    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [March 25, 1998]
    [Pages 430-431]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Departure from Entebbe, Uganda, and an Exchange With
    Reporters
    March 25, 1998

    Jonesboro Incident

        The President. Just before I left the hotel this morning, I talked
    to the Governor of Arkansas and extended my
    personal condolences and sorrow about the terrible incident in Jonesboro
    yesterday. I attempted to call the mayor
    who is an old friend of mine, but I haven't reached him yet.
        I just want to say again how profoundly sad I am and how disturbed I
    am. I've been thinking about this for the last several hours. This is
    the third incident in the last few months involving young children and
    violence in schools, and I'm going to ask the Attorney General to find whatever experts there are in our country on
    this and try to analyze this terrible tragedy to see whether there are
    any common elements in this incident and the other two, and whether it
    indicates any further action on our part.
        Today the people in my home State and a town I know very well are
    grieving. They're suffering losses. And we should focus on that. But I
    do think, in the weeks to come, we have to analyze these incidents and
    see whether or not we can learn anything that will tell us what we can
    do to prevent further ones.
        Q. Do you have any thoughts about how to stop this? I mean, if
    you've been thinking about it, anything come to mind, sir?
        The President. I don't want to say too much until we have a chance
    to analyze them. I don't know enough about the facts of this incident.
    The facts of this incident are just now coming out. I've read,
    obviously, all the latest wire reports I can get, and frankly I'm not
    sure I know enough about the other two to draw any conclusions.
        I don't want the American people to jump to any conclusions, but
    when three horrible tragedies like this involving young people who take
    other people's lives and then in the process destroy their own, we have
    to see if there are some common elements. And we'll look and do our best
    to do the right thing.
        Q. Do you suspect that there are some common elements, sir?
        The President. Well, the circumstances certainly seem to have a lot
    in common. What we need to know is what's behind the circumstances. As I
    said, I think that the American people today should send their thoughts,
    their prayers, their hopes to the people in Jonesboro.

    [[Page 431]]

    But in the weeks ahead, we need to look into this very closely and see
    what, if anything, we can find. And then, if we do find some patterns,
    we ought to take whatever action seems appropriate.

    President's Visit to Rwanda

        Q. Your trip to Rwanda, could you give us just a little advance word
    of what you hope to accomplish there, sir?
        The President. Obviously, I hope that my trip there will help to
    avoid further killing along the ethnic lines and bring the attention of
    the world to this in a way that will have an impact on ethnic conflicts
    in other parts of the world. And then I'm going to come back here to the
    regional meeting that President Museveni has agreed to host, and I hope we'll come out with a
    statement there that will allow us to make further progress.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:05 a.m. at Entebbe Airport. In his
    remarks, he referred to Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas; Mayor Hubert A.
    Brodell of Jonesboro, AR; and President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of
    Uganda. A tape was not available for verification of the content of
    these remarks.