
	     


			   THE WHITE HOUSE

		    Office of the Press Secretary

__________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                               April 11, 1994 

		       REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
	    IN PHOTO OPPORTUNITY WITH FOREIGN POLICY GROUP
	     
			   The Cabinet Room


9:19 A.M. EDT
	     
	     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 kind 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 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 decision-making time.  I don't know the 
exact time, but we responded in an entirely appropriate way, I think, 
under the circumstances.
	     
	     Thank you.
	     


				 END9:25 A.M. EDT

