U.S. Department of State 96/03/12 Daily Press Briefing

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U.S. Department of State

96/03/12 Daily Press Briefing

Office of the Spokesman

DEPARTMENT
 Possible Shutdown - March 15 .......................... 1
 Dep Secretary Talbott & Berger Trip to Caucasus ....... 1,13
[...]
FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
 War Crimes Tribunal Access to Detained Bosnian Serbs ... 8
 Improvement in Compliance w/Dayton re: War Crimes ...... 8-9
EU
 Secretary Christopher Lunch w/EU Reps - March 11 ....... 9-10
[...]
GERMANY
 Markus Wolf Visa Denial ................................ 14-15
  -- Stasi Support of Terrorism ......................... 15

A couple of other things very quickly.

One, just to alert you that we are once again facing, as of close of business this Friday, the possibility that we won't have funding. Our latest continuing resolution expires on March l5. We hope that by close of business Friday legislation will be enacted to extend funding for the State Department, but passage, of course, is by no means a sure thing. As a consequence, once again we have to spend a lot of effort, a lot of valuable time and resources this week, to prepare for another shutdown.

This comes at a bad time for us. It's never a good time but it is a particularly bad time, since we've got a lot of things going on -- important things regarding Middle East peace, Bosnia, what's occurring in the Far East, Cuba, and elsewhere. We've talked a lot about the adverse impact that previous shutdowns have had on our employees. We hope that we get funding beginning this Friday and that legislation is enacted quickly.

Finally, on the Caucasus, just to alert you to a trip by Deputy Secretary Talbott and Mr. Berger, the number two at the National Security Council. They are traveling to Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan this week to discuss regional efforts toward peace and Caspian energy issues. Deputy Secretary Talbott, of course, also traveled to Moscow where the Caucasus was one of a number of issues on the agenda.

And with that, to your questions.

[...]

MR. DAVIES: Are you talking about the two who were picked up --

Q They were picked up last week, I think.

MR. DAVIES: Right. My understanding is that Assistant Secretary John Shattuck, who's in the region, had something to say about that. I saw some reports on the wires just in the last hour or so that would indicate that the War Crimes Tribunal will be granted access to those two individuals, which is what we've been calling for. So that's a positive development. We'll have to see what the War Crimes Tribunal, which is the proper authority in this instance, develops in their conversations with those two gentlemen.

Q So would you say, then, that compliance was improved with these countries or with the Serbs and Bosnian Serbs? Overall, I mean, have you seen a general improvement in compliance?

MR. DAVIES: I wouldn't say that we've seen an overall improvement in compliance. I think it's a positive development just on the narrow issue of those two and the access that's been granted to them, if these press reports are correct. That's good. It's important that people who have information about atrocities that have occurred in Bosnia be connected with the War Crimes Tribunal. The War Crimes Tribunal needs to talk to them in order to do their work in developing information about what occurred over the four-and-a-half years of bloodshed in that country.

But I don't think it makes sense to extrapolate from that to make some larger comment that all of a sudden there's sweetness and light coming out of those countries on the whole issue of the War Crimes Tribunal. There's a lot that remains to be done. There are now, I think, 53 individuals indicted by the War Crimes Tribunal who haven't -- the vast majority of them have not been brought to justice -- brought to the War Crimes Tribunal. We want to see those people brought to The Hague and want to see those cases prosecuted.

[...]

MR. DAVIES: The readout I have closely parallels -- it won't surprise you -- the preview that Nick gave you yesterday on what occurred at the lunch. He gave a lunch for European Union Chiefs of Mission, Ambassadors and others yesterday, and they talked about a number of things -- not just terrorism, but they talked about our interest in moving forward on the transatlantic agenda. They talked about peace implementation in the former Yugoslavia, preparations for the summit at Sharm al-Sheikh in Egypt, and they also had a brief discussion of what's occurring now in the Taiwan Strait between China and Taiwan.

But I don't have any news flashes in terms of individual conversations the Secretary might have had or the reactions of the Chiefs of Mission. I think I'll leave it at that kind of a general readout of what occurred.

[...]

MR. DAVIES: Let me see if I've got a little bit on that -- the trip by Deputy Secretary Talbott. I do have a little bit more, not a lot. It may not meet your needs, but let me see.

No -- only that they'll be going to those three countries -- Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan -- to talk about regional efforts toward peace, and then Caspian energy issues -- which means, in that part of the world, oil and the flow of oil certainly. And that Deputy Secretary Talbott will be going to that region from Moscow, so he'll have fresh in his mind his exchanges with Russian officials that are occurring in a broader context: our strategic stability talks with the Russian Government that occur periodically.

What's perhaps best on the Caucasus is to sort of wait and see what comes out of it. So you might imagine they'll be having meetings with leaders in that part of the world and talking about the issues there.

But let's, in a couple of days, see if we can give you a readout of what they accomplish.

Q Did you see the story this morning about the visa denial concerning the former Stasi official from East Germany?

MR. DAVIES: Markus Wolf?

Q Yes.

MR. DAVIES: Yes -- right. Was that a subject that came up yesterday? I don't know that it was.

Yes. We made a determination that Mr. Wolf was ineligible for a visa under a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that states that aliens who have engaged in terrorist activity are not available for visas.

Markus Wolf was the Deputy Minister of State Security for East Germany and also Head of the Ministry's Foreign Espionage Branch. The East German Ministry of State Security -- or Stasi -- actively abetted and fostered terrorism, state-supported terrorism and international terrorism. So he is the number two person in the Stasi, in our view, who was in a decision-making position and participated in determining that Ministry's goals and policies, and therefore was responsible for the actions resulting from policies and goals.

And that's the basis for the decision that we took to deny him a visa.

Q Can you elaborate on the kind of terrorism that he was promoting -- where it took place, that sort of thing?

MR. DAVIES: I can't. Not at this stage. We can perhaps get you some detail on that.

I don't think there's any secret that the Government of East Germany was involved with supporting a number of terrorist organizations, and Mr. Wolf is the number two official in the Stasi who would have been intimately involved in designing that nation's policy to support various terrorist organizations.

I think much of that has been made public since the fall of the Berlin Wall; but that's perhaps something we could get a little more on for you if you'd like, George.

Q Before you break up, I want to refer to your gracious introduction of your guests from Albania and to make sure that they know before they leave that an eminent son of Albania is running the prestigious Neiman Program at Harvard -- Bill (inaudible) I don't know if they've been to Cambridge, but I'm sure he would very much enjoy meeting them.

MR. DAVIES: Thank you for that. Perhaps you can give them some particulars.

Great. Any other questions?

No? Thank you very much.

(The briefing concluded at l:35 p.m.)

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