THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release April 22, 1994
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
WITH PRIME MINISTER PAPANDREOU OF GREECE
The Oval Office
11:45 A.M. EDT
Q Mr. President, are you going to start bombing, or
are the allies going to start bombing Gorazde very shortly as a
result of the NATO Council ultimatum?
THE PRESIDENT: They're meeting now. Let's see what
they do, and I'll have more to say about it later.
Q Do you want the NATO allies to allow NATO to select
the bombing targets and move more independently of the U.N.? And do
you expect them to --
THE PRESIDENT: We want to continue to work with the
U.N., but they're working -- our people are there now, working on the
arrangements. So let's see what comes out of the meeting today and
we'll -- I'll have comments about it after they do.
Q Sir, I wonder if you could tell us why the Haitian
boat people are being allowed this time, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, two reasons. First of all, they
were very close to the United States. The whole purpose of the
return policy was primarily to deter people from risking their lives.
Hundreds of people have already drowned trying to come here. These
people were only four miles from the shore.
The second was that we had evidence that the Haitians
might have been subject to some abuse by the people who were in
control of the boat. And so for those reasons, we thought the
appropriate thing to do was to bring them on in, which we did.
Q Is this a change in the policy for the future?
THE PRESIDENT: No change in policy.
* * * * *
Q President Clinton. Mr. President, are you going to
discuss the problem with Greece and Skopje, and the measures that
Greece has got against Skopje?
THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely.
Q What do you believe about these measures?
THE PRESIDENT: What I think is that we have Mr. Nimetz
over there and Mr. Vance. We're trying to help work it out. I think
that it's very much in the interest of Greece and Europe and the
world community for the matters to be worked out between the two
countries, and I think they can be.
Q How committed are you to delaying the process until
Greece's concerns are satisfied, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: I think it's obvious that we've shown a
real concern for Greece's concerns. That's one of the main reasons I
sent a special envoy over there , and we're trying to work through
it. We'll discuss that today. We just started out -- we haven't
even had our discussions yet.
Q There's been some criticism that the U.S. side has
not exercised enough of its good -- to Skopje and to come up with a
solution.
THE PRESIDENT: We're working hard on that now, and
we'll continue to. I think there will have to be some changes from
the point of view of Skopje.
Q Are you going to visit Greece sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I'd love to do that. I've never
been there.
TRANSLATOR: He has an invitation.
Q Oh. That's good. On the Greek --
Q What about Cyprus?
THE PRESIDENT: We're working hard on Cyprus, and I
think -- I hope there will be some movement from the Turkish side on
Cyprus in the next couple of days with regard to the confidence-
building measures. I think that the ball has been sort of in Mr.
Denktash's court, and I hope he will take it up, and then I hope that
Greece and all others will support pushing forward. I have worked
hard to resolve this since I've been in office, and I will continue
to stay on it. More later.
END12:01 P.M. EDT
.