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Source | CONUS Archive |
---|---|
Record ID | 334757 |
Story Slug | STATE DEPARTMENT BRIEFING (1990) |
Location | WASHINGTON, DC |
Format | TVD |
Date | 9-20-1990 |
Archive Time | :10 |
TRT | 13:37 |
Supers | MARGARET TUTWILER |
Video Description | NEWS CONFERENCE |
Script | (SUGGESTED TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO)00:17Hello, how00:20are you? Some00:22of some of the questions that you asked yesterday on information that I have for you today. Approximately 320 American citizens and their foreign born family members evacuated from Kuwait and Baghdad yesterday, they departed London this morning at 9:30am00:39aboard a US chartered 747.00:42The evacuees are expected to land in Raleigh Durham's airport this afternoon, another charter flight is scheduled to depart Kuwait on Saturday morning, arriving in London that evening and landing in the US the following day. As I said yesterday, we believe that these two flights will accommodate all the Americans and the foreign born members of their families who have been able to get permission from the Iraqis to leave and who wish to depart. We have no more charter flights scheduled at this time, as individuals desiring to depart are allowed to do so, however, we will assist with their travel arrangements, either by commercial means or by charter. Our embassy in Baghdad reports that another American was picked up by the Iraqi soldiers from his home in Kuwait last week and taken September 18 to the Mansor Malia hotel in Baghdad. This brings to approximately 83 the number of American citizens that have been rounded up by the Iraqi government after repeated demands for the access to all those being detained by the Iraqis, a consular officer was finally granted access, September 19, to this latest American detainee and to two others temporarily held in the Malay Mansour hotel in Baghdad. The other two were picked up last week, along with two other Westerners, as noted in Mundy State Department briefing, our officer reported that all of these Americans were in good health. All three detainees were removed from their homes in Kuwait last week and taken to Baghdad. The Iraqis have not informed us where these individuals are now, we continue to demand that the Iraqis provide us with a complete listing of all American citizens who have been rounded up. In fact, as many as of you may know, Ambassador mashat was in this morning. He requested to come see Ambassador John Kelly. The purpose of his visit, since the visit has concluded, was one he wanted to discuss with Ambassador Kelly that Saddam Hussein wishes to have a tape that is broadcast on American media Ambassador Kelly pointed out to him that we do not have a state controlled media, that we have a free media here, that they were free to give to our media anything they wanted to. He pointed out that03:15Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi officials have had unlimited access to our media throughout this entire crisis, and our opinion of this, should it be his suggestion that they give this tape to the United States government is that we're not marketing agents.03:31He also brought a letter from the foreign minister of Iraq that is dated September 4. It is a 28 page letter. It is our understanding. It is the same letter that has been given to all other foreign ministers around the world, and it is their attempt at justifying Iraq's aggression.03:52In regard to the situation generally on the ground, it's basically the same. There is general harassment, and we continue to receive reports of more systematic, house to house searches in Kuwait by Iraqi soldiers.04:06As far as yesterday, one of you, I can't remember, who asked me if American citizens in Kuwait City could come and go from our embassy. I said that my believe the answer was no. I have now checked the answer is definitely that we have been advising Americans to stay away from the compound, as the Iraqis are known to be rounding up certain foreign nationals. And as you all know, Iraqi troops are positioned and have been positioned at our embassy there in Kuwait City.04:35I do not have a further update from yesterday's one notice that we saw that the Iraqis intended to impound assets. We have no further clarification of this, and we have not received any official notification from Iraq on this subject. One of you asked me, what would be our assets? Should this take place, or however they plan to implement this? If they do plan to implement it, we have.05:00Not yet determined the amount of property that might be involved. We obviously know what the government property is. We do not know private property. And since we have received no official word of this, we don't even know what it is exactly they're talking about.05:14There seems to be some confusion this morning in some press reports on the air embargo and where we are in that at the United Nations, the representatives of the permanent five members of the Security Council have referred a text to capitals for comment. There are a number of concerns with the current text, which remains under intense discussion. We do not know when a text will be ready to be put to a vote, and I'll be happy to try to answer any of your other Mr. Speaker, Jim, any time you start arms package consultations, stories emerge based on positions taken by persons involved in those consultations. Any talk about this particular package is pure speculation. The President has not made a decision on a Saudi arms package. And as many of you know, the process of consultations with the Hill is going on right now.06:06Yes, we've all seen on the wires that Saddam Hussein would like to broadcast a message to the American public. He did not bring a tape. He did not ask us to receive a tape06:20on a hypothetical, should he hand us a tape? Of course, we would. We would make it available in some type of arrangement to however it works out technically here, to the pool. We are not going to get in the business of mass producing this tape. We are not, as I said, a marketing agent so but he did not say he wants to bring it to the government. We pointed out, or Ambassador Kelly pointed out to him, very clearly, we have a free press here. Our press will make those decisions if they are given material and it's up to them to decide what they want to do with it. There were no question to him in the strongest terms that we can we want to know exactly where these Americans are. We want access to these Americans, we want all Americans who are trapped in Kuwait and in Iraq who wish to leave to be able to leave so safely. And immediately, was there a discussion of,07:15again, give assurances it will enforce the embargo we monitor Iraqi oil shipments as part of the United Nations ongoing effort to enforce its sanctions. We do not have any information that locates Iraqi tankers in Iranian territorial waters. Iran has not given permission for multinational naval forces to operate in its territorial waters, but Iran has indicated that it supports United Nations Security Council resolutions, including economic sanctions. We would expect that Iran would take appropriate measures to prevent circumvention of sanctions in its territorial waters. Will secretary, but the terrorist threat is something different that we posted last night, when the United States government receives information about terrorist threats to the American public overseas that is specific and credible, we will make the information available to the traveling public and other concerned parties. This is what we have done. In this case, there is nothing further as far as specifics that I can tell you other than the following,08:23Rojas Boulevard is a major thoroughfare along Manila Bay. As you know, in our statement last night, we specifically mentioned this Boulevard. There are a number of important facilities in this area of a diplomatic, military or commercial nature. As I've said, we cannot be more specific as to the possible target of this terrorist bombing threat. I would tell you that many of you know probably on this Boulevard are a number of United States buildings, including our embassy and other US facilities.09:00You have anything on? Yes, the United States welcomes the announcement that Namibia will allow emergency food aid to be sent across its territory into famine affected areas of southern Angola. We hope that this stated intention will mean that food aid will be able to transit Namibia to all famine affected parts of southern Angola. We believe a need exists for prompt and efficient deliveries of food under the auspices of appropriate international organizations to all the affected populations in Angola, including those in UNITA Hill territory. We hope that speedy shipments of relief supplies will begin soon, and are encouraged that the government of the People's Republic of Angola might agree agree soon to these shipments. Sorry, I just follow up on my degree soon. What is will be discussed today,09:55as you know, our two previous meetings with the Vietnamese on august 6 and August.10:0031st were between Deputy Assistant Secretary Kenneth Quinn and The Vietnamese un perm rep, the normal channel for our dialog with Vietnam will continue at this level. However, following the success of the Jakarta meeting at which the Cambodian parties all agreed to accept the perm five framework and form a supreme National Council the United States determined that it would be appropriate to take advantage of vice minister Lee Ma's presence in New York, to attend the United Nations General Assembly meeting, to have Assistant Secretary Solomon meet with him on an exceptional basis, to emphasize the importance we attach to continued progress on Cambodia as well as accelerated cooperation on the pow Mia issue. In this regard, it is important to note that General John Vessey, the President's Special emissary to Hanoi for pow Mia affairs and Ann miles Griffiths, Executive Director of the National League of families, will join Mr. Solomon for this meeting. It is expected that this meeting will include discussion of the Cambodian settlement, pow Mia accounting efforts and their relationship to the eventual process of normalization of relations between the United States and Vietnam. These are not normalization Talks. My understanding is this talk is this afternoon in New York. We'll read out at the end of the check for you.11:28I'm on Guatemala Jim,11:37the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 Section K requires the Department to inform Congress by October, one of countries which exceed certain numerical standards on the production of illicit drugs. In Guatemala's case, about 12 metric tons of opium was produced which exceeded the statutory limit of five metric tons. Guatemala's inclusion on the major drug producing countries list should not be seen as a commitment on its Counter Narcotics performance. The Guatemalan government continues to cooperate fully with the United States in combating the drug trade. Under the law, the United States government is required to withhold 50% of its foreign assistance to all countries on the list until March one. But is there any12:29the United States government, and since this murder, if you're talking about Michael Devine on June 8, has been consistently12:39calling for and is still calling for a12:43very thorough and prompt investigation into this as you know, the investigation of the murder is in progress, and the Embassy has discussed this case on more than one occasion with the president of Guatemala and other members of the government of Guatemala, and has expressed our clear expectation that justice will be done. We have no comment to make on the alleged suspects. That is for Guatemala's judicial progress process to determine the government. Military and security forces have been provided information on several leads that have already been developed. We have told the Government of Guatemala that we expect a serious investigation to identify the culprits and bring them to justice.13:25Happy with the pace of the doesn't have any public appointments. Can you give us any clue as to what his involvement is in the Gulf matter, if any or others have had during the past week? And there's a general range. |
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