[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[April 22, 1994]
[Pages 754-755]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Exchange With Reporters Prior to Discussions With Prime Minister Andreas 
Papandreou of Greece
April 22, 1994

Bosnia

    Q. Mr. President, are you going to start bombing, or are the allies 
going to start bombing Gorazde very shortly as a result of the NATO 
Council ultimatum?
    The President. They're meeting now. Let's see what they do, and I'll 
have more to say about it later.
    Q. Do you want the NATO allies to allow NATO to select the bombing 
targets and move more independently of the U.N.? And do you expect them 
to----
    The President. We want to continue to work with the U.N., but 
they're working--our people are there now, working on the arrangements. 
So let's see what comes out of the meeting today, and we'll--I'll have 
comments about it after they do.

Haiti

    Q. Sir, I wonder if you could tell us why the Haitian boat people 
are being allowed this time, sir?
    The President. Well, two reasons: First of all, they were very close 
to the United States. The whole purpose of the return policy was 
primarily to deter people from risking their lives. Hundreds of people 
have already drowned trying to come here. These people were only 4 miles 
from the shore. The second was that we had evidence that the Haitians 
might have been subject to some abuse by the people who were in control 
of the boat. And so for those reasons, we thought the appropriate thing 
to do was to bring them on in, which we did.
    Q. Is this a change in the policy for the future?
    The President. No change in policy.

[At this point, one group of reporters left the room, and another group 
entered.]

Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

    Q. President Clinton. Mr. President, are you going to discuss the 
problem with Greece and Skopje and the measures that Greece has got 
against Skopje?

[[Page 755]]

    The President. Absolutely.
    Q. What do you believe about these measures?
    The President. What I think is that we have Mr. Nimetz over there 
and Mr. Vance. We're trying to help work it out. I think that it's very 
much in the interest of Greece and Europe and the world community for 
the matters to be worked out between the two countries, and I think they 
can be.
    Q. How committed are you to delaying the process until Greece's 
concerns are satisfied, sir?
    The President. I think it's obvious that we've shown a real concern 
for Greece's concerns. That's one of the main reasons I sent a special 
envoy over there, and we're trying to work through it. We'll discuss 
that today. We just started out--we haven't even had our discussions 
yet.
    Q. There's been some criticism that the U.S. side has not exercised 
enough of its good--[inaudible]--to Skopje and to come up with a 
solution.
    The President. We're working hard on that now, and we'll continue 
to. I think there will have to be some changes from the point of view of 
Skopje.
    Q. Are you going to visit Greece, sir?
    The President. Oh, I'd love to do that. I've never been there.

Cyprus

    Q. What about Cyprus?
    The President. We're working hard on Cyprus, and I think--I hope 
there will be some movement from the Turkish side on Cyprus in the next 
couple of days with regard to the confidence-building measures. I think 
that the ball has been sort of in Mr. Denktash's court, and I hope he 
will take it up. And then I hope that Greece and all others will support 
pushing forward. I have worked hard to resolve this since I've been in 
office, and I will continue to stay on it. More later.

Note: The exchange began at 11:45 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. In his remarks, the President referred to Matthew Nimetz, U.S. 
Special Envoy to the United Nations to resolve the conflict between 
Greece and Macedonia; Cyrus Vance, United Nations Special Envoy to the 
Former Yugoslavia; and Rauf Denktash, Turkish Cypriot leader. A tape was 
not available for verification of the content of this exchange.