USIA - State Department Report, 97-08-13

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From: The United States Information Agency (USIA) Home Page at <http://www.usia.gov>

REPORT ON THE STATE DEPARTMENT NOON BRIEFING, AUGUST 13

(Bosnia, Middle East/Ross) (660)

BOSNIA -- Foley was asked about media reports that say the United States offered Biljana Plavsic, President of the Republika Srpska, a deal in which her predecessor and convicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic would be offered refuge in a third country to avoid prosecution for war crimes by the United Nations tribunal in The Hague.

Plavsic allegedly discussed the offer in an interview August 11, which was used in an article by Guy Dinmore published August 13 in the London Financial Times. The article was also published the same day by The Washington Times.

According to the article, Plavsic said that the proposal had been put to her by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright during their meeting at Banja Luka on June 2. Plavsic was reported to have turned down the offer.

Albright was asked about the article earlier on August 13 during a press availability in which she appeared before reporters at the State Department with the Foreign Minister of Chile.

"First of all, let me say that I hope that Mrs. Plavsic remembers the terms of the Dayton Accords better than she remembers our conversation," Albright said. "Second, let me say it is the policy of the United States to make sure that Mr. Karadzic goes to The Hague. That is where we believe war criminals belong. And as I have said, the statute of limitations on war crimes does not run out; and Mr. Karadzic's day will come."

But some reporters did not regard Albright's reply as a denial of the alleged U.S. proposal and questioned Foley about it at his informal briefing an hour later.

"The Secretary did not make such an offer," Foley said, nor did any other U.S. official. "There is a single policy concerning Karadzic, and that is: He belongs in The Hague. And we're not entertaining other ideas or options, " Foley said. "We're not talking about any destination for Mr. Karadzic other than The Hague."

Foley could not explain why Plavsic would make public comments about an alleged U.S. proposal to remove Karadzic to a third country, but did note that "We see Madam Plavsic as the democratically elected President of the Republika Srpska, as someone who has made it her agenda and her battle cry to bring the Republika Srpska back into the good graces of the international community, and we support her in that, because she supports Dayton."

Foley added that the Republika Srpska "flagrantly violated" its year-old agreement that Karadzic would remain out of political life.

Foley was also asked about a report televised August 12 by the ABC network which said the United States is training military troops to apprehend Bosnian war criminals.

"Our views on the importance of strengthening the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague are well known," Foley responded. "We've been looking at a number of ways to strengthen them; we've been looking at all of the options available to us in terms of seeing to it that indicted war criminals wind up in The Hague and are tried there for the crimes with which they are charged. But as a matter of practice, we're not in the habit of getting into any kind of details on planning, especially any military planning of that nature. So I wouldn't have any specific comment on that report."

MIDDLE EAST/ROSS -- Dennis Ross, the State Department's special coordinator for the Middle East, will be returning to Washington from his trip to the region on August 14.

When asked if Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat has given a commitment to fight terrorism, Foley replied that the United States is looking for concrete results, but added that "we believe he is committed to fighting terrorism in and of itself...."

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