the position of our government -- the United States Government -- that it should not be made now. It's our position that UNPROFOR should remain in Bosnia.

Since you asked the question, just to summarize again: UNPROFOR has a mission. It is to help to feed over 1.5 million people. It also has a mission to enforce the U.N. resolutions. It's the position of our government that that particular mission has not been carried out well.

Therefore, we have supported the idea of the U.N. Secretary General that there should be a review of UNPROFOR; that its mandate should be reviewed. We are anxiously awaiting the report of the U.N. Secretary General.

It's our position that as we review and hopefully transform the mandate of UNPROFOR, we will strengthen UNPROFOR, and we'll strengthen the link between UNPROFOR and NATO in the task of enforcing U.N. resolutions, because right now the Bosnian Serbs are being allowed to act with impunity. That is having very destructive consequences for the population of the protected cities, including Sarajevo.

Q For how long Contact Group is going to wait from Belgrade or from Pale?

MR. BURNS: You know, we're not waiting for any kind of response from Serbia. Ambassador Frasure had 30 hours of discussion. He had exhaustive, intensive, discussions with Mr. Milosevic.

The Serbian leadership is fully aware of what the offer is and what the offer isn't. So we're not sitting here waiting for a response. If they want to respond, that's fine. We'll be interested in any response they have. If we don't hear anything, we're simply going to continue with our business of trying to strengthen UNPROFOR's role and mandate, strengthen the link between UNPROFOR and NATO so that the U.N. resolutions can be enforced; continue our efforts to promote a cease- fire and talks about a cease-fire, and hopefully talks that will go well beyond a cease-fire.

We want to continue our efforts to convince the Bosnian Serbs to accept -- and I use the verb advisedly -- the Contact Group map and plan.

There was a statement yesterday from Pale that they might consider the plan. Well, they have considered the plan for many, many months and nothing happened. They have to accept the plan if they want to have discussions with us that go into the details of what the map and plan are.

Q That was the reason that I asked. For how long are we going to wait yes from Pale or from Belgrade?

MR. BURNS: Let me try to answer your question. Maybe get more to the point of your question. I think I understand it better now.

We have an offer on the table to Mr. Milosevic for possible limited sanctions relief if he agrees that Serbia will recognize Bosnia. We also have the Contact Group map and plan, which is a standing offer, for the basis of the discussions between the parties.

If we don't receive responses from either Pale or Belgrade on those two issues, we will simply continue our efforts to strengthen the role of UNPROFOR and continue our American efforts here that I'm talking about to convince the United Nations and the troop-contributing parties that we have to have a stronger basis to protect the exclusion zones and to protect the U.N. peacekeepers in the area. Because we think right now the situation has gotten completely out of hand.

Q Today the Russians seem to be laying down some conditions for signing the Partnership for Peace documents. There was a senior official in Moscow who said they wanted their objections to NATO expansion written into the documents. What do you know about that? And, have you been told about a date for the signing?

MR. BURNS: Carol, good questions. I anticipated it. We just saw before coming out here a couple of press statements from Mr. Lobov, who is the head of the Russian National Security Council in the Kremlin. We haven't had an opportunity to either look very closely at the statements -- I just saw them in the last hour -- or to, more importantly, talk to the Russian Government about the meaning of these statements.

So I would refrain from commenting on the specific statements, but I am quite willing to say that there is an agreement between the United States and Russia -- an agreement between President Clinton and President Yeltsin -- that Russia will sign up fully as a partner in the Partnership for Peace by the end of this month. The end of this month is next week.

[...]

Q Yes. Some members of Congress are trying to block U.S. arms sales to Turkey because of human rights abuses. What's your position on that?

MR. BURNS: Our position is that we have very strong relations with Turkey, that Turkey is a strategic ally, that we see no reason to change the fundamental nature of our relationship with Turkey as a result of any actions in the past couple of months. Turkey has withdrawn its forces from northern Iraq. We were delighted to see that.

We stand ready to work with Turkey on a host of problems that confront both Turkey and the United States in southeast Europe. Turkey is a valued ally. We don't support any move to decrease U.S. military or economic or political cooperation with Turkey.

[...]

(The briefing concluded at 1:56 p.m.)

END