U.S. Department of State 96/02/29 Daily Press Briefing

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U.S. State Department Directory

U.S. Department of State

96/02/29 Daily Press Briefing

Office of the Spokesman

[...]
FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
Pursuit of War Criminals ...................15-18
Status of War Crimes Tribunal ..............18-19
Residents Remaining in Sarajevo Suburbs ....19
Foreign Fighters ...........................20
Equip-and-Train ............................20-21
[...]

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

DPB #34

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 1996, 1:09 P. M.

[...]

MR. DAVIES: We're going to go to Bosnia.

Q A question on war criminals and the pursuit of war criminals. From this podium and others within the Administration, there have been comments about how difficult it would be to do car- to-car searches, for instances, of various indicted war criminals. But there are reports from the region that, in fact, there are some car-to-car searches taking place and that they're in fact have been liaison officers assigned to the Tribunal, representatives who are going to be investigating crimes.

Has there been a change in the policy in terms of war criminals?

MR. DAVIES: I don't think there's been a change in the policy. We all followed the development of the policy over the last month or so.

What I understand is that the posters, the information about war criminals, that information and those posters have been decimated very widely. A number of units now have them. Troops have been sensitized to the requirement to apprehend war criminals if an opportunity -- a safe opportunity -- presents itself. That's where we are right now.

Q If opportunity -- the widely reported incident of Mr. Karadzic being sighted by IFOR troops and not being apprehended. Can you give us any information on that --

MR. DAVIES: I can't really give you anything beyond what IFOR commanders have said. That was a decision made by the IFOR commander on the spot, on the ground at the time. He or she made that decision, as I understand it, based on considerations that I'm just not going to second guess.

Each situation is different. In that situation, it was decided not to try to wrestle Karadzic to the ground.

q Could that kind of situation repeat itself two, three, four, five, ten times and still elicit that response from the Administration -- from you, the State Department? Would it be acceptable, and would it enhance the Bosnia peace effort if, on a regular basis, Karadzic and IFOR troops were in the same locale and somehow they never connected?

MR. DAVIES: Carol, that's a hypothetical question. You're asking about the future. I think the basic point to take away from this briefing is that we respect the right of the commander on the spot to make a decision based on what they're confronting. This was a case where the commander made a decision. Admiral Smith has spoken about this. The IFOR spokesman has had something to say, and we stand by the decisions that were taken and the action that was taken.

Q You talk about wrestling to the ground. I know it's a figure of speech, but I think you also mean something by it. You mean if there's some risk involved, some physical risk involved?

MR. DAVIES: Again, that's up to the people in uniform who are out there dealing with this issue to puzzle out themselves.

Q If you take that position, if the U.S. acquiesces in that judgment, then essentially you're saying a war criminal has the wisdom to travel around with bodyguards and not simply waltz into the arms of a NATO checkpoint guard. Reasonably, you assume, he will not be apprehended. No?

MR. DAVIES: Barry, I'm saying --

Q (Inaudible) in Argentina, are they?

MR. DAVIES: -- every situation is different. If I were a war criminal in Bosnia, I'd be real scared. I probably would be packing heat.

Q (Inaudible) after this action, though, or inaction?

MR. DAVIES: I probably would have 10-15-20 leather-coated thugs around me as well.

Q Right, and that the poor NATO kids would have to wrestle them to the ground, and not being willing to do that or not having license to do that, the war criminals --

MR. DAVIES: Barry, the challenge that faces our military -- IFOR, which includes some of our people, is to make a decision on the spot; and in some cases, it may be the case that they want to avoid an "O.K. Corral" with civilians caught in the middle.

Q I mean, I don't mean to be argumentative, but if you're not going to look for them, and if you're not going to wrestle them to the ground if they bring their bodyguards with them, that sort of makes it impossible unless they come and, you know, raise their hands and say, "Hey, guys, here I am. Take me. I'm yours."

Q They'll make a terrible mistake.

Q They'll make a terrible -- I guess you're hoping for a terrible -- maybe you're not -- maybe the State Department isn't --

MR. DAVIES: We're calling for those indicted individuals to be brought to justice. We're calling on the parties to the Dayton agreement to facilitate that, and IFOR is at the ready to do what it can, based on the judgment of the commander on the ground to play a role here.

Q Excuse me, but I said, you're not hunting them down, right? You're not going to wrestle them to the ground, and, I should have added -- and you reminded me -- when he travels to Belgrade to meet with Milosevic and he isn't arrested, that forecloses that channel. It doesn't leave a lot except willingly surrendering.

MR. DAVIES: We'll just have to wait and see how this works out, but I think the point to make about war criminals is they can't rest easy, they can't sleep easy, and they won't be able to, I would imagine, for the rest of their lives. We would hope that the vast majority of the rest of their lives is spent behind bars.

Q A lot of World War II Germans lived very nice long lives, and, you know, I don't know that they slept uneasily.

Q Are you planning after all this development -- are you planning to resolve the International War Crimes Tribunal. It's some kind of funny instrument. It doesn't have any job, and it isn't doing anything. No one obeying these orders.

MR. DAVIES: I disagree. I disagree strongly.

Q You are paying American tax dollars for something some organization is doing nothing.

MR. DAVIES: You're beginning to sound like an American journalist. It scares me. (Laughter)

Q I am.

Q That's the free press.

MR. DAVIES: I like it, even though I'm on the receiving end of this.

No, the War Crimes Tribunal is a very serious instrument. It is something new in the annals of history, if you will. It's a body that's been set up before the end of a conflict to try to sort out the issues of justice associated with the conflict.

You've got one big piece of this, which is peace -- with an "eace" -- and the other big piece of this is justice. The United States is committed to both peace and justice in Bosnia. The War Crimes Tribunal, which we've been the strongest supporter of, is the instrument for achieving eventually justice in Bosnia, at least at the level of these war criminals who have been engaged in committing these terrible acts or ordering them or being associated with them.

We stand behind the War Crimes Tribunal foursquare, 100 percent, and we believe that it's an effective instrumentality and will be. It makes no sense to think in terms of going in any other direction. They're working hard with the resources they've got, and we think at the end of the day, they'll prevail, and we'll support them in that.

Bill.

Q Two on Bosnia. Two other issues. Glyn, today Sarajevo is liberated, is free, but in the suburb of Ilijas now, occupied by the Muslim and the Croat authorities, that is, only ten percent of the Bosnian residents -- Bosnian Serb residents still remain. They have fled now from two neighborhoods.

So in fact -- de facto, I guess, is the way to put it, the separation -- ethnic separation is being effected by fear and IFOR -- NATO has failed to instill confidence in the Bosnian Serbs. Is that a fair assessment?

MR. DAVIES: I think it's too early to tell how this is going to end up. I think it is a sad development that so many Bosnian Serbs have chosen to leave their neighborhoods, their suburbs, and flee to Bosnian Serb territory.

Some of them have remained, have stayed. Some of them are even now banding together, I think, peacefully to form groups to look after their interests, which sounds to me sensible. A few people are coming back, because, lo and behold, there isn't the sort of retribution that was feared by many of the Bosnian Serbs.

So we'll have to see how this plays out in the end. We, obviously, would call on all Bosnian Serbs to stay put in the suburbs, not to leave. It's been a terrible humanitarian tragedy as these people have left under terrible conditions.

Many of them may find that in fact it's not such a great thing to have joined this exodus, if you will, from the suburbs. So we'll see. It's early days yet with the Dayton peace accord on the ground in Bosnia, and we hope that things will change for the better in the future on that score.

Q (Inaudible) A high-ranking, well-informed, should I say, defense official yesterday revealed that the Iranians are not leaving the training bases. They're still there, and they're still being watched by IFOR. Do you have any comment pointed to the Muslim government about this particular matter?

MR. DAVIES: I don't know where we are today, February 29, on the presence of foreign fighters on the ground in Bosnia, but all I can do really is repeat that the United States calls on all foreign fighters to leave Bosnia -- calls on the Bosnian Government to get them out. We've been many times over the consequences of failing to do that -- that equip-and-train won't go forward, and so forth.

Once again, I think I would renew our call on the Bosnian Government to get the foreign fighters out.

Q Those generals are due back here, I think, tomorrow, if they're on schedule -- you know, the two --

MR. DAVIES: Right.

Q -- making the round of three army bases. Today at Leavenworth, I believe, and they're supposed to go home Saturday. Will they be told on their way out that unless the Iranians and other foreign forces are out, this project won't go ahead?

MR. DAVIES: I think they've been told that all along. I don't think there's any secret about that.

Q We were told that the State Department officials responsible for letting out the contract for arming and training Bosnians -- (inaudible) arming and training -- that they would meet I believe it was Saturday, three contractors -- three Beltway contractors.

Can you tell us a little bit about that meeting? Has the contract in fact been let?

MR. DAVIES: I don't have any kind of a readout of that meeting. My understanding is that the contract has not yet been let, John (Dinger), is that right? I don't believe the contract has been let yet, but, if there's something to say about that meeting, I can check into that.

Q Why is there so much secrecy surrounding the letting of the contract?

MR. DAVIES: I don't know that there's a whole lot of secrecy. We can --

Q Can you say the names of the three northern Virginia-based companies?

MR. DAVIES: Not if a contract hasn't been let yet, I imagine I can't. But I don't have them here to give you anyway. What we can do for you, if you're interested -- perhaps tomorrow I think Jim Pardew is going to be back in town, and I'd be more than happy to put together a group to talk to him.

Q Background.

MR. DAVIES: Pardon me?

Q You just blew the background rule.

Q If we can get him on the record, that would be great. Maybe he could come here and --

MR. DAVIES: We'll see. Somebody who works on train-and- equip might be able to be available for you.

[...]

MR. DAVIES: Thank you.

(The briefing concluded at 1:55 p.m.)

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