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U.S. Department of State Daily Press Briefing #81, 97-05-30

U.S. State Department: Daily Press Briefings Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Department of State Foreign Affairs Network (DOSFAN) at <http://www.state.gov>


789

U.S. Department of State
Daily Press Briefing

I N D E X

Friday, May 30, 1997

Briefer: John Dinger

ANNOUNCEMENTS
7               Introduction of John Fruit, Summer Intern
7               Departure of Sharon Bowman, Press Officer

SIERRA LEONE 1-3 Evacuation Procedures/Number of Amcits 3-5 Embassy Situation 5-6 Situation on the Ground

CUBA 6-7 Helms-Burton

UNITED NATIONS 7-8 US Contribution to UNHCR for the Great Lakes region of Africa

NORTH KOREA 8-10 Talks

MISCELLANEOUS 10 Police Incident Involving Diplomat

AFGHANISTAN 10-11 Situation at Embassy

INDONESIA 11-12 Elections

PEACE PROCESS 12 Statement Regarding Occupied Territories

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO 12-13 Situation Update


U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

DPB #81

FRIDAY, MAY 30, 1997 1:23 P.M.

(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)

MR. DINGER: Hi, welcome to the State Department briefing. Sorry to keep you waiting, but we were trying to get the latest news from Sierra Leone; and with your permission, I'll just go ahead and do that. Then we can do other business.

The evacuation of American citizens and third country nationals, including our American embassy staff, began from Freetown, Sierra Leone, at approximately 8:00 a.m. local time today, May 30th. As of 3:30 p.m. local time, approximately 900 persons had been evacuated. That includes approximately 300 American citizens.

Of the non-American citizens, there were many different nationalities. We don't have a complete breakdown yet, but to give you an example, it included British, German, Russian, Belgian, Lebanese, Irish, French, Tajikistani, Israeli, Guinean, Zimbabwean, Nigerian, Gambian, Liberian, Congolese, and even Cuban nationals, as well as some Sierra Leonean adults accompanying American minors.

You would want to check with the Pentagon for the precise details, but our understanding is that the Pentagon used four CH-53 helicopters to ferry passengers to the U.S.S. Kearsarge, which has the capacity to hold the number of evacuees that have been taken out.

We anticipate that the evacuees will stay on the Kearsarge for perhaps a couple of days. They will then travel, most likely again by helicopter, to Conakry, Guinea. At that point, the third country nationals will be dropped off, many of them into the hands of their own embassies in Conakry. The Department of State is arranging charter flights to take most of the American citizens on to Brussels. That will likely happen over the weekend.

In light of the deteriorating security situation in Sierra Leone, following the May 25th attempted coup d'etat, the United States has also decided to temporarily suspend its operations and withdraw all official American personnel. Therefore, included among the evacuees are all American citizens employed or connected with the embassy and their immediate family members.

Additionally, of course, we strongly urged all American citizens to depart the country immediately. At the present time, to the best of our knowledge, all American citizens who wanted to leave have left. There is the possibility that there may be some remaining American citizens. As I said, as of 3:30 p.m., we felt all American citizens were out.

Should we come to believe that there may be some stragglers, the option exists to go back and pick them up. That will be a call made by our Charge d'Affaires from the embassy along with the military commander. At the moment, we do not anticipate that to happen, but the option is open and we are remaining flexible.

That, I think covers most of the evacuation aspects. I'll be happy to take your questions. I should add, though, that we are unaware of any incidents, any firing of weapons, any untoward incidents in the conduct of the evacuation. The reports we've received are that the people are able to travel to the embarkation point without difficulty. I must say, from my point of view, I would like to compliment my Department of State colleagues who, under the most difficult circumstances, have conducted this evacuation and, of course, compliment our colleagues at the Department of Defense for their help.

Our first security and our first priority, of course, was the safety of American citizens. We are very pleased that we have apparently successfully been able to evacuate all of them. Meanwhile, there is another important point, of course; and that is to try to restore democracy in Sierra Leone. We are using all possible diplomatic channels, both directly to the coup leaders in Sierra Leone, but also to our allies in the region and elsewhere to try to get them to urge the restoration of civilian government in Sierra Leone. We will continue to pursue all diplomatic efforts, including all international pressure possible, to restore the democratically elected government in Sierra Leone.

There has been enough violence in Sierra Leone. We hope democracy is quickly restored there by diplomatic means and through international pressure. Are there any questions about Sierra Leone?

QUESTION: Yes. The number you have been using, I believe, until yesterday was 400 Americans there. You say 300 were evacuated, leaving about 15 U.S. diplomats behind, plus family members. It sounds like there's a lot of private Americans still in the country. And you refer to a few stragglers.

MR. DINGER: Well, it is very difficult, as you know. Americans don't necessarily register with the American Embassy. However, if forced to speculate on who might be staying behind, first would be dual nationals who have a home in Sierra Leone and are either comfortable living there or are committed to living there and, therefore, do not want to leave. Additionally, of course, there may be some American citizen missionaries or businesspeople who also decided to stay behind. Obviously, although we urged all American citizens to leave, that is their right - if, as I say, either through level of comfort or commitment to the country, they decided to stay behind. Clearly, now that we are suspending our presence there, it will be very difficult for us to provide any sort of services to those American citizens, and that is why we urged them to leave.

QUESTION: If I could just follow up on that point and George's question. If all of our people are out of the embassy, then there is really no one to find, to get in touch with Americans that may still want to get out so that they might be picked up by the helicopters; is that correct? Is there any - is there any, basically, anybody for any others to get in touch with?

MR. DINGER: Well, what our system is -- and, of course, it's a very effective system developed over many years in these sorts of crises -- is it stops short of a warden system, which was in operation in Sierra Leone, through which we could get in touch by telephone or radio or any other means with any American citizens that we were aware of.

Additionally, we made very effective use, we think, of the Voice of America to announce first the evacuation, and then overnight we have also made use of Voice of America to inform American citizens that we are temporarily suspending our presence in Sierra Leone, in case that further affected their decision and maybe changed some minds and prompted some who had thought of staying to then leave.

QUESTION: So you could use, excuse me, the Voice of America to inform the stragglers as to where helicopters might rendezvous with them? Is that --

MR. DINGER: Well, first, I think it's important to say we are not certain that there are any American citizens remaining in Sierra Leone who wish to leave. In fact, if we were to speculate, we would speculate that there probably are none.

However, I think there still are some ways to communicate internationally from Sierra Leone. So through any number of ways, if word gets back to us that there are American citizens continuing to want to leave, we will certainly make our utmost effort to get that word to the people on the ground, the American Charge d'Affaires, Ann Wright, along with the military commander. They, of course, will make a judgment call as to whether there is a need to return to Freetown to pick up any others.

We will do our utmost. We have flexibility here. We have options available to us. We will make the best effort, as we have done thus far, to make sure that all American citizens who want to leave, can, and that, on a space- available basis, third country nationals can as well.

QUESTION: John, what about the embassy? There have been reports that the embassy compound or the embassy building, once it was shut down, was actually overrun by looters and had been looted. Can you tell us if there was any security left behind at the embassy? Or the status of the building itself?

MR. DINGER: What always happens in these cases, or usually happens in these cases is that there are, around embassies, locally employed security guards. Those guards were left in place at the embassy. However, they are unarmed; and although I cannot confirm these reports that the embassy was looted, I also cannot rule them out.

QUESTION: Were steps taken prior to shutting the embassy down to get rid of sensitive documents and things of that nature?

MR. DINGER: Yes, absolutely. These things happen, regrettably, with some frequency. Therefore, the State Department has a very well established procedure if we are going to be leaving a post. I should step back a little bit.

First of all, in a situation like this, we try to keep the level of sensitive equipment or papers at a minimum. If a decision, nevertheless, is made to leave, there is quite a specific priority -- a checklist, I guess you would say, of what we do. The equipment and information is prioritized according to its sensitivity. I think if you saw some of the pictures of our embassy employees who have left, you can see they obviously have had a very wearying time. One of the reasons is because they have been going through this checklist, destroying sensitive equipment and documents.

We are confident that we were able to destroy certainly all of the most sensitive information that was there. An embassy has lots of drawers full of lots of papers. We can't claim that we were able to destroy every piece of paper in the embassy, but we believe we were able -- that our staff, working very, very hard through the night - I would remind you, we only decided to suspend our presence less than 24 hours ago, so they worked very hard and we are confident they destroyed most, if not all, of the sensitive information.

QUESTION: And, finally, when you said that the Kearsarge would remain off the coast for a couple of days, is the reason for that also just to ensure that if there were any stragglers, the Kearsarge would be close by to come and get them? Or is there another reason why they would remain off shore?

MR. DINGER: That's clearly one of the reasons and maybe the most important reason. Also, I believe that the evacuees aboard the Kearsarge will all go to Conakry. Well, of course, I don't believe, I know that. They will go to Conakry and they will be helicoptered. I believe there is a desire to try to get the timing right so that they don't spend the night in Conakry, that they will stay aboard the Kearsarge until they can helicopter to Conakry, marry up with the flights, chartered or otherwise, and move out. So, the Kearsarge will stay for both those reasons.

QUESTION: John, is there any other - are there any plans to leave behind Charge Wright and other senior staff from the embassy in Conakry to take care of U.S. business as best as possible from that post?

MR. DINGER: Yes. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to make that point. Our ambassador, John Hirsch, who was absent from Freetown on private business when the coup took place -- H-i-r-s-c-h, I think, we will double check - was absent from Freetown when the coup took place. He is on his way to Conakry. This is a work in progress since this was a decision, unfortunately, that we had to make quite suddenly. But the plan is for the immediate future, to have Ambassador Hirsch and a handful of other staff remain in Conakry. Meanwhile, we will develop our plan for how we are going to cover further developments in Freetown.

QUESTION: The situation apparently was basically calm -- no shots were fired at the operation. But you are clearly anticipating something since you are closing down the embassy. What is it that you anticipate?

MR. DINGER: I don't think anticipation is the right word. We are engaged - we are aware of contingencies. The situation is very unstable. There are several different military forces, both Sierra Leonean and, of course, Nigerian forces are there. It is very difficult to anticipate what will happen.

We determined that the situation was so unstable, so potentially volatile that it was the time to one, urge all American citizens to depart immediately and two, to suspend our official American presence there. We did not feel confident that we could ensure the safety of, certainly not private American citizens, but not even our American staff in the embassy.

QUESTION: And who will represent U.S. interests?

MR. DINGER: That is a work in progress because, as you know - that is part of the work in progress that I mentioned. As you know, normally we have or often we have a protecting power, another western embassy in a country. In this case, it is not clear that there will be any power there at all to represent our interests. For the time being, Ambassador Hirsch and his small staff will be in Conakry and try to maintain to the extent possible lines of communication to the parties and actors in Sierra Leone.

QUESTION: John, in your opening remarks, you referred to an attempted coup. Is it - are your reports from Americans on the ground, sir, that there is basically no effective government in Sierra Leone?

MR. DINGER: Obviously, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council has staged a coup, claims to be in control of the government. We clearly want that reversed and that's why we used the word, "attempted" coup.

QUESTION: What is your understanding of the situation on the ground? Are they, in fact, in control?

MR. DINGER: I am not sure there is much of anybody in control of Sierra Leone. That's why I want to reiterate my point: that the immediate interest was in getting Americans out safely. The second interest, and also very, very important, is to reestablish a democratic broad-based government in Sierra Leone.

I really believe that the American people hold fundamental democracy, free markets, human rights, et cetera, in high regard and that they fully would support our efforts to try to reverse this act.

QUESTION: There is speculation, though, that once the Americans and others have been evacuated, the Nigerian troops that are on the ground may attempt to force that return to the democratically elected government. Does the U.S. support that kind of an effort? Or would you prefer some other way to achieve that end?

MR. DINGER: We believe that there has been more than enough violence in Sierra Leone. We want to see democracy restored. We want to see it done quickly by diplomatic means and international pressure.

QUESTION: New subject?

MR. DINGER: Sure.

QUESTION: The Cuban Government today, through Ricardo Alarcon, basically is saying that notwithstanding the April 11th agreement signed by Mr. Eizenstat and the European Union, Congress is continuing to seek ways to tighten Helms-Burton and the Administration is sitting idly by and doing nothing about it. What do you have to say about that?

MR. DINGER: It is extremely easy for us to understand how a senior Cuban communist government official may not understand how a bill becomes law in a democratic society like the United States.

What is occurring is that the House International Relations Committee completed consideration of the State Department Authorization Bill. As part of that process, some 120 amendments were introduced, 15 of which pertain to Cuba. These were not secret acts, but fully covered in our free and democratic press -- another issue Cuban communist officials may not understand.

The Administration, in fact, opposed many of these amendments. We managed to deflect some. Others have been revised in order to address some of our concerns. There are still several steps before the bill becomes law. A course in Democracy 101 might be in order for the Cubans. Of course, it has to be approved by the House and the Senate. As necessary, it will be considered by a joint conference committee. If approved, it will be forwarded to the President for his approval. Any number of changes can occur during that process.

The secret documents to which Mr. Alarcon referred have been publicly available for weeks or months. Meanwhile, we will make every effort to work with Congress toward a bipartisan goal of promoting a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba.

I would also note that Mr. Alarcon seemed to want to speak for the EU on this issue. Frankly, we think the EU is more than capable of speaking for itself on these issues. We are currently engaged with the EU in talks on these very issues. The timetable is that we will work out modalities with the EU between now and October 15th to address the issue of investment in confiscated properties on a worldwide basis. After those modalities are implemented, we will evaluate their effectiveness and we will go to Congress to talk about modifying Title IV.

QUESTION: Specifically, though, the proposed legislation that would tax multinational companies that deal with confiscated property in Cuba -- does the Administration oppose that legislation?

MR. DINGER: I don't have a rundown of the 15 amendments that are currently on, so I can look into what our position was on that particular amendment.

QUESTION: That seemed to be the key, as I understand it.

MR. DINGER: I think there were several that we opposed. I'll be happy to look into it to see which they were and which elements may have been. I can't even confirm, frankly, that that is still in any of the amendments. As we know, in a democracy this is a moving target as it goes through the amendment process. Anything else?

Actually, let me then go through a couple of statements.

First, I want to introduce Mr. John Fruit of Pratt, Kansas, and also a student at the University of Kansas, who has joined us for the summer, as an intern, as a Press Officer. Please feel free to go to John with all of your ideas -- I won't call them complaints -- and he will be happy to do his best to help you. Welcome, John.

Also, not present in the room today but we are saying farewell to a Press Officer, Sharon Bowman, who many of you may know because she is the building pass person. Sharon is leaving us after two and half years in the press office. She is looking forward to, I think, almost a year in language training, and then she will go on to Ankara, Turkey, where she will be an officer in our Political Section, helping cover, I think, essentially domestic Turkish political issues.

QUESTION: How do we renew our passes?

MR. DINGER: She has left her pass portfolio in excellent shape, and we will have another person happy to help you with your passes; because, of course, we want to facilitate in any way possible --

(Laughter.)

-- the coverage of American foreign policy by the world's press.

Next, I do want to also announce a new U.S. contribution for assistance to refugees in the Great Lakes region of Africa. The United States is contributing additional funding in the amount of $12.6 million to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in response to the 1997 United Nations consolidated inter-agency appeal for the Great Lakes emergency.

This brings the total contributed this year by the United States to over $25 million. We remain deeply concerned about the fate of refugees and recent returnees in the Great Lakes countries, particularly in light of numerous reports of serious human rights abuses against refugees and other civilians.

We also support the outstanding efforts of UNHCR to care for these victims of conflict, often under very difficult and dangerous circumstances. We also call for full and free access for humanitarian workers throughout the region. Although the UNHCR can use these funds flexibly, we anticipate that most will go toward the effort to find, care for and repatriate to Rwanda those refugees who remain in the Congo. Yes, Bill.

QUESTION: I have another subject. There, I believe, are working-level talks in New York, three-party working-level talks with the North Koreans. Have they borne any fruit? Any scheduled three-level talks or four-party talks?

MR. DINGER: There are working level U.S.-South Korean-North Korean talks being held today at the - I'm sorry; I guess I don't have the location. The meeting is in accordance with the agreement reached during the U.S.-ROK- DPRK talks in New York, April 16 through 21. These will continue discussions at the working level to realize four-party talks.

All sides at the April meeting agreed to have such meetings. In recent weeks, we came to a consensus to meet today. This is the first such trilateral meeting since the April talks, but the three sides have remained in communication.

The purpose of the meeting is to continue discussions at the working level to realize four-party talks. These diplomatic contacts are moving in the right direction. But we do not expect to have something new to report after each meeting. I would point out to you that this is a process, a steady process. One step in that process is today. Hopefully another step will be four-party talks. Hopefully the ultimate conclusion will be a peace treaty. But this is a process.

While on the subject, I would just also like to refer all of you to a briefing that our Acting Assistant Secretary Chuck Kartman gave at the Foreign Press Center yesterday in which he provided a comprehensive review of all issues connected to the DPRK.

QUESTION: Can you do that for the American press in the near future?

MR. DINGER: I'll look to see if we can do that.

QUESTION: You are describing these as talks. The initial meeting was a briefing. Is there a nuance in language here that we should be sensitive to? I mean, briefing is --

MR. DINGER: Well, I think there is a nuance, but I'm not sure you have to be terribly sensitive to it.

QUESTION: Yeah, I understand the briefing could be, you tell us what is happening. Talks convey a sense of back and forth.

MR. DINGER: I think that the accurate way to address that issue is that that was the first set of talks. You may remember we offered a briefing on our four-party talks proposal, which we gave in April. This is a continuation. So if you would like to call them a continuation of the briefing, that is fine with me.

QUESTION: I mean, to put it another way, the big thing in that context suggested that the U.S. and South Korea were explaining to North Korea what the process was.

MR. DINGER: These, including in April, these are not one-way conversations. This is a - what is three people? Is that a dialogue, as well? A three-way dialogue. This is a dialogue, as it was in April. It's a give and take.

QUESTION: There are only trilateral talks today?

MR. DINGER: These are trilateral.

QUESTION: Not bilateral?

MR. DINGER: That's correct. Let me just also mention, we anticipate that the talks are today only. But as you know, it's difficult to predict. We don't have any expectation that they will go over into other days. But it's always possible.

QUESTION: You don't expect a continuing response to (inaudible)

MR. DINGER: This is a process. I don't want to predict --

QUESTION: Well even processes produce news. Is it possible that whoever is heading the U.S. side will speak to the press afterward? Or will you have something to say afterwards?

MR. DINGER: I might as well give the names of the delegations, which for the United States are our Director of the Office of Korean Affairs Mark Minton. He will be joined on the U.S. side by the NSC's Asia Director Jack Pritchard. Meanwhile from the South Korean embassy in Washington, Counselor Soo Hyuck Lee will participate. And for the North Korean side, it's Deputy Permanent Representative in its UN Mission, Ambassador Li Gun will participate.

We have generally not announced these talks in advance and, additionally, afterwards we have found it is best to keep most of the discussion private. We may have a very small bit that we can offer you later on this afternoon. Certainly you can check with the Press Office in the late afternoon to see if there is anything we can offer you.

QUESTION: The North Koreans have said they still want a few things, that is a lifting of economic sanctions against North Korea. They want more food aid before they would be willing to come to these peace talks. In what way is it going in the right direction? You said that these talks are going in the right direction?

MR. DINGER: We're talking. We have made a very good proposal, a very reasonable proposal. Secretary Albright has said that the North Koreans have shown an interest in our proposal; but we're trying to work out modalities. This is a long-term process. I can only repeat that. This is not a process that has gone forward in leaps and bounds; it has been a gradual process. But nevertheless, it has been a process that is headed in the right direction. And that's where we are today.

QUESTION: New subject.

MR. DINGER: Uh-huh.

QUESTION: Do you have anything on the son of the Dutch diplomat who has been in trouble with Montgomery County police lately?

MR. DINGER: I don't have too much I can offer you on that. First, we are still awaiting the final police report. Second, the reports that we have are that this is a juvenile dependent, and therefore, I think we want to use some circumspection in addressing it. I would also certainly refer you to the Montgomery County Police Department for anything that may be in the public record there.

I can tell you, though, just to give you a run-down on what the usual procedure is in these cases. If police find that there is reason to prosecute, they notify the State Department; the State Department reviews the reports and the State Department then requests a waiver of diplomatic immunity. If police decide not to prosecute, even if the immunity is waived, we note the incident and, of course, have the option of taking that into account in the future.

QUESTION: Is this young man still eligible to drive? As I understand it, recently he was pulled over on a DWI suspicion.

MR. DINGER: I've seen that report. Let us check further. I'm not aware of any previous reports on any issue with him. I've seen that report, and we can try and check into that. Of course you know our zero tolerance policy for DWI. We request a waiver of immunity. If that is granted, the person goes through the normal process. If they are convicted, their driving privileges are suspended. If they refuse a waiver of immunity, their privileges are automatically suspended. If there is a second DWI conviction or failure to waive immunity, they are asked to leave the country.

QUESTION: Can you summarize the situation now with the Afghani Embassy?

MR. DINGER: There has been no change in the situation at the embassy. We, as you know, received a notification from the foreign ministry in Kabul. We have not been able to give you any details about that. It is under consideration. Meanwhile, the situation, the operation at the embassy in Washington continues as it had. The status of the incumbent charge d'affaires, Yar Mohammed Mobbat has not changed.

I would remind you that the United States Government, as a matter of policy, recognizes states, not governments. Regardless of the outcome of this issue, it should not be interpreted in any way as a validation of the policies of any party or faction in Afghanistan.

QUESTION: Which flag is flying?

MR. DINGER: I believe it is the previous flag.

QUESTION: Are you saying then - well, you indicated you received some kind of communication from the foreign ministry in Kabul. Is that from the Taliban, then?

MR. DINGER: That's correct, from the Taliban.

QUESTION: Is this their request you indicated they would have to do in order to start the process?

MR. DINGER: Right.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. DINGER: They communicated with us officially through our American Embassy in Islamabad.

QUESTION: That they want representation here in Washington.

MR. DINGER: That's correct.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. DINGER: Let me just, since I have the floor on the issue of Afghanistan, note the continued fighting there, and reiterate our strong belief that there needs to be a cease-fire; there needs to be an end to violence; there needs to be a broad-based democratic government that includes, represents or takes into account the views of all the factions. That is what's necessary in Afghanistan. That is at least as important, and perhaps more important, than which flag currently flies over their embassy in Washington.

QUESTION: John?

MR. DINGER: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: Anything further on Indonesian elections?

MR. DINGER: I won't run through the results, because you have other means of doing that, I think. I will point out, however, of course the United States believes the parliamentary elections are tightly controlled by the government in Indonesia. The electoral system severely limits political competition. Indonesian citizens do not have the ability to change their government through democratic means.

I would also note, however, that there are a wide range of independent organizations operating in Indonesia. One of those is an election monitoring committee which, on May 30th, issued a statement that said that although the election generally went smoothly and most of the country was calm, it believes problems occurred in the electoral process -- such things as multiple voting, intimidation of party witnesses, discrimination in the treatment of voters and various procedural irregularities. Not surprisingly, they also found that the entire election process lacked transparency.

We do hope that the government of Indonesia takes steps to investigate those allegations and takes corrective action if needed. More broadly, obviously, we also believe Indonesia should move toward a political system in which the will of the people can be heard.

QUESTION: Today the Palestinian officials in the Middle East are up in arms, due to the latest statement by the internal security minister that Israel will keep 50 percent of the occupied territories. Do you find such statements helpful -- unilaterally declaring the annexation of 50 percent, at least, of the land, in the light of the latest statements of Netanyahu and Sharm al- Sheikh, that there will be confidence building measures?

MR. DINGER: I have seen press reports that, to me, alleged that there were internal reports from the Israeli Government indicating such a plan. I don't think I want to react from this podium on alleged leaked reports.

QUESTION: This is not alleged. This is - this wasn't yesterday's news. This is today's news. The Internal Security Minister has announced that they will keep 50 percent of the land, including the River Jordan Valley. This is not the 40-60 percent which the Ha'aretz have reported.

MR. DINGER: I think in any case, if there has been yet another announcement, I would wait for an official Israeli Government statement before I would want to react to that.

QUESTION: He is a Minister.

MR. DINGER: I believe those sorts of actions require approval by the Israeli Cabinet, if not by the Prime Minister alone; so I don't think I want to react to that at this point. Is that it?

QUESTION: Can you do one more briefly?

MR. DINGER: Okay.

QUESTION: The Congo. Mr. Kabila is now promising elections, promising democratic institutions, but his regime has the trappings of a Marxist totalitarian state. Is this government reassured by what he has promised recently?

MR. DINGER: Although I think everyone is correct in having some skepticism or certainly caution towards Mr. Kabila. I don't think I would go as far as you have gone. We do welcome his announcement that elections, democratic elections will be held in April of 1998. Given the obstacles that lie in the road towards that goal, that does not seem to be an unreasonable period of time. You will also note that there were benchmarks, including a constitutional congress, approval of a constitution, et cetera, which we also think were important.

I would point out that we believe that the transition period, the next two years, of course, should also allow for free expression of views, should allow those views to be taken into account during this period. While elections will occur in only two years, we certainly believe that the process itself should be open and should show due respect for basic civil rights.

Let me take a brief moment of your time, though, and this opportunity to mention the situation in Easter Zaire, again. There are large areas - sorry, I guess, Eastern Congo. There are large areas of the Congo which remain off limits to international humanitarian workers. Nevertheless, there are an increasing number of reports of mass killings and other atrocities against refugees and Zairian Hutus.

The United States Government calls on the new government to follow throw on Alliance promises to permit an international investigation into the allegations of massacres and other abuses and, if proven true, to bring to justice anyone found responsible for those acts. President Kabila has made pledges that he will allow free access and we hope that he will now fulfill them. These are serious allegations that must be addressed.

Thank you very much.

(The briefing concluded at 2:02 P.M.)

(###)


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