Excerpts from State Department daily briefing, January 14, 2002

Excerpts from State Department daily briefing, January 14, 2002

Daily Press Briefing
Richard Boucher, Spokesman
Washington, DC
January 14, 2002

...

QUESTION: Yes. The US Government has been concerned about the DMZ. The US Government tonight that area will be under control of Colombian army. The US Government must be very pleased at this issue. Are you?

MR. BOUCHER: Well, I think, first and foremost, we have always supported President Pastrana's efforts towards peace and we have blamed the current impasse on the FARC, including the fact that they have continued to carry out various activities in this zone throughout the period that President Pastrana has provided for the despeje, for the DMZ to be in existence. So we hold them responsible for the current impasse. We continue to believe the burden is on them to respond in good faith to President Pastrana's efforts to resume negotiations.

So we support President Pastrana, his decisions regarding how to proceed at this juncture. We are in touch with him and we're following the situation very closely. We'll see what happens tonight, as you point out, which is when the deadline expires.

QUESTION: The President signed a new aid bill for Colombia and in it only 60 percent of the aid is to be disbursed if the Secretary of State certifies that the Government of Colombia is taking action regarding human and civil rights and militias and so on, then he has to report every 120 days to the Congress that they have not only taken the initial action but they have taken the final actions.

My question is: Is the Secretary going to certify that Colombia is taking such actions?

MR. BOUCHER: I didn't realize there were such provisions in the new bill. That sounds like the provisions --

QUESTION: The Leahy --

MR. BOUCHER: And those kinds of provisions were in the old bill and we did --

QUESTION: This has no waiver.

MR. BOUCHER: All right. Well, I will look. We'll look at the situation and see when we have to do that, whether it has to be done right away or not.

QUESTION: There are people in Colombia who have suggested that the US Government has been pushing President Pastrana to end the DMZ. Is that true?

MR. BOUCHER: The position that I gave you all along -- the position I gave you today is the one that we've taken all along, is that it is up to President Pastrana. We have been very disappointed and we have condemned the actions of the FARC in this area, but we have said we leave this process to President Pastrana. We have supported in the past whatever decisions he has made in this matter.

QUESTION: On the DMZ, you have been supportive of the President Pastrana's negotiation with the guerillas, the terrorist group, the FARC. Even though you know that they are a terrorist group, you still support all his decisions?

MR. BOUCHER: All along we've supported whatever steps he thought he could take to resolve this situation. We have supported his willingness to try a peaceful path, to resolve the situation down there, and we have -- as I said, we have held the FARC responsible for the impasse and for the lack of any progress in that regard.

QUESTION: In a follow-up? On the appointment of Ambassador Reich last week --

MR. BOUCHER: Assistant Secretary Reich, we call him.

QUESTION: I'm sorry, Assistant Secretary Reich. Is the US Government sending a stronger message to the Colombians and to the region about the new policies or politics in that particular region?

MR. BOUCHER: As he said to the staff meeting this morning, sorry I'm late. It takes him a while to get in here. I think it is clear that this Administration has put a lot of emphasis on Latin America. We have paid a lot of attention to Colombia, to the Andean region, both in terms of our rhetoric, in terms of our attention, officials, but also in real money terms as well.

And so having him on board as Assistant Secretary we think is an important contribution to being able to carry out the President's policy for the hemisphere and the emphasis that the President himself places on the hemisphere.

So in those terms, yes, it is a message of the importance that we attach to Central and South America, and our desire to work actively with people in this region.

QUESTION: Can I move on to the -- first the question just before then. You are saying that it is okay, then, to negotiate with some FTOs? As long as the government is willing -- the government of a country where a terrorist organization is located is willing to negotiate with them, it's okay? That sounds like a shift from what -- it was black and white (inaudible) at the White House before. It was either -- you're either with us or you're against us in the war on terrorism. But you're saying that you would continue to support Pastrana's talks with the FARC?

MR. BOUCHER: We have always taken the position in Colombia -- as you know, this has a lot of history behind it. I think our position has been quite consistent. I am not declaring some new policy worldwide about terrorists. But we have always focused on the situation in Colombia in this way, and that's been the position actually since before this Administration.

QUESTION: Well, I'm sure -- I mean, is there a gradation of FTO that maybe is not out -- set out clearly? But you believe that some groups that you have designated as terrorist organizations are okay to deal with?

MR. BOUCHER: The issue of designation of groups is -- the point is to get people to end their support, their terrorist activities. In this particular situation, this has been the way we have supported the efforts of President Pastrana to get these people to make peace and to end their terrorist activities. That is about as much of a conclusion as I --

QUESTION: That wouldn't have been an option in Afghanistan, say, for -- I realize you're going to say it's apples and oranges, but in other countries, that's not necessarily an option?

MR. BOUCHER: It's apples and oranges.

QUESTION: Not specific to any other country, but in other countries in general, it is not necessarily an option?

MR. BOUCHER: I'm not doing "in general"; I'm doing in particular; in this situation this has been the position we have taken.

QUESTION: But you can understand why some people might see a contradiction there, can't you?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't think there is any particular contradiction in this situation. The issue is ending the violent activities of various groups, and there are various ways to do that.

As of January 16, 2002, this document was also available online at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2002/index.cfm?docid=7257