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US DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
DPC #72
THURSDAY, MAY 20, 1993, 12:57 P. M.
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)
MR. BOUCHER: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. If I can
start off with two announcements of public speaking engagements by the
Secretary, and then we can go on to your questions, if you have any
today.
Secretary of State Warren Christopher will give an address on
Africa policy at the closing plenary of the 23rd African-American
Institute Conference on May 21 -- that's tomorrow -- at the Sheraton
Reston Hotel in Reston, Virginia. The Secretary's address is scheduled
for 10:40 a.m. in the main ballroom.
The African-American Institute is one of the most prominent
and respected institutions in the United States devoted exclusively to
fostering cooperation between Africans and Americans. The conference
marks the 40th Anniversary of the AAI.
Members of the press who wish to cover the event, please call
Margaret Novicki -- N-o-v-i-c-k-i -- at 703-620-9000.
Q Advance text?
MR. BOUCHER: We would --
Q Will there be a text at all?
MR. BOUCHER: There will be a text, and we would expect to
have it to you -- we will try -- we will do our usual best to have it to
you under embargo before the event.
Q How about Q&A?
MR. BOUCHER: There's no Q&A there.
Q Will it be piped in?
MR. BOUCHER: (To staff) Do we know for sure?
Yes. We'll have it piped in for you as well. O.K. Text and
pipe.
Number two: Secretary of State Christopher will visit
Minneapolis on Thursday, May 27, to address the Hubert H. Humphrey
Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. The event
will be held in the atrium of the Humphrey Institute.
The Secretary's speech is scheduled to begin at 12:00 noon,
Minneapolis time. Q&A session will follow. Members of the press who
wish to cover or have questions about this event, please telephone Pat
Kaszuba -- K-a-s-z-u-b-a -- at 612-624-8520, or Gwen Ruff -- R-u-f-f --
at 612-625-1326.
Q What is the subject?
MR. BOUCHER: The speech is part of a -- it's part of a series
of speeches, part of a series of events, part of the commitment to go
out and speak to the American people, to listen to the American people
on foreign policy. This one will be in the university section, so he'll
be talking, I think, about the importance to Americans, especially
younger Americans, of being engaged in foreign policy, engaged in
foreign affairs, and our interests in the world, particularly in Russia.
Q Will it be piped in here?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't know that yet.
Q Q&A?
MR. BOUCHER: Q&A. There is a Q&A.
Q Is there an age limit for asking questions? (Laughter)
Q Will Clinton be in the audience?
Q Will he take questions from children, or is he going to
take questions from reporters or --
MR. BOUCHER: It's university people.
Q Oh, university.
MR. BOUCHER: It's the University Institute -- the Hubert H.
Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.
Q Will there be an advance text?
MR. BOUCHER: Smart people. We'll do our usual best to get
you an advance text.
Q Well, having gone to the Chicago speech where reporters
were not among those asking questions --
MR. BOUCHER: I don't think we ever promised that reporters
would ask questions.
Q You never did. You never did. But, I don't know ---
MR. BOUCHER: If he wants to do a press conference, he can do
a press conference. If he wants to talk to an audience and listen to
others around the country, he doesn't need to answer questions from a
group that he brings with him from Washington.
Q Richard, when will you know whether it will be piped in
here?
MR. BOUCHER: I may know by early next week.
Q Well, is he doing anything else in Minneapolis?
MR. BOUCHER: We would expect other events, meetings, possibly
business, civic leaders, other events, in Minneapolis.
Q Baseball game?
MR. BOUCHER: No plans for a baseball game.
Q Too bad.
MR. BOUCHER: I'm not sure what he'll do in terms of local
press events.
Q So what can you tell us about his meeting with Mr.
Kozyrev, assuming that's it for announcements. Why is Kozyrev so
bubbly? (Laughter)
MR. BOUCHER: Barry, the Secretary --
Q No. Let me ask what's gone on at the meeting, because
God knows why he's so bubbly.
MR. BOUCHER: Secretary Christopher and Foreign Minister
Kozyrev met this morning privately for just over an hour. Both the
Secretary and the Foreign Minister exchanged their current thoughts on
the situation in Bosnia. At the conclusion of their discussion, the
Secretary and the Foreign Minister asked their staffs to explore some of
the details of their respective approaches.
Assistant Secretary Oxman and Ambassador Bartholomew and
others from the United States side are now meeting with their Russian
counterparts. Minister Kozyrev will return here to the Department late
this afternoon, and he and the Secretary will then review the work of
the two delegations.
Q Richard, when you say they exchanged their current
thoughts, does that exclude or do you mean to rule out the Russians
coming here with some new proposal? "Thoughts" sort of sounds like
things on people's minds. Did they come with anything representing a
course of action comparable to the American course of action that was
rejected by the Russians?
MR. BOUCHER: Barry, I'm not going to go into the details of
this.
Q I didn't ask for details. I just want to know if they
have a proposal.
MR. BOUCHER: Barry, I'm not going to go into the details of
this. The discussions were private between the two ministers. I said
they discussed the -- the staffs are exploring the details of their
respective approaches to the problem.
We don't expect to give you a blow-by-blow account or make any
major pronouncements, even later this afternoon. But the Secretary and
the Minister will be available to you at the end of the meeting. And at
that point they will tell you as much or as little as they feel they can
at this point about their conversations.
As you know, the Secretary expects to meet with Foreign
Secretary Hurd tomorrow; expects to meet with French Foreign Minister
Juppe also in the next few days; and in these consultations generally we
are trying to forge a common approach with our allies that will bring
the international community together on next steps for action.
But as that process goes on, I really don't anticipate that
we'll be going into the conversations in any extent.
Q Can I ask a question on tone rather than substance. Mr.
Kozyrev seems very optimistic about developing a joint plan of action.
If he didn't come with any new proposal, what's changed --
MR. BOUCHER: Whoa] Stop] Right there. Who said he didn't
come with any new proposals?
Q Well, did he come with any proposals?
MR. BOUCHER: I'm not answering that question.
(Laughter)
Q Then why can't she make an assumption? It's a --
MR. BOUCHER: O.K. In that case, it's a hypothetical
question.
Q O.K. Then is the United States as optimistic as he was
when he appeared a couple of hours ago and said he's absolutely positive
there are going to be good results?
MR. BOUCHER: Once again, we're in the middle of this process.
The Secretary and the Minister will be available to you at the end of
the day, after they --
Q Richard, do you know what time that's going to be?
MR. BOUCHER: Late this afternoon.
Q What time?
Q Can you put a little more number on it than that?
MR. BOUCHER: I can't put a number at this point, Norm.
Q Even when it starts?
Q Are we talking about -- for those who have deadlines late
this afternoon, are we talking in the range of 4 or 5 o'clock, or are we
talking in the range of 6 or 7 or 8 o'clock?
MR. BOUCHER: Elaine, I can't put a number on it at this
point. I'm sorry.
Q Would you give us a sense of when you might know?
MR. BOUCHER: I'll give you a sense of when I might know, yes.
As soon as I can.
Q Mr. Kozyrev said this morning that they were trying to
forge a common policy. Is that your understanding of the process that's
going on right now? Do we -- some time early next week, are we going to
see an announcement that the Russians, the British, the French and the
United States have all agreed or failed to agree on a common policy?
MR. BOUCHER: I think I just said that in these meetings that
we're having, the series of meetings that we're having with our friends
and allies -- with the Russians, the British and the French -- we are
attempting to forge a common approach that can bring the international
community together on the next steps to take in regard to this crisis.
Q Is it safe to assume that the next steps would be
somewhat less than what the Draconian and what the United States
originally anticipated, since nobody wants to buy that?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't think it's safe to assume anything in
particular at this point, John. We have indeed put some ideas on the
table. Everything is still on the table. As you know, they haven't
excluded the ideas and options that we've proposed, and we haven't
excluded theirs. So we'll be working together to try to find a common
approach.
Q Well, now, you said we have put some ideas on the table.
So back to the original question. Have the Russians put ideas on the
table?
MR. BOUCHER: Barry, I'm --
Q "We." I thought you meant the Americans. I'm sorry. He
said you just said it.
MR. BOUCHER: I'm giving you history and not something up to
date.
Q Oh, I meant today.
MR. BOUCHER: No. I'm not getting into the meetings today.
Q You just said, though, Richard, they haven't excluded the
ideas we proposed and we haven't excluded the ideas they proposed.
MR. BOUCHER: Yes.
Q As of today.
MR. BOUCHER: That's the overall situation as we face it in
general. I'm not trying to report on this morning's meeting.
Q Richard, on Tuesday, it sounded very much like the
Secretary was opposing and perhaps even rejecting Kozyrev's plan for
sequential -- or whatever that word is -- implementation of Vance-Owen.
That seems to be still what he's talking about. Can we now say that
that's no longer rejected?
MR. BOUCHER: Norm, all these things are ongoing. They have
discussed their respective approaches this morning. There are indeed
common elements in our thinking. There needs to be further
consultations with our friends and allies. The goal of these
consultations -- as I said, in these consultations we're trying to forge
a common approach on the next steps that we can all take together. But
I'll leave it to the ministers at the end of the day to see if they do
or do not wish to comment on any specific ideas.
Q Richard, could I --
MR. BOUCHER: Let's go back to Johanna.
Q I just wondered if the -- if they do reach this common,
you know, agreement on next steps, whether you would anticipate a
foreign ministers-level meeting at the U.N. to give it the, you know,
proper imprimatur.
MR. BOUCHER: At this point I really don't think I can predict
that. The purpose -- one of the purposes of the consultations is to
determine what options can gain support from the different allies and
the different parties, and we'll try to forge a common approach.
How that approach needs to be decided and finally implemented,
I think I'd leave to a later stage in the process.
Q Richard, generally when --
MR. BOUCHER: I think John had one, too.
Q When the Secretary goes to Moscow, he and the Foreign
Minister there spend many hours together in the course of a day's visit,
and the Secretary would normally also go to meet the Russian President,
I think, just about -- probably in every case.
Why is it that they -- the Secretary apparently can't clear
his schedule for more than an hour in the morning and some time at the
very end of the day? My first question. And, secondly, will the
Secretary be going with Kozyrev to the White House to see the President
today?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't know of any plans to go to the White
House at this point. And the question of the meetings, I think, is
basically, you know, what -- it's not so much a question of the
Secretary not being able to clear his schedule, it's the way they decide
to work most efficiently.
I think you could as easily have said generally in Moscow they
have an initial meeting. Then they assign some working groups to work
on the problem, and then they get back together to hear from the working
groups. So I just think that we've used both modes of working, and in
this case we're doing it in one way.
Q Why is there a problem about whether or not he'll be
going to the White House? I mean, it would be unprecedented in a large
number of years for a Russian -- visiting Russian Foreign Minister not
to have at least a courtesy call on the President. Everybody over
here's acting like -- and at the White House, too -- like this is some
very strange question to be asking, and you can't seem to say whether it
is tentatively planned, whether you intend to do it, whether you desire
to do it, or you choose not to do it.
MR. BOUCHER: Well, first of all, Terry, I'm not the White
House, and all I can tell you at this point is I don't know of any such
plans on the schedule.
Q Richard, there have been occasions during the last four
or five years that I've been here when we have been misled from this
podium, usually by inadvertence.
Could you explain to me in the interest of veracity why the
State Department continues to hold to the fiction that the idea of the
use of force in air strikes and the lifting of the arms embargo has not
been rejected by the Europeans, when the entire world except perhaps
some people in the State Department understands that it has been.
MR. BOUCHER: John, I've been here for the last four years,
and in the interests of veracity I will tell you that the reason that we
say that is because that is what they, themselves, have said to you. If
you choose to believe otherwise, that's your problem. In the interests
of veracity, they, themselves, have said repeatedly -- whether it's the
statement in Moscow, the EC Foreign Ministers' statement, I believe some
of the statements they made yesterday, they don't exclude any options.
That's all I'm saying again today.
Q And the State Department believes this and is acting in
this -- and is acting on that, on that assumption. Is that correct?
MR. BOUCHER: We are acting -- we are talking to our allies.
We are trying to forge a consensus. We're trying to forge a common
approach.
Q That wasn't the question. The question was, does the
State Department believe --
MR. BOUCHER: And everything's part of the mix.
Q Do you know where Kozyrev was yesterday when he talked to
the Secretary on the phone? Apparently they did speak yesterday.
MR. BOUCHER: No. They did talk on the phone yesterday, but
no, I don't know where Kozyrev was.
Q I'm just wondering if he was --
MR. BOUCHER: On the other end of the phone line.
Q Yes. Were they in touch while Kozyrev was in Yugoslavia?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't know.
Q Because I'm trying to see if Kozyrev in some way was a
middle man between the U.S. and Serbia.
MR. BOUCHER: I think various people have had consultations
with the Serbs, you know, including our envoys and people at various
times. Obviously, the Secretary and the Foreign Minister discussed U.S.
and Russian ideas.
Elaine.
Q Richard, during his confirmation hearings, Secretary
Christopher called for a much stronger role for U.N. peacekeepers, and
he talked about the need to explore whether peacekeepers should indeed
be peacemakers. He also called human rights one of the linchpins of
American foreign policy.
Why is it when there are Canadian, French, British
peacekeepers on the ground, some of them volunteers, under the U.N.
flag, that the United States has not sent Americans under the U.N. flag,
even as volunteers, to help, indeed, deliver humanitarian aid and assist
UNPROFOR in various ways.
MR. BOUCHER: Elaine, I think the United States has sent
people -- U.S. troops in some cases -- to assist UNPROFOR. We have
people who have worked on aid. We have airplanes that have flown in day
after day after day, sometimes with fire against them, who have flown in
to deliver humanitarian supplies.
We have had airdrops which have gone day after day to deliver
humanitarian supplies. So we are involved militarily.
Q But you didn't answer the question. Why aren't there
American peacekeepers side by side with Canadians, British and French?
What's the thinking behind that?
MR. BOUCHER: The United States has been involved in
humanitarian aid deliveries, which is one thing you asked about. The
President at the same time has made clear that he only expects that we
would put -- you know, he intends to put troops or U.S. forces into the
situation, into a hostile situation -- go back.
The phrasing is that he only intends to deploy U.S. forces to
implement an agreement that is arrived at consensually and in good faith
by the parties.
Q And why? What's the reason behind that?
MR. BOUCHER: I think we've made very clear the reasons behind
that. The Secretary has testified on it a number of times. It has to
do both with the practical aspects of dealing with the problems, with
the responsibility of dealing with the problems and with the ability of
the United States to solve the problem in those ways.
Q Richard, let me follow up, please, on Elaine's question
because over the past day you have, yourself, from the podium said that
you support the idea of an international peacekeeping monitoring force
on the Bosnia-Serbia border to monitor the traffic. And yet you,
yourself, have said that the United States will not participate in this.
Now, if you are going to be part of an international force, if
you're going to push for an international force, if, indeed, as you seem
to want to do, to lead an international force, why aren't you prepared
to be there on the ground?
MR. BOUCHER: Jan, first of all, I think there's an assumption
in your question that everything that gets done the United States has to
do. Clearly we understand, and I think our allies and friends
understand, that this is a problem at the heart of Europe; and at the
heart of this problem, it's a European problem. The Secretary has made
that clear.
We need a common approach. We need an approach where we're
all able to do what we can to help the problem, to help resolve it, and
we're in the process now of trying to forge such a common approach.
That's what's underway right now.
Q Richard, the time before last, when the Secretary was on
the Hill, he found more minuses, as he put it, than pluses in the idea
of safe havens as a vehicle for maybe ending or decreasing the fighting
and the pain of what's going on in Bosnia. Does he still feel that it
is largely a negative option?
MR. BOUCHER: Once again, Barry, as far as commenting on
specifics that may or may not be under discussion right now, it's really
not something I want to do at this point. They'll be available to you
afterwards and at that point, they'll say as much or as little as they
wish to about specific options.
Q Well, of course, I wasn't asking whether they're talking
about safe havens.
MR. BOUCHER: No, I know. What you're asking me is to sort of
prejudice the outcome of their decisions.
Q Oh, no. No, no. We're trying to see if there's a shift
in the policy that never shifts.
MR. BOUCHER: I'm sure you'd write a story about it that
wouldn't even mention Kozyrev and Christopher.
A No. I'm telling you that I'm not trying to connect it to
the meeting going on today. We're trying to see if the Administration's
policy is undergoing some change, because even yesterday you said the
military option is still the preferred option. And as you can tell,
there's a lot of skepticism that this will go down with the Europeans.
They've come up with things -- the French, particularly -- with safe
havens, and Christopher thought little of the idea. But having run out
of maybe of military options, I wonder what he thought now of safe
havens? If he's changed his mind?
MR. BOUCHER: Barry, at this point, I really can't get into
specifics of what we may be discussing today or we may discuss in the
next few days and start commenting and giving pros and cons on things.
The Secretary has outlined his thinking in public. In their
discussions this morning, he and Minister Kozyrev outlined their
thinking on different approaches. They outlined, each of them, their
respective approaches to these issues there and now we're trying to work
and forge a common approach, not only with the Russians, but with the
other allies over the course of the coming days.
Q Is the French still scheduled for Monday, or is it
something like the next few days? It's still Monday, isn't it?
MR. BOUCHER: It's still scheduled for Monday.
Warren.
Q Can you restate what the Secretary said only two days
ago, which is that we do not want to be in the business of enforcing an
agreement which all sides have not signed on to?
MR. BOUCHER: I think I said once more that the only
circumstances we can conceive of putting U.S. forces into Bosnia is in
order to implement an agreement that is arrived at consensually and in
good faith by the parties.
Q Richard, does that phrase of U.S. forces include things
that we would not normally consider to be military forces, such as
perhaps customs officials or police units or something of that sort?
Are you referring to U.S. personnel?
MR. BOUCHER: We're doing a variety of things in this conflict
with a variety of ways. We have civilian monitors. We have military
personnel helping on the ground with UNPROFOR. We have hospitals out
there. We have airlift. We have logisticians. We have customs
officers and neighboring states helping with sanctions enforcement and
things like that. But I think the particular question and circumstances
we've addressing is the issue of introducing troops into hostilities in
Bosnia.
Q Would customs personnel, such as the ones you had in use
in neighboring states, be eligible for use in Bosnia?
MR. BOUCHER: I can't imagine what a customs person would do
in the middle of Bosnia.
Q Richard, on something else. I guess it involves Russia
--
Q Can I call for a filing break, please?
Q Oh, filing break.
MR. BOUCHER: Okay.
Q A couple of weeks ago Pravda ran an article, or articles,
reviving the notion that Jews are engaged in ritual murder. This is the
sort of the allegation that historically has touched off bloody progroms
in Russia, in the Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, generally.
Has State talked to the Russians about this? What is --
MR. BOUCHER: We have indeed talked to the Russians about
this, both in Washington and in Moscow. We talked to them on the 6th
and 7th of May.
For background, for the rest of you, the journal newspaper,
Pravda, on May 5 printed an article that was virulently anti-Semitic.
It gave currency to the so-called "blood libel" claim that Jews
committed ritual murders, a charge that was used in the Czarist past to
generate anti-Jewish progroms.
In an apparent attempt to embarrass the Russian Government,
the Pravda story also linked the murders of three Russian Orthodox
priests to ongoing efforts by the American Lubavitch Jewish community
and the U.S. Government to gain the release of the Schneerson Library, a
collection of 12,000 religious texts seized by the Bolsheviks in 1917.
We have firmly supported the efforts of the Lubavitch community to
regain custody of these books.
Now, Pravda is no longer the official press organ of the
Russian Government, but it is a widely-circulated newspaper, and we're
therefore concerned that articles such as this threaten the spirit of
religious tolerance in Russia.
But we're also encouraged by the Russian Foreign Ministry's
statement on May 14 that denounced the article. In that statement, the
Russian Ministry noted that the article is "destructive in its manner
and facilitates the inflammation of nationalist and religious
dissension."
The statement further said that the Russian Government "takes
all the necessary measures for the effective guarantee of the rights of
Russia's citizens, regardless of their nationality or religion."
That's the rundown on that.
Q Do you -- returning to Bosnia just for a moment. Do you
expect that the U.N. Security Council is going to deal with today the
Bosnian monitoring resolution -- the monitors between Bosnia Serb-held
territory and Serbia?
MR. BOUCHER: They're meeting informally on it today, but I
don't think I could lead you to expect a vote today. It's still under
discussion by the members of the Council.
Q So you expect it will be another day or two, perhaps,
until we get that together?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes.
Q What about the vote on the war crimes tribunal?
MR. BOUCHER: Consultations continue. The draft was discussed
at an informal session of the Council yesterday with a possible vote as
early as tomorrow.
Q Richard, how much is this tribunal going to cost? And how
many people is it going to employ?
MR. BOUCHER: I think there was some just wire reporting on
it. I assume all that information is in the Secretary General's report.
I don't have it with me.
Q The wire said that it was going to employ 400 people and
it was going to cost $30 million a year?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't know if that's right or not.
Q Could you please check on how much it's going to cost,
and try and reconcile that number with the United States' well-known
view on the way the United Nations and its finances is organized?
MR. BOUCHER: Alan, I will check on it. I would suggest you
also check with the United Nations.
Q Sure, but you haven't voted for the resolution yet.
MR. BOUCHER: That's true.
Q Once they set up the thing, it will be there. The
salaries will flow, and the travel department will start organizing
trips and all this.
MR. BOUCHER: Once again, Alan, I assume all that information
is in the Secretary General's report on the establishment.
Q Would it be possible to get some information from our
State Department on what the war crimes tribunal resolution is all
about? They don't seem to want to answer phone calls in Legal.
MR. BOUCHER: Well, I think we've talked to you. I talked
about it here yesterday, didn't I?
Q You said they were going to vote on it. You didn't say
what was in it, what the words are all about.
MR. BOUCHER: I said the draft resolution requires all states
to cooperate fully with the war crimes tribunal. It requires them to
take any measures necessary under the domestic law to implement the
resolution, including an obligation of states to comply with requests
for assistance or orders issued by the trial chamber of the tribunal.
Those are the things it does. It requires states to cooperate. It
establishes the tribunal and requires states to cooperate with it.
Q I wouldn't mind a little more detail than that.
MR. BOUCHER: Well, some of that will be in the resolution,
John, and I'm sure we'd be glad to provide it to you when we can.
Q What if states don't cooperate? Is there a penalty
clause in that resolution?
MR. BOUCHER: Once again, we'll have to see the final
resolution.
Q Richard, is it the U.S. view that these resolutions --
both of them, the Security Council resolution on the war crimes tribunal
and the one on the border monitoring -- can and should proceed at the
U.N. regardless of the state of the discussions going on here in
Washington between the U.S., France, Russia, and Britain?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes.
Q So the U.S. favors a vote before next Tuesday?
MR. BOUCHER: We've supported both of these resolutions. We
think they're important. We think they are things that the
international community can agree on and can do. I think they're both
useful and important in this situation, and we'd like to see them happen
as soon as possible.
Q Is it the position of the U.S. Government that a partial
implementation of Vance-Owen is unwise?
MR. BOUCHER: Once again, I think I've been asked that
question before. I know the Secretary discussed this in testimony the
other day. But in the interest of keeping out of any specific options
and discussions that they might be having now, I just really don't want
to go into specifics.
Q Does that mean that there might be change in thinking
from two days ago?
MR. BOUCHER: I'm not trying to imply that, Elaine.
Q Richard, can I come back, just to clarify your answer to
Barry on this anti-Semitic article in Pravda? You say you talked on May
6 and 7. Could you say who spoke and where?
MR. BOUCHER: I think I said also we did it both in D.C. and
in Moscow. In D.C., on May 5 -- is it 6 and 7, or 5 and 6?
Q Five is the article, and 6-7 was the speech.
MR. BOUCHER: Okay. Five was the article. We talked to them
in Washington on the 6th and in Moscow on the 7th, with embassies.
Q (Inaudible) normal diplomatic --
MR. BOUCHER: It was with embassies, yes.
Q Richard, the Slovak Prime Minister was here in
Washington. Do you have anything on that visit?
MR. BOUCHER: He's meeting with the Deputy Secretary this
afternoon at 5:45, I think the time is.
Q Is this regarded as a courtesy call, or is it expected to
be a meeting of some substance?
MR. BOUCHER: I would expect it would be a useful and
substantive meeting, yes.
Q There's nothing more on the Slovak visit -- on his visit?
MR. BOUCHER: He's on a private visit to the United States.
Dr. Wharton is seeing him this afternoon at 5:45.
Q And whether he met with Clinton or not, you're not aware
of that?
MR. BOUCHER: It's a question you'd have to ask the White
House.
Q Can I ask you another question while I have you -- about
Angola policy?
MR. BOUCHER: You've got me as long as you want.
Q Secretary Christopher is going to talk about a Africa
policy tomorrow. But do you have anything on the recognition of Angola?
MR. BOUCHER: The President made the announcement yesterday.
I don't know what more you want to know.
Q Whether this is a sea change in U.S. policy towards
Africa and whether we're going to see more of these sort of abandonment
of old Reagan-Bush allies?
MR. BOUCHER: In terms of U.S. policy towards Africa, as a
whole, the Secretary will try to talk about that and characterize that
tomorrow. Clearly this will be, I think, probably the first speech on
Africa by a Secretary of State since the end of the Cold War, and
therefore a chance to establish a basis for our relationships out there.
As far as the recognition of Angola goes, obviously that fits
into the overall picture. But I think the President also, yesterday,
gave some pretty specific reasons why in this circumstance we felt it
was the best thing to do and the right thing to do.
Q Richard, the Cubans that were seized at sea, has the U.S.
had any access to them? Where does that stand?
MR. BOUCHER: We have not had access yet. They're still
declining to grant us consular access based on the claim that they're
not U.S. citizens. Nonetheless, we're continuing to seek contact with
them. We'll keep this effort going, and we'll continue to follow the
situation closely.
Q Have you determined whether they're American citizens or
not?
MR. BOUCHER: I understand INS is still checking their
records.
Johanna.
Q Richard, would you be willing to take Terry's question
about what else is on the Secretary's schedule that precludes a meeting
with Kozyrev before 5:45? The only thing on the public --
MR. BOUCHER: I don't think that was Terry's question. Second
of all, I think I already said, I don't think it's much of a matter of
scheduling as it is a matter of how they determine they can best do
their work in this circumstance.
I pointed out that in the past sometimes the Ministers have
met at great length. Sometimes the Ministers have met briefly at the
beginning of their contacts and then sent other people off to do some
working group work and then gotten back together at the end once the
working groups had finished their work, and that is the pattern that's
being followed today. It's not unusual.
Q The reason that they're looking at 5:45 or late
afternoon, I guess is what you said --
MR. BOUCHER: Who said 5:45?
Q You didn't.
MR. BOUCHER: I said late afternoon.
Q You said late afternoon. The reason they're looking for
late afternoon is to give the working level time enough to do their work
and not because Christopher's schedule is --
MR. BOUCHER: To get back together -- he does have other
things on his schedule. But I know that he's cleared some things that I
was involved in. He's cleared off his schedule later this afternoon so
that he could meet with Kozyrev. So they decided to get back at a
convenient time.
Ralph and Warren.
Q One more on Kozyrev's scheduling? I'm sorry. It's just a
briefing -- maybe you've already answered this. Kozyrev apparently has
met with Senate Foreign Relations Committee people on the Hill. Will he
be meeting with other Executive Branch officials that you can tell us
about?
MR. BOUCHER: Not that I know of.
Warren.
Q Two quick items: Do you have anything on either North
Korea or the investigation of Iraqi possible involvement into the
assassination plot?
MR. BOUCHER: North Korea, I don't have anything new for you
today. And the Iraqi -- the investigation: U.S. law enforcement
officials are continuing their investigation with the cooperation of the
Kuwaiti Government.
Q That's it?
Q They don't have the confession?
MR. BOUCHER: I highlighted it.
Q Richard, on Cambodia, anything on Cambodia?
MR. BOUCHER: I guess one could say quite a bit about
Cambodia. Let me try to say -- during the past week, there's been some
decrease in the level of violence but the security situation out there
still represents a serious concern.
While acknowledging the difficulties of conducting an election
in this environment, the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia has
announced that the elections will proceed on schedule. All 20 Cambodian
parties have participated in the campaign, have reaffirmed their
commitment to participate, and there's been a lot of interest on the
part of potential voters.
During the voter registration process, almost 95 percent of
those eligible registered to vote. We think that's a clear
demonstration of the desire of the Cambodian people to determine their
own future.
We and other countries have assisted the U.N. Transitional
Authority by providing additional equipment and material requested by
them. In the past two weeks Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia,
Singapore, and Thailand, as well as the United States, have all made
important material contributions to enhancing UNTAC's capability.
The secret balloting will be supervised by UNTAC and conducted
in as many parts of Cambodia as possible, depending on the security
situation. There are nearly 900 international polling officers who have
arrived in Cambodia this week. Most have arrived at their polling
sites, and the rest will arrive shortly. Fifteen hundred polling sites
are scheduled to be open.
We're also encouraged by reports that Prince Sihanouk will
return to Cambodia before the elections.
While we can't discount the possibility of Khmer Rouge attacks
or of other political intimidation, nonetheless we believe that the
elections can and should proceed.
Q Could you be any more specific about the nature of U.S.
assistance that's been shipped in the last couple of weeks?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't have that information with me, but I can
get it for you.
Q I understand that among the things provided was the U.S.
provided airlift for some Australian helicopters?
MR. BOUCHER: Yes. We provided an initial set of supplies
ourselves, and we have offered to airlift anything else that other
people could provide, and I think helicopters was one of the things.
Q Has the U.S. actually provided any choppers itself, or --
MR. BOUCHER: I'd have to look back at the list of what we
provided.
Q Thank you.
(Press briefing concluded at 1:33 p.m.)
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