U.S. Department of State Daily Press Briefing #81, 97-05-30
From: The Department of State Foreign Affairs Network (DOSFAN) at <http://www.state.gov>
789
U.S. Department of State
Daily Press Briefing
I N D E X
Friday, May 30, 1997
Briefer: John Dinger
ANNOUNCEMENTS
7 Introduction of John Fruit, Summer Intern
7 Departure of Sharon Bowman, Press Officer
SIERRA LEONE
1-3 Evacuation Procedures/Number of Amcits
3-5 Embassy Situation
5-6 Situation on the Ground
CUBA
6-7 Helms-Burton
UNITED NATIONS
7-8 US Contribution to UNHCR for the Great Lakes region of Africa
NORTH KOREA
8-10 Talks
MISCELLANEOUS
10 Police Incident Involving Diplomat
AFGHANISTAN
10-11 Situation at Embassy
INDONESIA
11-12 Elections
PEACE PROCESS
12 Statement Regarding Occupied Territories
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
12-13 Situation Update
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
DPB #81
FRIDAY, MAY 30, 1997 1:23 P.M.
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)
MR. DINGER: Hi, welcome to the State Department briefing. Sorry to keep
you waiting, but we were trying to get the latest news from Sierra Leone;
and with your permission, I'll just go ahead and do that. Then we can do
other business.
The evacuation of American citizens and third country nationals, including
our American embassy staff, began from Freetown, Sierra Leone, at
approximately 8:00 a.m. local time today, May 30th. As of 3:30 p.m. local
time, approximately 900 persons had been evacuated. That includes
approximately 300 American citizens.
Of the non-American citizens, there were many different nationalities. We
don't have a complete breakdown yet, but to give you an example, it
included British, German, Russian, Belgian, Lebanese, Irish, French,
Tajikistani, Israeli, Guinean, Zimbabwean, Nigerian, Gambian, Liberian,
Congolese, and even Cuban nationals, as well as some Sierra Leonean adults
accompanying American minors.
You would want to check with the Pentagon for the precise details, but our
understanding is that the Pentagon used four CH-53 helicopters to ferry
passengers to the U.S.S. Kearsarge, which has the capacity to hold the
number of evacuees that have been taken out.
We anticipate that the evacuees will stay on the Kearsarge for perhaps a
couple of days. They will then travel, most likely again by helicopter, to
Conakry, Guinea. At that point, the third country nationals will be dropped
off, many of them into the hands of their own embassies in Conakry. The
Department of State is arranging charter flights to take most of the
American citizens on to Brussels. That will likely happen over the
weekend.
In light of the deteriorating security situation in Sierra Leone, following
the May 25th attempted coup d'etat, the United States has also decided to
temporarily suspend its operations and withdraw all official American
personnel. Therefore, included among the evacuees are all American citizens
employed or connected with the embassy and their immediate family
members.
Additionally, of course, we strongly urged all American citizens to depart
the country immediately. At the present time, to the best of our knowledge,
all American citizens who wanted to leave have left. There is the
possibility that there may be some remaining American citizens. As I said,
as of 3:30 p.m., we felt all American citizens were out.
Should we come to believe that there may be some stragglers, the option
exists to go back and pick them up. That will be a call made by our Charge
d'Affaires from the embassy along with the military commander. At the
moment, we do not anticipate that to happen, but the option is open and we
are remaining flexible.
That, I think covers most of the evacuation aspects. I'll be happy to take
your questions. I should add, though, that we are unaware of any incidents,
any firing of weapons, any untoward incidents in the conduct of the
evacuation. The reports we've received are that the people are able to
travel to the embarkation point without difficulty. I must say, from my
point of view, I would like to compliment my Department of State colleagues
who, under the most difficult circumstances, have conducted this evacuation
and, of course, compliment our colleagues at the Department of Defense
for their help.
Our first security and our first priority, of course, was the safety of
American citizens. We are very pleased that we have apparently successfully
been able to evacuate all of them. Meanwhile, there is another important
point, of course; and that is to try to restore democracy in Sierra Leone.
We are using all possible diplomatic channels, both directly to the coup
leaders in Sierra Leone, but also to our allies in the region and elsewhere
to try to get them to urge the restoration of civilian government
in Sierra Leone. We will continue to pursue all diplomatic efforts,
including all international pressure possible, to restore the democratically
elected government in Sierra Leone.
There has been enough violence in Sierra Leone. We hope democracy is
quickly restored there by diplomatic means and through international
pressure. Are there any questions about Sierra Leone?
QUESTION: Yes. The number you have been using, I believe, until yesterday
was 400 Americans there. You say 300 were evacuated, leaving about 15 U.S.
diplomats behind, plus family members. It sounds like there's a lot of
private Americans still in the country. And you refer to a few stragglers.
MR. DINGER: Well, it is very difficult, as you know. Americans don't
necessarily register with the American Embassy. However, if forced to
speculate on who might be staying behind, first would be dual nationals who
have a home in Sierra Leone and are either comfortable living there or are
committed to living there and, therefore, do not want to leave. Additionally,
of course, there may be some American citizen missionaries or businesspeople
who also decided to stay behind. Obviously, although we urged all
American citizens to leave, that is their right - if, as I say, either
through level of comfort or commitment to the country, they decided to stay
behind. Clearly, now that we are suspending our presence there, it will be
very difficult for us to provide any sort of services to those American
citizens, and that is why we urged them to leave.
QUESTION: If I could just follow up on that point and George's question.
If all of our people are out of the embassy, then there is really no one to
find, to get in touch with Americans that may still want to get out so that
they might be picked up by the helicopters; is that correct? Is there any -
is there any, basically, anybody for any others to get in touch with?
MR. DINGER: Well, what our system is -- and, of course, it's a very
effective system developed over many years in these sorts of crises -- is
it stops short of a warden system, which was in operation in Sierra Leone,
through which we could get in touch by telephone or radio or any other
means with any American citizens that we were aware of.
Additionally, we made very effective use, we think, of the Voice of America
to announce first the evacuation, and then overnight we have also made use
of Voice of America to inform American citizens that we are temporarily
suspending our presence in Sierra Leone, in case that further affected
their decision and maybe changed some minds and prompted some who had
thought of staying to then leave.
QUESTION: So you could use, excuse me, the Voice of America to inform the
stragglers as to where helicopters might rendezvous with them? Is that --
MR. DINGER: Well, first, I think it's important to say we are not certain
that there are any American citizens remaining in Sierra Leone who wish to
leave. In fact, if we were to speculate, we would speculate that there
probably are none.
However, I think there still are some ways to communicate internationally
from Sierra Leone. So through any number of ways, if word gets back to us
that there are American citizens continuing to want to leave, we will
certainly make our utmost effort to get that word to the people on the
ground, the American Charge d'Affaires, Ann Wright, along with the military
commander. They, of course, will make a judgment call as to whether there
is a need to return to Freetown to pick up any others.
We will do our utmost. We have flexibility here. We have options available
to us. We will make the best effort, as we have done thus far, to make sure
that all American citizens who want to leave, can, and that, on a space-
available basis, third country nationals can as well.
QUESTION: John, what about the embassy? There have been reports that the
embassy compound or the embassy building, once it was shut down, was
actually overrun by looters and had been looted. Can you tell us if there
was any security left behind at the embassy? Or the status of the building
itself?
MR. DINGER: What always happens in these cases, or usually happens in
these cases is that there are, around embassies, locally employed security
guards. Those guards were left in place at the embassy. However, they are
unarmed; and although I cannot confirm these reports that the embassy was
looted, I also cannot rule them out.
QUESTION: Were steps taken prior to shutting the embassy down to get rid
of sensitive documents and things of that nature?
MR. DINGER: Yes, absolutely. These things happen, regrettably, with some
frequency. Therefore, the State Department has a very well established
procedure if we are going to be leaving a post. I should step back a little
bit.
First of all, in a situation like this, we try to keep the level of
sensitive equipment or papers at a minimum. If a decision, nevertheless, is
made to leave, there is quite a specific priority -- a checklist, I guess
you would say, of what we do. The equipment and information is prioritized
according to its sensitivity. I think if you saw some of the pictures of
our embassy employees who have left, you can see they obviously have had a
very wearying time. One of the reasons is because they have been going
through this checklist, destroying sensitive equipment and documents.
We are confident that we were able to destroy certainly all of the most
sensitive information that was there. An embassy has lots of drawers full
of lots of papers. We can't claim that we were able to destroy every piece
of paper in the embassy, but we believe we were able -- that our staff,
working very, very hard through the night - I would remind you, we only
decided to suspend our presence less than 24 hours ago, so they worked
very hard and we are confident they destroyed most, if not all, of
the sensitive information.
QUESTION: And, finally, when you said that the Kearsarge would remain off
the coast for a couple of days, is the reason for that also just to ensure
that if there were any stragglers, the Kearsarge would be close by to come
and get them? Or is there another reason why they would remain off
shore?
MR. DINGER: That's clearly one of the reasons and maybe the most
important reason. Also, I believe that the evacuees aboard the Kearsarge
will all go to Conakry. Well, of course, I don't believe, I know that. They
will go to Conakry and they will be helicoptered. I believe there is a
desire to try to get the timing right so that they don't spend the night in
Conakry, that they will stay aboard the Kearsarge until they can helicopter
to Conakry, marry up with the flights, chartered or otherwise, and move
out. So, the Kearsarge will stay for both those reasons.
QUESTION: John, is there any other - are there any plans to leave behind
Charge Wright and other senior staff from the embassy in Conakry to take
care of U.S. business as best as possible from that post?
MR. DINGER: Yes. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to make that point.
Our ambassador, John Hirsch, who was absent from Freetown on private
business when the coup took place -- H-i-r-s-c-h, I think, we will double
check - was absent from Freetown when the coup took place. He is on his way
to Conakry. This is a work in progress since this was a decision,
unfortunately, that we had to make quite suddenly. But the plan is for the
immediate future, to have Ambassador Hirsch and a handful of other
staff remain in Conakry. Meanwhile, we will develop our plan for how
we are going to cover further developments in Freetown.
QUESTION: The situation apparently was basically calm -- no shots were
fired at the operation. But you are clearly anticipating something since
you are closing down the embassy. What is it that you anticipate?
MR. DINGER: I don't think anticipation is the right word. We are engaged -
we are aware of contingencies. The situation is very unstable. There are
several different military forces, both Sierra Leonean and, of course,
Nigerian forces are there. It is very difficult to anticipate what will
happen.
We determined that the situation was so unstable, so potentially volatile
that it was the time to one, urge all American citizens to depart
immediately and two, to suspend our official American presence there. We
did not feel confident that we could ensure the safety of, certainly not
private American citizens, but not even our American staff in the
embassy.
QUESTION: And who will represent U.S. interests?
MR. DINGER: That is a work in progress because, as you know - that is
part of the work in progress that I mentioned. As you know, normally we
have or often we have a protecting power, another western embassy in a
country. In this case, it is not clear that there will be any power there
at all to represent our interests. For the time being, Ambassador Hirsch
and his small staff will be in Conakry and try to maintain to the extent
possible lines of communication to the parties and actors in Sierra
Leone.
QUESTION: John, in your opening remarks, you referred to an attempted
coup. Is it - are your reports from Americans on the ground, sir, that
there is basically no effective government in Sierra Leone?
MR. DINGER: Obviously, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council has staged
a coup, claims to be in control of the government. We clearly want that
reversed and that's why we used the word, "attempted" coup.
QUESTION: What is your understanding of the situation on the ground? Are
they, in fact, in control?
MR. DINGER: I am not sure there is much of anybody in control of Sierra
Leone. That's why I want to reiterate my point: that the immediate interest
was in getting Americans out safely. The second interest, and also very,
very important, is to reestablish a democratic broad-based government in
Sierra Leone.
I really believe that the American people hold fundamental democracy, free
markets, human rights, et cetera, in high regard and that they fully would
support our efforts to try to reverse this act.
QUESTION: There is speculation, though, that once the Americans and
others have been evacuated, the Nigerian troops that are on the ground may
attempt to force that return to the democratically elected government. Does
the U.S. support that kind of an effort? Or would you prefer some other way
to achieve that end?
MR. DINGER: We believe that there has been more than enough violence in
Sierra Leone. We want to see democracy restored. We want to see it done
quickly by diplomatic means and international pressure.
QUESTION: New subject?
MR. DINGER: Sure.
QUESTION: The Cuban Government today, through Ricardo Alarcon, basically
is saying that notwithstanding the April 11th agreement signed by Mr.
Eizenstat and the European Union, Congress is continuing to seek ways to
tighten Helms-Burton and the Administration is sitting idly by and doing
nothing about it. What do you have to say about that?
MR. DINGER: It is extremely easy for us to understand how a senior Cuban
communist government official may not understand how a bill becomes law in
a democratic society like the United States.
What is occurring is that the House International Relations Committee
completed consideration of the State Department Authorization Bill. As part
of that process, some 120 amendments were introduced, 15 of which pertain
to Cuba. These were not secret acts, but fully covered in our free and
democratic press -- another issue Cuban communist officials may not
understand.
The Administration, in fact, opposed many of these amendments. We managed
to deflect some. Others have been revised in order to address some of our
concerns. There are still several steps before the bill becomes law. A
course in Democracy 101 might be in order for the Cubans. Of course, it has
to be approved by the House and the Senate. As necessary, it will be
considered by a joint conference committee. If approved, it will be
forwarded to the President for his approval. Any number of changes can
occur during that process.
The secret documents to which Mr. Alarcon referred have been publicly
available for weeks or months. Meanwhile, we will make every effort to work
with Congress toward a bipartisan goal of promoting a peaceful transition
to democracy in Cuba.
I would also note that Mr. Alarcon seemed to want to speak for the EU on
this issue. Frankly, we think the EU is more than capable of speaking for
itself on these issues. We are currently engaged with the EU in talks on
these very issues. The timetable is that we will work out modalities with
the EU between now and October 15th to address the issue of investment in
confiscated properties on a worldwide basis. After those modalities are
implemented, we will evaluate their effectiveness and we will go to
Congress to talk about modifying Title IV.
QUESTION: Specifically, though, the proposed legislation that would tax
multinational companies that deal with confiscated property in Cuba -- does
the Administration oppose that legislation?
MR. DINGER: I don't have a rundown of the 15 amendments that are
currently on, so I can look into what our position was on that particular
amendment.
QUESTION: That seemed to be the key, as I understand it.
MR. DINGER: I think there were several that we opposed. I'll be happy to
look into it to see which they were and which elements may have been. I
can't even confirm, frankly, that that is still in any of the amendments.
As we know, in a democracy this is a moving target as it goes through the
amendment process. Anything else?
Actually, let me then go through a couple of statements.
First, I want to introduce Mr. John Fruit of Pratt, Kansas, and also a
student at the University of Kansas, who has joined us for the summer, as
an intern, as a Press Officer. Please feel free to go to John with all of
your ideas -- I won't call them complaints -- and he will be happy to do
his best to help you. Welcome, John.
Also, not present in the room today but we are saying farewell to a Press
Officer, Sharon Bowman, who many of you may know because she is the
building pass person. Sharon is leaving us after two and half years in the
press office. She is looking forward to, I think, almost a year in language
training, and then she will go on to Ankara, Turkey, where she will be an
officer in our Political Section, helping cover, I think, essentially
domestic Turkish political issues.
QUESTION: How do we renew our passes?
MR. DINGER: She has left her pass portfolio in excellent shape, and we
will have another person happy to help you with your passes; because, of
course, we want to facilitate in any way possible --
(Laughter.)
-- the coverage of American foreign policy by the world's press.
Next, I do want to also announce a new U.S. contribution for assistance to
refugees in the Great Lakes region of Africa. The United States is
contributing additional funding in the amount of $12.6 million to the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in response to the 1997
United Nations consolidated inter-agency appeal for the Great Lakes
emergency.
This brings the total contributed this year by the United States to over
$25 million. We remain deeply concerned about the fate of refugees and
recent returnees in the Great Lakes countries, particularly in light of
numerous reports of serious human rights abuses against refugees and other
civilians.
We also support the outstanding efforts of UNHCR to care for these victims
of conflict, often under very difficult and dangerous circumstances. We
also call for full and free access for humanitarian workers throughout the
region. Although the UNHCR can use these funds flexibly, we anticipate that
most will go toward the effort to find, care for and repatriate to Rwanda
those refugees who remain in the Congo. Yes, Bill.
QUESTION: I have another subject. There, I believe, are working-level
talks in New York, three-party working-level talks with the North Koreans.
Have they borne any fruit? Any scheduled three-level talks or four-party
talks?
MR. DINGER: There are working level U.S.-South Korean-North Korean talks
being held today at the - I'm sorry; I guess I don't have the location. The
meeting is in accordance with the agreement reached during the U.S.-ROK-
DPRK talks in New York, April 16 through 21. These will continue discussions
at the working level to realize four-party talks.
All sides at the April meeting agreed to have such meetings. In recent
weeks, we came to a consensus to meet today. This is the first such
trilateral meeting since the April talks, but the three sides have remained
in communication.
The purpose of the meeting is to continue discussions at the working level
to realize four-party talks. These diplomatic contacts are moving in the
right direction. But we do not expect to have something new to report after
each meeting. I would point out to you that this is a process, a steady
process. One step in that process is today. Hopefully another step will be
four-party talks. Hopefully the ultimate conclusion will be a peace treaty.
But this is a process.
While on the subject, I would just also like to refer all of you to a
briefing that our Acting Assistant Secretary Chuck Kartman gave at the
Foreign Press Center yesterday in which he provided a comprehensive review
of all issues connected to the DPRK.
QUESTION: Can you do that for the American press in the near future?
MR. DINGER: I'll look to see if we can do that.
QUESTION: You are describing these as talks. The initial meeting was a
briefing. Is there a nuance in language here that we should be sensitive
to? I mean, briefing is --
MR. DINGER: Well, I think there is a nuance, but I'm not sure you have to
be terribly sensitive to it.
QUESTION: Yeah, I understand the briefing could be, you tell us what is
happening. Talks convey a sense of back and forth.
MR. DINGER: I think that the accurate way to address that issue is that
that was the first set of talks. You may remember we offered a briefing on
our four-party talks proposal, which we gave in April. This is a continuation.
So if you would like to call them a continuation of the briefing, that is
fine with me.
QUESTION: I mean, to put it another way, the big thing in that context
suggested that the U.S. and South Korea were explaining to North Korea what
the process was.
MR. DINGER: These, including in April, these are not one-way conversations.
This is a - what is three people? Is that a dialogue, as well? A three-way
dialogue. This is a dialogue, as it was in April. It's a give and
take.
QUESTION: There are only trilateral talks today?
MR. DINGER: These are trilateral.
QUESTION: Not bilateral?
MR. DINGER: That's correct. Let me just also mention, we anticipate that
the talks are today only. But as you know, it's difficult to predict. We
don't have any expectation that they will go over into other days. But it's
always possible.
QUESTION: You don't expect a continuing response to (inaudible)
MR. DINGER: This is a process. I don't want to predict --
QUESTION: Well even processes produce news. Is it possible that whoever
is heading the U.S. side will speak to the press afterward? Or will you
have something to say afterwards?
MR. DINGER: I might as well give the names of the delegations, which for
the United States are our Director of the Office of Korean Affairs Mark
Minton. He will be joined on the U.S. side by the NSC's Asia Director Jack
Pritchard. Meanwhile from the South Korean embassy in Washington, Counselor
Soo Hyuck Lee will participate. And for the North Korean side, it's Deputy
Permanent Representative in its UN Mission, Ambassador Li Gun will
participate.
We have generally not announced these talks in advance and, additionally,
afterwards we have found it is best to keep most of the discussion private.
We may have a very small bit that we can offer you later on this afternoon.
Certainly you can check with the Press Office in the late afternoon to see
if there is anything we can offer you.
QUESTION: The North Koreans have said they still want a few things, that
is a lifting of economic sanctions against North Korea. They want more food
aid before they would be willing to come to these peace talks. In what way
is it going in the right direction? You said that these talks are going in
the right direction?
MR. DINGER: We're talking. We have made a very good proposal, a very
reasonable proposal. Secretary Albright has said that the North Koreans
have shown an interest in our proposal; but we're trying to work out
modalities. This is a long-term process. I can only repeat that. This is
not a process that has gone forward in leaps and bounds; it has been a
gradual process. But nevertheless, it has been a process that is headed in
the right direction. And that's where we are today.
QUESTION: New subject.
MR. DINGER: Uh-huh.
QUESTION: Do you have anything on the son of the Dutch diplomat who has
been in trouble with Montgomery County police lately?
MR. DINGER: I don't have too much I can offer you on that. First, we are
still awaiting the final police report. Second, the reports that we have
are that this is a juvenile dependent, and therefore, I think we want to
use some circumspection in addressing it. I would also certainly refer you
to the Montgomery County Police Department for anything that may be in the
public record there.
I can tell you, though, just to give you a run-down on what the usual
procedure is in these cases. If police find that there is reason to
prosecute, they notify the State Department; the State Department reviews
the reports and the State Department then requests a waiver of diplomatic
immunity. If police decide not to prosecute, even if the immunity is waived,
we note the incident and, of course, have the option of taking that into
account in the future.
QUESTION: Is this young man still eligible to drive? As I understand it,
recently he was pulled over on a DWI suspicion.
MR. DINGER: I've seen that report. Let us check further. I'm not aware of
any previous reports on any issue with him. I've seen that report, and we
can try and check into that. Of course you know our zero tolerance policy
for DWI. We request a waiver of immunity. If that is granted, the person
goes through the normal process. If they are convicted, their driving
privileges are suspended. If they refuse a waiver of immunity, their
privileges are automatically suspended. If there is a second DWI conviction
or failure to waive immunity, they are asked to leave the country.
QUESTION: Can you summarize the situation now with the Afghani Embassy?
MR. DINGER: There has been no change in the situation at the embassy. We,
as you know, received a notification from the foreign ministry in Kabul. We
have not been able to give you any details about that. It is under
consideration. Meanwhile, the situation, the operation at the embassy in
Washington continues as it had. The status of the incumbent charge
d'affaires, Yar Mohammed Mobbat has not changed.
I would remind you that the United States Government, as a matter of policy,
recognizes states, not governments. Regardless of the outcome of this issue,
it should not be interpreted in any way as a validation of the policies of
any party or faction in Afghanistan.
QUESTION: Which flag is flying?
MR. DINGER: I believe it is the previous flag.
QUESTION: Are you saying then - well, you indicated you received some
kind of communication from the foreign ministry in Kabul. Is that from the
Taliban, then?
MR. DINGER: That's correct, from the Taliban.
QUESTION: Is this their request you indicated they would have to do in
order to start the process?
MR. DINGER: Right.
QUESTION: Okay.
MR. DINGER: They communicated with us officially through our American
Embassy in Islamabad.
QUESTION: That they want representation here in Washington.
MR. DINGER: That's correct.
QUESTION: Okay.
MR. DINGER: Let me just, since I have the floor on the issue of
Afghanistan, note the continued fighting there, and reiterate our strong
belief that there needs to be a cease-fire; there needs to be an end to
violence; there needs to be a broad-based democratic government that
includes, represents or takes into account the views of all the factions.
That is what's necessary in Afghanistan. That is at least as important, and
perhaps more important, than which flag currently flies over their embassy
in Washington.
QUESTION: John?
MR. DINGER: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: Anything further on Indonesian elections?
MR. DINGER: I won't run through the results, because you have other means
of doing that, I think. I will point out, however, of course the United
States believes the parliamentary elections are tightly controlled by the
government in Indonesia. The electoral system severely limits political
competition. Indonesian citizens do not have the ability to change their
government through democratic means.
I would also note, however, that there are a wide range of independent
organizations operating in Indonesia. One of those is an election
monitoring committee which, on May 30th, issued a statement that said that
although the election generally went smoothly and most of the country was
calm, it believes problems occurred in the electoral process -- such things
as multiple voting, intimidation of party witnesses, discrimination in the
treatment of voters and various procedural irregularities. Not surprisingly,
they also found that the entire election process lacked transparency.
We do hope that the government of Indonesia takes steps to investigate
those allegations and takes corrective action if needed. More broadly,
obviously, we also believe Indonesia should move toward a political system
in which the will of the people can be heard.
QUESTION: Today the Palestinian officials in the Middle East are up in
arms, due to the latest statement by the internal security minister that
Israel will keep 50 percent of the occupied territories. Do you find such
statements helpful -- unilaterally declaring the annexation of 50 percent,
at least, of the land, in the light of the latest statements of Netanyahu
and Sharm al- Sheikh, that there will be confidence building measures?
MR. DINGER: I have seen press reports that, to me, alleged that there
were internal reports from the Israeli Government indicating such a plan. I
don't think I want to react from this podium on alleged leaked reports.
QUESTION: This is not alleged. This is - this wasn't yesterday's news.
This is today's news. The Internal Security Minister has announced that
they will keep 50 percent of the land, including the River Jordan Valley.
This is not the 40-60 percent which the Ha'aretz have reported.
MR. DINGER: I think in any case, if there has been yet another announcement,
I would wait for an official Israeli Government statement before I would
want to react to that.
QUESTION: He is a Minister.
MR. DINGER: I believe those sorts of actions require approval by the
Israeli Cabinet, if not by the Prime Minister alone; so I don't think I
want to react to that at this point. Is that it?
QUESTION: Can you do one more briefly?
MR. DINGER: Okay.
QUESTION: The Congo. Mr. Kabila is now promising elections, promising
democratic institutions, but his regime has the trappings of a Marxist
totalitarian state. Is this government reassured by what he has promised
recently?
MR. DINGER: Although I think everyone is correct in having some
skepticism or certainly caution towards Mr. Kabila. I don't think I would
go as far as you have gone. We do welcome his announcement that elections,
democratic elections will be held in April of 1998. Given the obstacles
that lie in the road towards that goal, that does not seem to be an
unreasonable period of time. You will also note that there were benchmarks,
including a constitutional congress, approval of a constitution, et cetera,
which we also think were important.
I would point out that we believe that the transition period, the next two
years, of course, should also allow for free expression of views, should
allow those views to be taken into account during this period. While
elections will occur in only two years, we certainly believe that the
process itself should be open and should show due respect for basic civil
rights.
Let me take a brief moment of your time, though, and this opportunity to
mention the situation in Easter Zaire, again. There are large areas - sorry,
I guess, Eastern Congo. There are large areas of the Congo which remain off
limits to international humanitarian workers. Nevertheless, there are an
increasing number of reports of mass killings and other atrocities against
refugees and Zairian Hutus.
The United States Government calls on the new government to follow throw on
Alliance promises to permit an international investigation into the
allegations of massacres and other abuses and, if proven true, to bring to
justice anyone found responsible for those acts. President Kabila has made
pledges that he will allow free access and we hope that he will now fulfill
them. These are serious allegations that must be addressed.
Thank you very much.
(The briefing concluded at 2:02 P.M.)
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