U.S. Department of State Daily Press Briefing, 01-05-01

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From: The Department of State Foreign Affairs Network (DOSFAN) at <http://www.state.gov>

Phillip T. Reeker, Acting Spokesman

Washington, DC

May 1, 2001

INDEX:

BALKANS
1         US Policy for Stability in the Balkans
MACEDONIA
1         US Support for Territorial Integrity of Macedonia
1-2, 4    Secretary Powell’s Meeting with President Trajkovski
2         US Assistance to Macedonia
2-3       Killings in the city of Bitola
3-4       Role of Ethnic Groups in Political Dialogue
4-5       Macedonian Efforts for Return of Refugees
CHINA
5         US Delegation in Hainan to Assess EP-3 Aircraft
DEPARTMENT
5         Departure of US Ambassador to China Mr. Prueher
HUNGARY
5-6       Secretary Powell’s Meeting with Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi
6         North Atlantic Council Meeting in Budapest
ARMS CONTROL
6         Missile Defense Issues
PHILIPPINES
6-7       Demonstrations re Former President Estrada

MR. REEKER: Good afternoon. Welcome back to the State Department. I don't have any announcements, so I would be happy to take what questions you might have.

QUESTION: Well, having heard Mr. Powell today in his stirring defense of Macedonia in the struggle with the Albanian terrorists or guerrillas, it crossed with a report by the Cato Institute. And the Cato Institute says that what's going on there and in part of Serbia reflects the disastrous Balkans policy of the US; that the US managed to pry Kosovo from the Serbs, and the Albanians are determined to have a large area to destabilize Macedonia, to take part of Serbia, and of course they pretty much have Kosovo now and, they say, Cato says, the massive displacement of ethnic -- of anybody who isn't an ethnic Albanian.

Does this Administration find fault in any way with the previous administration's policy? Does it think each of these uprisings is an isolated event, or part of a larger scheme?

MR. REEKER: I am not going to stand here and try to find fault or point fingers. That's not what this is about, Barry. As you know, we have talked for some time now about the situation in Macedonia. As you have said, the Secretary spoke to it right after his meeting with President Trajkovski this morning.

What we are working with friends and allies and Europe, those in the Balkans, is to try to bring stability to the Balkans so that we can realize the long-held belief in a Europe whole and free. And the one piece of that which has not been found yet has been in the Balkans, and so we have worked very hard with our NATO allies, with those in the region who seek to have peace and be able to pursue prosperity, to find that type of thing.

We are no more interested in a greater Albania than we were interested in a greater Serbia. We are not interested in a greater anything but than greater prosperity and peace for the people that live there. And I believe, and we believe, that that's what those people, the vast majority of those people, regardless of their ethnicity, also hope for.

So you heard the Secretary talk about our support for Macedonia. We have strongly supported Macedonia, its territorial integrity, since its independence over a decade ago. We will continue to do that. We have been concerned about the recent tragic, barbaric terrorist attack that occurred there over the weekend. You heard our statement at the time, and the Secretary took the opportunity of meeting personally with the president today to again convey our sympathies. Eight people were killed in a senseless act of violence, right when the political process, a dialogue between all political parties in the country, is going forward. And that is the road we want to see people take. That is the successful road. And President Trajkovski reiterated that in his meeting with the Secretary, and he'll look forward to describing that to President Bush when he meets with him tomorrow.

QUESTION: One other thing, please. The Secretary -- and I thought the President of Macedonia -- implied that US assistance will be more than economic. Is it spiritual, or is there going to be some military or weapons support to the Macedonian Government as it tries to deal with this uprising, this guerrilla campaign?

MR. REEKER: In terms of spirit, Barry, I think the spirit that the Secretary echoed is one of solidarity with the Macedonians, who are approaching this in a process of dialogue. We have discussed before our assistance to Macedonia, which is over $55 million this year, and we intend to increase it in the next year.

On the military side, our aid, in close coordination with other NATO partners, is aimed at strengthening some of the Government of Macedonia's capabilities to respond appropriately to extremist challenges. We have discussed in some detail -- I don't have it with me -- some of the military- to-military programs that we pursue with the Macedonians. As I said, they are active participants in the Partnership for Peace. They work with other NATO allies on that.

On the economics side, obviously we support projects aimed at improving economic opportunity for all Macedonians, regardless of their ethnicity, and President Trajkovski had some very positive and strong words of praise for the USAID and the programs they have pursued in Macedonia, many of those programs aimed at helping create infrastructure, helping to develop economic infrastructure that will allow the country itself to work toward its aim of better prosperity, to work on issues like unemployment so that they can deal with that. And obviously with those types of programs, they will be able to more constructively confront the political challenges as well.

QUESTION: Did the issue -- I mean, apparently 40 Albanian and Muslim businesses were set ablaze last night by Macedonian, or rather Slav vigilantes. Did this issue come up in the meeting? And would you describe that also as an act of terror?

MR. REEKER: President Trajkovski was particularly concerned about that, what had happened in the city of Bitola. He discussed that with the Secretary. The Secretary mentioned to you in his remarks this kind of frustration comes out of these situations. Obviously, our message to those people, regardless of their ethnicity, that that is also not the right answer, that to respond to their frustration, to their anger and rage over those terrible killings on the weekend will not accomplish anything, and that they should pursue their concerns through the structures that the government has been pursuing there in a multiethnic way.

The city of Bitola has a strong, long history as a multiethnic city. It was known as the city of consulates during the Ottoman period, and so it has a long history of an international presence there, and multiethnic, and it is proud of that. And so I think the vast majority of people in Bitola, as around Macedonia, while they grieve for the losses and the families of those eight that were killed, have to live with those losses, want to look forward -- not look back -- or take from their past the positive aspects of their history and work toward a more prosperous, multicultural, multiethnic future.

QUESTION: Would you explain perhaps the US position on the exclusion of the NLA from the political dialogue in Macedonia?

MR. REEKER: I think what we have talked about at great length is a broad dialogue with legitimate political representatives of all ethnic groups, Macedonian, Albanian, other ethnic groups that live in Macedonia, and want to pursue harmonious existence in that country. This type of violence that has been perpetrated by groups calling themselves the NLA or whatever names they want to give themselves are absolutely unacceptable, and we have been very forthright in our support for Macedonia taking steps to deal with that challenge.

As the Secretary said, we will not allow terrorists to derail the political dialogue, and to have those people sit at a table is unacceptable. We have legitimate political forces that are working together in Macedonia and representing a broad, broad spectrum of the country, and that is the process that President Trajkovski intends to pursue and that we fully support.

QUESTION: To follow up, but the NLA actually wants to take part in this dialogue, so does not the -- do you think that they are -- do you take them at face value?

MR. REEKER: There is absolutely no place in the kind of constructive dialogue we want to see for groups that carry out the type of activity that that group has been doing.

QUESTION: This is kind of along the same lines. Apparently, the NLA has now sent a letter to Kofi Annan and George Robertson, the EC, saying that they do want to start a constructive way to talk, and they would like mediation. And maybe that would be a way to work through this. How do we stand on that?

MR. REEKER: I think I would just repeat exactly what I said. We support the process, which is a broad encompassing process representing all ethnicities in Macedonia, all the political parties who have been working together in this dialogue. And that is what we want to continue to support. We are not going to support groups that carry out this type of attack, this type of senseless, totally pointless attack, crossing borders, attacking security personnel. And so we will not at all support those types of groups. And the international community broadly has come out condemning those groups. They do not do anything to support the cause of ethnic Albanians anywhere in the region or in Macedonia.

QUESTION: Well, is just talking to them supporting them?

MR. REEKER: Their answer has been the type of activity that we've seen, the type of terrorist attacks, the deaths that have been involved. And that is not the solution. Guns are not the solution to this. It is a dialogue; it is a process that the Secretary described to you. And as he said, these are dastardly, cowardly acts that these groups are carrying on, and we don't need to have anything to do with them.

QUESTION: Has the Secretary spoken with President Trajkovski about any kind of a deadline for these talks, or are they open-ended?

MR. REEKER: Well, I don't think are setting deadlines or looking at timetables. We think it is important that they move ahead with these talks. The president committed himself to continuing that, even with the tragedy that they have seen. President Trajkovski updated Secretary Powell on the progress made in the dialogue, which are taking place under the president's auspices, since Secretary Powell visited there last month.

And so we need to see progress on core political issues. And they are going to keep working on that, but I don't think at this point it is for us to sort of establish timetables or deadlines. They realize the urgency in dealing with this. I think all the people in Macedonia are seized with focusing on these issues and trying to sit down in a peaceful, calm way to discuss legitimate grievances, discuss the type of country they want to have. And I think that is obviously the path toward finding the solutions that will help things there.

QUESTION: Secretary Powell made reference to some sort of progress that's been made. What progress is there that's been made since Secretary Powell was in the region?

MR. REEKER: Well, a few of the things that President Trajkovski and the Secretary discussed included the agreement among the political parties to delay in holding a new census until that can be conducted according to the best international standards, because obviously that is going to be an important step; agreement on passage of a language law to govern the use of the Albanian language that meets European standards. Obviously the Council of Europe and other groups have developed standards for dealing with these issues. As I said, so many other countries in Europe face these multiethnic issues, these issues of having a number of different ethnicities that make up the citizenship of their country, and so there are examples and standards that can be followed.

Also, the government has been quick to start on reconstruction of houses damaged during the fighting earlier last month and previously, and an agreement on a plan for the rapid return of refugees, those that left the area of fighting and are already moving back in. So those are some of the steps we have seen, and we will continue to keep in close touch with President Trajkovski and his government and to support them in this. Our Embassy is very much involved in working day to day to keep updated on what is happening there.

QUESTION: I'm sorry, who were the refugees? The rapid return of which refugees?

MR. REEKER: Those that fled the area where the fighting was taking place near Tetevo last month, or earlier.

QUESTION: So these are Albanian refugees?

MR. REEKER: I am not aware of all of their ethnicities. They were people that had to flee the area due to the fighting when the extremist groups were firing from the hills there.

QUESTION: Different subject? Is there anything you can say about the team's arrival in Hainan?

MR. REEKER: There really isn't much that I would have to add to that. You would want to talk to DOD, and I believe they may have put out some of the details. I understand that an American assessment team comprised of five Lockheed Martin contractors arrived on Hainan Island this morning. That would be Tuesday morning our time, I am told. And there are, as I understand it, two people from the Defense Attache's office of our Embassy in Beijing there to facilitate that. They are scheduled to spend about two days inspecting the plane, and then will return to the United States to report their findings. I believe DOD has talked to you about their plan being to assess the damage done to the aircraft and report on options for returning the aircraft.

QUESTION: Ambassador Prueher departed today, and the Embassy is now in the Charge's hands. Do you think this is going to be any kind of disruption for the diplomacy which is still taking place?

MR. REEKER: I don't think there is any reason that it should be. Ambassador Prueher, as we have discussed before, has done an excellent job, an absolutely outstanding job, and both the President and Secretary Powell have praised him for that. He did depart Beijing this morning, Tuesday morning, and is en route to his home in the United States, having completed a very outstanding term as the US Ambassador to China.

As you know, the President announced yesterday his intention to nominate Clark T. Randt to be the next United States Ambassador to the Peoples Republic of China, and in the interim the Deputy Chief of Mission, Michael Marine, will act as the Charge d'Affaires at our Embassy there.

QUESTION: Do you have anything to add on the Secretary's meeting with the Hungarian Foreign Minister this morning, apart from what they said outside, which was not particularly revealing? Were there any particular issues that came up?

MR. REEKER: I can just run through with you a little bit of that meeting. I think they had a very good meeting. Obviously Hungary is a strong friend and an ally of ours, and so the Secretary and Foreign Minister Martonyi have a strong personal relationship. They both discussed the meeting in Skopje where they were both in attendance, and so that was a good prelude to the Secretary's meeting with President Trajkovski then shortly after that.

The Hungarians obviously have great interest in the situation in the Balkans, and they have tried to play a positive facilitative role also in encouraging the political dialogue there. It is a country that has also been able to use experience to talk about working in multiethnic situations, and so they shared some thoughts and discussion on the Balkans.

I know they discussed the excellent status of our bilateral relationship with the Foreign Minister from Hungary, noting that really on the basis of the last ten years the United States has played an absolutely vital role in helping to transform not just Hungary but Central and Eastern Europe, and that our presence throughout the Cold War and then in the past decade has been very important to them.

So it was a positive meeting. They look forward to meeting again, obviously in Budapest when the NATO foreign ministers will meet there at the end of this month, and they will have another chance to look at issues there. The Secretary briefed the Foreign Minister on President Bush's speech, which you all will hear this afternoon. And like I said, they will look forward to continued meetings and consultations in coming months.

QUESTION: So the Secretary will go to Budapest?

MR. REEKER: That is expected. I don't have any detailed travel plans to announce, but as you know, the foreign ministers meeting of the North Atlantic Council will be held in Budapest on the 29th or 30th of May. So I will get back to you as soon as we have anything to announce on travel.

QUESTION: And is he thinking of visiting any other countries while in Europe?

MR. REEKER: I will get back to you as soon as we have anything else to announce on travel.

QUESTION: If the Secretary sees these people like the Macedonians and the Hungarians, does he offer them the anti-missile shield? Is this coming into the conversation?

MR. REEKER: I think we will leave it for the President's speech to begin that this afternoon.

QUESTION: I mean, in so far as whether Powell is offering it to Macedonia and to Hungary?

MR. REEKER: I am just not going to go into any more details on missile defense issues at this point.

QUESTION: Another subject? Do you have any comments about the unrest going on in the Philippines and the clashes between the followers of the previous President Joseph Estrada and the government forces?

MR. REEKER: Well, obviously we have been following the situation very closely. The US Embassy issued a Warden Message to Americans residing in the Philippines last week recommending that Americans try to avoid areas where demonstrations and rallies are taking place. And we certainly want to take this opportunity to urge all sides to express their views peacefully and respect the rule of law and let the judicial process take its course.

As we say in so many situations around the world, violence has no place in a democracy. You will recall that in January we welcomed the peaceful transfer of power to the Government of President Arroyo, which the Philippines supreme court reaffirmed unanimously on two occasions. And the Philippine Government has stated its commitment to resolve this situation peacefully and in accordance with constitutional and legal processes.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR. REEKER: Thanks.[End]

Released on May 1, 2001

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