U.S. Department of State 96/03/11 Daily Press Briefing

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U.S. State Department Directory

U.S. Department of State

96/03/11 Daily Press Briefing

Office of the Spokesman

DEPARTMENT
Secretary Christopher's Travel to Middle East and Europe .... 1-8
[...]
FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
Reported Russian Charges for Greek Military Planes to
 Land in Croatia............................................. 26
Situation in Sarajevo/IFOR's Mission ........................ 28-29
--Carl Bildt's Efforts re Serb Suburbs ...................... 28-29
TURKEY/GREECE
Reported Capture of Iranian Agency by Turkish Forces ........ 8
Imia-Kardak Dispute ......................................... 26-27
Former Greek King Constantine's Visits to U.S. .............. 27-28

Secondly, I wanted to let all of you know -- those of you who are coming with us on the trip and those of you who are not -- what the Secretary's schedule will be over the next 12 or 13 days.

The Secretary of State is about to embark on a very long trip to the Middle East and to Europe that will have him out of the country from tomorrow afternoon until Saturday, March 23, and I wanted to go over the schedule with you.

As you know, the Secretary will be leaving with the President on Air Force One tomorrow. They'll fly to Sharm al-Sheikh in southern Sinai for the Summit of the Peacemakers. They will be there all day on Wednesday.

They'll depart Sharm al-Sheikh some time late Wednesday afternoon/early Wednesday evening for Jerusalem where they plan to spend the night. On Thursday, of course, the President and the Secretary will have a program of events with the Israeli leadership and the Israeli people, and I'd refer you to the White House for the details of that particular schedule.

When the President departs at some point on Thursday for the United States, the Secretary will be remaining in Jerusalem for Thursday afternoon/evening, and for a good part of Friday to continue working with the Israeli Government and talking to the Israeli people about the tragic events of the suicide terrorism.

He'll then be departing Jerusalem at some point on Friday -- late on Friday -- for Brussels. He'll spend Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday in Brussels. On Saturday he intends to meet with the Secretary General of NATO -- Secretary General Solana -- and also meet with General Joulwan about Bosnia issues, Dayton accords, compliance issues, and also, certainly with Secretary General Solana, about the range of NATO issues which we're currently working on, including the issue of NATO enlargement.

The Secretary will then travel on Sunday to Geneva. As you know, he'll be in Geneva on Monday for meetings there to push forward the very strong United States support for a comprehensive test ban treaty, which we hope will be concluded this year -- in fact, which we hope will be signed this year.

From Geneva, he goes on to Kiev for important meetings with President Kuchma, with Prime Minister Marchuk, with Foreign Minister Udovenko. That will be on Tuesday, March 19. This is a long planned visit to Kiev to talk about the very close relationship that the United States has established with Ukraine and all of the issues on the U.S.-Ukraine agenda, ranging from economic reform to our very good military cooperation with Ukraine and the Partnership for Peace, and to other issues in the U.S.-Ukraine agenda.

He'll leave Kiev on the evening of the 19th; spend the night in Prague on March 19, and then be in Prague on March 19 and 20 for meetings with the Czech leadership on U.S.-Czech relations but also to convene a meeting with the Foreign Ministers of Central Europe -- all the Central European democracies -- including the three Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This is a continuation of the pattern of meetings the Secretary has had for two years now with his Central European colleagues.

On March 21, probably at some point in the afternoon, the Secretary will leave Prague for Moscow. He'll be in Moscow from the 21st to the 23rd. As you know, we've scheduled a full-scale review of U.S.-Russian relations with the Russian leadership, with Foreign Minister Primakov and President Yeltsin and other Russian officials. That will take place mainly on Friday but also extend into Saturday morning, March 23.

When those discussions end, the Russians will convene a Contact Group Ministerial meeting that will include Germany and France and Britain, Carl Bildt and others to talk about the Dayton accords and compliance with the Dayton accords. I would expect that meeting to take up the late morning and early afternoon of March 23.

The Secretary then intends to return to Washington on the evening of March 23. So a very long trip ahead of us -- 12 days -- comprising some very important issues concerning American policy in the Middle East; and, as you can see, across a broad spectrum of issues in Europe.

I also wanted to let you know that the Secretary is currently upstairs in a lunch. He has invited all of the Ambassadors of the European Union countries to a lunch today to have a long planned and comprehensive discussion of U.S.-European issues. They are discussing the new transatlantic agenda that was announced by President Clinton and the EU leaders in the December summit meeting in Madrid.

There will obviously be discussion of a variety of issues pertaining to the U.S.-European Union relationship. In addition, I expect a vigorous and good conversation on Bosnia, as well as on the Middle East and the support that we were so glad to see that the European Union leaders enunciated over the weekend for the State of Israel and for Yasser Arafat in the fight against terrorism; but also the criticism leveled by the European Union against Iran and Libya for the connections that we believe are apparent for everyone to see between those two countries and Middle East terrorist groups.

It's a very important lunch, and the Secretary wanted to make sure he had an opportunity to do this before leaving for the Middle East.

Finally, I just wanted to note that our Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott will be departing Washington in just a couple of hours. He'll be traveling to Moscow for meetings this week with the Russian leadership. These meetings are intended to prepare for the Secretary's visit to Moscow in about 9-10 days from now.

So with that, George, I'll be glad to go to your questions.

[...]

MR. BURNS: I don't have any information on that. No, I don't. But we'll be glad to see what we've got on it.

[...]

Q According to a report from Athens, the Croatian Government is charging only Greece thousands of dollars in landing fees for Greek military planes, C-130, using Croatian airports supplying Greek military forces of IFOR in Bosnia. I'm wondering if the Croats have the right to do that. Is it not against the Dayton agreement?

MR. BURNS: Mr. Lambros, I'm not familiar with that report. Our view is that all three governments in the region must live up to the Dayton accords. IFOR has spelled out in great detail what the requirements are, and I'm sure that the Greek Government will be taking this up directly with Croatia if there is a problem, and that IFOR, I'm sure, stands ready to assist if there's a problem as well.

Q On March 8 you stated in the Foreign Press Center, regarding Greek-Turkish differences -- quote -- "We have had a number of discussions with both governments. I do not believe there is yet a decision as to what mechanism will be used to resolve the Imia-Kardak problem." Could you please elaborate more about those discussions? May we assume that already a Greek-Turkish political dialogue is going on in those days behind the scenes with direct U.S. involvement in view of the upcoming visit of the Prime Minister of Greece and the President of Turkey?

MR. BURNS: Mr. Lambros, I'm not sure I can elaborate further, because we've talked about this issue so often. You know our position. It's up to Greece and Turkey to find a mutually agreeable way to resolve the problem of Imia-Kardak.

Q As long as there is a discussion between the two sides to resolve it, so that's a message, if you can say something more.

MR. BURNS: I really can't. I have no new information on this issue. We remain hopeful this problem can be resolved by both governments, however.

Q On March 7, you stated that the so-called former King of Greece, Mr. Constantine Glyxburg, "is welcome to visit the United States any time." Since Mr. Glyxburg, who is now in New York City, is not recognized by the Greek constitution and is doing a lot of unfortunate political movements against the present political system of your friend and ally, Greece, how could he be we welcome to the United States, and do you consider him as a political refugee? Is Mr. Glyxburg entitled from the political and legal point of view to organize that type of activity against Greece and its democratic system while he's a guest in the United States?

MR. BURNS: King Constantine is a private --

Q (Inaudible)

MR. BURNS: Excuse me, Mr. Lambros. King Constantine is a private individual --

Q He's a former King.

MR. BURNS: Of course, he's the former King. I know he's not the King. But, you know, generally you do keep the title even though your station may be different in life. King Constantine is a private individual. He's not a public official. He is not received here as a public official. Our government has nothing to do with his visits here. These are private visits. He is free to come and go from the United States as he pleases.

Q How do you characterize his activities against the Greek political system then? It's a democratic one. It's an elected government.

MR. BURNS: Yes, it is.

Q So any private citizen can do that against another system?

MR. BURNS: The United States cannot involve itself in all of the political disputes of people around the world. He is a private citizen. He is free to come to the United States, as he often does, but he is not received here formally or officially by the United States Government, as you know.

Q Nick, The Washington Post has carried some rather graphic reports the last couples of days out of Sarajevo. The net impression they leave is -- in these reports -- is that IFOR or NATO is standing by and watching the burning and murdering of Sarajevans -- the burning of the buildings. The only people putting out the fires, it said, were journalists.

The basic impression that leaves is that IFOR is becoming like UNPROFOR. Are you concerned about the impression that Sarajevo's -- the mess in Sarajevo is causing?

MR. BURNS: Frankly, I don't agree with that statement that IFOR is -- I mean, how could I agree with a statement that IFOR has becoming like UNPROFOR. UNPROFOR did not succeed in its mission. IFOR is succeeding in its mission. It stopped the war. It has created a cease-fire zone. It is monitoring that cease-fire zone, and it is doing everything it can to fulfill the military requirements of the Dayton peace accords. It's done a very impressive job.

There are a lot of problems. Carl Bildt is attempting to have the international police training force, the UNHCR and others, including IFOR, contribute to the effort to try to stabilize the situation in the Serb suburbs, and we hope very much that that will be the case over the next couple of weeks.

I have voluminous guidance here from EUR on this. I get voluminous guidance very day from EUR on a variety of subjects, and I can tell you what we think about this.

Q Well, this is the Dayton --

MR. BURNS: Are you interested in what we think about it?

Q Well, I'm just wondering, don't the Dayton accords require IFOR to act and not to stand by if atrocities are being carried out in front of them?

MR. BURNS: Atrocities.

Q You know, you have thugs running through the suburbs of Sarajevo at night, such that the police task forces are afraid to go out, and murdering people and burning up houses, and they're not even sending in, it looks like, the fire department.

MR. BURNS: Let's put the responsibility for these actions where they should rest -- with the Bosnian Government, the Bosnian Serbs, the Serbian Government and the Croatians. They're the people who have a self-interest in implementing the Dayton accords. They ought to do this. We're there to help them transition to peace, if that transition can be made.

So, first of all, the onus has to be on the parties. Secondly, Carl Bildt has taken, I think, some effective steps over the last couple of days. He and we have condemned the lawless behavior instigated by the Pale leadership -- the Bosnian Serb leadership -- of many members of the Bosnian Serb community.

We are going to maintain the right of freedom of movement in the Sarajevo suburbs, because that is one of the hallmarks of the Dayton accords, and Carl Bildt has announced that both IFOR and the International Police Task Force will increase their presence in the Serb suburbs. And they're going to work to try to do what they can to deter attacks.

But, frankly, Roy, we can't deter every crime from taking place in Bosnia. That's the job of the leaders of the Bosnian Serb community, and they ought to take that much more seriously than they have.

Q Another on Bosnia?

MR. BURNS: I'm going to have to wrap this up pretty soon. I think we're reaching the end of this briefing. But, if it is an outstanding question that we haven't grappled with over the last six months -- is it a new question.

Q Well, it's not a new question, but --

MR. BURNS: Let's do it in the background session.

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

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