U.S. Department of State Daily Press Briefing #129, 99-10-12
From: The Department of State Foreign Affairs Network (DOSFAN) at <http://www.state.gov>
658
U.S. Department of State
Daily Press Briefing
I N D E X
Tuesday, October 12, 1999
Briefer: James P. Rubin
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
1,10 Assistant Secretary Koh's briefing
1 Release of Dr. Perry's unclassified report
1 Dr. Perry / Counselor Wendy Sherman will testify on the Hill
PAKISTAN
1-7 Update on political crisis
2,3,4 Secretary Albright was briefed on the developing political crisis
2,6 American citizens notified of crisis / 4,200 registered American
citizens
JORDAN
7-8 King Abdullah's meeting with Secretary Albright
CHINA
8 Population statistics/policy / Human Rights Delegation in Washington
YUGOSLAVIA
8-10 Humanitarian assistance to Serbia will continue / Ways are being
discussed on how to monitor the program
CUBA
10 Emigration of Cuban Jews to Israel
10,11 Inter-American Summit
NORTH KOREA
10 Visit of DPRK Official
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
DPB #129
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1999, 12:40 P.M.
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)
MR. RUBIN: Greetings. Welcome to the State Department briefing. Some of
you are out of position. First, a couple of brief announcements. We will
have a briefing in about an hour from Assistant Secretary Koh who has just
returned from East Timor and West Timor who will brief you on his findings
as a result of his trip there and his consultation with the East Timorese
officials, as well as Indonesian administration officials.
Secondly, we are going to release the Perry report at the close of this
briefing. The classified report was sent to Congress on September the 13th.
Today, the Administration will be releasing an unclassified version of this
report. I will have copies for you at the close of this briefing. This
afternoon and tomorrow, Dr. Perry and our Counselor here at the Department,
Wendy Sherman, will be testifying and briefing in the Senate and the House
on this report.
With those announcements, let me go to your questions.
QUESTION: I assume you're following events in Pakistan. What can you tell
us about what you know?
MR. RUBIN: Yes, we have. During the course of the morning, Secretary
Albright was briefed by Assistant Secretary Inderfurth about the situation
in Pakistan. Our Embassy there has received credible reports that military
units are being deployed close to airports, that the television and radio
stations are off the air and are being surrounded by troops, that there are
troops surrounding the Prime Minister's residence. There has been
some disruption of phone service. As far as our Embassy has reported
so far, there have been no confirmed instances of violence. The situation
is clearly fluid in Pakistan. It is clear that there are credible reports
that Pakistan is now in political crisis.
QUESTION: On the eve of the new Prime Minister of India taking the oath
today, I mean India time, and some of the anti-peace elements in Pakistan
were saying that they do not agree with the two Prime Ministers as Lahore
declaration is concerned. So what is the future now of Lahore and other
India-Pakistan peace?
MR. RUBIN: I am not sure I would assume that the developments in Pakistan
are related to the developments in India. I know given the closeness of the
proximity of the two countries and the interest in each country in
developments in the other that there is a tendency to link such events. At
this point, we have not made such a linkage. Our view is based on what we
know in the Embassy.
In that regard, let me also add that we have no reports of problems so far
with Americans in Pakistan. Our Embassy is notifying American citizens of
this crisis and urging them to exercise caution and recommending in
particular that they limit unnecessary movement outside of their residences
and that they should be contacting our Embassy or consulates in Pakistan.
Let me just give you some rough numbers as of this summer. This is American
citizens that have registered so that we know where they are. The rough
numbers are 500 in Islamabad; 2,100 in the Karachi region; Lahore, 1,250;
and Peshawar, 375, for a total of 4,200 American citizens that we are aware
of. That's as opposed to those who might be there for other reasons.
QUESTION: Do you know who is in control of the military? Is it Musharaff
or is it the new - the person who was just appointed by Prime Minister
Sharif, Ziauddin?
MR. RUBIN: It is very difficult to characterize this ongoing situation.
Events are very fluid. There is significant confusion. Our Embassy has
reported that there are numerous rumors and reports circulating in
Pakistan. We are seeking more information and are seeking that information
directly from Pakistani officials.
In that regard, Assistant Secretary Inderfurth is now briefing the
Secretary about his meeting with the Pakistani Ambassador, which occurred
in the last half an hour, the essence of which was that the Pakistani
Ambassador was not able to enlighten us on any of these key points that
you've asked about and that we would be in a position to be very interested
in.
Assistant Secretary Inderfurth did indicate the strong and intense focus on
this matter of Secretary Albright and the White House, that we wanted to
obtain from the Pakistani officials here and in Islamabad as much
information as possible as quickly as possible. So that is the state of our
knowledge in the sense of what we are prepared to say publicly. We are not
prepared in a very sensitive time in the middle of a genuine political
crisis to speculate without full knowledge.
If you want to follow up?
QUESTION: Yes. Does the US believe that this is a coup?
MR. RUBIN: Let me say again that, until one is in a position to know
precisely what has happened, who is in charge, what events took place, it
is not possible to make that kind of judgment.
We believe, as we have stated before - and let me reiterate very strongly
today - that Pakistan's constitution should be respected in the spirit as
well as its letter. The circumstances of this current crisis, this current
confrontation within Pakistan, are not yet clear. While Prime Minister
Sharif has the constitutional authority to remove military officers,
General Musharaff's further two-year term of office was reconfirmed by Mr.
Sharif just two weeks ago. So if there has been a coup, we would obviously
seek the earliest possible restoration of democracy in Pakistan. Again,
I don't want to speculate based on lack of complete and clear information
from the Pakistanis themselves or from anybody else.
QUESTION: A couple weeks ago there were warnings coming out of this
building, or maybe not out of this building but out of New York, about
precisely this thing. Is this the situation that was being envisaged when
those warnings were made?
MR. RUBIN: Well, we were clearly not aware of this move in advance. We
were absolutely not aware of this development in advance. Obviously, from
time to time, we have concerns about extra-constitutional measures, but
what we said then and what I can repeat now is that we believe that
Pakistan's constitution must be respected not only in its letter but in its
spirit.
QUESTION: Right. But, I mean, presumably it's not coincidence that this
warning comes out and then this is following it. So, I mean, when the
warning was issued, I mean, was this the kind of thing that --
MR. RUBIN: I don't want to characterize it as a warning. When we've made
comments about the political situation in Pakistan in recent weeks, we've
been quite cognizant of political developments there and we don't regularly
get asked nor regularly answer such questions unless we believe it's
appropriate to do so. Clearly, we were concerned about extra-constitutional
measures. We were also concerned about crackdowns against demonstrators
pursuing civil demonstration and their right to freely express their
political views. We were concerned about the crackdown in freedom of
the press. So we have expressed our concern about not only extra-constitutional
measures but also political measures that we believed were not in
accordance with the spirit or the letter of the Pakistani constitution.
QUESTION: And just one more quickly. Has the Secretary made any attempt
to talk with her?
MR. RUBIN: Not at this time. Secretary Albright asked Assistant Secretary
Inderfurth to apprise her of what resulted from his discussion with the
Pakistani Ambassador. He, I would assume, has done that by now and she is
intensively following this development, following it very closely.
Whether it is appropriate at this time to contact Pakistani officials is
something I suspect she will be considering in the days ahead.
QUESTION: Would you like to take this opportunity to repeat those
warnings that you made - that were made last month, telling the Pakistani
army that you would not look favorably on an attempt to seize power? And,
also, since Kashmir seems to be involved in this, in these moves, also to
tell the Pakistani army you wouldn't look favorably at any renewal of the
attempt to infiltrate people into Indian-controlled Kashmir?
MR. RUBIN: I mean, it may come to that but, for now, we haven't made a
judgment about what the political situation is in Pakistan. As I indicated,
the situation is confusing and we're not prepared to direct particular
comments at the leadership in Pakistan based on an assumption of who that
leadership is.
I can say that if there has been a coup, we would seek the earliest
possible restoration of democracy in Pakistan and, clearly, we would not be
in a position to carry on business as usual with Pakistani authorities, as
our laws indicate.
With respect to Kargil, clearly we do believe that an escalation of a very
dangerous situation was avoided with the resolution of the Kargil
situation. We were quite pleased in the political decisions that were made
both in India and Pakistan that enabled that situation to be defused before
the interests of both countries were threatened even further. And at this
time, what I can tell you is that we do strongly believe that Pakistan's
constitution should be respected in both its spirit and its letter.
QUESTION: Do you know where the Prime Minister is and whether he is safe
at this point?
MR. RUBIN: I have told you what I am prepared to tell you about our
knowledge because the situation is quite confusing. If you look at our
clock, you will see that it's very late at night in Islamabad. We are
getting the reports as quickly as we can disseminated from the Embassy. I
have told you what we know, which is that the military units are being
deployed close to airports, that they have occupied television and radio
stations, and there have been disruption of phone service and that,
apparently, the Prime Minister's residence has been surrounded by military
units. Beyond saying that, I am not prepared to speculate at this
time.
QUESTION: Lieutenant General Ziauddin was in the States a couple of weeks
ago. What can you tell us about that visit and did anybody in this
Department or the White House ask him as to whether or not something was in
the works, any kind of a --
MR. RUBIN: Well, I wouldn't be in a position to detail a private
conversation like that in great detail. I can say this, that General
Ziauddin came to Washington for long-scheduled consultations related to his
position as head of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate. He met
with counterpart officials and with officials here in the State Department
and other agencies.
His visit was part of our ongoing practice of staying in touch with senior
levels of the Pakistani military. We had invited, indeed, General Musharaff
to come to come to Hawaii, but General Musharaff had declined the
invitation to Hawaii because of scheduling conflicts. So we meet with a
number of senior military and intelligence officials and, clearly, we talk
to them about the situation in their country. That's normal in such a
consultation, but we certainly had no advanced knowledge of today's
developments.
QUESTION: Has the Secretary not made any calls or anyone else not made
any calls to Pakistan because the United States does not know who is in
control there? Is that the reason why?
MR. RUBIN: I wouldn't jump to any conclusions. We have just met in the
last hour with the Ambassador from Pakistan to the United States. Our
Embassy is in touch with its counterparts in Pakistan. These events have
occurred in a matter of a few hours, and although reporters' filing times
may occur every hour, that doesn't mean government functions on that
schedule.
In our view, the right course of action right now is to try to ascertain as
best we can the situation, make some judgments about what we can know and
what we can't know, and from there make decisions as to who to contact and
when. No such decisions have been made. I wouldn't assume that the reason
you speculated that we didn't call was the reason we haven't yet called.
Do you have a follow-up to that?
QUESTION: Where was the meeting between them?
MR. RUBIN: Here in the Department. Did you have a question?
QUESTION: Yes. Obviously, Pakistan is a nuclear power. Are you concerned
about control of nuclear material and nuclear weapons within Pakistan
during this coup attempt?
MR. RUBIN: First of all, I've been very careful not to characterize it
the way you have characterized it. Again, I think it would be premature to
jump to grand conclusions. We have always been concerned about the fact
that Pakistan and India have been taking steps to develop a nuclear weapons
capability. That is one of the reasons why we are strongly in favor of the
ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, because we believe
that that will be another lever and another tool in our effort to
convince Pakistan and India not only to sign the treaty - and, clearly,
the governments there wouldn't sign the treaty if they didn't think it was
in their national interest - but also to ratify the treaty. As we have seen
in the case of the Chemical Weapons Convention, the United States often
plays a leading role.
With respect to control of the nuclear capability Pakistan may have, I
don't think there is a fear right this moment that that is jeopardized by
recent developments. That doesn't mean that couldn't change and I wouldn't
want to make any elaborate statement for all time on that. But right now,
this is a political crisis, not anything more than that.
QUESTION: Do you have anything extra on the disruption of phone lines? Do
you have any impression that the military is deliberately cutting
communications to --
MR. RUBIN: It's a good question. I just don't know the answer. They did
report interruptions in phone service that they thought were linked to the
fact that the television and the radio were surrounded and you saw various
major communications nodes affected. So I don't know the reasons for it or
what the intentions behind those who might have done it would be.
QUESTION: Your consultations from the Embassy to Americans and the
Embassy to officials, are they telling people to come to work tomorrow? Do
you expect a normal day under the circumstances, or are they telling people
to stay home?
MR. RUBIN: As I indicated earlier, the basic message is we are urging
them to exercise caution, number one; and, number two, that they limit
unnecessary movement outside of their residences. That is the term of art
that we've used to signal our concern for the security situation. Obviously,
if people feel it's absolutely necessary to go to their office for some
reason or another, they may choose to do so. But we're saying any
unnecessary movements outside the residence we would recommend against.
QUESTION: Just to follow up and make sure I understand, is that the
message to all Americans or is that the message to official Americans?
MR. RUBIN: All American citizens.
QUESTION: Do you know or can you say if there has been any military
activity on the border with India on either side, India or Pakistan, and
especially in Kashmir?
MR. RUBIN: I will have to check that for you. It wouldn't be unusual for
there to be military activity along that border; there is most days.
QUESTION: Just to follow one more. Are you saying no one, as of now, we
are speaking, have contacted from the Pakistani military, from any units or
from government, either here in Washington or the US Embassy in Islamabad?
MR. RUBIN: No, I didn't say that. I said we are seeking our information
from a variety of sources inside of Pakistan, including a variety of
Pakistani officials. As far as the high-level contact is concerned, when I
was asked about the Secretary making phone calls, I indicated that
diplomatically the highest level contact that I am aware of now has been
with their Ambassador here and our Assistant Secretary here in the
Department.
QUESTION: Just one more follow up. I'm sorry. Islamabad, I mean, Nawaz
Sharif has been sending high-level officials here including his brother,
who came here in Washington, and they had indicated that his government is
in trouble unless Washington comes to rescue as late as last week even they
have told that military coup could come at any time.
MR. RUBIN: Well, in addition to repeating the point that Pakistan's
constitution should be respected in spirit as well as letter, let me say
the current circumstances, although they are not yet clear, Prime Minister
Sharif has the constitutional authority to remove military officers.
General Musharaff's further two-year term of office was reconfirmed by Mr.
Sharif just two weeks ago, so that is worthy of note.
QUESTION: Why are you pointing that out? You seem to be suggesting that
Sharif has an obligation to keep this guy.
MR. RUBIN: I didn't say that. I was pointing out the facts, and that just
two weeks ago he was reconfirmed in his post and obviously something
changed since then.
QUESTION: But you are not in a position to condemn the actions of any one
group or --
MR. RUBIN: Until we know the facts surrounding what's going on now, today,
inside of Pakistan and who these units are, who they are reporting to,
there are a number of different theories being speculated upon about who
these units are and who they report to. And until one knows the facts, it
would be imprudent to direct messages at one place or another.
QUESTION: Do we have any evidence of confrontations between different
military units?
MR. RUBIN: What I can say at this time is we have seen no confirmed
instances of violence but, obviously, the situation is fluid.
QUESTION: Let us say it is a coup. Then what Washington is willing to do
and how far Washington is willing to go or ready to work with the military,
whoever comes in power?
MR. RUBIN: I think I indicated in response to your colleagues' questions
several times now that if there has been a coup, we would seek the earliest
possible restoration of democracy in Pakistan and, in the meantime, clearly
we would not be in a position to carry on business as usual with Pakistani
authorities consistent with our laws.
I think we have exhausted this subject.
QUESTION: A little more than a year when we were going through the
nuclear testing by both India and Pakistan, the United States, I believe,
cut off the few remaining relationships - other than diplomatic, of course.
Could you just give us an update on where all that stands?
MR. RUBIN: Right. I can get you some material but, basically, in May of
1998 we terminated foreign assistance that wasn't humanitarian assistance;
we terminated defense article sales and defense service sales, construction
services, licenses for the export of items on the U.S. munitions list,
foreign military financing, credit guarantees and loans by international
financial institutions.
We have made modest adjustments to that in terms of distinguishing between
entities that are involved with the India and Pakistani nuclear missile or
conventional programs that advises companies in advance - American
companies - of what trade is permitted and not permitted. That was put in
the Federal Register in mid-November 1998 to make an update following some
positive developments. Obviously, we have also made exceptions for
humanitarian-type loans in the international financial institutions.
QUESTION: King Abdullah of Jordan had breakfast with the Secretary. Did
he bring a message from the Iraqi leadership? And, if so, what was it and
what did she respond?
MR. RUBIN: Well, contrary to reports in the press - I know this will come
as a great shock to you - there was no message from the Iraqi government
delivered by King Abdullah to Secretary Albright. At this point, we have no
reason to think there would be a message in his later meeting with the
President.
The Secretary did have an opportunity to meet with King Abdullah in a one-
on-one breakfast at her home this morning. They discussed not only the
Middle East peace process but also Jordan's economic reform program,
American assistance to Jordan, the overall topic of Iraq. Certainly, during
those discussions, the Secretary made it clear that Saddam Hussein must
comply with all UN Security Council resolutions and that the United States
is working with the international community to expand humanitarian relief
for the Iraqi people.
We expect Iraq to comply fully with its obligations under UN Security
Council resolutions. There has been no change in that policy. As we have
indicated in the past, we see no need for a dialogue; the Iraqis know
precisely what they need to do and have been avoiding it repeatedly and
consistently for so many years now.
QUESTION: Did the Secretary specifically ask the King if he was carrying
a message or did he say, "Contrary to reports, I have no message for
you"?
MR. RUBIN: I don't think it would be appropriate for me to give you a
blow-by-blow of what the Secretary said to the King and the King said to
the Secretary in a one-on-one meeting, but I did check with her afterwards.
She indicated to me that there was no message delivered by King Abdullah on
behalf of the Iraqi regime, Saddam Hussein or Tariq Aziz or anyone else.
They did discuss Iraq, as would be expected in a meeting of that kind.
QUESTION: Can we go to China?
MR. RUBIN: Sure.
QUESTION: The world population statistics were released saying that the
global population has reached about 6 billion. China released a statement
today saying that they would not change their policy on population control,
on birth control, in China. Do you have a statement on China and their
policy of one child per family?
MR. RUBIN: Let me get something for the record for you because I know we
do have a policy on that. I just don't have that in front of me.
QUESTION: Another question about China. Do you have any information about
a Chinese delegation here in Washington to discuss human rights issues?
MR. RUBIN: That doesn't sound right to me. What I know is that - that
doesn't sound right to me, but I will check.
QUESTION: New subject. Yesterday, the EU agreed to sell fuel oil to two
cities in Yugoslavia (inaudible) opposition and over the weekend, Sunday
and yesterday, there were reports in newspapers about this, and I'm
confused about this whole thing.
Is the US policy still the same, that opponents of Milosevic should get
assistance? Because the impression left by these stories was that
Washington was against giving fuel oil to these cities.
MR. RUBIN: As you know, as a good reporter, reporters refuse to take
responsibility for impressions that are left by stories; they insist on
accountability only for the words that they type into their computers. So
let me do my best to explain our position and hopefully you will do your
best to type the right words into your computers if you decide to use
this.
We and our allies want to assist the democratic opposition in Serbia in any
way we can. Similarly, we and our allies are agreed that no reconstruction
assistance should go to the Milosevic regime. We have been a strong
supporter of the Serbian democratic opposition. We have provided and have
made available some $12 million in funds directly to assist the opposition
and free press and labor organizations, et cetera.
But when people are contemplating - and the European Union was contemplating
-- different ideas for assistance in the form of heating oil - we expressed
our concerns, and let me emphasize concerns - that we not pursue a program
that could directly or indirectly support the regime and that it might be
difficult to monitor how heating oil is used, who gets the heating oil
and where it goes.
We have been and will continue to be supporters of providing humanitarian
assistance to Serbia. We have provided $34 million in general funds to the
UNHCR for use in Kosovo, Serbia or throughout the former Yugoslavia. But we
don't want money spent on reconstruction and we don't want money to go
directly to support the regime.
We had concerns and still have concerns that the energy for democracy
proposal could - and I emphasize the word could - directly or indirectly
benefit the regime and neither we nor our allies want to see that happen.
So we are discussing with them ways to monitor the program to, to control
how it's used, to have confidence that the heating oil is going to the
right purpose so that the unintended effect of assisting the regime doesn't
happen.
We also would strongly oppose measures to allow, for example, airline
flights to resume between Belgrade and the Western world. That we would
strongly oppose. To sum up, there are some measures we strongly oppose like
airline flights from Belgrade that would line the regime's pockets, that
would only be for the rich who can afford aircraft and airline tickets. We
would have questions and concerns about pilot projects. If the regime were
to get benefit from those projects, we would oppose them. But right now,
that is not the case and these pilot projects are going forward and
we have no objection to that provided that the monitoring of those projects
is done effectively and we know that it doesn't end up supporting the
regime.
QUESTION: Have you presented any suggestions or ideas --
MR. RUBIN: Yes, we have. We are in regular discussion now with the
European allies on ways to insure that the well-intentioned Energy for
Democracy Act doesn't get misused by the Milosevic regime.
QUESTION: Can you go into it at all?
MR. RUBIN: Essentially, it involves monitoring that the heating oil is
going to places that need it and that the heating oil is not going to
people who are ending up supporting the regime.
QUESTION: Then it is not really going to places that need it because it's
only going to places that need it that aren't supporters of Milosevic.
MR. RUBIN: Again, there are two criteria: one, you're an opposition
municipality; two, you need it. We believe that, in general, we want to be
supportive of humanitarian supplies for all of Serbia, not just for
opposition-held areas. When it comes to heating oil, which is a borderline
issue -- because we do not judge that there will be a massive hearing oil
shortage this winter -- when it is a borderline issue, we want to be sure
that it's used in a way that only benefits the opposition and does not
directly or indirectly benefit the regime.
QUESTION: Do you all think it's a positive thing that the reports that
the Cubans are allowing Jews to emigrate to Israel? What is your take on
that?
MR. RUBIN: We have reported on this question, the religious freedom
situation in Cuba, in our recent Religious Freedom Report, which cited Cuba
as restricting religious communities. The fact that members of the Jewish
community have been allowed to emigrate to Israel is a step forward in
Cuba's overall religious policy. We welcome the fact that they are now in a
position to emigrate more freely.
Go ahead, get it out.
QUESTION: Any word from Julia Taft or any of the parties that went to
East Timor?
MR. RUBIN: As I'm sure you heard when you were here earlier, Assistant
Secretary Koh will be briefing in 10 minutes on that very matter.
QUESTION: Turning to North Korea, a high ranking North Korean official is
coming this week?
MR. RUBIN: I don't have a time or a date to offer you at this time.
QUESTION: On Cuba? There is a report in Latin America saying that the
United States Government is trying to boycott the Inter-American Summit
that is going to take place in Cuba. Do you have any response to these
accusations?
MR. RUBIN: That we are boycotting? I don't expect us to go to Cuba. We
wouldn't be going.
QUESTION: No, you are not going there but you are trying to persuade
Argentina, Chile and other countries not to.
MR. RUBIN: We certainly have taken the view that high-level contact with
Fidel Castro's regime, in the absence of very strong statements and
pressure on the human rights front, could inadvertently give the impression
that countries support the regime. I think Castro is having his own
problems with this summit already. As I understand, several countries, for
a variety of their own reasons, are already planning not to go and I don't
think they need any help from us.
(The briefing was concluded at 1:15 P.M.)
|
