USIA - State Department Report, 96-10-01

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From: The United States Information Agency (USIA) Gopher at <gopher://gopher.usia.gov>

SUMMARY REPORT ON STATE DEPT. NOON BRIEFING, OCTOBER 1, 1996

(Bosnia, Iran, Armenia, Afghanistan, EU/Helms-Burton) (810)

BOSNIA -- Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs John Kornblum and an interagency group leaves for the Balkans October 2. They will stop in Zagreb for conversations with Croatia's President Franjo Tudjman and then travel to Sarajevo to attend the inaugural sessions of the presidency and the house of representatives of the parliamentary assembly.

The Contact Group (consisting of representatives of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, and Russia) has reached agreement on a resolution to lift the sanctions against the Bosnian Serbs. A vote is expected in the United Nations Security Council October 1. "The United States will support this resolution and will vote favorably to lift the sanctions because the provisions in the Dayton accords have been met" regarding the elections in Bosnia, Burns said.

Although the United States will vote in the United Nations to lift the international sanctions, the United States will maintain its own "outer wall" of sanctions due to U.S. concerns regarding the failure of the Serbian government to cooperate with the War Crimes Tribunal and the problem of Kosovo.

The United States is pleased with the results of the first meeting September 30 in Sarajevo of the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to Burns, the tripartite presidency consisting of Moslem president Ilija Izetbegovic, Croat president Kresimir Zubak, and Serb president Momcilo Krajisnik reaffirmed their commitment to the constitution, began discussion of setting up the council of ministers with the appointments to be completed by October 30, and took steps to establish telecommunications links among them. The three agreed to meet for the first session of the parliamentary assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina and to have another meeting soon after that.

IRAN -- The United States condemns the conviction of Musa Talibi, an Iranian Baha'i, who has been sentenced to death for apostasy by the court of the government of Iran. The United States urges Iran to release Talibi and cease the persecution of members of the Baha'i and other religious minorities.

ARMENIA -- The United States is awaiting the reports of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on the elections in Armenia. The United States is concerned about reported irregularities in the voting process and the fate of those detained or arrested in the aftermath of the demonstrations that were produced by the elections. The United States calls upon the Armenian government to account for these people and report on their welfare, Burns said.

AFGHANISTAN -- Burns said the United States expects to send a diplomat to Kabul within a few days to meet with leaders of the Taleban militia which has seized control of Kabul and most of Afghanistan. "We continue to urge all Afghans to stop fighting, to work for national reconciliation and a government that can unify the country and that will respect the rights of all Afghans," he said.

The U.S. diplomat will convey U.S. concerns regarding the protection of human rights, especially the protection of the human rights of women, Burns said.

While the situation remains calm in Kabul, fighting continues in the north, Burns said. The situation remains "fluid" in Afghanistan, according to Burns. "We're not sure who is running the country fully. It still is in many respects a civil war, especially in the north."

Burns added that it is not clear what the Taleban intends to do if it establishes a government authority. "It is not at all clear what their foreign policy will be, what their policy will be towards the other faction leaders inside Afghanistan," he said. Assessing the situation and the new leadership will be the job of the U.S. diplomat chosen to visit Kabul.

Burns noted that the Taleban is "an army that's never been a government. It's an army of students and ex-guerrillas and teachers which has not yet established a record as a governing authority. We will have to judge them by their actions, but we are not going to pre-judge what the actions might be."

Although the United States has never broken its diplomatic relationship with Afghanistan, it has not had a permanent diplomatic presence in Afghanistan since 1989.

EU/HELMS-BURTON -- The European Union (EU) move to take the issue of the U.S. Helms-Burton law before the World Trade Organization (WTO) "is most unfortunate," Burns said. "We would have vastly preferred a bilateral... U.S.-EU solution to this and continued dialogue. The Europeans ought to be concerned about human rights in Cuba and democracy in Cuba," Burns said.

(No transcript is available of this briefing.)

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