[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
[September 15, 1996]
[Pages 1574-1575]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on the Elections in Bosnia and an Exchange With Reporters
September 15, 1996

    The President. Good morning. A year ago Bosnia was racked by the 
bloodiest war in Europe since World War II. Yesterday Bosnians went to 
the polls in peace to cast their votes for their future. The road ahead 
will be hard, but yesterday was a remarkable step forward. The Bosnian 
people, the international community, and the American people should be 
proud.
    Our observer delegation, led by Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, 
reports that the elections generally were orderly and calm. Close to 70 
percent of Bosnia's registered voters cast a ballot freely at one of 
4,400 polling places all across the country. And nearly 80 percent of 
the registered refugees abroad voted by absentee ballot.
    I want to thank IFOR, the international police task force, and the 
more than 1,200 international election monitors for helping so many 
Bosnians take part in these elections. By voting yesterday, the Bosnian 
people gave life to the institutions of national government: a 
presidency, a parliament, a constitutional court, key government 
agencies. These institutions can bring the country together instead of 
driving it apart. Now we have to get them up and running and help the 
Bosnian people in the hard work of building a unified, democratic, and 
peaceful Bosnia.
    Our commitment to Bosnia does not end with these elections. We will 
continue to do our part to hold Bosnia's leaders to their commitments 
and to turn the promise born 9 months ago at Dayton into a reality.
    Thank you.

Iraq

    Q. Mr. President, there are reports that Iraq has fired more 
missiles at U.S. planes. Do you know if those reports are true, and if 
so, do you plan to respond?
    The President. I can't confirm that now.

[[Page 1575]]

    Q. Mr. President, what do you say to criticism by House Speaker Newt 
Gingrich, especially in light of the confusion with the ground troops, 
U.S. ground troops, potentially going to Kuwait, now waiting? He says 
our policy over there makes no sense, that it's a typical muddle.
    The President. That's just election year talk by Mr. Gingrich.
    Q. Mr. President, is Kuwait at all delaying or not approving the 
deployment of U.S. ground troops?
    The President. No. We have no information to that effect. I think 
that what I would do is just let the orderly processes that are always 
followed in these kinds of cases go forward. I think that there is no 
problem here, based on what I know. I think that what happened was that 
the decision on the movements that we had made actually became public 
before we had done our regular consultation and the Kuwaitis had done 
their regular review. As far as I know, there is nothing irregular or 
troubling here.
    Q. Mr. President, what do you think of Senator Nunn saying that 
Saddam is stronger now, and are you all set to retaliate again if 
something happens?
    The President. Well, I believe that he's in better shape than he was 
the day after the Gulf war in 1991, but strategically I do not believe 
he is stronger because of the expansion of the no-fly zone. I think the 
expansion of the no-fly zone was designed to do one thing and one thing 
only: to increase our capacity to monitor and to limit his ability to 
threaten his neighbors in light of his increased aggressiveness. And I 
think that we will achieve that and I think we are achieving that and 
that was exactly what we set out to achieve.
    But he was not taken out of office in the Gulf war. He has managed 
to survive, and he is still in power. But the important thing for the 
United States is that he not be able to threaten his neighbors and to do 
what was done in 1991 in the Gulf war. We don't want to have to do that 
all over again, and that's what we're trying to avoid. And I believe we 
have taken an appropriate step to do that.
    Q. Is there a breakdown in communications between you and Capitol 
Hill? They act like they don't know what's going on.
    The President. Well, I can't comment on that. We've done our best to 
keep them very carefully informed, and I expect to have some personal 
consultations in the next few days, and we'll see about that. But I 
believe we did the right thing, and I think it was the appropriate 
course. And I will do everything I can to answer whatever questions any 
Member of Congress has.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:45 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White 
House, prior to his departure for Des Moines, IA. In his remarks, he 
referred to President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.