[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 3 (Monday, January 22, 1996)]
[Page 70]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Arrival in Zagreb, Croatia

January 13, 1996

    Thank you very much, President Tudjman, for making me feel so 
welcome. And thank you for coming out in such large and enthusiastic 
numbers. It's wonderful to be here in Zagreb and in Croatia. And I thank 
you for making me feel so welcome.
    I have just come from Bosnia, from visiting our troops there who are 
working with the others to support the peace process. And I come here to 
thank President Tudjman and the people of Croatia for supporting the 
peace process in Bosnia. I come to support not only the peace process 
but the federation in Bosnia between the Muslims and the Croats, the 
peaceful agreement for the return of Croatian lands in Eastern Slavonia, 
and the ultimate partnership of Croatia with not only the United States 
but with other Western nations who believe in freedom and human rights 
and democracy and peace and progress, working together.
    My friends, on behalf of the United States, I have been honored to 
work for peace from the Middle East to Northern Ireland to Bosnia. And I 
believe that in these conflicts I have seen, that the fight has not been 
between Arab and Jew in the Middle East, not between Catholic and 
Protestant in Northern Ireland, not between Serb and Croat and Muslim in 
Bosnia. It is a conflict between those who choose peace and those who 
would stay with war, those who look to a better future and those who are 
trapped in the past, those who open their arms to their neighbors and 
those who would keep their fist clenched.
    So I ask you in closing to choose peace, choose the future, open 
your arms. The United States extends its hand in friendship to you.
    Thank you again for making me feel so welcome.

Note: The President spoke at 5:45 p.m. at the Zagreb Airport. In his 
remarks, he referred to President Franjo Tudjman of Croatia.