[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 6 (Monday, February 14, 1994)]
[Pages 219-220]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks and an Exchange With Reporters Prior to Departure for Houston, 
Texas

February 6, 1994

Bosnia

    The President. I have just completed a meeting with advisers 
discussing the terrible and outrageous incident in Sarajevo yesterday. 
I'm glad to report that the United States has been able to evacuate 
several of the wounded and their family members and they're on their way 
to a hospital in Germany. We'll be continuing to work on that.
    I have asked Ambassador Albright to urge the United Nations to 
accelerate the efforts to try to confirm responsibility for the strike 
in the market yesterday. And I have approved having the Secretary of 
State and Ambassador Albright continue their consultations with our 
allies about what next steps should be taken in response to this 
particular incident and to make an effort to try to reach a settlement, 
hoping that the shock of this incident will perhaps make all parties 
more willing to bring this matter to a close.
    The ultimate answer to all this killing is for the three parties to 
reach an agreement that they can live with and honor. There have been 
several times over the last couple of months when it didn't seem that 
they were all that far apart, and I hope that the shock of these deaths 
will reinforce to them, as it does to the entire world, that they ought 
to go on and reach a settlement. And we will do what we can to push 
that.
    Q. Have you decided against air strikes, Mr. President?
    The President. No, but it's not a decision--first of all, I want to 
give the U.N. a chance to confirm responsibility for this. Obviously, it 
seems highly likely that the Serbs are responsible, but there ought to 
be some effort to confirm it since their leader has denied it. And also, 
as you know, the authority under which air strikes can proceed, NATO 
acting out of area pursuant to U.N. authority, requires the common 
agreement of our

[[Page 220]]

NATO allies. So I cautioned them on this at our NATO meeting. Many of 
them remain concerned that because they have soldiers on the ground--
something we don't have--that their soldiers will be retaliated against 
if we take action from the air. That's not to say that there won't be 
retaliation, because we certainly discussed it in considerable length 
today, and I discussed it yesterday. But I just want to try to explain 
why there's more reluctance on the part of some of the Europeans than 
there is on the part of the United States, because they do have troops 
on the ground, and they are worried about some retaliation coming to 
those troops.
    Q. What are your thoughts now on lifting the arms embargo?
    The President. I've always been for it. I haven't changed my 
position on that. I do believe, however, that the appropriate thing to 
do now is to see if this horrible incident can be the spur to a vigorous 
effort to achieve a peace agreement. And that's what we ought to focus 
on now. If we continue to fail in the face of these kinds of incidents, 
I think that the United States position on the arms embargo is only 
reinforced by the kind of thing that happened yesterday. But I want to 
try to work with our allies now to take a shot at hoping we can bring 
this matter to a conclusion.
    Q. Yesterday you said in your statement that you called the massacre 
a cowardly act. But some Members of Congress are saying that the U.S. is 
acting cowardly by repeatedly saying that they will consider air strikes 
without making good on those threats.
    The President. Well, the United States, I will say again, under 
international law, in the absence of an attack on our people, does not 
have the authority to unilaterally undertake air strikes. And every time 
we discuss it, the other countries who have troops on the ground--and we 
don't. It's very well for these Members of Congress to say that; they 
don't have any constituents on the ground there. And the people who have 
constituents on the ground say, ``Well, we have to think about whether 
our soldiers are going to be killed in large numbers in retaliation for 
this if you do it.''
    Now, as you know, I have long believed that we should have standby 
air strike authority and that there are circumstances under which we 
should use it. In this case, again I want to say, the United Nations has 
not finished their confirmation process. And until they do, I think it 
would be inappropriate for me to make a final decision. But I do think 
you have to give some credence to the position of our European allies. 
They do have soldiers on the ground there who can be shot at and shelled 
long after our planes are gone, that is what is animating their 
position. That does not mean it won't happen this time. I have discussed 
it yesterday; I discussed it today. We are discussing it with our 
allies. But they are in a fundamentally different position, and they 
have been as long as they have had troops there.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 3:37 p.m. on the South Lawn at the White 
House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these 
remarks.