[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 21 (Monday, May 31, 1993)]
[Pages 937-938]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Bosnia and an Exchange With Reporters in Manchester, New 
Hampshire

 May 22, 1993

    The President. First of all, I'm very pleased by the agreement that 
has been reached by Secretary Christopher and the foreign ministers from 
Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and Spain. I think it puts us back 
together with a common policy. I think that is a very good thing. I 
think it does some important work in confining the conflict to Bosnia so 
it doesn't spread into Macedonia and Kosovo or other places. I think 
that it takes a step toward ending the ethnic cleansing and slaughter by 
staking out the safe havens without doing what I was opposed to, which 
is basically agreeing that those folks were going to be in camps there. 
In other words, we're still pushing for a political settlement that has 
reasonable land for the Bosnian Muslims. So I think it's a real step 
forward. I think it has a chance to do some good. I'm glad we're working 
together again, and I applaud all the foreign ministers for this work.

    Q. You were a little skeptical yesterday after the meeting with 
Foreign Minister Kozyrev. Has something happened in the last 24 hours?

    The President. Well, what happened was two things. Number one, the 
safe havens were defined in a way that was clearly designed to end the 
slaughter, provide safety and humanitarian aid. And number two, they're 
willing to use the safe havens to build on, that is to build a 
reasonable territorial settlement instead of just confining folks to 
camps forever. And finally, they also agree explicitly to leave stronger 
measures on the table if these fail. So I feel much better about the 
position than I did yesterday. I applaud Mr. Kozyrev. He's done a lot of 
work on this. And I will say this: President Yeltsin said to me that 
after the elections and after they began work on their own 
constitutional reform, that Russia would come back in and be a full 
partner in this. And he has kept his word. So we've worked together, and 
I feel good about it.

    Q. ----the risk of the United States forces being drawn into a 
Vietnam-type quagmire that you're concerned about?

    The President. No, it actually decreases that risk. You can see from 
the statement where we are on this. We have reaffirmed our previous 
agreement to protect the forces that are there working for the United 
Nations if they are attacked. We have said explicitly that we would talk 
to the government in Macedonia about the United Nations strengthening 
its presence there and about whether it would be advisable for us to 
have a small force there. We are clearly not going to get involved there 
either unilaterally or multilaterally in the conflict on one of the 
sides of one of the combatants in a civil war. That's what happened to 
us in those other places. So the American people should be reassured 
that we have limited the possibility of quagmire and strengthened the 
possibility of ending the ethnic cleansing and the possibility of 
limiting the conflict. I think this is a significant step. And we're 
back in harness again, which is where we ought to be. We're all working 
together. I'm encouraged by it.

    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 5:25 p.m. at the Manchester Institute of 
Arts and Sciences. A tape was not available for verification of the 
content of these remarks.

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