U.S. Department of State 96/02/06 Daily Press Briefing

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Subject: U.S. Department of State 96/02/06 Daily Press Briefing

Office of the Spokesman

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FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

Detention of Bosnian-Serb Military Personnel ...............16

Prisoner Releases ..........................................17

International Police Task Force ............................18-19

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Q The Bosnian Government has taken a group of Bosnian Serb military personnel as prisoners and says that they're looking into whether they're war criminals or not. What is the U.S. position on whether or not that is a legal act given that these men, I gather, have not yet been indicted by the War Crimes Tribunal?

MR. DAVIES: A couple of points in answer to that. One is to reiterate our attachment to the notion of freedom of movement, and the freedom of movement provisions of the Dayton Accords and that those freedom of movement provisions be respected by all parties.

That said, we understand that a representative of the War Crimes Tribunal is now in Sarajevo and will interview the individuals being detained to find out if there's any reason for further investigation.

The Bosnian Government has indicated that it will abide by the decision of the Tribunal and will either continue to detain the individuals at the request of the Tribunal or release them if there is no evidence of war crimes. So we think that the Bosnian Government has, in this matter, subsequent to the arrest, taken the appropriate steps.

Until the Tribunal has had an opportunity to speak with these individuals, we can't comment further about their status. It is true that the individuals have not at this time been indicted by the Tribunal.

Q The reason I'm asking is for the future. If either side is allowed to detain people who have not been charged by the War Crimes Tribunal just because they think maybe they've done something -- maybe they have, this group, I have no idea -- doesn't that create potential and rather serious problems?

MR. DAVIES: We think it's important that arrests not be made for purposes of harassing people in Bosnia.

Frankly, what this gets us into is a bit of a gray area about who can and who can't be arrested. It's something that we're looking into. But I think what's important to underscore here is that the Bosnian Government has made the right undertakings about the handling of these eight. That's what we're looking to.

Q The meeting between Assistant Secretary Talbott and the Representative of the Polish-American Congress, can you tell us about that meeting and what might have been touched upon in terms of NATO expansion?

MR. DAVIES: I don't have a readout of that meeting, so I really can't help you with that. But, if you'd like, we can perhaps look into it.

Q Back on Bosnia, does the United States have any reservations about the way the Serb and the Croat Governments are handling the prisoner business? Carl Bildt was critical of both of them in Geneva today.

MR. DAVIES: If you're referring to release of prisoners --

Q Release of prisoners and other provisions in the transition.

MR. DAVIES: Our concern there, as we've stated it before on a number of occasions, is if prisoners are being held, that they be released. This is something that should have occurred several weeks ago. It's largely occurred. There are very few, I think, still being held, but those still being held should be released. I don't have a particular comment on what Bildt had to say.

But that's our view on prisoner release, and I don't think there's any ambiguity about it.

Q Do you know how many prisoners are left?

MR. DAVIES: I don't know. It's been a seesawing number. We look to numbers provided by international groups -- the United Nations and others. We don't have our own kind of individual count. So, if you'd like, what I can do is check into what we regard as the latest number and get back to you on that.

Q Could I ask about the Bosnian international police force. The NATO officials raised some concern about this subject. They said that there's not enough force in there, and also they have an obstacle of the language barrier. Do you have any comment on it?

MR. DAVIES: The language barrier is going to be a problem, obviously, because you're talking about police monitors coming from a number of different countries, and not all of them are going to speak Serbo-Croatian or the language that they might need. We're confident that that can be worked out.

In terms of the rate at which the international police task force - - the IPTF -- is being deployed, we agree that it's not being deployed rapidly enough. We think that action has been taken to correct that, and that those who are involved in providing police to the IPTF are now doing so with the right kind of dispatch. We're working hard to make sure that those countries that have pledged police follow through on their pledges and augment their contributions, if at all possible, and accelerate their deployment.

Obviously, the police will play a critical role in developing peace on the ground in Bosnia. So we're following up on this, and we believe that things are going better than they were. We're still not satisfied with the pace, and we hope the pace will pick up. We're working to that.

Q Will there be Americans in that International Police Task Force?

MR. DAVIES: I think the answer is that there will be Americans in the International Police Task Force. We've pledged to provide up to about 200 for the IPTF, and we've begun consultations with Congress to make the funds available for the first group of monitors.

The contracting process has already begun. There's a little bit of paperwork, unfortunately, involved. There's money involved, and that's what we're talking to Congress about.

Q Have you already started, though, the process of searching, because since this is such a high priority time and since the United States is the lead country in this whole affair --

MR. DAVIES: I believe we have. I don't have the very latest on where the search stands -- whether we're putting out ads or how we're doing this within the country -- but that's perhaps something we could follow up on and have for you.

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(Press briefing concluded at 2:01 p.m.)

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