U.S. Department of State 96/01/25 Daily Press Briefing

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U.S. State Department Directory

U.S. Department of State

96/01/25 Daily Press Briefing

Office of the Spokesman

[...]
FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
Secretary Christopher's Meeting with Justice Goldstone..1-3,8
Provision of Information Pertaining to War Crimes.......2,4-5
--Evidence Linking President Milosevic to War Crimes....4-5,9
--Financial Support for War Crimes Tribunal.............8-9
Prisoner Exchange.......................................5-7
--Status of Missing People..............................7
Departure of Foreign Forces.............................8
Status of Mladic and Karadzic...........................9
[...]

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

DPB #11

THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 1996, 2:51 P.M.

[...]

Q I want to give you all a brief report on the meeting that the Secretary just concluded with Justice Goldstone. The Secretary welcomed him to the Department. The last time that Justice Goldstone was here the Secretary was out of town -- as I remember, he was in Japan at the time -- and Justice Goldstone saw Deputy Secretary Talbott.

Secretary Christopher phrased Justice Goldstone for his work personally to create the War Crimes Tribunal, which the Secretary described as a major and positive factor in Bosnian peace.

The Secretary specifically said that the United States will continue to give unstinting financial support; we will continue to make sure that Justice Goldstone has enough people -- lawyers and researchers -- to conduct his investigations. As you know, more than 20 officers of the U.S. Government have been detailed to work directly with Justice Goldstone. We are also the largest financial contributor.

The Secretary said that the United States will continue to deliver intelligence information to Justice Goldstone and the War Crimes Tribunal and all other information at our disposal pertaining to war crimes.

Justice Goldstone, for his part, thanked the United States Government for its assistance, including the financial and personnel assistance. He reported to Secretary Christopher in some detail on his meetings over the past week with General Joulwan, with the new NATO Secretary General, Mr. Solana, and also with Admiral Smith.

Justice Goldstone said that he was completely satisfied with the arrangement that he has worked out with Admiral Smith for security provisions relating to the investigations that the War Crimes Tribunal has already carried out and will continue to carry out.

In that respect, they talked about the very good cooperation that John Shattuck has had with the War Crimes Tribunal. Last week when John Shattuck went into Srebrenica, he took with him two investigators from the War Crimes Tribunal. They were able to take photographs and make notes. This gets to the question of whether or not anyone could hope to tamper with the sites and with the evidence. The sites have already been looked at -- the major sites -- not all the sites, but the major ones. We already have a very good idea of what happened there. So any attempt to tamper with these sites will be fruitless.

They agreed that we need to be closely in touch, the United States Government and the War Crimes Tribunal.

Barry, do you have any for me?

Q Sure. Can you chew and spin at the same time? (Laughter).

MR. BURNS: I can usually do that. Just watch. (Laughter).

They also agreed that we had to pay close attention to implementation of the Dayton Accords.

Justice Goldstone asked for a description of the U.S. view on implementation. The Secretary said we're very satisfied that a zone of separation has been created but we continue to believe that the parties -- specifically, the Bosnian Government -- needs to do a much better job of complying with the commitment to release all prisoners.

Justice Goldstone earlier today saw Secretary Perry. He is now in a meeting with Assistant Secretary Shattuck. That meeting will go on for some time. I know he is available to talk to the press. He doesn't have a press conference scheduled today but he will be available over the next couple of days in the United States to speak directly to you.

[...]

Finally, let me just tell you very briefly, the Secretary met for 30 minutes this morning with Foreign Minister di Tella. They reviewed various aspects of the Dayton Agreement. The Secretary expressed appreciation for Argentina's active role in restoring peace and security to the former Yugoslavia.

[...]

Q Roll back to the human rights matter. Mr. Shattuck was there. It was quite a significant stop, finding evidence, or at least eyewitness accounts of mass burials. How is this material -- what form does this material take? How does he give it? Does he give it today? Is he giving it to Justice Goldstone? Are there papers? Could you go into some depth as how Shattuck's findings are given to the human rights people?

MR. BURNS: In the case of John Shattuck's trip to Srebrenica over the weekend, he was accompanied by two of Justice Goldstone's people. So they shared the information that they developed at the sites that they visited.

But, in general, Barry, what we are doing is, we are turning over all types of information, mostly in written form, to the War Crimes Tribunal. We have information that we have developed based on conversations that a number of different people in the U.S. Government - - civilian and non-civilian -- have had with refugees. We're turning that over to them.

We've had discussions with governmental representatives and some of the NGOs in the area, which is being turned over -- the information from those conversations -- turned over to the War Crimes Tribunal. Of course, you know we have a very broad intelligence capability in the United States Government.

When we glean information through intelligence means about the atrocities committed during the war, we turn that information over. So it's mainly in written form.

One of the problems that Justice Goldstone has had by his own admission is that the volume of material that has come into the Tribunal in The Hague is so great, he has had to expand the number of people available to him just to sift through the material to ascertain what is vital information, what is important and what is tertiary to his investigations.

Justice Goldstone did note -- I forgot to mention this -- that they're working hard on further indictments and he expects further indictments will be made in the coming months.

Q In all this evidence-gathering and whatever information the U.S. considers to be honest, whatever the word would be, have you found yet any evidence linking Milosevic to the horrible war crimes in Srebrenica and in other places in Bosnia?

MR. BURNS: I'm not aware of any information in the possession of the United States that implicates President Milosevic.

Q Nick, you mentioned the Bosnians and their failure to release prisoners. I noticed Foreign Minister Sacribey was in the building today. Who is he seeing? What's that about?

MR. BURNS: Mr. Sacribey has been in the United States for a few days. He's been in Washington for two days. He's met with Assistant Secretary of State Holbrooke who is in the building today. He's met with John Kornblum who, has you know, will be succeeding Mr. Holbrooke. He's met with Ambassador Bob Gallucci, who is just about to make another trip to Europe concerning Bosnia, with Ambassador Bill Montgomery, who has come back to the Department from his Ambassadorship in Bulgaria, to work with Ambassador Gallucci on these Bosnian issues. So, a number of meetings.

Q Are you transmitting to him the message that there will be consequences if the Bosnians do not release the prisoners (inaudible)?

MR. BURNS: Unfortunately, that message has had to be transmitted to him. Most significantly -- as you know, Secretary Christopher called President Izetbegovic two days ago. Today, Ambassador John Menzies went into see President Izetbegovic and reiterated this message.

The message is crystal clear. Mr. Sacribey understands it as well. Our ability to have a normal relationship that would include assistance on equipping and training the Bosnian military will be fundamentally affected by how well Bosnia meets its commitments that it made and it signed -- signed documents to on December 14th in Paris on the Dayton Accords.

Q But do you have anything measurable yet? These warnings, or reminders have been going on for several days.

MR. BURNS: They have.

Q Have there been any releases?

MR. BURNS: Yes. There continue to be some releases on a daily basis. The problem is, Barry, that while maybe upwards of 300 people have been released, that's probably just under half, and perhaps a little bit more under half, of all the prisoners at least that we are aware of who ought to be released. So we're looking for full compliance on the issue of prisoner release. We're looking for full compliance on the issue of the foreign fighters, the mujahedin and others who are present in Bosnia.

Q Nick, you don't think that Bosnian compliance will affect the Secretary's travel plans, do you?

MR. BURNS: Not at all. In fact, I think, Sid, someone asked about this yesterday. I'm very glad to say that the Secretary is bound and determined to go on this trip. He'll be leaving late next week. He'll be visiting Sarajevo, Tuzla, Belgrade, and Zagreb.

If these provisions have not been made, if compliance is not complete, the Secretary is just going to have to pound the table harder than he normally would in discussions with the Bosnian Government.

We see this, Sid, as a critical issue. We've just begun to implement the Dayton Accords. If the United States and the other sponsors of the Dayton Accords -- our European allies -- allow any one of the parties to violate a major provision of the agreements, then we fear the agreements will be tarnished and that they, in the future, could unravel. We're not going to permit that. We've got too much at stake and they've got too much at stake. It's in their national interests to meet their commitments to us. We're bound and determined that they will do so.

Q Did Mr. Sacirbey convey to you, as he did to us, that by tomorrow they're going to release 300 more, which seems to be the last of the --

MR. BURNS: We've heard many promises about when this will happen, and we're just going at this point adopt a wait-and-see attitude. We're very hopeful, and we expect that there will be a complete prisoner release.

Secretary Christopher was pretty much told that in his phone call. We'd like to see it happen immediately, but I'm not going to bet on when it's going to happen. We're just going to wait and see. And, if there's full compliance, then we'll congratulate the Bosnian Government, and we'll move on, because we do want to have a supportive, friendly, cooperative relationship with the government in Sarajevo.

Q Did he say that in his meeting with the Secretary -- that he -- that they were going to release --

MR. BURNS: It was a telephone call two days ago. Sacirbey did not meet with the Secretary.

Q With Holbrooke then.

MR. BURNS: With Assistant Secretary Holbrooke?

Q Did he issue a --

MR. BURNS: I think more importantly, given the hierarchy of governments, the Secretary heard from President Izetbegovic two days ago that there would be complete compliance. We're looking for early and complete compliance.

Q But the Foreign Minister said -- apparently said today that there will be 300 released tomorrow. Is that the message that he conveyed to you here?

MR. BURNS: We've heard a variety of statements, and there have been a variety of commitments made. We're now looking for action.

Q Did he make that commitment today? I mean, I'm -- today, specifically, did he --

MR. BURNS: There have been commitments made today, yesterday, the day before, last Friday, last Thursday -- lots of commitments. Now we're looking for action.

Q How about the Bosnian Government's request for the missing people --

MR. BURNS: We have great sympathy with that request.

Q Did you get any positive approach from the Serbian side?

MR. BURNS: When Assistant Secretary Shattuck talked to President Milosevic the other day in Belgrade, he was assured that there would be that kind of response from the Serbs and the Bosnian Serbs. The International Committee of the Red Cross has now set up a task force to develop a complete, or as complete a list as possible, of missing people -- Croatians, Moslems, Serbs, people of all types who are missing from the war, and we fully support that.

We're involved in that, and we're giving information to the Red Cross to supplement those lists. We do have great sympathy with the Bosnian Government that their missing need to be identified; that the Serbs need to cooperate with them.

Q Can we ask about Wye, or are we still on this? Middle East talks --

Q There's one more topic here, if I might. Nick, on the matter of the Iranian Muslim radical fighters called mujahedin, I think I said incorrect "nomen" for them -- I think that's a holy name. So let's call them Iranian fighters. Has this topic been brought up with Mr. Sacirbey today or any time that you know about? And across the line -- across the zone of separation, people like Arkan and his paramilitaries and others like him, have they withdrawn from the Bosnian Serb section -- the question I asked the other day.

MR. BURNS: The second question, Bill, is a question for IFOR and people on the ground. I'm not aware of where Arkan may or may not be at the present time.

On the first question, we probably reminded them about 100 times in the last few weeks of their obligation to get all the foreign fighters, motley crew, mujahedin, fighters, whatever you want to call them, out of Bosnia.

Q I just have one question about the Secretary's meeting today with Goldstone. Was he satisfied with what the U.S. is doing? Is he asking for more? I mean, what was --

MR. BURNS: Justice Goldstone was fully satisfied with the arrangements that he has made with Admiral Smith for IFOR cooperation with the War Crimes Tribunal for the specific purpose of investigating war crimes -- fully satisfied -- and I think you'll hear him say that in his media appearances in the next couple of days.

Q Did he give you the names of indictments that might be coming down in the next couple days?

MR. BURNS: He did not, no. He operates on a confidential basis, and he did not. He said that they were busy working on indictments. He expected several, if not many, new indictments in the coming months -- new indictments.

Laura.

Q I understand that the Tribunal may be having some financial problems, and that in fact some of the trials may have to be delayed because of not having enough money. Did Judge Goldstone bring this up? Is there going to be an effort to raise some money to keep this going?

MR. BURNS: Yes, he has mentioned that to us on his previous visit here in November, and he mentioned it again today. He's now meeting with John Shattuck to talk specifically in part about this. He's very concerned about it. He has a mountain of information that needs to be processed in order to turn that information into indictments and prosecutions and convictions.

We believe that our European partners have a direct interest in increasing their financial support and their support in the form of people to Justice Goldstone. We have certainly done our part, and we're willing to do as much as we possibly can. Now other nations need to step up.

Charlie.

Q Earlier in this briefing, Nick, you said in answer to a question that you're not aware of any evidence in possession of the United States to link President Milosevic to war crimes.

MR. BURNS: That's right.

Q Is the United States aware of any information in others' possession or in the possession of the Tribunal?

MR. BURNS: I am not aware of that. I have never heard anyone else in my government talk about any other information that's not in our possession that may implicate President Milosevic.

We have said consistently from day one, that Justice Goldstone's operation should be objective, impartial, and independent of the politics of the area; and that the trail of information should lead wherever it should go, and that those who are responsible should be indicted. We very much believe that to be the right way to proceed, and we will support him in that effort.

Q Nick, you've long said from the start that it would be inconceivable to imagine Mladic and Karadzic being around in the wake of the Dayton Accords. What's their status now? Are you satisfied that they've faded away enough?

MR. BURNS: No. No, they certainly haven't faded away. I think as far as we can appreciate it, they don't surface publicly much anymore, but we believe they are still in power. Mladic is commander of the Bosnian Serb military forces and Karadzic is the political leader in Pale, and that is disturbing, because these two people as indicted war criminals have no place in the future government of the region.

We will continue to assert that point, and we continue to believe, Howard, that they will be gone shortly.

[...]

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