ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:96090904.txt
DATE:09/09/96
TITLE:09-09-96  TRANSCRIPT:  CLINTON Q&A WITH REPORTERS ON IRAQ SEPTEMBER 9

TEXT:
(Says Kurdish leaders have to end factional strife)  (780)

Washington -- President Clinton says the United States is "doing
everything (it) can" to evacuate from Iraq "American citizens and
those who have worked with us."

He said he'd like to do more to help the beseiged Kurd population in
northern Iraq, but insisted Kurdish leaders first have to arrange an
end to the factional strife there.

Clinton, taking questions from reporters during a September 9 ceremony
on airport safety, said the major brunt of the fighting in northern
Iraq now is between Kurdish factions, including one backed by tanks
and armored infantry units deployed by Saddam Hussein.

"We have done everything we could to make it clear to the Kurds that
we think there should not be any cavalier killing of civilians and
others who are not combatants in this," the president said.

Clitnon told reporters Washington has "done a great deal" over the
years to help the Kurdish population, but he said again the Kurds
themselves "make it more difficult" when leaders "continue to promote
fights" internally. "As you might expect," he added, "Saddam Hussein
would try to take advantage of that."

The president said he'd like to do more to help the Kurds, but added
they must first help themselves. "If the fighting is to end," he
noted, "the leaders of the various factions are going to have to be
willing to go back to the peace table and talk it through ... that's a
decision they're going to have to make, which will have a lot to do
with the fate of their own people."

The official transcript of the president's replies to questions on
Iraq follows:

(begin text)

Q: Mr. President, in Iraq are we abandoning Kurdish rebels who took a
stand against Saddam Hussein and now are being hunted down by his
forces?

CLINTON: Well, what we know of what is happening is that the Kurdish
forces themselves are continuing to fight. Obviously, Saddam Hussein
is supporting one side over another now. But the primary fight is
being carried on between ... the Kurdish forces. We're doing
everything we can to got out of Iraq American citizens and those who
have worked with us. And we have done everything we could to make it
clear to the Kurds that we think that there should not be any cavalier
killing of civilians and others who are not combatants in this.

As to the intelligence matters, I can't comment. But we are doing
everything that we believe we can do and that we think is appropriate.

Q: Mr. President, do those that you are trying to get out of Iraq
include the members of the Iraqi National Congress, who are apparently
holed up in a mountain hideaway somewhere and hoping for political
asylum?

CLINTON: I think it would be better for me not to comment now. I'd
like to stay with my first statement. We're doing everything, we
think, we can to help anybody that needs to be out of Iraq.

Q: Mr. President, what are your concerns about the building strength
of Saddam's ground forces, though?

CLINTON: Well, the main thing that we wanted to say was, first of all,
the United States has done a great deal to help the Kurds over the
years. And we've worked very hard. They make it more difficult to help
them when their leaders continue to promote fights within the Kurds,
within the Kurdish faction. And as you might expect, Saddam Hussein
would try to take advantage of that.

Our ability to control internal events in Iraq is limited, but what we
did do, which I thought was important, was when we found that what he
had done contravened the U.N. resolution and constituted repression of
his own people by carrying forward the military attack on Irbil
himself; what we did was to expand the no-fly zone and enforce it and
take out air defenses, which means that every day he has to pay a
price in terms of his capacity to maneuver in his own country and
threaten his neighbors.

And so we have done what we thought was appropriate there. I would
still like to do more to help the Kurds but, frankly, if you want the
fighting -- for the fighting to be ended, the leaders of the various
factions are going to have to be willing to go back to the peace table
and talk it through. We have worked very hard with them, but that's a
decision they're going to have to make, which will have a lot to do
with the fate of their own people.

(end transcript)
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