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23 October 2002

U.S. Welcomes Yugoslav, Bosnia Moves on Arms Transfers to Iraq

(Excerpt from October 23 State Department Briefing) (360)
Following is an excerpt from the October 23 State Department briefing
concerning the transfer of arms to Iraq by companies in Yugoslavia and
Bosnia and Herzegovina, and those governments' responses to the
situation:
(begin excerpt)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2002
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)
1:25 p.m. EDT
BRIEFER: Phillip Reeker, Deputy Spokesman
[..]
QUESTION: On Yugoslavia. Are you satisfied by the first reactions
coming from Belgrade and Sarajevo after your allegations about firms,
of entities from these two countries, sold weapons or arms to Iraq?
MR. REEKER: We welcome the steps that were taken yesterday by the
Government of Yugoslavia in connection with the revelations of
involvement of the Orao facilities in Bijeljina in the Republika
Srpska, as well as the Yugoslav company Yugoimport, in terms of
military transfers and cooperation with Iraq, which we discussed
yesterday.
We believe that these are significant decisions by the Government of
Yugoslavia to, in terms of the steps they took, to relieve responsible
officials from their positions, to conduct investigations into the
activities at the Ministry of Defense and Yugoimport, as well as the
Government of Yugoslavia's commitment to adopting appropriate measures
to regulate the transfer of military weapons and technology. As I
said, those are significant actions and we welcome these steps, as
well as the decision to close the Yugoimport offices in Baghdad.
As Ambassador Boucher said yesterday, the United States has offered
its full support and cooperation to Yugoslav authorities, both in the
investigation and in providing technical assistance and expertise to
implement the appropriate regulatory measures and mechanisms to
control military weapons transfers. And we certainly expect the
relevant authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina also to undertake the
necessary steps to immediately halt any ongoing cooperation with Iraq,
and to conduct a thorough investigation and to hold accountable those
responsible.
Obviously, we expect all U.N. members, all members of the United
Nations, to meet their obligations under U.N. Security Council
resolutions to prevent the transfer of weapons or other materials
prohibited by U.N. sanctions to Iraq.
So this is an opportunity, I think, for Bosnia and Herzegovina to move
forward on its recent promise to establish effective export controls
and we'll be following this very closely.
(end excerpt)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)