U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 95/10/03 DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

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

U.S. State Department Directory

Subject: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 95/10/03 DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN

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FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

Assistant Secretary Holbrooke's Mtgs. in Region ............2

--Ceasefire Issue ..........................................3-5

Assistant Secretary Shattuck's Travel in the Krajina

  Region ...................................................3

--Alleged Brutalities Against Serb Population...............3

--Activities of the International War Crimes Tribunal.......3

Reported Fighting Near Sarajevo ............................3

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FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

Assassination Attempt Against President Gligorov............14-15

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Q On the state of Bosnia, can you just bring us up to speed? What's Holbrooke up to and how's he doing?

MR. BURNS: Dick Holbrooke is in Belgrade. He has been, I think for the past six hours, in a meeting with President Milosevic. I tried to get him at l2:30 and he was still meeting with President Milosevic in Belgrade.

You know why he's there. It's part of his shuttle among the major capitals of the region to try to get them to move towards a cease-fire, to tackle the problem of eastern Slavonia, to tackle the problem of constitutional issues.

In our attempt to convene an international peace conference, he will be going to Zagreb tonight, back to Sarajevo tomorrow -- Wednesday -- and then on to Rome for the expanded Contact Group meeting on Thursday.

Beyond that, he has not yet determined what his schedule will be.

I should also tell you that Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck was in the Krajina region over the weekend, and I think some of you may have seen some of the comments that he made. He visited the site of the alleged brutalities against the Croatian Serb population. He saw villages that had been ransacked, that had been burned, and he also talked to people who have some information about allegations of mass executions of elderly Serbs by the Croatian army.

We are very concerned about these reports. We would like to see the Croatian Government allow international monitors into the area to investigate this matter, and we are very anxiously awaiting the results of these and other international investigations. We certainly believe that the perpetrators of brutalities -- in this case, against Serbs -- should face certain and swift justice.

I would just like to link this, of course, with the activities of the International War Crimes Tribunal, which the United States strongly supports. A Croatian citizen has already been indicted by the War Crimes Tribunal for crimes allegedly that he committed a number of years ago. But we think that there is a reason now to be concerned about the many reports that we have heard about alleged human rights atrocities in the Krajina region.

Betsy.

Q Do you have any reactions to the Bosnian Muslims firing four large guns out of Sarajevo at Serb positions?

MR. BURNS: What we have seen this morning are some conflicting press reports about fighting south of Sarajevo. We've seen the ones about the guns firing out of the city. We've also seen ones about offensive military action south of the city.

I've seen conflicting reports -- one that the Bosnian Serbs were on the offensive, and one that the Bosnian Government was.

We're trying to sort out these reports. So, therefore, we'll withhold comment until we have more information.

Q In any case, Holbrooke appears to have had little success in moving toward a cease-fire?

MR. BURNS: He hasn't yet achieved success in convincing the parties to agree to a process leading to a cease-fire. I think he's told the press, and he's certainly told us, that he thinks that all the parties are interested in a cease-fire, but there are very large, wide divisions about how one can be best achieved.

I would just put it in a little bit of perspective, Jim. He's undertaken a shuttle mission now on and off for the last month, and we have been able to achieve during that month three significant agreements. He is now trying to lead us to additional agreements.

This is going to take some time. This is hard slogging. He is, I think, not setting the bar too low when he says that these negotiations are very difficult and complex; and we're not sure that we're going to reach a cease-fire -- not quickly, the way we want to.

But he'll continue to try for one and continue to negotiate among the parties. That is his mandate from the President and from Secretary Christopher.

Q (inaudible) that the best incentive for a cease-fire would be to directly link reconstruction aid to the cooperation on the cease- fire? Is that what he is doing? Is he saying, "No cease-fire; forget reconstruction aid"?

MR. BURNS: I don't want to go into everything that he's saying, that he may or may not be saying, to the parties. He's trying to convince them of one salient fact, and that is that we've seen, just in the last couple of weeks, some dramatic offensive military gains made by the Bosnian Government and the Croatian Government. Just in the last couple of days, we've seen some of that land retaken in a counteroffensive -- specifically, near the Bihac pocket -- by the Bosnian Serb military forces.

Our very strong conviction is that this isn't going to end, that the military back-and-forth will continue, that neither side is sufficiently strong to achieve a military victory on the ground; therefore, the parties have to conclude that they can only achieve what they want through negotiations. That's our very strong belief about the nature of the warfare on the ground.

I think one of his strongest selling points in arguing for a cease- fire, Jim, is that the killing will go on, the bloodshed will continue, and you won't really get what you want unless you face your opponent across a negotiating table and no longer across a battlefield.

Obviously, there are a lot of factors that go into a cease-fire and into the ability of the international community, including the United States to contribute to one.

I'm not denying that this kind of relief assistance or reconstruction assistance may be part of the mix, but there are other factors that are part of the mix as well.

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Q Do you have any comment on the assassination attempt against President Gligorov of FYROM? Also, there are some indications that this has something to do with the agreement between Greece and FYROM. Do you have a comment also on that?

MR. BURNS: On the second part of your question, we have no indications of who may have been behind this attack or what may have caused this attack. Let me be very clear about that.

We understand that President Gligorov was the target of an assassination attempt this morning. We understand a remotely triggered car bomb was detonated as his motorcade passed through the streets of Skopje. It's our understanding that the President survived this attempt. He was conscious after the attack. He has sustained some injuries and is receiving medical care.

The President's driver was killed, and several passersby were injured. We understand from the authorities in Skopje that two or three suspects were apprehended. We don't know the motive for this crime or the affiliation of these suspects -- group affiliation.

We very much condemn in the strongest possible terms this cowardly terrorist attack. We certainly will not allow this crime to deter us from our determination to help the people of the Balkans achieve peace and stability and to help the United States achieve a fully cooperative and strong relationship with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

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(The briefing concluded at 2:17 p.m.)

END