[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 40 (Monday, October 11, 1993)]
[Pages 1992-1993]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Exchange With Reporters in San Francisco

 October 4, 1993

Russia

    Q. Did Yeltsin have a choice in using force in Moscow?
    The President. I doubt it. Once they were armed, they were using 
their arms, they were hurting people. I just don't see that they had 
anyplace--he had those police officers instructed not to use force, and 
in fact, deployed in such a way that they couldn't effectively use 
force, and they were routed. I don't see that he had any choice at all.
    Q. Does this taint the move toward democracy in Russia?
    The President. No. I think, first of all, as I said today in my 
remarks, clearly, he bent over backwards to avoid doing this. And I 
think he may even wonder whether he let it go too far. But I think as 
long as his commitment is clear, to get a new constitution, to have new 
legislative elections, and have a new election for the Presidency, so he 
puts himself on the election block again, I don't think it does taint 
it.

Somalia

    Q. [Inaudible]
    The President. The only thing that I have authorized so far--and I 
want to say I'll be doing a lot more work on this today, later today, 
when I've got some time set aside to go back to work on it--the only 
thing I have done so far is to authorize the rangers that are there who 
are wounded or exhausted or done more than their fair share to be 
replaced, to roll over that group and then to send some more people 
there with some armored support so that we can have some more protection 
on the ground for our people. None of this happened when we had 28,000 
people there. And even though there are lots of U.N. forces there, not 
all of them are able to do what our forces did before. So I'm just not 
satisfied that the folks that are there now have the protection they 
need. So all I've authorized is a modest increase to provide armored 
support, to provide greater protection for the people over there trying 
to do their job.
    This is not to signify some huge new commitment or offensive at this 
time, but I'm just not satisfied that the American soldiers that are 
there have the protection they need under present circumstances. So I've 
authorized, after consultation with the Secretary of Defense, a modest 
increase to get some more armored protection for them.
    Q. Were any American soldiers taken hostage or taken captive by 
Aideed's forces?
    The President. It is possible, and if it happened, we want there to 
be a very clear warning that those young soldiers who are there legally 
under international law, on behalf of the United Nations, and they are 
to be treated according to the rules of international law, which means 
not only no torture and no beating, but they're to have food and shelter 
and medical attention. They're to be treated in a proper way. And the 
United States will take a very firm view of anything that happens

[[Page 1993]]

to the contrary. It is a very big issue. We'll probably have more to say 
about that later in the day.

Note: The exchange began at approximately 12:34 p.m. at the San 
Francisco Hilton. A tape was not available for verification of the 
content of this exchange.