U.S. Department of State
Dispatch Volume 7, Number 49, December 2, 1996
Bureau of Public Affairs



ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE:

1. Announcement of a New National Security Team--President Clinton
2. Implementing the Dayton Accords: Year Two--Deputy Secretary Talbott
3. The U.S. Role in Solving the World Landmine Problem--Thomas E. 
McNamara



ARTICLE 1:

Announcement of a New National Security Team
President Clinton
Remarks announcing new Cabinet officers, Washington, DC, December 5, 
1996

Good afternoon. During our first term in office, the Vice President and 
I were blessed to work with a remarkable national security team. 
Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Secretary of Defense Bill Perry, 
National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, UN Ambassador Madeleine 
Albright, Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch--all very bright, 
forceful, strong-minded individuals who came together as a team to 
advance America's interests and values around the world. 

Today, the fact that our nation is at peace, our economy is strong, and 
we are making real progress in seizing the opportunities and meeting the 
challenges of the 21st century--these things are due in no small measure 
to the teamwork, vision, and leadership they gave to the American 
people. The Vice President and I and every other American owe all of 
them a great debt of gratitude. 

Now as we embark upon a new term, our responsibility is to build on the 
strong foundation laid in the last four years to make sure that as we 
enter the 21st century America remains the indispensable nation, the 
world's greatest force for peace and prosperity, for freedom and 
security. 

Today I am pleased to announce the new national security team I have 
selected to help us meet that responsibility: Secretary of State-
designate Madeleine Albright; Secretary of Defense-designate William 
Cohen; Director of Central Intelligence-designate Anthony Lake; National 
Security Adviser Samuel Berger. Each of these individuals has remarkable 
qualities of intellect, energy, and leadership. All are committed to 
work together as a team that will rise above partisanship and rise to 
the challenges of meeting the opportunities, of dealing with the 
challenges that we all face. 

The challenges are many--terrorism; the threat of weapons of mass 
destruction; drug trafficking; environmental degradation; ethnic, 
religious, and racial conflicts; dealing with the sea changes occurring 
in Asia and elsewhere throughout the globe. But the opportunities are 
even greater--working toward a Europe that for the first time is 
undivided, democratic, and at peace; building a new partnership with a 
democratic Russia; meeting the challenge of change in Asia with strength 
and steadiness in a way that advances freedom and prosperity; extending 
the reach of peace and freedom in the Middle East and Africa; opening 
more markets in Latin America and strengthening the democracies that 
have taken root there. 

These new people who will form the new national security team--they have 
the experience, the judgment, and the vision to meet the heavy 
responsibility and the high privilege of leadership. 

By virtue of her life and accomplishments, Madeleine Albright embodies 
the best of America. It says something about our country and about our 
new Secretary of State-designate, that a young girl raised in the shadow 
of Nazi aggression in Czechoslovakia can rise to the highest diplomatic 
office in America. She watched her world fall apart, and ever since, she 
has dedicated her life to spreading to the rest of the world the freedom 
and tolerance her family found here in America. During her four years as 
our ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright's steely 
determination helped advance our interests and our ideals around the 
world. She knows firsthand what it means for America to be the 
indispensable nation. And I know first-hand that Madeleine Albright has 
the instincts, the intelligence, the skill, and the strength to lead 
American foreign policy in this time. Time and again, I have benefited 
from her judgment and counsel on issues from Bosnia to NATO and on many, 
many other difficult areas. The American people have also benefited 
because of her special ability, forged during her tenure as a teacher at 
Georgetown, to explain why American leadership is more important than 
ever and to get the job done. 

Bill Perry has done a remarkable job in preparing America's military for 
the challenges of the 21st century and in carrying out all other aspects 
of the Secretary of Defense's job, which includes running the largest 
and most complex organization in the nation's government. The bottom-up 
review he completed has decreased the size of our forces while 
increasing their readiness capabilities and technological edge. From 
Haiti to Bosnia, from the Persian Gulf to the Taiwan Strait, through 
Bill Perry's leadership we have demonstrated that our men and women in 
uniform remain the best-equipped and best-trained fighting force in the 
world. 

Earlier I had the opportunity to pay tribute to the contributions of 
Secretary Christopher. I want to say again how much I appreciate what he 
has done. But today, I also want to thank Bill Perry for being one of 
the finest Defense Secretaries in the history of the United States. I 
thank you, Bill, and I will miss both of you very much. 

Bill Cohen is the right man to build on these achievements--to secure 
the bipartisan support America's armed forces must have and clearly 
deserve. He served in the United States Congress for 24 years, including 
18 in the Senate. There his name became synonymous with discipline, 
intellect, creative independence, and deeply held principles. 

While serving the people of Maine, he also has served every American 
through his determination to find common ground on difficult issues. He 
brought fresh ideas and thoughtful analysis to his work on the Senate 
Armed Services Committee. He helped craft the START I arms control 
treaty with Russia that we have entered into force, and he played a key 
role in legislation that reorganized and strengthened our military 
command. 

Now the Senate's loss will be our Administration's gain. I thank Senator 
Cohen for his willingness to cross party lines to make sure that 
America's security is there in the 21st century. 

Just about every morning these last four years, the point man of our 
foreign policy team, Tony Lake, came into this office to brief me on the 
state of the world and to tell me what he thought I should do about it. 
It's been a great comfort to me and a great benefit to the American 
people to have Tony Lake just down the hall and to bring the power of 
his mind, the toughness of his character, and the strength of his 
integrity to bear on the most difficult challenges we face. In moments 
of crisis, in times of triumph, he has always been at my side. 

Let me thank John Deutch for the remarkable job he has done on behalf of 
our country at home and abroad--first as the Deputy Secretary of Defense 
and then in a difficult time as Director of Central Intelligence. He has 
done an excellent job, and I thank him. Thank you, John, for your 
service. 

I can think of no more powerful proof of my commitment to carry on John 
Deutch's work of maintaining a strong, successful intelligence community 
than asking Tony Lake to take the helm as Director of Central 
Intelligence and a member of my Cabinet. Our intelligence informs just 
about every foreign policy decision we make. We cannot do without it. 
And while it will be hard for me to do without Tony Lake just down the 
hall, I am grateful he will be working the halls at Langley and leading 
our intelligence community into the 21st century. 

Sandy Berger also has served just down the hall these past four years. 
He's been a good friend and adviser to me for a lot longer than that. In 
fact, we have known each other since we were about half our present age. 
I hate that. I have looked to him for advice and counsel on foreign 
policy and on many other issues, as well, over the years. As Deputy 
National Security Adviser, Sandy Berger has helped pull together our 
foreign policy team and given it direction, guidance, and shared 
purpose. I believe we have to have these things to move forward on the 
interests and values of the American people. 	

As National Security Adviser, he will bring to the job not just the 
ability to work hard and to work well, but the vision and sense of our 
larger purpose that is necessary to meet the challenges our nation 
faces. I am pleased and the American people are fortunate that Sandy 
Berger will be serving as my National Security Adviser.

Before I ask each member of the new national security team to say a few 
words, starting with the Secretary- designate, I would like to thank the 
one member of the team that will not be changing for a while--as long as 
his tenure lasts--and that's General Shalikashvili. Thank you, sir, for 
your remarkable service to America. 

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ARTICLE 2:

Implementing the Dayton Accords: Year Two
Deputy Secretary Talbott
Intervention at the London Peace Implementation Conference, London, 
United Kingdom, December 4, 1996

Thank you Mr. Chairman. Let me add my own thanks to those already 
expressed to you, Mr. Chairman, and to your colleagues for their 
hospitality--and let me express my admiration for the splendid job Carl 
Bildt has done under extremely difficult circumstances as High 
Representative.

I welcome this chance to summarize the views of President Clinton and 
his Administration on the work of this conference. I will begin with 
what for us is a first principle: At Dayton, the parties committed 
themselves to the goal of a unified Bosnia. We all recognize that 
achieving that objective is difficult. In some quarters, it is 
controversial. But we must not give up on it; we must not resign 
ourselves to settling for less. The alternative to a unified Bosnia 
would be a permanently divided Bosnia, a partitioned Bosnia, and that 
outcome would constitute a threat to its own citizens and to the region 
as a whole. Indeed, it would be a threat to all of us, because it would 
be a victory for the forces of division and intolerance that lurk 
beneath the surface of every region on earth--including in some of the 
individual countries represented at this table. 

If Bosnia is ever going to become a unified state, at peace with itself 
and its neighbors, then its people and leaders must not waste time 
putting in place the overarching institutions called for in the Dayton 
accords and the Bosnian Constitution. The agreement this past week- end 
about the Council of Ministers is an important step in the right 
direction, but there must be accelerated progress at the level of 
countrywide joint structures, such as the central bank and the 
constitutional court, and also at the level of local government.

Our support is essential to ensure that next year's municipal elections 
are fair and free of violence. Not long ago, some questioned whether 
elections were possible or even advisable in a country still emerging 
from a barbarous war. Actually, elections are essential. Only if a 
citizenry has a sense of its own participation in political life, along 
with a sense of its leadership's accountability to an electorate, will a 
country achieve and sustain stability. 

Today democracy is undergoing a severe test next door, in Serbia. I 
associate myself with Carl Bildt's statement on this subject, as well as 
with the statement released earlier today by the European Union.

On the one hand, the continuing demonstrations in Belgrade are further 
evidence that the people of the region take seriously their entitlement 
to a voice in their own fate. On the other hand, repression of the 
democratic spirit can lead only to the continued decline and isolation 
of Serbia. In other words, the authorities in Belgrade are not only 
rocking their own boat, they risk running it aground.

We all recognize, Mr. Chairman, that in order to survive and, 
ultimately, to thrive, the process of democratization depends on a 
hospitable economic climate. Hence the emphasis that all of us here 
today put on economic reconstruction and development in Bosnia. 

But the economy of Bosnia will come back to life only when the people 
who live there are able to move about freely. Freedom of movement within 
a country is one of the most elementary requirements of normalcy. 
Anything less is unnatural and unhealthy, both economically and 
politically. The parties in Dayton agreed to freedom of movement as a 
condition of peace. To date, however, that principle has too often and 
too widely been honored in the breach rather than in the observance. 
That must change in 1997. The United States has proposed specific steps 
to that end. I urge that they be adopted here today.

There is, Mr. Chairman--as Carl Bildt made lucidly and eloquently clear-
-one category of individuals in Bosnia and in the neighboring states who 
should not enjoy freedom of movement: indicted war criminals. On this 
issue Dayton is unambiguous. The agreement explicitly obligates all 
parties to cooperate with the investigation and prosecution of war 
crimes. 

Immunity and amnesty were never  negotiable in Dayton, nor are they 
negotiable now. This conference should reaffirm the obligation of all 
parties--and that means Croatia and Serbia as well as the Bosnian 
authorities--to arrest and surrender indicted war criminals to the 
International Tribunal in The Hague.

So, Mr. Chairman, to recapitulate: The people of Bosnia have not one but 
four tasks ahead of them--building democratic institutions, 
reconstructing a shattered economy, establishing and protecting freedom 
of movement and the right of return, and surrendering those who must be 
tried for war crimes. If they fail in any one of those four respects, 
they will jeopardize the other three--indeed, they will jeopardize peace 
itself. 

By the same token--and here I echo the somber exhortation of our host, 
Prime Minister Major--if we are too selective or too stinting in our 
support for their efforts, we will put at risk all that they and we have 
accomplished over the past year. 

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ARTICLE 3:

The U.S. Role in Solving the World Landmine Problem
Thomas E. McNamara, Assistant Secretary For Political-Military Affairs 
Address to the Innovative Techniques for Landmine Neutralization And 
Removal Conference, Washington, DC, December 2, 1996

I would like to thank you all for gathering here in Washington to find 
better ways to remove and neutralize landmines and to bring this 
worldwide landmine crisis to an end.

The worldwide crisis of uncleared landmines is horrendous. The total 
figure is estimated at around 100 million uncleared landmines, but in a 
single country estimates can vary by an order of magnitude or more. 
These hidden killers make it impossible for people to put wars and 
internal conflicts behind them and to move their countries forward. 
Refugees and internally displaced people cannot return home, elections 
cannot be held, agricultural and economic activity cannot resume, and 
the crisis brought on by war or conflict continues. 

The United States is committed to bringing this crisis to an end. The 
United States has called for negotiations for a total ban on anti-
personnel landmines--APL--and has taken several unilateral actions 
pending successful conclusion of such a ban. We have called on the 
international community to support mine clearance efforts and we have 
intensified our own mine clearance programs. We are committed to further 
research into new high and medium technologies that will help the world 
to resolve this crisis. Above all, we have stopped the export of anti-
personnel landmines and led the effort to get other nations to stop 
exports; more than 35 have done so. I want personally to single out 
Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont for his dedication and leadership in 
the Congress on the global landmine crisis.

A Ban on APL

Looking toward the future, our highest priority is stopping the spread 
of anti-personnel landmines. Let me share with you what we are doing to 
make this a reality.

To halt the future proliferation of anti-personnel landmines, President 
Clinton recently repeated his call in the United Nations General 
Assembly to negotiate a global ban on anti-personnel landmines. This is 
one of the President's top arms control priorities.

The United States has introduced, for the last three years, a UN General 
Assembly resolution calling for export moratoria on anti-personnel 
landmines and calling for the eventual elimination of APL. This year, we 
will introduce a resolution calling for states 

to pursue vigorously an effective, legally binding international 
agreement to ban use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of anti-
personnel landmines with a view to completing the negotiation as soon as 
possible.

President Clinton announced in May other unilateral actions to halt the 
spread of APL. Our armed forces have discontinued the use of so-called 
"dumb" anti-personnel landmines--those which remain active until 
detonated or cleared. The only exceptions will be for those mines 
required to defend our American troops and our allies from aggression on 
the Korean Peninsula, and those needed for training purposes, and this 
only until the threat is ended or until alternatives to landmines become 
available. The rest of these mines--more than four million in all--will 
be removed from our arsenals and destroyed by 1999.

Until an international ban takes effect, the United States reserves the 
right to use so-called "smart mines," or self-destructing mines, because 
there may be battlefield situations in which these will save the lives 
of our soldiers. As the President emphasized, these smart mines are not 
the hidden killers that have caused so much suffering around the world. 
They meet standards set by international agreement. They destroy 
themselves within days, and they pose virtually no threat to civilian 
life once a battle is over. But under the comprehensive international 
ban we seek, use of even these smart anti-personnel landmines would be 
ended. The President is determined to end our reliance on these weapons 
completely. He has directed the Secretary of Defense to begin research 
and development of alternative technologies that will not pose new 
dangers to civilians.

Mines in the Ground

Now, I will turn to the hidden killers already in the ground in more 
than   70 countries around the globe. We are committed to resolving this 
world-wide crisis, but we will need decades to accomplish this.

The estimate is around 100 million unexploded anti-personnel landmines 
scattered in approximately 70 countries around the world. These 
dangerous devices threaten the very processes of conflict resolution and 
democratization, because a newly formed government that cannot show its 
people that it can improve their welfare and provide for their safety 
remains very fragile. Loss of confidence can threaten the stability of 
the peace process and potentially plunge the country right back into 
conflict.

The challenge any mine-infested country faces is enormous, because 
meeting the humanitarian demining standard of 99% of mines removed in a 
given area requires a tremendous investment in capital, labor, and time. 
The deminers themselves have a different standard: Would you, 
personally, play football--or allow your children to play--on an area 
that    you have just certified is free of landmines?

Most demining field technology now used in humanitarian demining dates 
from the 1950s: mostly metal detectors and hand probes. Although this 
technology is reliable, it makes demining very labor-intensive and slow, 
increasing the cost far beyond what a nation recovering from conflict 
can afford.  For example, according to current estimates, if every cent 
of Cambodia's gross national domestic product were immediately spent 
only on mine clearance and demining, it would still take at least five 
years to demine the whole country completely. Demining technology must 
be designed, produced, and fielded, which will significantly reduce this 
investment and save lives. Some advances such as air-sniffing demining 
vehicles with trained dogs have been made more recently. We need more 
development of these cost-effective "medium tech" solutions. 

To fight this scourge of landmines littering areas now free of armed 
conflict, the United States has taken a leading role in supporting 
humanitarian demining efforts worldwide. Let me share with you what we 
have been doing.

International Meeting On Mine Clearance

In July of last year, the United States sponsored a 97-country 
conference in Geneva--the International Meeting   on Mine Clearance--
which catalogued global demining efforts of $84 million and raised over 
$20 million for the United Nations Trust Fund for Mine Clearance. This 
has focused international attention on the problem of uncleared 
landmines worldwide. We continue to urge the international community to 
assist mine-afflicted countries in removing this scourge of war.

U.S. Demining Efforts

For the past three years, my government has worked with non-governmental 
organizations--NGOs, private voluntary organizations--PVOs, United 
Nations organizations such as the UN Development Program--NDP--and, 
especially, host countries, to establish indigenous mine clearance 
centers and to support demining assistance programs. President Clinton 
also announced in May that we would strengthen our efforts to clear 
those landmines already in the ground and to begin work on developing 
better mine detection and mine-clearing technology.

Since 1993, the U.S. Government    has spent over $110 million on mine 
awareness and demining training programs in 14 countries with serious 
landmine problems, including, most recently, Bosnia. This includes 
refugee assistance programs which support mine awareness training and 
demining to facilitate return and resettlement. We have spent another    
$24 million in research and development of mine detection and demining 
technology.

We all know that the overall need  for demining assistance is so much 
greater than what we can provide. Since we cannot accomplish all of this 
ourselves, we are coordinating our efforts with other donors and non-
governmental organizations active in mine clearance and awareness. Our 
objective is to start a country on the process of mine awareness and 
demining and developing an indigenous capacity in this area. This 
includes a national coordinating organization to sustain the program 
into the future. We work to establish local groups which can continue to 
conduct mine awareness and demining operations long after expatriate 
organizations have left.

The U.S. Government Demining Program assists the host nation with 
development of all aspects of mine awareness and mine clearance 
operations, short of physically removing the mines ourselves, or 
actually entering live minefields. We take into account many local 
factors, including institutional capacity to custom design a program. 
For example, our demining program in three Central American countries 
(Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua) is administered through two 
regional organizations--the Organization of American States and the 
Inter-American Defense Board.

Some of our programs emphasize mine clearance via NGOs; others utilize 
the Department of Defense "Train the Trainer" program taught by U.S. 
Special Operations Forces. In certain cases, such as Jordan, the 
indigenous demining capacity already exists, and the program only needs 
demining equipment and safety gear. We conduct an interagency assessment 
before involvement in each country as well as periodic reviews to ensure 
that the program is progressing toward sustainment.

This year, we plan to provide approximately $7 million in direct 
humanitarian demining assistance in 14 countries, including Afghanistan, 
Angola, Cambodia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Laos, Mozambique, Namibia, and 
Rwanda, as well as the ones I mentioned earlier. One of the most heavily 
mined countries in the world is also a success story. That country is 
Cambodia, and the program is one developed by the U.S. military's 
Pacific Command in Honolulu. The Cambodian Mine Action Center has 
already developed a fully trained cadre of deminers and a national mine 
awareness organization, and I am pleased that the Director of the 
Cambodia Mine Action Center, Mr. Sam Sotha, is here with us today for 
this conference.

As a result of U.S. and Cambodian cooperative efforts, we are realizing 
the goal of developing an indigenous demining capacity as we continue to 
provide support to sustain the program for the near term. This year, our 
new program in Laos follows the example set in Cambodia, with both 
programs working closely with the UNDP and NGOs specializing in mine 
clearance and awareness. Another success is Namibia, where graduates of 
our "Train the Trainer" demining program and the second generation  of 
Namibian-trained deminers have already cleared two-thirds of the 
minefields in that country. Some of these Namibian deminers now work in 
Angola under UNAVEM. The U.S. is seen as a principal benefactor in 
Namibia through our Mine Awareness and Demining training programs.

Bosnia

Let me turn now to our newest demining program, this one in Bosnia.

To support full implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords, we are 
currently leading an international effort to begin clearing millions of 
landmines scattered throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. Last June, 
President Clinton announced a new U.S. initiative of up to $15 million 
to develop an indigenous demining capacity there. Our ultimate goal in 
Bosnia, as in all of our humanitarian demining programs, is to give the 
Bosnians the skills and equipment to locate and destroy the mines 
themselves.

The Bosnia Mine Action Center now operates under a UN mandate, 
coordinating all mine awareness, data gathering, and mine clearance 
activities through three regional offices, one in each ethnic region of 
the country. It will eventually become an entity of the post-election 
Bosnian Government. The United States joined the United Nations, the 
World Bank, the European Union, the NATO Implementation Force, and other 
nations to establish this sustainable demining program in Bosnia. We 
provided $3.5 million to establish the Bosnia Mine Action Center, and 
have pledged up  to $15 million of State and Defense Department funds to 
continue demining operations this year. A U.S. special forces team 
recently completed training of approximately 175 Bosnian deminers 
representing all three ethnic communities, and they started actual 
demining operations in the field November 7. We hope that the 
international community will build on this first step through further 
contributions of funds, personnel, and equipment so that the Bosnia Mine 
Action Center may expand its mine clearance activities throughout the 
country.

The Bosnia demining initiative is an essential element of implementing 
the Dayton Accords because it provides real and visible "profits of 
peace" to everyone involved, especially the civilian population. It 
supports freedom of movement, refugee resettlement and reconstruction, 
and provides equitable benefits to all Bosnians. It will help Bosnia 
move forward.

Medium Technology

Let me turn now to the reason why we are gathered here today--to find 
new technologies to remove and neutralize landmines.

The U.S. has supported the use of a higher level of technology, what I 
will call "medium tech," to clear landmines from roads in Angola and 
Mozambique. Demining experts from several countries, such as Israel and 
South Africa, have developed a variety of devices such as special 
demining vehicles, trained dogs, and air-sampling devices to detect 
mines. Although mines detected in this process must still be removed by 
hand, this is a relatively fast method of certifying roadways as free of 
mines, and helping a country move forward that much sooner. I urge all 
of you to consider how to expand the use of existing "medium tech" to 
make humanitarian demining more efficient and effective in the short-
term, while higher technologies are being looked into.

High Technology: U.S. Support

President Clinton has directed the Department of Defense to expand its 
efforts to develop better mine detection and mine-clearing technology 
for use in the many countries that are still plagued by mines. I am very 
pleased that Mr. Hap Hambric, the Defense Department's Project Leader 
for Humanitarian Demining Technology Development at the Army's Night 
Vision Laboratory at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, will discuss in detail U.S. 
Government technological activities this afternoon.

We are planning to use some of Hap's technology in our demining 
operations in Bosnia. These include chemical foam to mark mine locations 
and liquid explosive or LEX foam and mini-flails to detonate mines in 
place. Field testing under adverse conditions is an excellent 
opportunity for the United States to contribute to new technology 
development in humanitarian demining.

Where Do We Go From Here?

As I just said, even if an international ban on anti-personnel landmines 
were to take effect immediately, our world will still require decades to 
remove all hidden killers from the ground. In calling for an 
international landmine ban and increased demining activity, President 
Clinton at the United Nations said that our children deserve to walk the 
earth in safety. Mine awareness training, especially for children, will 
be needed in Bosnia and elsewhere for quite some time. We are very 
pleased that the U.S. entertainment industry, Warner Brothers, and DC 
Comics joined with us and the United Nations to produce a Superman comic 
book in three languages as a new mine awareness and education tool for 
the children of Bosnia. This is a beacon of hope for the future, indeed, 
a future without the fear of landmines.

Let us all work together to help restore the health and welfare of war-
ravaged communities and countries all over the world, and to spare the 
next generation from the scourge of war--the consequences of 
indiscriminate use of landmines in the conflicts of this generation. Let 
everyone's children and grandchildren walk the earth in peace and 
safety.

Thank you very much. 

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[END DISPATCH VOL. 7, NO. 49]
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