    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 16 (Monday, April 25, 1994)]
    [Pages 825-826]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks on Bosnia and an Exchange With Reporters Prior to Departure for
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin

    April 18, 1994

        The President. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to say a
    word or two about the situation in Bosnia. First of all, as all of you
    know, the situation in and around Gorazde remains grim and uncertain. I
    think it is important to point out why this happened. It happened
    because the Serbs violated the understandings of a cease-fire that
    they--agreement they made with both the United Nations and with the
    Russians. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the
    Russians, working through Mr. Churkin's able leadership, have reached an
    agreement with the Serbs which they have not honored.
        The United Nations commander on the ground, General Rose, made the
    judgment at several points over the last couple of days that NATO close-
    air support was either not practically feasible or would not be helpful
    under the circumstances. In Gorazde, we have--we, the United States
    working through NATO--basically are empowered only to provide close-air
    support to U.N. troops when they are under siege or under threat of
    attack on request of the U.N. commander.
        I have monitored this situation very closely all weekend; I have
    spent a good deal of time on it on Saturday. I had lots of conversations
    yesterday about it and have met this morning with Mr. Lake. Our national
    security principals will be meeting today to consider what else we can
    and should do in this circumstance.
        The main thing I want to point out is that we have to find a way to
    get the momentum back. The big successes in the last couple of months in
    Bosnia have been, obviously, preserving Sarajevo and achieving the
    agreement between the Croatians and the Government--the Bosnian
    Government. They are very important; those things still hold, and I'm
    convinced we can find a way to build on them and go forward.
        But this has not been a great weekend for the peace effort in
    Bosnia. I do think that the big things are still working in the long-
    term favor of peace. And we'll just have to see where we are, and we'll
    be reporting more as the day goes on and through the rest of the week.
        Q. Mr. President, you wanted to lift the arms embargo a year ago,
    would you still like to do it? You would lead an effort to do that? It
    would take American leadership, many in Congress say, to do this.
        The President. The Americans tried to lead it before. We will be
    discussing now what our other options are. As you know, at the time
    there was a clear specific reason we couldn't succeed in lifting the
    arms embargo, which was that not just the Russians but the French and
    British did not want to do it because they had soldiers on the ground.
    Now their soldiers on the ground are in danger. The real question we
    would have to work through there is how many countries would go along,
    and could we get it through the U.N.? But I've always favored doing it.
        I just want to say, though--I want to ask you all to think about--
    those who say, there are many who say, ``Well, we can do it
    unilaterally, and we ought to do it unilaterally.'' But remember, if we
    do that, first of all, there are substantial questions about whether
    under international law we can do it, but secondly, if you resolved all
    those--what about the embargo that we have led against Iraq that others
    would like to back off of but they don't because they gave their
    agreement that they wouldn't? What if we needed embargoes in the future?
    What about the trade sanctions on Serbia themselves? What about any
    possible future economic action in other countries where we have
    difficulties today that we'd want other countries to honor?
        So we have to think long and hard about whether we can do this
    unilaterally. But certainly, as you know, I have always thought that the
    arms embargo operated in an en-

    [[Page 826]]

    tirely one-sided fashion, and it still does. That's the reason we're in
    this fix today because of the accumulated losses of the Bosnian
    Government as a direct result of the overwhelming superiority of heavy
    artillery by the Serbs.
        But again, I would say we have been making good progress at the
    negotiating table. I don't want to have a wider war. I think even if you
    lifted the arms embargo and you had a lot of other people fighting and
    killing, in the end there would not be a decisive victory for either
    side in a war. There's going to have to be a negotiated settlement. And
    the real problem now is that the Serbs agreed to a cease-fire with both
    the U.N. and the Russians, and they didn't keep their end of the deal.
    We're going to have to see where we are today, and we'll have more to
    say.
        Q. Why do you say you're making progress, and couldn't you have
    moved a little faster? This has been coming on for a couple weeks.
        The President. I disagree with that. What do you mean? Keep in mind,
    the role of the United States and NATO is to respond when the United
    Nations asks for close-air support when its troops are in danger. This
    is not Sarajevo; Sarajevo was a special case. And the no-fly zone--if
    planes violate the no-fly zone they can be shot down. That was done by
    NATO and the United States. This is a different case. We can only do
    what we have the authority to do.
        And frankly, I think it is a little too easy to Monday-morning-
    quarterback General Rose who has been very aggressive, very strong, and
    very much supported in this country and throughout the world for his
    aggressive actions. It's easy to say now he should have been more
    aggressive in Gorazde. I think he did the best he could with the
    resources he had under the facts as they existed. And so I don't know
    that General Rose had any other options. I just know that we have a
    disappointing and difficult situation there today, and we'll be working
    on it.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:12 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White
    House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these
    remarks.