U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 95/08/29 DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

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

U.S. State Department Directory

Subject: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 95/08/29 DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN

DEPARTMENT

Introduction of Press Officer Alyson Shorter .............1

FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

Attack on Sarajevo: Responsibility, U.S. Condemnation ....1-2,6-7

--Acting Secretary Talbott Contacts w/Sec. Christopher,

    A/S Holbrooke ........................................1

--A/S Holbrooke Mtgs. in Paris, Departure to Belgrade ....1-2,5,7

--NATO, UN, U.S., other Country Contacts .................2-4

--Report of Russian FM Comment re: Military Response .....3

--Dual Key Arrangement ...................................4

--Protection of Safe Areas, UN Personnel .................2-3,17

[...]

MR. BURNS: Good afternoon. Before beginning the briefing today, I'd like to introduce to all of you our newest Press Officer, Alison Shorter. Alison is in the Foreign Service, has just returned from a three-year tour in our Embassy in Tunis, and before Tunis she served in Belgrade from 1990 until 1992. Alison has a degree in international relations from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, and she is originally from the Washington, D.C., area. Welcome, Alison. These are your new colleagues. Lucky you and lucky us.

Now I'll be prepared, George, to go to whatever may be on your mind today. I think I can guess.

Q Right. Do you have an update on your thinking concerning the possibility of a military response with respect to the events of yesterday?

MR. BURNS: George, let me get to that question, but let me first take you through what we've been doing for the past 24 hours, including this morning. As I think you know, the Administration has been intensively involved in this issue for the last 24 hours since the murderous and brutal attack on Sarajevo by the Bosnian Serbs.

Acting Secretary of State Strobe Talbott has had several meetings this morning with his key advisers here in the Department, and he has been on the phone with Assistant Secretary of State Dick Holbrooke who remains in Paris.

Mr. Talbott has communicated several times with Secretary Christopher over the last 24 hours. Secretary Christopher is in California, and he has stayed closely and actively in touch on this particular issue.

Dick Holbrooke, as I said, remains in Paris where he had meetings yesterday. Today, starting very early in the day, he met with French Government officials early in the morning. He then had a meeting with representatives of our key allies in Europe. Following that, there was an expanded meeting of the Contact Group, which included officials from Spain, Italy and Canada.

Following that meeting, he had another session with the Bosnian Foreign Minister, Mr. Sacirbey, and there was the possibility of further meetings with the Bosnian leadership, including with President Izetbegovic this evening in Paris.

So Assistant Secretary Holbrooke will remain in Paris through this evening. He intends to depart tomorrow for Belgrade, where he will have talks with the leadership there, including President Milosevic.

As you also know, officials from NATO and from the United Nations and from the United States and other countries have been in intense contact for the past day on the appropriate response to yesterday's attack. We now believe that 37 people were killed in this attack. Over 100 people were wounded.

The United Nations has announced this morning that there is no doubt that this attack was carried out by the Bosnian Serbs, and this was the firm judgment of the United States yesterday. There is no doubt about who is responsible for yesterday's tragedy.

The United States wishes to reiterate today our very strong condemnation of this attack. As we have said, this latest example of murderous behavior by the Bosnian Serbs will not be allowed to derail our efforts to find a political solution, a peaceful solution, ultimately to the Bosnian conflict, and that is why President Clinton and Secretary Christopher asked Assistant Secretary Holbrooke to travel to Europe to have the consultations and discussions that he is having this week. He intends to continue those efforts throughout this week.

Q Have you seen the comment from the Bosnian Serb self-described parliament saying that they now welcome the American initiative?

MR. BURNS: We've seen the comment. Words are cheap. Actions are more important. Yesterday's actions were murderous. They are reprehensible, and the Bosnian Serbs must be held accountable for those actions.

Bill.

Q Nick, are the U.N. personnel throughout Bosnia now secure? Are they out of where they might be taken hostage by the Bosnian Serbs? Has that preparation been made for some kind of retaliation?

MR. BURNS: I'd be glad to direct that question to the U.N. authorities in Sarajevo and Zagreb and elsewhere. It's well known that there was a drawdown in Gorazde. It began last Friday. I think it was completed yesterday evening, and it leaves only a few people, as I understand it, in Gorazde, but you'll have to go to the U.N. for an accounting of just where their people are.

Q There are reports this morning that the U.S. is recommending military action. Can you comment on them?

MR. BURNS: George, I think everything you're hearing from us indicates that a military response is appropriate.

Q Is there resistance to this idea among the people with whom you're consulting?

MR. BURNS: What I think is not prudent to do is to go into the nature of the discussions that we have had and that others have had -- the NATO officials and U.N. officials involved. There has been a very intensive round of discussions over the last 24 hours, and obviously the emphasis here is on the search for an appropriate and effective response to yesterday's attack. But it wouldn't be prudent or wise for me to go into the nature of those discussions or to try to preview what the results of those discussions might be.

Q Can you confirm that the Russian Foreign Minister is less enthusiastic than this government is about a military response?

MR. BURNS: I cannot. I had hoped to talk to Dick Holbrooke, but I understand that he is in a meeting now in Paris, so I was unable to reach him. I don't have a briefing from him on what the nature of the Contact Group discussion was this morning.

The Russians were represented, not at Kozyrev's level, but at a political director level this morning in Paris at that particular meeting. But I can't confirm that particular statement.

Steve.

Q As I understood it, the military reaction or retaliation was to have been swift and firm. It hasn't been swift, and since it hasn't happened you can't tell if it's firm. What is the delay?

MR. BURNS: Again, Steve, I think I'm going to have to -- you're going to have to understand that it would be unwise for me and irresponsible even to discuss any of the military aspects of this question. They are being intensively discussed in the appropriate channels, and we'll have to just wait until those discussions are finished and wait for whatever result comes out of those discussions.

Q But the decision would be made in what some people in this building call the "Smith channel." General Smith and Admiral Smith will make the decision without any reference to approval from higher civilian officials, either in Brussels or in New York. Is that right?

MR. BURNS: As I said yesterday, there has been an improvement in the so-called "dual-key" arrangements, and this was instigated by the United States, called for by the United States in July. It means that military officials who have responsibility for military forces on the ground -- meaning General Rupert Smith, the British commander of U.N. forces, and Admiral Leighton Smith, the American commander of NATO forces in Italy -- those are the people who will discuss these questions. I understand that General Janvier, who is the overall U.N. Commander of U.N. forces in the region, has returned to the region and is also in contact -- involved in these discussions today.

Q Nick, what would you say to those who would argue that military retaliation could close the window of opportunity for negotiation in the former Yugoslavia?

MR. BURNS: I don't believe that to be the case. I don't think there are many people in our government nor in other governments who believe that to be the case. The fact is that the international community has said time and again, including most recently at the London Conference in mid-July and in subsequent meetings of NATO after that in late July and early August, that it has a responsibility to help contain the violence and to help protect the safe areas in the region, including Sarajevo.

That responsibility is an important one, and it must be considered importantly by NATO and by the United Nations and by all the affected countries, including the United States. Therefore, an action like yesterday's has to be judged on its merits. It has to be judged appropriately, and there has to be an appropriate response developed to those events, and that's what we're working on. That's what everyone is working on today.

We also stand committed, remain committed to the peace process. That is why Assistant Secretary Holbrooke is in the region. That's why he's working so hard to convince the Bosnian Serbs, the Government in Belgrade, as well as the Bosnian Government, that the time has come for peace. Yesterday we discussed this in great detail, and it remains our very firm judgment that the tide in this war has turned against the Bosnian Serbs. That was clearly the case as a result of the Croatian offensive, which was so decidedly against the interests and the positions of the Bosnian Serbs, and it remains so today.

We think there is an opportunity for peace, and we think that opportunity should be grasped quite strongly by the Bosnian Serbs. Yesterday's action runs contrary to that opportunity for peace, and the Bosnian Serbs ought to wake up and understand that that opportunity still exists, but it won't exist forever.

Q One follow-up. Has Mr. Holbrooke consulted Mr. Milosevic about the possible consequences as far as the Serbians are concerned about retaliation? Has that specific been brought up yet?

MR. BURNS: Assistant Secretary Holbrooke has not been in touch with Mr. Milosevic since their prior discussions before the tragic accident a week ago Saturday near Sarajevo. He is going back to Belgrade to pick up again those discussions. I don't believe he's had any independent contact with him in the intervening time.

But I think it should be clear to Mr. Milosevic, as it should be abundantly clear to the Bosnian Serb leadership in Pale and elsewhere, that there is an opportunity now. The international community, led by the United States, is ready to help achieve a negotiated settlement to this conflict. But that opportunity cannot exist forever and will not exist forever. The time has come now to negotiate.

David.

Q I understand that you don't think the statement by the Bosnian Serb parliament should have any effect on Western decision-making about whether there will be retaliation or not, but does it perhaps signal a breakthrough or the possibility of a breakthrough in the peace talks?

MR. BURNS: It's unclear. We've heard a lot of talk in the past from the Bosnian Serb leadership, a lot of talk that has not produced any kind of effective or positive action. As I said before, words are cheap. Words are easy to use, especially at a time like this. It's much more important that the Bosnian Serb leadership commit itself in an active way by deeds.

Yesterday's actions were not at all commensurate or consistent with the kind of commitment that we think that they have to make toward peace -- not in any way, shape or form, consistent with that commitment -- and they'll just have to indicate to us by their actions that they're interested in peace, and we hope very much that that will be the case in the coming days and weeks.

Q Do you rule out the possibility that yesterday's incident was the product of a renegade faction of the Serbs who were acting in defiance of the wishes of the central authority?

MR. BURNS: I have no idea if that's the case. I've not seen that particular theory floated. I would just say there is no doubt in our mind that the Bosnian Serb military leadership and military forces were responsible for yesterday's murderous attack. They launched the mortars that killed 37 people and wounded more than 100 people.

The Bosnian Serb leadership is responsible for their military forces. They're responsible for the actions of their military forces, and they must bear responsibility and blame for this particular act of terrorism.

Q Nick, on that point, yesterday, you were out first with the firm belief that this came from a Bosnian Serb position. You cited the examination of the crater in the marketplace. Do you have other indications -- radio intercepts or radar or anything -- to bolster that theory?

MR. BURNS: We have a variety of means at our disposal to judge, from a military point of view, who is responsible for yesterday's attack. After analyzing the situation yesterday morning, after listening to the views of our Embassy in Sarajevo, which has been very actively involved, led by a very fine diplomat, John Menzies, and talking with U.N. military officials on the ground, it was absolutely and abundantly clear to us that the Bosnian Serbs are responsible.

The United Nations took a bit longer time to make a very thorough, comprehensive investigation -- we're glad they did -- to analyze the crater and to make other military judgments. They concluded as early as this morning what we had concluded yesterday, and that is that the Bosnian Serbs are responsible.

We had a variety of means available to us yesterday. We used them all, and we were left with the assurance in our own minds that the Bosnian Serbs were responsible. That has been re-enforced today, of course, by now the judgment of the United Nations. There was never a doubt in our mind, though, yesterday about this.

Q Are there any talks -- are there any plans for Holbrooke to talk at all to the Bosnian Serbs on this trip?

MR. BURNS: There are no plans for him to travel to Pale where the Bosnian Serb political leadership resides. He will be in Belgrade. He will be talking to the Serbian leadership there. I just don't know who else might be in Belgrade and whether or not they'll be other encounters, but there are no plans now for a meeting between Holbrooke and Karadzic or any of the other leaders. But I can't exclude the possibility that in Belgrade there may be other people present at some of these meetings.

Q Has the U.S. requested that other people be present at those meetings in Belgrade?

MR. BURNS: I'm not aware of that. I'm not aware that we have, Betsy.

[...]

(The briefing concluded at 2:00 p.m.) END

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