ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:95113002.POL
DATE:11/30/95
TITLE:30-11-95 STATE DEPARTMENT REPORT, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30
TEXT:
(Bosnia hearings, NATO Secretary General, Nuccio, Haiti, arms control)
(830)
There was no regular news briefing, but Spokesman Nicholas Burns
discussed the following topics with reporters. No transcript of his
was remarks was available.
ADMINISTRATION GIVES CONGRESS "VERY CLEAR CASE" ON BOSNIA
Burns said "the administration put forward a very clear case" on
Bosnia earlier November 30 during testimony to the House Committee on
International Relations by Secretary of State Christopher, Defense
Secretary Perry and General John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff.
Urging congressional support for deployment of U.S. troops in a NATO
peace implementation force in Bosnia, the three officials addressed
the panel in the first of three separate congressional hearings
scheduled for November 30 and December 1.
"I thought it was an interesting session this morning....I think that
the administration put forward a very clear case," Burns said,
recalling that congressional complaints from earlier hearings on
Bosnia had been, "Where's the beef? Where are the details on this?"
The presentation by Perry and Shalikashvili "was fairly detailed," he
said. "It could have been hours longer, and they would have been glad
to do that if Congress had had the time. But...they wanted the three
of them to summarize their remarks so they summarized their remarks."
Burns also said, "I think that you saw in Secretary Christopher's
remarks to Congressman (Henry) Hyde at the end of the morning that we
feel that the Congress has been calling for action for the last couple
of years...and the administration has provided that kind of decisive
plan for the future. So the sense was it was a very good morning, a
very solid morning for the administration."
SELECTION PROCESS FOR NATO SECRETARY GENERAL
Burns said he thinks "there will be closure fairly soon" on selecting
a new NATO secretary general.
"I think there is an inclination among the NATO foreign ministers to
arrive at a consensus quickly because we want someone to be in place
to lead NATO through the deployment" in Bosnia, Burns said. There are
"several" candidates "still being talked about," he said.
A U.S. official said later that he expects the selection process "will
come to a decision -- if not an announcement -- probably early next
week."
NUCCIO ISSUE BEING CONSIDERED BY JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Burns referred questions to the Justice Department regarding Richard
Nuccio, President Clinton's special adviser on Cuba and a former aide
to Representative Robert Torricelli, who is reportedly being
investigated by the Justice Department for allegedly giving classified
Central Intelligence Information to the New Jersey legislator.
In response to questioning about Nuccio, Burns said, "I can say that
he's an employee of this administration. He still has his building
passes and he's got his security clearances. And on any other
questions I'd say...this matter is before the Justice Department. And
that's all I can say on that."
SUCCESS OF U.S. POLICY IN HAITI
Stressing that U.S. policy in Haiti has succeeded, Burns said he
wanted to defend the administration "against all this negative,
cynical talk about how our Haiti policy is unraveling."
Burns said, "I've just been struck by all of the attacks on the
administration...that somehow our policy is falling apart there when
in fact, I think, by any objective standard, the U.S. military
intervention succeeded in September 1994, and the U.N. mission has
done quite well, by any standard -- the level of stability in society
compared to the level of stability before September 1994...the fact
that there have been elections, the fact that there are going to be
new elections, the fact that our casualties are far below what
everybody predicted they would be."
Asked about the documents seized by U.S. troops that Haiti has
requested be returned, Burns said, "The ball's still in our court. We
need to get back to the Haitians. (President Jean-Bertrand) Aristide
has now said personally that he wants the documents back. It's a very
important request. It should be taken very seriously."
CONCEPTUAL BREAKTHROUGH REPORTED ON ABM/TMD
Reporting a "conceptual breakthrough" on the ABM/TMD anti-ballistic
missile/theater missile defense issue, Burns said enough progress has
been made "so that we can now go back to the SCC (Standing
Consultative Commission) and, we think, resolve this problem forever."
The SCC is the international body in which the ABM Treaty is debated.
Burns explained that the issue concerns "what is the basic demarcation
line between a strategic missile and a theater missile, and how do you
define that?"
"We have had a good series of discussions with the Russians, which has
allowed us, we think, to bring it back to the SCC," the spokesman
said. A November 30 Washington Times article alleged that "somehow
this gives undue advantage to the Russians, particularly about higher
velocity systems," he noted. "But, on that," he said, "the status quo
continues."
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