U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE DAILY PRESS BRIEFING (June 1, 1995)

From: hristu@arcadia.harvard.edu (Dimitrios Hristu)

Subject: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE DAILY PRESS BRIEFING (June 1, 1995)

[...]

GREECE

Report to U.S. Congress on Greece's Enforcement of

  Sanctions on Serbia ...................................6

Greek Parliament Ratification of Law of the Sea .........8

[...]

FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

Ambassador Frasure Meeting w/Milosevic ..................14

Russian Envoy Zotov Meetings w/Milosevic ................14

Ambassador Frasure/Zotov Meetings .......................15

Contact Group Meeting ...................................

  Position on Selective Suspension of Some Sanctions ....14-15

[...]

[...]

MS. SHELLY: Welcome to the State Department briefing. I'd like to begin with a short announcement relating to the Secretary's travel, and then to touch upon an issue that we touched upon yesterday which is a report which we have submitted to the Congress.

On the short item first, you may have seen our notice to the press we put out a little bit earlier today. Secretary of State Warren Christopher will travel to the Middle East June 7-12 for discussions related to the negotiations.

Journalists interested in traveling on the Secretary's aircraft during this trip should add their name and contact number to the sign-up sheet which is posted in the Press Office, Room 2109. The sign-up sheet will be taken down on Friday, June 2, at 5:00 p.m.

Q Where is he going?

MS. SHELLY: Sid, when was the last time that we announced where he was going as well as on what date this many days prior to the travel?

Q 1944.

MS. SHELLY: 1944? (Laughter) Well, maybe. No, it might have been more recently than that. I think there was one since I've been here, at least, that we announced the dates and notational itinerary, subject to change.

Anyway, we'll obviously share further details on his travel schedule with you as we can. But at least we can now signal that he's going and that the sign-up sheet is up, which is of course the most operational point for you.

On the second subject -- the report to the U.S. Congress on human rights abuses by the Turkish military and the situation in Cyprus -- I can report to you that this morning the State Department submitted to Congress a report on allegations on human rights abuses by the Turkish military and on the situation in Cyprus.

The Foreign Operations Appropriation Act for Fiscal 1995, as you may be aware, withheld 10 percent of the Foreign Military Financing for Turkey pending submission of a report by the State Department. The report was to address alleged human rights abuses by Turkish security forces in the southeastern region of Turkey, and to address Cyprus.

The 10 percent withholding amounted to $36.45 million in loans approved for Fiscal 1995. Although the Turkish Government stated that it would not accept conditional aid and refused the 10 percent, Congress has nonetheless requested that the report be submitted as required in the legislation.

This report was prepared by the State Department in consultation with the Department of Defense.

The report reaffirms Turkey's continued importance as a long- standing NATO ally which faces a major threat to its sovereignty and territorial integrity from the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party -- the PKK. It also stresses that continued support for Turkey's security, both external and internal, serves U.S. interests.

Among the report's conclusions is that U.S.-origin equipment, which accounts for most major items in the Turkish military inventory, has been used in operations against the PKK, during which human rights abuses have occurred.

It is highly likely that such equipment was used in support of the evacuation and/or the destruction of villages in southeastern Turkey. However, the report assesses that there is no evidence that verifies reports of torture or "mystery killings" involving U.S. equipment.

The report notes that the Turkish Government has recognized the need to improve its human rights situation and cites proposals which, if adopted and implemented, could lead to important and positive changes in the situation in the southeast.

The report notes further that human rights and democracy will continue to be a prominent feature of the on-going U.S.-Turkish high- level dialogue. We ascribe great importance to the Turkish Government's democratization initiative. Enhancement of democracy for all of Turkey's citizens will significantly improve the human rights situation in Turkey. We urge its rapid passage.

I can tell you that the report is being delivered today. We are also having some Congressional consultations in connection with the delivery of the report. Once I can confirm that the delivery of the report has been effected, we will make copies of the full report. It's quite lengthy. It's about 50 pages in length. We will make copies available in the Press Office, and I would expect we would be able to do so by about 3:00 this afternoon.

I know you'll want a chance to study the report in greater detail. I'm certainly prepared to take a few questions on it now, if you'd like, but I know you'll want a chance to study the report. I will certainly be prepared to come back to this also tomorrow or else at later briefings.

Q Christine, did you say the report recommends reinstating that 10 percent that was taken away?

MS. SHELLY: As I mentioned already, the Turkish authorities themselves decided that they would not take that 10 percent because of the conditionality attached to it, which had to do with the preparation of the report. I don't have any specific information that would suggest that that 10 percent would now be reopened, but I'll be happy to check on that.

Q Christine, am I reading the part about "no evidence of torture or mystery killings involving U.S. equipment" was your saying that there were such episodes but that U.S. equipment was not, as far as you can tell, involved?

MS. SHELLY: Yes. As you know, this is not a general report on the human rights situation in Turkey. It's specifically directed to alleged abuses by the Turkish security forces. It relates to the actions against the PKK.

What we are acknowledging in that is that there were allegations of actions -- specific human rights violations -- that are identified in the report. Some of the allegations -- let me give you a few examples, if I can. I know it's kind of hard to do this without your having seen the report.

Some of the allegations dealt with in the report concern things like village evacuations and destructions, extrajudicial killings, and disappearances, and torture and intimidation. The report, as I said, gives a lot of very specific detail on this, and I don't want to go much beyond that today besides identifying the categories.

But what the conclusion of the report was, which I mentioned in the remarks, was that given that most of the Turkish equipment is of U.S. origin, that some of that was used in actions against the PKK. In certain of these categories, we did not have confirmation that U.S. equipment had been used. In other categories, as I mentioned -- specifically, the evacuation and destruction of villages -- there was the indication that U.S. equipment might have been used.

Q Given the revelation of the Turkish human rights abuses, do you expect the Turkish Government, or the Turkish parliament, to confirm the extension of "Provide Comfort?"

MS. SHELLY: I wouldn't draw any specific linkage between the action by that on the Turkish parliament. It's obviously up to the Turkish parliament to decide what to do when the decision on that comes up for renewal.

As to any particular impact that's going to have on U.S.-Turkish relations, the report is something that the Turkish authorities knew was under preparation. In fact, it involved our going to the Turkish authorities with respect to many of the allegations that had been made.

We were given the opportunity to address those allegations to the Turkish military authorities; and we received very concrete responses, which you'll see from the report. So we've had a lot of exchanges with the Turkish authorities on this.

The issue of this report -- both the timing and the substance -- will not come as a surprise to Turkish authorities. Turkey is a very important ally in what is obviously a very difficult part of the world.

We don't believe that the issue of this report is going to alter the fundamental basis of our relationship, which is built on a very strong foundation. We place a very high value on the preservation of Turkey's democracy, on its territorial integrity, and we are committed to Turkey's security in the interests of both Turkey and the United States.

As you know well from other times when this issue has come up here, democracy and human rights are and will continue to be a very prominent part of the U.S.-Turkish agenda. We believe that Turkey can continue to make further progress on this score and that it will.

Q This report also, we are expecting some impact on this year's 1996 security assistance of which some part is on the Floor and the other part is in the Senate right now. Do you expect some impact also on the Clinton Administration -- on the State Department?

MS. SHELLY: In terms of sending forward the report to the U.S. Congress and whether or not the U.S. Congress would somehow react to this report by altering the level of assistance?

Q Yes.

MS. SHELLY: I think the reason the U.S. Congress requested this report was that they wanted to fully inform themselves about the situation in southeastern Turkey. I think that's what the request for the report was about. That was obviously particularly with respect to the allegations regarding the use of U.S.-supplied weapons by the Turkish security forces and the possible commission of human rights violations. They, obviously, in tandem with that consideration, wanted to inform themselves about the situation in Cyprus. There is quite a detailed accounting in that report about that situation, which I'm sure we'll want to come back to.

It's our view that given the recent indications that the Turkish Government is attempting to address the human rights violations and the importance of Turkey, as a front-line state that is clearly surrounded by numerous threats to itself, we hope that the U.S. Congress will not reduce funding to Turkey.

Q What about Cyprus, Christine? What does the report say about Cyprus?

MS. SHELLY: About Cyprus?

Q Yes.

MS. SHELLY: On Cyprus, what it does is, it goes through a rather detailed and almost kind of timeline on the diplomacy that's been involved -- the meetings that have taken place and the various efforts to try to work through the U.N. process.

I think our conclusion on this, of course -- the bottom line conclusions, if I might -- is that the Turkish authorities are meaningfully engaged in this process and that they are lending their support to the U.N. efforts to try to come up with a solution to the Cyprus problem.

If I can do just a shorthand, bottom line, I think that's it. But, again, I think you'll want to look at the report and the very detailed treatment of this. We probably can come back to that.

Q Hasn't the Congress also asked the State Department for a report on Greece regarding the allegations of -- violations of U.N. sanctions in Serbia? Is there going to be such a report?

MS. SHELLY: Yes, there is. In fact, this was not something that I was informed about yesterday. So I was unaware that there was actually a second report.

The second report -- and it's coming from the same legislation -- the Congress asked for a report on Greece's enforcement of sanctions on Serbia. This has not been submitted yet; but, in fact, we do expect it to be submitted to Congress before the end of the week. So this is something that's in preparation as well. I've not seen the report yet. But, obviously, also, when we transmit that, we'll be happy to address that as well.

Q Christine, just to make clear, these alleged abuses of human rights occurred in southeast Turkey not during the northern Iraqi incursion?

MS. SHELLY: This is not a report on the northern Iraqi incursion. This has to do with southeastern Turkey. I think you'll see in the report there are a couple of things which I found to be of rather considerable interest.

One is that there is a code of conduct for the Turkish military authorities which is in one of the annexes in the report. There also were -- if I can shorthand it -- the instructions for the Turkish security forces regarding the conduct of that operation in northern Iraq which also obviously touch upon the same points, which is the efforts of the Turkish authorities to try to make sure that human rights violations were not committed in the context of that operation.

Q Christine, you said there were Congressional consultations regarding the delivery this report. What was the exact nature of those consultations that you referred to?

MS. SHELLY: It's not something that I would comment on detail. But, normally, when we deliver a report of this kind, we do brief interested members of Congress and/or their staff members about the main elements in the report. That's basically what happens. We not only deliver the report but we also have contacts with them to brief them on the points that we think are the major points associated with the report. So that's a normal practice in connection with the delivery of this type of report.

These are basically taking place --they may have even started as early as yesterday, but they're taking place throughout the course of the day.

The main thing for us is, we do want to make sure that the report has been fully delivered. That's the point in time that we will be able to release the report to you this afternoon, which I said will be around 3:00.

Q Christine, we heard about that in the State Department -- several discussions about it, about the two different groups. They are discussing different points on this report.

My question is: Is the State Department happy with to the bottomline of this report, and the summary of this report?

MS. SHELLY: There is a single State Department report which has gone forward. In the preparation of any report, we always invite comment and discussion and inputs from a variety of different sources within the State Department. I think it's only natural that a discussion would occur. This is a report which touches on political/military issues; it touches on human rights issues; it touches on bilateral political relations as well. So, naturally, there were a variety of inputs to the report.

What has emerged is a consensus document which reflects all of those views put forward in a single report, going forward as a State Department report in compliance with the Congressional requirement.

Q Don't you expect some impact for the Turkish fighting with the PKK terrorism?

MS. SHELLY: I think it would be speculative for me to get into that particular dimension. There's a great deal of information about the PKK in the report and about the types of activities that it undertakes -- the nature of the organization and the threats its actions have posed for the Turkish regime. So I think there's quite a bit of background information in there, which obviously will be publicly available now, which gets into exactly the nature of the threat to the Turkish regime which is posed by the PKK.

Q But in the end PKK doesn't get U.S. security assistance if Turkey couldn't get it as a result of this report.

MS. SHELLY: That's really not a point that I think can specifically address in the context of looking at the report.

Q Does the report make any recommendations regarding the solving of the Kurdish problem?

MS. SHELLY: No, that is not the nature of the report. The nature of the report is to provide factual information about the state of play on the issues that were solicited by the U.S. Congress, including the efforts that our own people went to on the ground to compile the information and to be able to address the specific allegations in as much specificity as possible.

Q I don't have the figures in front of me, but my recollection is that U.S. aid to Turkey is somewhat more than $365 million, with of this 10 percent thing. Does this refer only to military assistance or only to economic assistance?

MS. SHELLY: Let me check on that point, specifically. My information on this was simply that the 10 percent withholding was the $36.45 million against the total of $364.5 million in loans approved for Fiscal 1995.

Q That was for FMF.

MS. SHELLY: Right, the Foreign Military Financing, the FMF program was that amount for Fiscal -- thanks, Sid. You want to come up here and help?

Q Can we move to another subject?

Q I have something else about Greece and Turkey. The Greek parliament decided yesterday to extend its territorial waters to 12 miles. Turkey, much before, announced that she would consider this as causus belli. Do you have any reaction?

MS. SHELLY: This is related to the ratification of the Law of the Sea?

Q Yes.

MS. SHELLY: I understand that the Greek parliament did ratify the law on June 1. Greece joins many nations, including the United States, in having ratified the Law of the Sea. In ratifying it, the Greek Government stated that it reserved the right to its 12-mile territorial sea while indicating that it did not plan to exercise this right at this time.

I don't think there is any change in that relative to previous statements on the Greek position on this. So I'm not under the impression that this is anything new.

[...]

Q Do you have a readout at all of Ambassador Frasure's meetings with President Milosevic?

MS. SHELLY: I don't really have a readout per se. He's there. He had one meeting that I know of yesterday with Milosevic in Belgrade last night, and following that round of talks both sides are assessing the results. He, as you know, represents the Contact Group position as agreed at the most recent Contact Group meeting in The Hague.

Russian Foreign Minister Kozyrev, of course, was also at that meeting. There was some discussion about the Russian envoy Zotov also being there. I'm afraid I was caught by surprise on that one.

He, of course, is there. He has been having his own meetings in Belgrade with President Milosevic. He has been meeting in his capacity as the personal representative of the Russian Foreign Minister. I believe that Ambassador Frasure and Zotov have also held their own meetings with each other, obviously also to compare, I think, their own discussions that they've had with Milosevic.

So other than being able to tell you that he's still there, and there is the possibility, obviously, of future meetings, I don't have much detail beyond that. I can affirm the Contact Group position that Ambassador Frasure has presented remains essentially the same as it was before its selective suspension of some sanctions in return for Serbian recognition of Bosnia within the internationally recognized borders, and, of course, seeking to engage him on applying more pressure on Pale to accept the Contact Group Plan.

The mechanism -- I was asked about this -- for suspending sanctions and then reimposing them if Belgrade fails to comply with the agreement is naturally a very important aspect of the talks, as are the specific sanctions to be suspended. We aren't going to get into a detailed discussion of our exchanges with him on this, except to confirm that there had been some reports that the offer had been sweetened rather considerably relative to before. I just don't think that's right.

I think what's been going on has been the various formulations that relate to the issues involved. I think there has been some back and forth, but it's essentially the same offer.

Q Christine, wasn't the offer two weeks ago -- wasn't it linked to a six-month period? Is that still the case, or is it now an indefinite suspension?

MS. SHELLY: I don't have a specific answer on that point. The issue of how long that would be before. Six months was one of the proposals that was discussed, but the timeframe on this is something which I think has still not been nailed down.

Q Is there flexibility in that portion of the Contact Group proposal?

MS. SHELLY: I'm not in a position to get any more -- get further into a detailed discussion of that at this point.

Q Has there been movement in these talks?

MS. SHELLY: I know at this point I don't have progress to report. We have had some readout on this, and we just don't feel that it's very useful to get involved in a partial readout. Also, of course, the Secretary's on the road and Ambassador Frasure is in contact with the Secretary as well. But a lot of the people, of course, who have been engaged in this issue have also been involved in the meetings in Europe this week.

I would want to be sure I had a completely full picture, I think, before going any further. As the Secretary himself said when asked about progress and about this last 15 percent, he also indicated the last 15 percent, of course, was perhaps the hardest part. So they're tough issues, but we're still there, and we're still working on it, and we'll certainly try to keep you up to date what information we do have as quickly as we can.

Q If I could just follow up on that. So Frasure is having meetings and Zotov are having meetings, but those are two separate meetings. Frasure represents the Contact Group but Zotov is there --

MS. SHELLY: In his capacity as personal representative of the Russian Foreign Minister.

Q Okay. But is it useful that the Russians have sent someone who is having separate conversations? Presumably, the Russians would be on the same page as the rest of the Contact Group, and what Frasure is presenting ought to be the -- presumably what everybody is proposing.

MS. SHELLY: I don't think there's any doubt about that. I mean, Foreign Minister Kozyrev was a full participant in the Contact Group meeting, and it was certainly with the blessing of all of the Contact Group Ministers that he went back. There was a lot of discussion of his mission and of his meetings that he had had over so many days with President Milosevic, and certainly there was very high praise within that meeting for the efforts of Ambassador Frasure.

So I don't think that there is any question that Ambassador Frasure is there as a representative of the positions of all of those participants in that meeting.

As to why the Russians felt that it would be useful to have Zotov there at this point, we certainly acknowledge that he's there and hope that he can play a helpful role. But I think the Russian reasons for having him there are ones that you would have to really ask and put to the Russians.

Q Christine, if I may go back to Greek Parliament ratification of the Law of the Sea, we all know that they didn't decide to extend the waters, but they reserved the right.

Nevertheless, does the Administration recognize the fact that if they do extend the territorial waters up to 12 limits, that would create legitimate problems for Turkey.

MS. SHELLY: We're aware of the Turkish position as a hypothetical action, since it is still hypothetical, since that has not yet occurred.

[...]

END