[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[April 11, 1994]
[Pages 661-662]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Exchange With Reporters on Bosnia
April 11, 1994

    Q. What can you tell us about the latest air strikes in Bosnia?
    The President. That the latest strikes were a direct response to 
General Rose's request for close air support, that the continued Serb 
shelling of Gorazde put the U.N. personnel there in danger, and that the 
air strikes were conducted in strict accordance of existing U.N. policy.
    Q. Can you tell us how many aircraft, what type, and what kinds of 
targets they hit?
    The President. They did hit some targets, and you'll be briefed 
about the details.
    Q. Is the U.N. going to defend the people of Gorazde--however you 
pronounce?
    The President. The United Nations is carrying out its mission there, 
and when they--they're attempting to reassert Gorazde as a safe area, 
which it has agreed to do. They're encouraging the Serbs to withdraw 
from the safe area and to resume negotiations and to stop the shelling. 
And if they are put at risk in the course of doing that mission, they 
can ask for NATO close air support. That's what they have done, and we 
have done our best to provide it.
    Q. Only the U.N. personnel is our concern?
    The President. The U.N. resolution gives NATO the authority to act. 
We are acting solely under the existing U.N. resolution which has been 
approved by the Security Council.
    Q. Would it be--setting up an exclusion zone around Gorazde like--in 
Sarajevo?
    The President. Well, what the United Nations wants is for the Serbs 
to stop the shelling and to withdraw and to resume the negotiations. I 
don't want to compare it exactly to Sarajevo; there are some tactical 
and factual differences. But that's what they want, and NATO simply 
responded to the request for air support in carrying out the U.N. 
mission.
    Q. Did you talk to Mr. Yeltsin about this latest----
    The President. No, I talked to him last evening, and he was going to 
be out of pocket today. So we had quite a long talk last night. And I 
told him that--I explained that this was different from what happened at 
Sarajevo. There was a clearly existing U.N. policy, the same policy 
under which we acted when the planes were shot down, you remember, a few 
weeks ago, but that I thought we ought to have close coordination with 
the Russians. After all, the Russians are a part of the UNPROFOR 
delegation

[[Page 662]]

there. They have soldiers on the ground in Bosnia. And we had a good 
talk. And I think there have been further communications today between 
the Secretary of State and the Foreign Minister and between the 
Secretary of Defense and the Defense Minister. So we are trying to work 
very closely with the Russians. They have a critical role to play if we 
are going to get these peace talks going again. And I hope we can.
    Q. [Inaudible]
    The President. We had quite a good talk, I thought. I explained to 
him what happened. I think in the beginning he was concerned that he 
didn't know about it in advance. I explained clearly what happened, that 
the United Nations asked for this, that Boutros-Ghali the day before had 
put out a press release supporting this action if the shelling didn't 
stop, that General Rose had received the appropriate approval from the 
civilian authority in Bosnia, and that it was an action taken under 
existing authority, and that indeed I thought that the U.N. had notified 
all the UNPROFOR members that it would be taken, but that it was not any 
kind of new or different thing. And when these things occur, there is 
often not a lot of time. There was just, you know, somewhere between 30 
minutes and an hour and a half, I think, the decisionmaking time. I 
don't know the exact time, but we responded in an entirely appropriate 
way, I think, under the circumstances.
    Thank you.

Note: The exchange began at 9:19 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White 
House, prior to a foreign policy meeting. In his remarks, the President 
referred to U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. A tape was not 
available for verification of the content of this exchange.