U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE DAILY PRESS BRIEFING (June 6, 1995)

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

Subject: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE DAILY PRESS BRIEFING (June 6, 1995)

FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

UN Hostages: Exchanges w/Milosevic ......................1-3

--Greek Ministers of Defense & Foreign Affairs in

   Belgrade .............................................4

Ambassador Frasure Discussions in Belgrade ..............1-3

Lord Owen Warning to UN .................................4

Report of Ukrainian Peacekeepers Held ...................5

Visit of Bosnian Prime Minister Silajdzic to U.S. .......5-6

Downed U.S. Pilot .......................................2-3,6

Update on Fighting: Croatia/Krajina .....................6

Next Contact Group Meeting ..............................15

[...]

GREECE

Report on Enforcement of Sanctions Against Serbia .......7-8

[...]

MS. SHELLY: Good afternoon. Welcome to the State Department briefing. I don't have any announcements. I'll be happy to go directly to your questions.

Q Anything on hostage releases in Bosnia?

MS. SHELLY: I don't have anything more than that which has been reported in the news media this morning. There isn't, to my knowledge, any concrete indication that hostages have been released yet.

There are reports that some or all might be released today. We certainly are following those reports very closely. But so far we're not in a position to confirm that any, in fact, have been released.

Q Do you have any sign that Milosevic is using what influence he has over the Bosnian Serbs on this issue?

MS. SHELLY: I don't really have anything to add to what I said yesterday. It certainly has been our impression in our exchanges with him that he is trying to use his influence to that effect, but certainly the results are what we're concerned about.

Q Do you have anything on the meeting between Ross and Assad and --

Q Let's stay on Bosnia.

MS. SHELLY: Before switching topics, we'll continue on the same line.

Carol.

Q Is Frasure back? Is he coming back?

MS. SHELLY: I suspect that he would like to come back, but he's not back yet. He's still there. He remains in Belgrade. Still no progress to report.

He has had discussions, as I've mentioned, on both the U.N. hostages and the downed F-16 pilot with President Milosevic. We are talking stock on where things stand on his mission. I believe we'll certainly indicate in due course when and if he returns. We do expect he will return, but I don't have anything further regarding his mission at this point.

Q But if he's not making any progress, then what's the point of keeping him there?

MS. SHELLY: As we've already said, he has not made progress on the principal point of his going, which of course had to do with the Contact Group package which was being discussed with President Milosevic. But his presence there certainly has facilitated discussions with him on those other issues that I've mentioned.

I can't predict really how much more time he will be there, but up until this point having him there has been useful for our exchanges on those other issues.

Q Would you say that his talks with Milosevic on the principal issues of a peace agreement, or steps towards a peace agreement, are at an impasse?

MS. SHELLY: I don't know if we're just kind of playing with words. As I said specifically, we don't have progress to report at this time, which is certainly unfortunate. I guess that's probably a different formulation for using the word "impasse." But I wouldn't specifically avoid using that.

Q Your construction of words implies that we don't have progress now but you could have progress in the future, whereas "impasse" would imply a judgment about exactly how hard and fast the positions are.

MS. SHELLY: As to the more general point as to whether or not we believe that President Milosevic is no longer interested in reaching agreement on this, I don't think anybody has reached or jumped to that conclusion. What you have to look at, especially in terms of keeping a U.S. Government official there who obviously also has other responsibilities back here as well -- the question is, is this an agreement that can be reached at this point in time?

I don't have a signal to release on that, because I don't have any announcement regarding his either staying or returning. I certainly do expect him to return at some point. But I don't think we feel that the prospect of being able to reach agreement with him at some point has disappeared.

Q To put it another way, if the hostages were to be released shortly and the pilot issue resolved, would there be a reason for Frasure to stay?

MS. SHELLY: As I said yesterday -- I think several different times -- we don't see any linkage between the hostage issue and the general issue that was under discussion with President Milosevic. The issues related to the package are issues which are being worked on their own merit. So we don't see linkage, and I'm not sure that even release of the hostages would necessarily signal an immediate change in President Milosevic's current positions.

Q That wasn't the question I was asking. If Frasure convinced Milosevic to use his influence on those issues -- following up on Carol's question -- would there be a reason to stay and pursue the Contact Group plan?

MS. SHELLY: Again, since we're looking at the progress on that particular issue on its own track, I think certainly Ambassador Frasure has gotten as far as he can at this particular point. There could always be, of course, new developments which could arise which might affect the progress or lack thereof at this point. But, again, that gets me into the speculative, since in fact that has not happened so far.

Steve.

Q Could you respond to a couple of things that have been reported? One is that he will leave Belgrade Wednesday. That was in an Associated Press report from Belgrade, I believe.

Second: The Bosnian Serbs -- in talking about the release of a second group of hostages -- have said that they were given assurances by NATO that there would not be further NATO air attacks.

MS. SHELLY: The second report, I am certainly not in a position to confirm that. I am not aware of any such assurances by NATO.

On the first point, as I said at the beginning, I'm not in a position to comment on travel plans of Ambassador Frasure.

To my knowledge, no decision has been taken that he should return on Wednesday.

Q Christine, could I go to a statement made by Sir David Owen?

MS. SHELLY: I think it's actually Lord Owen, isn't that right?

Q It is Lord Owen. If the Frasure matter is finished for the moment. The former British Foreign Secretary coupled his resignation statement with a warning to the United Nations that its peacekeepers were becoming inextricably embroiled in the Balkan conflict. Further, he said the U.N.'s authority was being undermined and it might be forced to leave by the autumn if there was no peace settlement by then. Those are attributed to Lord Owen.

One: Does this Department -- does this Administration have a comment on his very expert perspective? And then I have a second question.

MS. SHELLY: We always listen with interest to his views. But, no, I don't have any particular comment I would wish to make on those remarks.

Q And, second, there was an article in the Washington Times front page today that alleges that additional troops are being sent into Italy as preparation for possible extraction of the U.N. in the near future. Is there any validity to that?

MS. SHELLY: Again, that's a question that is most appropriately to the Pentagon. It's not a question in which the State Department would have the lead.

Q You are aware both the Greek Minister of Defense and the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs were in Pale yesterday and they're in Belgrade today in an effort to release the U.N. hostages. Do you have any comment on that?

I wonder if your government was aware prior to this mission?

MS. SHELLY: On the second point, I believe that the correct answer to that is no. And on the first part of your question, I believe that the meetings in the region are still underway. We are expecting that we're going to get a full readout once those meetings have been concluded.

I think that it would be appropriate for us to withhold any specific comment about the mission until after we've had an opportunity to be briefed by the Greek Ministers.

Q Can we go to Syria, please?

Q Something else --

MS. SHELLY: On Bosnia?

Q On Bosnia.

MS. SHELLY: Let's try to wrap up at least the first round of Bosnia questions, if we might.

Q There is a wire service report that some Ukrainian peacekeepers are being held up on a road. Do you have any knowledge of that and any comment on that?

MS. SHELLY: Are you talking specifically about a new group?

Q Yes.

MS. SHELLY: I have not seen a report on that so far. We did know, of course, over the weekend there had been some additional -- I guess around the time that the first group of U.N. peacekeepers were released, there were additional ones that were picked up. I don't know whether this would be the same group. I have no seen anything suggesting that new peacekeepers were picked up today, but I certainly wouldn't rule that out given past patterns of behavior.

Q Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic is in town today?

MS. SHELLY: I don't think he's in town today. I believe he's arriving later in the week.

Q Are there meetings scheduled here at the State Department with him?

MS. SHELLY: My information on his travel plans -- this was something that came up at the briefing yesterday; I didn't have exactly his arrival time; and, of course, as you know, Secretary Christopher is going off to the Middle East tomorrow afternoon.

The Secretary, of course, normally would have received him here at the State Department if their schedules had overlapped. I can confirm, however, that they have talked several times recently on the telephone.

Prime Minister Silajdzic will arrive tomorrow evening. I certainly expect that he will be received by the Acting Secretary during the course of his visit and by other U.S. Government officials at an appropriately senior level. I understand the schedule has not yet been finalized, and so I don't have further details beyond that at the moment.

Q On the pilot, you have nothing new, I assume?

MS. SHELLY: No, not that I'm aware of. I think there is still conflicting information out there regarding what the disposition of the pilot has been since the plane was shot down, but I'm sure that there's anything new out there since yesterday's briefing.

Q This may be a question for the Pentagon, but why was it released, the information that there is a radio signal coming from somewhere near the crash site? Why was that made public?

MS. SHELLY: Insofar as that was made public specifically out of the Pentagon, I think I would direct you to the Pentagon on that question.

Q Any comment on the report that Croatia is planning to invade Krajina?

MS. SHELLY: That Croatia is planning to invade Krajina?

Q Krajina.

MS. SHELLY: I haven't seen anything suggesting that something like that is about to occur. No new fighting has been reported in Croatia. Croatian forces had been advancing from Bosnia's Livno Valley. They remain within artillery range of the Krajina capital, Knin.

We, of course, continue to call on all parties to exercise restraint and to resume negotiations toward a peaceful settlement. Further fighting would damage the prospects for a negotiated peace there and elsewhere in the region.

We are working to ensure the safety of American and U.N. personnel in the region and to promote respect for the rights of civilians and POWs in all of the areas.

Q I wondered if there was anything new in the meeting between Ross and Assad and why a phone call was needed? Who did the phone call? The President? Whose initiative was it?

MS. SHELLY: As you know, our policy on this is not to get into a discussion of the specifics of what's happening in our exchanges with the parties on this except to be able to say generally, as you know, that Dennis Ross had gone out to the region prior to the Secretary's trip. He was in Israel yesterday and Syria today, and we do expect that he'll be moving on to Egypt tomorrow.

The Secretary, of course, will be departing tomorrow afternoon; his first stop will be Israel; and he will be going for some meetings in Jerusalem.

I have really no other details related to the substance of what is being discussed. We simply feel that we can play our role most appropriately by not getting into a detailed discussion of the exchanges that we're having.

Q The phone call was announced.

MS. SHELLY: Again, a phone call may have been announced. I simply don't have details on that to share at today's briefing.

Q Do you have any further information about a possible meeting in Cairo on Friday between Israel, Egypt and the Secretary?

MS. SHELLY: Obviously, because of what's been reported in the press, that possibility is out there, but I'm not in a position to confirm that one way or the other.

Q In yesterday's report on the Greek enforcement of the U.N. sanctions against Serbia, you are saying inter alia that the goods are not reaching actually Serbia via Greece but via Skopje, Bulgaria and Albania. Therefore, why you're singling (out) Greece and not the mentioned countries?

MS. SHELLY: I'm sorry. Why Greece and not other countries?

Q That's it exactly. The neighboring countries. Actually they're going into Serbia --

MS. SHELLY: Because this was not a report which was about all of the different countries that might or might not be involved in sanctions violations. It was specifically a requirement imposed in connection with the foreign assistance appropriations bill for Fiscal 1995 which mandated that two reports be submitted. Pending the submission of the reports, as I think you know, ten percent of the foreign aid under the Foreign Military Financing was withheld waiting for submission of those reports.

So the Turkish report was submitted last week. The Greek report was submitted, I guess, late on Friday, although I didn't actually get it until about midday yesterday.

So, therefore, the reason that it is only addressing Greece is not to suggest that Greece is the only country where there have been problems related to possible violations of the sanctions regime. It is simply because that is what is mandated in the particular Congressional reports; and, as you know, this was the first time that this report had been prepared.

[...]

(Press briefing concluded at 1:48 p.m.)

END