ACCESSION NUMBER:00000

FILE ID:95113002.POL

DATE:11/30/95

TITLE:30-11-95  STATE DEPARTMENT REPORT, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30



TEXT:

(Bosnia hearings, NATO Secretary General, Nuccio, Haiti, arms control)

(830)



There was no regular news briefing, but Spokesman Nicholas Burns

discussed the following topics with reporters. No transcript of his

was remarks was available.



ADMINISTRATION GIVES CONGRESS "VERY CLEAR CASE" ON BOSNIA



Burns said "the administration put forward a very clear case" on

Bosnia earlier November 30 during testimony to the House Committee on

International Relations by Secretary of State Christopher, Defense

Secretary Perry and General John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint

Chiefs of Staff.



Urging congressional support for deployment of U.S. troops in a NATO

peace implementation force in Bosnia, the three officials addressed

the panel in the first of three separate congressional hearings

scheduled for November 30 and December 1.



"I thought it was an interesting session this morning....I think that

the administration put forward a very clear case," Burns said,

recalling that congressional complaints from earlier hearings on

Bosnia had been, "Where's the beef? Where are the details on this?"



The presentation by Perry and Shalikashvili "was fairly detailed," he

said. "It could have been hours longer, and they would have been glad

to do that if Congress had had the time. But...they wanted the three

of them to summarize their remarks so they summarized their remarks."



Burns also said, "I think that you saw in Secretary Christopher's

remarks to Congressman (Henry) Hyde at the end of the morning that we

feel that the Congress has been calling for action for the last couple

of years...and the administration has provided that kind of decisive

plan for the future. So the sense was it was a very good morning, a

very solid morning for the administration."



SELECTION PROCESS FOR NATO SECRETARY GENERAL



Burns said he thinks "there will be closure fairly soon" on selecting

a new NATO secretary general.



"I think there is an inclination among the NATO foreign ministers to

arrive at a consensus quickly because we want someone to be in place

to lead NATO through the deployment" in Bosnia, Burns said. There are

"several" candidates "still being talked about," he said.



A U.S. official said later that he expects the selection process "will

come to a decision -- if not an announcement -- probably early next

week."



NUCCIO ISSUE BEING CONSIDERED BY JUSTICE DEPARTMENT



Burns referred questions to the Justice Department regarding Richard

Nuccio, President Clinton's special adviser on Cuba and a former aide

to Representative Robert Torricelli, who is reportedly being

investigated by the Justice Department for allegedly giving classified

Central Intelligence Information to the New Jersey legislator.



In response to questioning about Nuccio, Burns said, "I can say that

he's an employee of this administration. He still has his building

passes and he's got his security clearances. And on any other

questions I'd say...this matter is before the Justice Department. And

that's all I can say on that."



SUCCESS OF U.S. POLICY IN HAITI



Stressing that U.S. policy in Haiti has succeeded, Burns said he

wanted to defend the administration "against all this negative,

cynical talk about how our Haiti policy is unraveling."



Burns said, "I've just been struck by all of the attacks on the

administration...that somehow our policy is falling apart there when

in fact, I think, by any objective standard, the U.S. military

intervention succeeded in September 1994, and the U.N. mission has

done quite well, by any standard -- the level of stability in society

compared to the level of stability before September 1994...the fact

that there have been elections, the fact that there are going to be

new elections, the fact that our casualties are far below what

everybody predicted they would be."



Asked about the documents seized by U.S. troops that Haiti has

requested be returned, Burns said, "The ball's still in our court. We

need to get back to the Haitians. (President Jean-Bertrand) Aristide

has now said personally that he wants the documents back. It's a very

important request. It should be taken very seriously."



CONCEPTUAL BREAKTHROUGH REPORTED ON ABM/TMD



Reporting a "conceptual breakthrough" on the ABM/TMD anti-ballistic

missile/theater missile defense issue, Burns said enough progress has

been made "so that we can now go back to the SCC (Standing

Consultative Commission) and, we think, resolve this problem forever."

The SCC is the international body in which the ABM Treaty is debated.



Burns explained that the issue concerns "what is the basic demarcation

line between a strategic missile and a theater missile, and how do you

define that?"



"We have had a good series of discussions with the Russians, which has

allowed us, we think, to bring it back to the SCC," the spokesman

said. A November 30 Washington Times article alleged that "somehow

this gives undue advantage to the Russians, particularly about higher

velocity systems," he noted. "But, on that," he said, "the status quo

continues."

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