U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 95/08/15 DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

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

Subject: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 95/08/15 DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN

[...]

FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

Diplomatic Mission/Ambassador Holbrooke Trip to Region ......6-10

--Contact Group Map and Plan ................................8,11

Refugee Situation:

--Reports of Relocation of Refugees to Kosovo ...............9-10

[...]

[...]

Q Could you give us a status report on the Holbrooke mission?

MR. JOHNSON: He's continuing his work in the former Yugoslavia, meeting with leaders of the governments engaged in the Balkan conflict. He was scheduled to arrive in Sarajevo today but was delayed by poor weather. I understand fog prevented him from flying.

He is instead going to meet with the Bosnian Foreign Minister and Croatian officials in Split. He'll then travel to Zagreb and Belgrade to meet with Croatian and Serbian leaders, and then he expects from that point to travel to Sarajevo to meet with Bosnian Government officials.

Q Any word on how he's doing?

Q Is he doing any good?

MR. JOHNSON: He's working on our mission to reinvigorate the diplomatic process, basing his efforts on the ideas that Tony Lake and Peter Tarnoff brought to Europe in their consultations with our allies and partners. What we're trying to do here is to bring in some fresh ideas to try to stimulate the negotiating process, to try to bring the combatants to the table and to engage in some fruitful negotiations which might bring a durable end to this conflict.

Q Do these conversations get into peacekeeping operations, and whether that should be altered, because hanging over all of this is impatience in some Western European countries about keeping peacekeepers in Bosnia. Are you looking at other ways?

MR. JOHNSON: I think we're all impatient with the course of the hostilities there and the tremendous human toll that they have taken. But today, like in other days, when we've been talking about Mr. Lake's and Mr. Tarnoff's mission and then today Mr. Holbrooke's, I'm going to decline to get into the specifics of those exchanges.

Q David, Bosnia's Ambassador to Britain poured cold water on this initiative today, saying it had no chance of success. What's your reaction to that?

MR. JOHNSON: My reaction is that we'd prefer to have our exchanges between Mr. Holbrooke and the Bosnian Foreign Minister directly and personally rather than through their emissaries in other parts of the world in exchanges with the press.

Q Isn't he speaking from an informed point of view, though?

MR. JOHNSON: I have no idea and would not characterize that.

Q David, just for Barry's question, without getting into the specifics, does the Administration think there are other ways to maintain a peace in Bosnia, if it ever arises, than what they've been doing for the last three years?

MR. JOHNSON: I think that we believe that this is perhaps, if not a unique moment, then at least a moment for opportunity in the negotiating process, and we're trying to take advantage of it. We're trying to use the Contact Group Map and Plan as the basis for the negotiations as a starting point, and we're trying to use the changed situation on the ground and intense consultations with the parties and with our friends and allies to try to come together, to try to get the parties to sit down around the table and negotiate and to bring this conflict to an end.

Q This is the peace that Clinton said he would send up 25,000 Americans to enforce? Is that offer still in place as far as you know?

MR. JOHNSON: I think the President said that if there was a durable peace that was being enforced and was being abided by, by all the parties, we would, of course, consider the use of United States' troops. No, that offer has not changed.

Q Consider the use, though. Are you modifying that at all?

MR. JOHNSON: No, I'm not attempting to modify it in any way, shape or form.

Q David, you (inaudible) the phrase "to bring the combatants to the table," and once again there appears to be no reference to the Bosnian Serbs who are one of the combatants, right?

MR. JOHNSON: That's certainly true. I'm talking about our goal of bringing the combatants to the table, but I'm also talking specifically about Mr. Holbrooke's trip right now, who he's meeting with, and the fact that we have no plans to meet with them now doesn't mean that I'm excluding that forever and for all time. We believe that for the peace to be durable, it has to be agreed among all the parties, and certainly they're one of them.

In fact, one of the unmet demands of the Contact Group is for the so-called Pale Serbs to agree to meet and to negotiate on the basis of the Contact Group Map and Plan.

Q David, in the short term, does this government think it can exert influence on the Bosnian Serbs through the Belgrade Serbs?

MR. JOHNSON: We believe that this moment, with the changed circumstances on the ground, introduces some new opportunities, but I'm not going to get into exactly how we see those playing out.

Q David, what do you know about the transfer of refugees to Kosovo today?

MR. JOHNSON: As in the past, we are concerned about reports that the authorities in Belgrade plan to relocate Croatian Serb refugees to the Kosovo region. The Serbian Commissioner of Refugees has already assigned about five percent of the incoming refugees to Kosovo.

Nearly 90 percent of the population in Kosovo are ethnic Albanians who have suffered harsh Serb repression from the Government in Belgrade. The situation in Kosovo is tense, and we have opposed any effort to resettle a significant number of ethnic Serbians in Kosovo. We have raised these concerns with high-level Serbian and FRY officials and we will continue to do so over the next few days. We expect that will be one of the topics that Assistant Secretary of State Holbrooke raises with President Milosevic when he meets with him later this week.

Q Is five percent significant?

MR. JOHNSON: It's certainly not insignificant. It does not radically alter the ethnic makeup of the area, but it is not a trend we'd like to see continue, certainly.

Q So if it stayed at five percent, you wouldn't jump up and down, but if it went over five percent --

MR. JOHNSON: I'm not going to get into a numbers discussion and tell you at 7.87 percent we've got a trigger mark. That is, I think, not appropriate for this discussion. What we want to do is to see any resettlement there very limited and not aimed at remaking the ethnic makeup of the region.

Q Do you know how those five percent found lodging?

MR. JOHNSON: I do not.

Q It couldn't possibly be someone else's homes they're being moved in to, could it? Or, are they doing some quick construction work?

MR. JOHNSON: I do not know whether they are being lodged in refugee housing areas or whether there's been any moving in or out of housing. I'll see if I can get you something on that.

Q David, it is five percent of what? What's the gross number?

Q 60 to 80.

Q Those numbers haven't grown?

MR. JOHNSON: Those numbers haven't grown, but I'm hesitant to ask you to do your math based on that because I think the 60 to 80 is departures and not necessarily arrivals inside Serbia proper. So I'll see if I can get you some better math, but I have a feeling that we're not going to have incredibly hard figures on that.

Q Could you please comment on reports that your Administration proceeds to replace U.N. troops in the Balkans with NATO-run peacekeeping force, including thousands of troops from Muslim countries and possibly Russia?

MR. JOHNSON: I could not. I am unaware of any type of proposal that I would describe in that way. I have consistently declined to get into any of the specifics that anyone is talking about with respect to the current diplomatic mission we have underway, and I'm not going to do it in this case either.

Q Then could we change some of these words around, or is it basically something that you're saying you can't substantiate? I mean, if I asked you, for instance, have you talked to the Russians about replacing the U.N. peacekeepers with NATO, would your answer be the same? Or is the catch proposal or idea --

MR. JOHNSON: I'm just not going to engage in a discussion of that. We'd like to give our negotiators an opportunity to have those discussions with the parties to the conflict and give them an opportunity to see if they can make some progress on that.

Q So you're not denying this UPI report; are you?

MR. JOHNSON: I'm neither denying nor confirming any of the reports, some fanciful, that have come out concerning the negotiators' efforts.

Q What about your policy partitioning Bosnia among Serbs, Muslims and Croats, creating for the first time a Muslim entity around Sarajevo?

MR. JOHNSON: I can say that we remain committed to the Contact Group Map and Plan as it is currently described.

Q That's it?

MR. JOHNSON: That's it.

[...]

(Press briefing concluded at 1:43 p.m.)

END