23 July 2004
State Department Noon Briefing, July 23
Secretary Powell's Travel to Hungary, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Poland, Israel/Palestinians, North Korea, Sudan, Macedonia, Russia/Sudan, Greece
(begin transcript)
U.S. Department of State
Daily Press Briefing Index
Friday, July 23, 2004
12:50 p.m. EDT
BRIEFER: Richard Boucher, Spokesman
DEPARTMENT
-- Secretary Powell's Travel to Hungary, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Poland
ISRAEL/PALESTINIANS
-- Israeli Disengagement from Gaza
-- West Bank Settlements
NORTH KOREA
-- Food Aid/Monitoring Conditions and Monitoring Visits
SUDAN
-- Congressional Resolution on Darfur
-- Secretary Powell's Meeting with UN Secretary General Annan
-- Security Council Resolution
MACEDONIA
-- Violent Demonstrations in Struga
-- Ohrid Agreement
RUSSIA/SUDAN
-- Sale of MIG-29s to Sudan
-- U.S. Policy on Arms Transfers to State Sponsors of Terrorism
GREECE
-- Olympic Games Security/Fact Sheet
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
FRIDAY, JULY 23, 2004
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)
12:50 p.m. EDT
MR. BOUCHER: I see that Friday attendance is dwindling already, so we'll soon get to August and we won't brief on Fridays in August. Right, Adam?
QUESTION: The entire month of August? Okay.
MR. BOUCHER: Only Friday.
QUESTION: Only Friday.
MR. BOUCHER: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, in August, we'll be here for you. Okay?
All right. A couple of things to tell you about today. First, I'd like to welcome one of my counterparts, the Deputy Foreign Minister and Spokesman for Bulgaria is with us today, and I want to welcome her to our little briefing room for the show. And any questions on Bulgaria, we'll direct to the corner over here. And actually, our policies are so closely aligned on so many things, she can probably answer most of the questions, so and we'll let her do that.
QUESTION: She's not even taking notes.
MR. BOUCHER: No, she knows the answers before I give them. You do, too, George. (Laughter.)
Okay. I'd like to make two announcements today: one is on travel; and the other is on food for North Korea.
On travel, the Secretary will travel on -- leaving on July 26th. We're going to Hungary, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Poland. In the Middle East, Secretary Powell discussed with our close friends there the situation in Iraq, cooperation in the war on terror, the situation between the Israelis and the Palestinians and the opportunities created by the Gaza withdrawal and the issue of reform in the Broader Middle East and North Africa.
In Hungary, he'll be meeting with a wide spectrum of Hungarian society to emphasize the strength of our bilateral relationship with Hungary, and also he'll be speaking to a meeting of Hungarian Chiefs of Missions, Hungarian Ambassadors meeting in Budapest. And in Poland, Secretary Powell will attend the 60th anniversary commemorations of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. So he'll be gone for about seven days. And, let's see, those are the places we can tell us about at this point. There might be changes to the schedule. It's not all pinned down yet.
Questions on that or not?
Saul.
QUESTION: Why is he going to the Middle East at this time? Why choose now?
MR. BOUCHER: Well, as I outlined for you, there is a lot of different issues that our friends in the Middle East are working on, as we are. The situation in Iraq, obviously, and what we can all do to help the Iraqis achieve stable, democratic society, get through this interim period into elections is one that we all want to work together on, in terms of our friends in the Middle East.
The opportunities created by the Israeli disengagement from Gaza and withdrawal from some of the settlements on the West Bank is another area where we have cooperated very closely with friends in the region like Egypt to try to work to the point where the Palestinians can take responsibility and take authority over the areas and over controlling the violence. So there are a lot of things that are sort of ongoing issues that we're working with them.
As you know, we've talked to many Middle East nations about the progress of reform, different ways, different pace and different nations, but it's on the agenda from all of the meetings we had in June, including some of the meetings we had with Middle Eastern leaders in May and June. And we'll want to keep discussing and pursuing that.
QUESTION: And does the choice of going to Egypt reflect how crucial the United States thinks Egypt's role is in making plans for the withdrawal in Gaza?
MR. BOUCHER: We recognize the important role that Egypt has offered to play and is playing in trying to work on this and meet with both the Israelis and the Palestinians. And so, we certainly have welcomed that role. We've discussed it with them many times. You remember Ambassador Burns was just out there a few weeks ago meeting with the Egyptians and with others in Egypt. And so, we'll continue to pursue that. The Secretary wants the chance to talk directly to the Egyptian leaders about it.
And you'll also remember that Egypt has a new Foreign Minister, so it's a chance to get together with one of his counterparts.
Okay. North Korea. The United States will donate 50,000 tons of agricultural commodities through the World Food Program for the people of North Korea. We're providing food aid to help relieve the suffering of the North Korean people, despite our concerns about the North Korean Government's policies. We remain committed to contributing food aid to help meet urgent humanitarian needs.
U.S. decisions on food aid are made on the basis of three criteria: demonstrated need, competing needs elsewhere, and the donor's ability to access all the vulnerable groups and to monitor distribution.
The World Food Program has informed us that over the past six months, the North Koreans have allowed an increased number of monitoring visits to distribution sites in North Korea and more frequent evaluations of family food security conditions. However, North Korea still falls short of meeting international standards for humanitarian access that are accepted by other recipients of international food assistance.
So, we'll plan to continue to discuss with North Korea and with the World Food Program and other donor countries the need for better access. Funding for the 50,000 metric ton donation will come from the U.S. Agency for International Development's PL-480 program. A mix of commodities for the donation will be determined soon, in consultations with the World Food Program.
I would say this -- point out that this 50,000 tons is in response to a global appeal from the World Food Program for 484,000 metric tons of food to meet urgent needs of North Korea during calendar year 2004. The World Food Program distributes most of the food to needy children, pregnant and nursing women.
Okay. David.
QUESTION: Do you anticipate another tranche of aid? I mean, there were two last year, and I'm just --
MR. BOUCHER: There were two last year. That's always possible. It will be based on our evaluation of the criteria. The three criteria I gave you -- urgency of need, competing needs elsewhere, and the ability to monitor and to have access to populations -- so we'll keep those things under advisement.
We'll also be watching closely how other countries respond to the appeal. I think this year, perhaps, there have been greater responses by other countries so far to the World Food Program's appeal. But we've always been willing to step up and contribute our fair share or more. In fact, I think we've always been the largest donor. And so we'll look at the needs as the year progresses and see if there's both the requirement and the ability to provide more.
QUESTION: You said there was an increase in the number of monitoring visits? Are there more counties or simply an increase in visits?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't have the details of that. I think that's information we get from the World Food Program, so they'd have to be more specific on exactly how many places they distribute and how many they've been able to visit, in what way, how often.
QUESTION: I know you said that, obviously, this is a humanitarian issue. But does it, in any way, help you with the negotiations --
MR. BOUCHER: It's not really, in any way, linked to the six-party talks. It's always been for us a humanitarian issue. We've been able to provide assistance to the North Korean people when we had these talks, when we didn't have these talks. It's our desire to help the North Korean people, if that -- how can I say -- if that impresses the North Koreans and makes them adopt a more favorable attitude, then that's good. But our intention is to help the people and not to try to affect the talks.
QUESTION: And you don't have the figures for last year, do you, so that we can --
MR. BOUCHER: Last year, the total was 100,000 tons; 2002 was 207,000 tons; and 350,000 tons in 2001. So, the amount is always based on the appeal and then those three criteria that I gave you.
Okay. Other questions, other topics? George, do you want a first stab at another topic or should I go to the back?
QUESTION: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
MR. BOUCHER: Okay.
QUESTION: I think I know what your answer is going to be to this one. The House voted last night to -- they said that events in Darfur suggest that what has happened there meets the definition of genocide. What is your response?
MR. BOUCHER: Our response, I think, is the description that the Secretary gave yesterday afternoon when he walked out with the Secretary General. There is a precise definition of genocide in the genocide convention. That's the standard against which we have to measure the evidence that can be accumulated.
The Secretary has explained that we do have teams on the ground and collect information through a whole variety of means that will, indeed -- is being and will be evaluated against that definition. We'll certainly take the views of the Congress into account as we proceed in this work.
Yeah.
QUESTION: What is it about the definition in the UN convention that the evidence doesn't yet support to say it's --
MR. BOUCHER: I don't think you can do that. The genocide convention defines it in a fairly precise way. When we think that standard's met, it's met. It's not a matter --
QUESTION: But you're on record as saying they're killing African villages, they're poisoning their wells.
MR. BOUCHER: The point that we've made again and again and again -- the Secretary made yesterday and I should not stop from making today is, as this work of definitions and evidence and decisions goes on, the most important thing is to help people because there are massacres going on, there are horrible things still going on. And we want to make sure we're out there helping people and that's where the focus has to be placed.
QUESTION: So, as it stands, you don't have enough evidence to say that the acts that are being committed are with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, or racial or religious --
MR. BOUCHER: The Secretary addressed this yesterday. I'm really not in a position to go farther than that. He noted the legal definition and that's something that we will evaluate it against, evaluate the situation against.
QUESTION: The convention also talks about -- well, it basically says that the parties to the convention undertake to prevent genocide and that fits in with your attitude of, "Well, it doesn't matter that much because we're working to do the best we can." But the convention talks about appropriate action and the resolution from Congress said that it urges the Bush Administration to seek a resolution for a multinational force.
Is that an action that you think is inappropriate to --
MR. BOUCHER: Again, these questions were asked of the Secretary yesterday. I really don't have anything to add to that. It's important for us all to do everything we can to try to move the government to take responsibility, to try to make the government, which armed and supported the Jingaweit militias, to disarm and stop the Jingaweit militias.
That's the direction of our policy. That's why the Secretary General and the Secretary of State of the United States are making such an effort. That's why we're enlisting others in that effort. That's why we have proposed a serious and stronger UN resolution that now focuses more on the government. And we will continue to pursue our efforts to stop the killings, stop the violence, get the government to exercise its natural responsibility to provide security for all its people.
QUESTION: But the criticism of that policy is that it's been -- you've been implementing it for weeks, and by your own statements, the result is completely dissatisfactory.
MR. BOUCHER: We are always looking and have been looking, have been finding, over the course of weeks and months, in fact, different ways of addressing this issue, of turning up the heat, of doing more. Just did that yesterday with a revised UN resolution. The attention that the Secretary of State and the Secretary General of the United Nations have brought to this issue has, indeed, focused international attention on it, has led to improvements in humanitarian access, has led, at least, to professions of steps by the government on the security side of things, but we haven't seen the effect of those things on the ground and that's where we're continuing to push.
QUESTION: As you look to continue to do more, will you -- do you rule out any kind of multinational force to protect Darfuris?
MR. BOUCHER: I think both the Secretary and the Secretary General addressed that yesterday. I really don't have more to say.
Yeah. Jill.
QUESTION: Do you have an update at all on where we are now, then, with the resolution as a result of the meetings, in terms of timetable, if we have one?
MR. BOUCHER: We passed out the new resolution at a meeting yesterday of experts. The resolution will be discussed again today by experts. We would expect to go through the text paragraph by paragraph. The resolution brings the benchmarks that have been discussed during the Secretary's visit and the benchmarks that were agreed by the United Nations and the Government of Sudan and the joint implementation mechanism into the resolution, calls on the government to fulfill those benchmarks.
Those requirement, demands that they arrest and prosecute the Jingaweit, clearly states that if the Government of Sudan does not comply with the council's demands that the council will consider further actions, including possible imposition of sanctions on the Government of Sudan. And the draft also imposes an arms embargo over the Jingaweit and the rebels in Darfur. It calls on rebel groups to end the violence immediately and to respect the ceasefire. The resolution is being discussed, as I said, by experts, and we'll continue to work it. We'd like to see action in the not-too-distant future.
Joel.
QUESTION: Richard, with what's going on in Darfur province, do any of the current laws have to be revamped in any way to talk about black marketeering, criminal gangs, gunrunning weapons-type marketing and also to explicitly, instead of just government to government, also mention religious groups and religious entities because this appears to be more of a, perhaps, a racial war?
MR. BOUCHER: You're getting back to the original questions about genocide, about ethnic differentiation. Those are questions on which we're gathering data and information. We're looking at all the available evidence and information. But I'm not able to give you, kind of, a judgment or speculation based on that kind of judgment.
QUESTION: Now, also, when you say, we, meaning the United States Government, is doing this investigation, do you want to enlarge that to more of a international scope?
MR. BOUCHER: It's a good question, and probably something I should have mentioned, because one of the topics that the Secretary and the Secretary General did discuss yesterday was making sure that we are sharing all our information back and forth with the UN and with other members of the council and people in the international community that are concerned about it. We've had a lot of information flow, working very closely with the UN special representatives, with the experts, with the humanitarian teams that are deployed by the United Nations. And so there is already a lot of information sharing.
But both the Secretary and the Secretary General wanted to make sure that exactly that kind of arrangement was working properly so that they know everything we know and we know everything they know.
QUESTION: A follow-up to that, too.
MR. BOUCHER: Okay.
QUESTION: The ex-Mexican leader, Echeverria, has also been arrested, or faces arrest, by the prosecutor in Mexico for student demonstrations and killings in 1971. It's taken 33 years to get to that point.
Also today, Falun Gong are demonstrating outside the White House. They're also saying genocide going on in China. And with Saul's question, it seems it's taking better than a decade to get such people, Milosevic and others, into war crimes trials, and so forth.
Is the UN and yourselves working to, as I say, revamp these laws?
MR. BOUCHER: Once again, I think you're speculating on the situation there and tying it into a lot of other things. It's not time to start speculating on changes to the law.
Yeah. Sir.
QUESTION: Mr. Boucher, according to the Reuters News Agency, dozens of people were injured in clashes between the so-called Macedonian police and protesters. Earlier today, "violence erupted over plans to give greater local power to the country's 25 percent ethnic Albanians minority in the southern town of Struga on Lake Ohrid where Albanians outnumber the so-called ethnic Macedonians, attacking also the EU police mission." Do you have anything on that?
MR. BOUCHER: Just that we've seen reports of violence in the town of Struga, where I guess there was a demonstration opposing decentralization efforts by the -- in Macedonia and a group of youths apparently caused some property damage and there were a few people injured. We are watching the situation closely. Struga is quiet today and the atmosphere in other parts of Macedonia remains calm.
QUESTION: But (inaudible) despite that the Albanians, they are trying to take under control Struga, and I was wondering what is the position of the U.S. Government, vis-à-vis, to this policy, in order to force, as they say, a greater Albania, according to the Reuter News Agency.
MR. BOUCHER: Our view is that people should remain peaceful in expressing their views. They should follow the Ohrid Agreement and they should participate, express -- find ways to express their views politically, which they have under that agreement.
QUESTION: Do you know how large is Albanian minority in (inaudible), since Skopje says it is lower than 18 percent, the British over 25 percent?
MR. BOUCHER: No, I don't know.
Saul.
QUESTION: Yesterday, you issued a statement; it was the taken question on the MiG sales to Sudan. Today, actually, the foreign ministry issued a statement saying, "Yes, this is a longstanding contract. We're just filling the conditions. It's got nothing to do with the situation." So, now that it's being confirmed for you, what's your reaction?
MR. BOUCHER: Well, I think there are still a lot of questions that haven't been clarified. I assume that we'll be finding opportunities to hear more from the Russians on that. But our policy view remains the same. We oppose all military transfers to the Sudan. We -- our specific law for ourselves has sanctions against a government that transfers lethal military equipment to a state sponsor of terrorism, so I suppose that's something we we'd have to look at were the transfer to take place. But on a policy level, we think it's ill advised to transfer weapons to the Government of Sudan.
QUESTION: So, are you concerned that these aircraft could be used against Darfuris?
MR. BOUCHER: I think we have been concerned more about the actual aircraft, the helicopter gunships that are in Darfur that have been used against Darfuris. What the status of this MiG-29 sale is, I think, is still rather unclear based on what I've seen and I don't think we have enough clarification from the Russians where they're -- sort of the status of the contract and the prospective delivery.
QUESTION: So, you don't know if MiGs have actually, from this sale, have reached Sudan?
MR. BOUCHER: No, nothing that I have seen has actually said where they stand under this contract, whether it's a contract or a delivery or a soon-to-be delivery on contract.
Yeah. Sir.
QUESTION: Which country have you talked with deciding the donation to North Korea?
MR. BOUCHER: Which countries did we talk to about donations to North Korea?
QUESTION: For original decision?
MR. BOUCHER: Well, I mean, the general topic is something we talk with World Food Program. They're in touch with many other nations, so I think they're pretty much the coordinator on this. I'm sure that as we've talked about North Korea with our friends in Japan, South Korea and elsewhere that this topic comes up. I don't know if we actually -- if anybody needed to know or if we told anybody the specific figure in advance.
Yeah.
QUESTION: How do you see that -- how do -- does it affect to the six-party talks?
MR. BOUCHER: I had the question 15 minutes ago; the answer is still the same.
Sir.
QUESTION: On the Olympics, yesterday, you said to look at the front-page document with a simple title, "U.S. Department of State, Thursday, July 22, 2004, Olympic Games, 2004." Do you know what it's all about?
MR. BOUCHER: It's all about the Olympic Games.
QUESTION: But there is a lot of stuff. For example, in the document, for the first time, you are connecting the Greek anarchists groups, with the security of the Olympics, with the intention to disrupt the games, claiming that, "similar groups from Europe and elsewhere may join with to agitate against the Games." Could you please name one of such group from Europe, or elsewhere you are saying, since the wording is too general and does not make any sense?
MR. BOUCHER: The wording does make sense, even though it's general. "Elsewhere" means outside of Europe, and there are a variety of different groups that form and reform and get together. We have seen this kind of talk among groups, and we'll just have to follow it more closely as the Olympics actually occur.
QUESTION: But did you track any communication between the Greek so-called anarchists and those groups --
MR. BOUCHER: I didn't say we're tracking somebody's communications, I said we've seen that kind of talk. A lot of these things come out in public or the internet, one way or the other.
Yeah.
QUESTION: Following the September 11th Commission report, Iran and Saudi Arabia claim their countries have been exonerated. And secondly, Iran now wants to host a summit; they're working with Egypt on these cross-border type incursions into Iraq. What are your feelings concerning that?
MR. BOUCHER: Iran wants to hold a summit with Egypt?
QUESTION: No, has been talking Egypt, and they want -- meaning Iran wants to host a summit --
MR. BOUCHER: I'm afraid I don't know anything about that. And on the first question of whether people are exonerated by the report, I think you'll have to ask the commissioners, but I don't think it was intended to exonerate or condemn anybody. It was written to find the facts, and we welcome the report as a very clear statement of what happened and what's changed and what more needs to be changed.
Yeah.
QUESTION: Thank you.
(The briefing was concluded at 1:15 p.m.)
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
