    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [October 4, 1993]
    [Page 1677]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1677]]

    Exchange With Reporters in San Francisco
    October 4, 1993

    Russia

        Q. Did Yeltsin have a choice in using force in Moscow?
        The President. I doubt it. Once they were armed, they were using
    their arms, they were hurting people. I just don't see that they had
    anyplace--he had those police officers instructed not to use force, and
    in fact, deployed in such a way that they couldn't effectively use
    force, and they were routed. I don't see that he had any choice at all.
        Q. Does this taint the move toward democracy in Russia?
        The President. No. I think, first of all, as I said today in my
    remarks, clearly, he bent over backwards to avoid doing this. And I
    think he may even wonder whether he let it go too far. But I think as
    long as his commitment is clear, to get a new constitution, to have new
    legislative elections, and have a new election for the Presidency, so he
    puts himself on the election block again, I don't think it does taint
    it.

    Somalia

        Q. [Inaudible]
        The President. The only thing that I have authorized so far--and I
    want to say I'll be doing a lot more work on this today, later today,
    when I've got some time set aside to go back to work on it--the only
    thing I have done so far is to authorize the rangers that are there who
    are wounded or exhausted or done more than their fair share to be
    replaced, to roll over that group and then to send some more people
    there with some armored support so that we can have some more protection
    on the ground for our people. None of this happened when we had 28,000
    people there. And even though there are lots of U.N. forces there, not
    all of them are able to do what our forces did before. So I'm just not
    satisfied that the folks that are there now have the protection they
    need. So all I've authorized is a modest increase to provide armored
    support, to provide greater protection for the people over there trying
    to do their job.
        This is not to signify some huge new commitment or offensive at this
    time, but I'm just not satisfied that the American soldiers that are
    there have the protection they need under present circumstances. So I've
    authorized, after consultation with the Secretary of Defense, a modest
    increase to get some more armored protection for them.
        Q. Were any American soldiers taken hostage or taken captive by
    Aideed's forces?
        The President. It is possible, and if it happened, we want there to
    be a very clear warning that those young soldiers who are there legally
    under international law, on behalf of the United Nations, and they are
    to be treated according to the rules of international law, which means
    not only no torture and no beating, but they're to have food and shelter
    and medical attention. They're to be treated in a proper way. And the
    United States will take a very firm view of anything that happens to the
    contrary. It is a very big issue. We'll probably have more to say about
    that later in the day.

    Note: The exchange began at approximately 12:34 p.m. at the San
    Francisco Hilton. A tape was not available for verification of the
    content of this exchange.