[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 15 (Monday, April 18, 1994)]
[Pages 772-773]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Exchange With Reporters on Bosnia

April 11, 1994

    Q. What can you tell us about the latest air strikes in Bosnia?
    The President. That the latest strikes were a direct response to 
General Rose's request for close air support, that the continued Serb 
shelling of Gorazde put the U.N. personnel there in danger, and that the 
air strikes were conducted in strict accordance of existing U.N. policy.
    Q. Can you tell us how many aircraft, what type, and what kinds of 
targets they hit?
    The President. They did hit some targets, and you'll be briefed 
about the details.
    Q. Is the U.N. going to defend the people of Gorazde--however you 
pronounce?
    The President. The United Nations is carrying out its mission there, 
and when they--they're attempting to reassert Gorazde as a safe area, 
which it has agreed to do. They're encouraging the Serbs to withdraw 
from the safe area and to resume negotiations and to stop the shelling. 
And if they are put at risk in the course of doing that mission, they 
can ask for NATO close air support. That's what they have done, and we 
have done our best to provide it.
    Q. Only the U.N. personnel is our concern?
    The President. The U.N. resolution gives NATO the authority to act. 
We are acting solely under the existing U.N. resolution which has been 
approved by the Security Council.
    Q. Would it be--setting up an exclusion zone around Gorazde like--in 
Sarajevo?
    The President. Well, what the United Nations wants is for the Serbs 
to stop the shelling and to withdraw and to resume the negotiations. I 
don't want to compare it exactly to Sarajevo; there are some tactical 
and factual differences. But that's what they want, and NATO simply 
responded to the request for air support in carrying out the U.N. 
mission.
    Q. Did you talk to Mr. Yeltsin about this latest----
    The President. No, I talked to him last evening, and he was going to 
be out of pocket today. So we had quite a long talk last night. And I 
told him that--I explained that this

[[Page 773]]

was different from what happened at Sarajevo. There was a clearly 
existing U.N. policy, the same policy under which we acted when the 
planes were shot down, you remember, a few weeks ago, but that I thought 
we ought to have close coordination with the Russians. After all, the 
Russians are a part of the UNPROFOR delegation there. They have soldiers 
on the ground in Bosnia. And we had a good talk. And I think there have 
been further communications today between the Secretary of State and the 
Foreign Minister and between the Secretary of Defense and the Defense 
Minister. So we are trying to work very closely with the Russians. They 
have a critical role to play if we are going to get these peace talks 
going again. And I hope we can.

    Q. [Inaudible]

    The President. We had quite a good talk, I thought. I explained to 
him what happened. I think in the beginning he was concerned that he 
didn't know about it in advance. I explained clearly what happened, that 
the United Nations asked for this, that Boutros-Ghali the day before had 
put out a press release supporting this action if the shelling didn't 
stop, that General Rose had received the appropriate approval from the 
civilian authority in Bosnia, and that it was an action taken under 
existing authority, and that indeed I thought that the U.N. had notified 
all the UNPROFOR members that it would be taken, but that it was not any 
kind of new or different thing. And when these things occur, there is 
often not a lot of time. There was just, you know, somewhere between 30 
minutes and an hour and a half, I think, the decisionmaking time. I 
don't know the exact time, but we responded in an entirely appropriate 
way, I think, under the circumstances.

    Thank you.

Note: The exchange began at 9:19 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White 
House, prior to a foreign policy meeting. In his remarks, the President 
referred to U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. A tape was not 
available for verification of the content of this exchange.