U.S. Department of State 96/03/05 Daily Press Briefing

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U.S. Department of State

96/03/05 Daily Press Briefing

Office of the Spokesman

[...]
DEPARTMENT
[...]
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices/Release 3/6/96 ....... 2-3
[...]
ITALY
Escape of Achille Lauro Convict ................................ 19
[...]
IRAQ
Oil Pipeline Route ............................................. 26
TURKEY
Status of "Provide Comfort" .................................... 26-27
Status of Government Formation ................................. 27-28
[...]
FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
Secretary's Letter to President Milosevic re: Soros Foundation . 28-29

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

DPB #36

TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 1996, 1:09 P.M.

[...]

I don't have right now an exact time for the rollout of the Human Rights Report tomorrow. I hope to have that in just a couple of hours, and we'll be making that known to you through the Press Office.

I also want to let you know --

Q Just one question on the Human Rights Report, is it going to be available on either disk or CD-ROM, or anything?

Q It wasn't going to be last week unless you've changed it.

MR. BURNS: We're a high-tech bureau. We ought to be able to make it available on the Internet.

Q It will be --

MR. BURNS: Oh, absolutely. We put everything on the Internet these days on our Web Page. That will happen in the afternoon. So what you'll have is, you'll have John Shattuck at the podium. There is also a document -- isn't there? -- to be handed out at that time. We'll put the subsequent briefing on the Internet as we do all of our announcements from here.

Is there a comment you want to make?

Q Last year the practice varied sometimes. Sometimes they put several copies of the report in the press room. Sometimes we're given certain countries if we ask for them in advance, but there's been none of that this year. I was wondering how you plan to make it available to us -- the hard copies?

MR. BURNS: The hard copy. As soon as we possibly can, tomorrow. At this point I don't have a starting time for John Shattuck.

Q Each agency will get its own report -- full report?

MR. BURNS: Agency?

Q Each --

MR. BURNS: Each news agency.

Q Yeah.

MR. BURNS: I'll turn to John Dinger for inspiration on this.

MR. DINGER: We did poll, and I think it is 25 selected reports that you were most interested in. It will available at a time to be determined.

Q And the full report? Will there be a couple of copies of the full report?

MR. BURNS: For those who could not hear on the mike, John Dinger said that 25 of the most important country reports will be made available. Of course, the full report will also be available to you. Is that satisfactory?

Q Copies have been sent?

MR. BURNS: I'm sure it will be going to the Hill tonight.

Q Today?

MR. BURNS: It usually goes the night before.

Q Will the Duty Officer bring a copy home with them - - take a copy home with him so he can respond to the telephone calls caused by leaks?

MR. BURNS: We're not responsible for leaks, especially leaks from another branch of the U.S. Government. I doubt it. I think we'll have to deal with --

Q To deal with the leaks, it would be good to have a copy home.

MR. BURNS: I don't think we'll have anything official to say until tomorrow, with all due respect.

I have two more announcements, and then we can go on to questions.

[...]

MR. BURNS: The name of the man is Magid Al-Molqi, and we believe, of course, that he's responsible for the death of Leon Klinghofer in 1985. This man should be brought to justice. He apparently has escaped from prison. We are in conversations with the Italian Government about it. We are relying on the Italian Government to try to use every resource, every means at their disposal, to try to bring him back to justice.

Q Have we gotten any explanation of why he was allowed out of prison on a 12-day pass?

MR. BURNS: We're directing our interest in this and very specific questions to the Italian Government.

Q Have we had any response?

MR. BURNS: I'm not aware if we have or not, but we've certainly gone to the Italian Government and asked for an explanation of how it was possible for a convicted terrorist -- a man responsible for the death of an American citizen -- to be out of prison. He ought to be in prison, and that's our objective with the Italians.

[...]

If I'm correct, the wire report suggested that the Iraqi Government is trying to secure all of the oil pipeline route in all of the Kurdish area. Are you talking with the Iraqi fractions to secure the pipeline from coming to the Iraqi-Kurdish area?

MR. BURNS: I'll have to take that question for you. We're in constant touch with the Kurdish factions in northern Iraq, as you know. We'd like to see them get along better together and to cooperate for peace and stability in the area. I can't tell you what kind of specific conversations we've had just in the last week.

Q Also, at the end of this month, I believe the "Provide Comfort" time is expiring. The Turkish Under Secretary, Ambassador Oymen, is here tomorrow, I believe. Are you planning to ask the Turkish Government for an extension of the "Provide Comfort?"

MR. BURNS: We believe the "Provide Comfort" is a necessary effort to ensure stability in Iraq above the 36th Parallel. We believe we have a continuing responsibility to do that; that dates from April 1991. So I'm sure that we'll be making a request of all the governments involved in "Provide Comfort" to continue our operations.

While we're on the subject of Turkey, let me just tell you that we congratulate Prime Minister Ciller and Mr. Mesut Yilmaz on the agreement to form a coalition government. This achievement demonstrates, clearly, the strength and vitality of Turkey's constitutional processes and democratic traditions.

We look forward to working closely with the new government to advance our alliance relationship with Turkey, our common interests and to strengthen the already excellent relations that we have.

Let me also let you know -- Glyn has just passed me a note -- that the Human Rights Report will be on the Internet at the conclusion of tomorrow's briefing.

Q Thank you.

[...]

Q My understanding is that the religious party won the plurality in the elections is being excluded from the government. Ordinarily, in a parliamentary system the party that has the plurality is asked to form the government.

Do you really see this as a stabilizing move in Turkey and that this supports the Turkish democracy to keep this party out of the government?

MR. BURNS: The facts are that while the religious party did get a plurality of votes in the election, and President Demirel asked Mr. Erbakan to try to form a government over many weeks, the facts are that Mr. Erbakan was not able to do that. So President Demirel turned to the other two parties -- Mrs. Ciller's party and Mr. Yilmaz's party -- and they were able to form a government. That is how parliamentary democracies work. Sometimes the largest party -- it's not just Turkey, but other democracies -- sometimes the largest party is unable to form a coalition government. This was the case here. The party had every opportunity to do so. It was just not able to do so. That's where the chips fell in this case.

Q One other point, on another subject, is the Soros Foundations again. I think that Secretary Christopher did write a letter -- it's been publicized here -- to Mr. Milosevic. Has there been a response yet from the Government of Serbia or of Yugoslavia?

MR. BURNS: Secretary Christopher did write President Milosevic on this issue. Assistant Secretary John Kornblum has followed up just this morning with the Foreign Minister of Serbia, Mr. Milutinovic. We expect that the Serbian Government will take the right course here and allow freedom to the Soros Foundation to operate in Serbia. It's a very important point of principle for us, and the Serbian Government is well aware of our views.

I thought, Roy, we'd actually do the first briefing today, maybe in six months/seven months, without Bosnia, but you saved the day at the final moment. Congratulations. But I think we've done Bosnia, and we can repair to our lunch.

Q If this process drags out, or it may not come to fruition that they restore the ability of the Foundation to operate, is the U.S. Government prepared to jump in and in some way support the independent media there so that they aren't strangled?

MR. BURNS: We support freedom of the press. It's in our Constitution. We support everywhere in the world. Milosevic knows we support it. We expect him now to do the right thing here and allow the press to be free and to allow people to say what they want -- those people coming from outside Serbia. In this case, we've supported very specifically the Soros Foundation.

Q My question is, do you have some reserve position? Because the Soros Foundation has done there what the U.S. Government itself used to do and does throughout much of the rest of Eastern Europe, which is to find a way to support independent media? It's unusual for a Foundation to do this. It's ordinarily a governmental function or a function done through some NGOs with governmental support.

Is the U.S. Government prepared to step into the breach?

MR. BURNS: We have stepped in to support the Soros Foundation. If we are successful, the Soros Foundation will be able to operate in Serbia and we expect that to be the outcome of this particular drama.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

(Press briefing concluded at 2:08 p.m.)