    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
    [May 21, 1993]
    [Pages 713-714]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Exchange With Reporters on Bosnia
    May 21, 1993

        Q. Mr. President, have you reached agreement with the Russians on a
    Bosnia policy?
        The President. Well, Secretary Christopher is talking to Foreign
    Minister Kozyrev today, and we will try to reach an agreement about what
    we do next. As you know, the United States is skeptical that we'll be
    able to satisfactorily resolve this within the framework that has been
    proposed, but we do want to work with our allies. And we're trying our
    best to reach a joint position, and I hope we can do it.
        Q. Are you still ruling out safe havens?
        The President. Well, I don't want to see the United States get in a
    position where we are recreating Northern Ireland or Lebanon or Cyprus
    or anything else. There may be some potential down the road for
    something to be done in connection with the peacekeeping operation,

    [[Page 714]]

    but I think it's something we have to be very skeptical about. We don't
    want our people in there basically in a shooting gallery.
        Q. [Inaudible]--the issue, though, for now of the land the Serbs
    have grabbed by force in favor of the idea of this containment?
        The President. I will say what I said from the very beginning. Our
    fundamental interests here, the United States interests, are two. We
    want the conflict to be contained, and we want the slaughter and the
    ethnic cleansing to stop. We believe in order to get that done
    ultimately there will have to be some reasonable borders, some political
    solution to this which has a reasonable territorial component. And we'll
    just have to see what happens over the next few weeks.

    Note: The exchange began at 10:15 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White
    House, prior to a Cabinet meeting. A tape was not available for
    verification of the content of this exchange.