[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 5 (Monday, February 3, 1997)]
[Pages 118-119]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Prior to a Meeting With Military Leaders and an Exchange With 
Reporters in Arlington, Virginia

January 29, 1997

    The President. Let me say, first of all, I'm delighted to have a 
chance to be back at the Pentagon to meet with our commanders-in-chief. 
This is the first meeting for Secretary Cohen and our new national 
security team. We're all looking forward to it.
    America is very proud of our men and women in uniform, and they have 
maintained an extraordinary tempo of operations for the last several 
years, being deployed in many different places for long periods of time. 
And the leadership and planning that has gone into these operations are 
a tribute to the people around this table and to others in our Armed 
Forces. And I'm looking forward to discussing what we're going to do in 
the next year and having this meeting.

War Crimes in Bosnia

    Q. Mr. President, do you think that U.S. troops could play a role in 
trying to arrest some of the accused war criminals that are out and 
about in Bosnia at the moment?
    The President. I think that the agreement that was struck at Dayton 
and signed in the Paris Peace Treaty says what our military believes is 
responsible, that if we're going to go there and do the UNPROFOR 
mission, it would be impossible to do that and spend your time taking 
affirmative action over--as a police force, in effect, international 
police force--but that if they come in contact with people who are 
wanted and where there is, in effect, a warrant out for them, they ought 
to apprehend them. But I think it would be

[[Page 119]]

very difficult for them to do the mission, particularly with a smaller 
number of people and, in effect, spend full-time doing that.
    It's always--I think at Dayton--everyone knew from Dayton on that 
this was one of the most difficult things, that they couldn't walk away 
from this evidence of war crimes, and that there needed to be some way 
of proceeding but that there was no way that you could effectively do 
the job of UNPROFOR, which was the most important thing to try to 
stabilize the country and the borders and, in effect, make that the 
primary mission.
    Maybe I ought to let General Joulwan answer that question, but I 
think that's the right answer.
    General George A. Joulwan. Yes, Mr. President. [Laughter]
    Q. Do you oppose the international group that's been proposed?
    The President. Well, what I want to look--I have asked--at the 
University of Connecticut, when I spoke at the--Senator Dodd not very 
long ago--I said I thought we ought to consider whether there should be 
a permanent international war crimes tribunal, which of course would 
require some sort of way of carrying out its mandate. But that--if we do 
that, we need to look at it not just in terms of Bosnia but over the 
long run.
    We need to recognize that we can't expect people who are sent into a 
very volatile situation and ask us to stabilize borders, to ensure the 
security of cross-border crossings and all the other things that 
UNPROFOR has had to do, you can't expect those same people to do this 
other work unless they literally come in contact with those who should 
be arrested and returned. So there would have to be a completely 
different way of dealing with it if we're going to have a permanent war 
crimes tribunal, which I think has a lot of merit.

Note: The President spoke at 10:25 a.m. in the Army Conference Room at 
the Pentagon. In his remarks, the President referred to Gen. George A. 
Joulwan, USA, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. A tape was not available 
for verification of the content of these remarks.