June 30, 1999

STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY

                              THE WHITE HOUSE

                       Office of the Press Secretary
                            (Chicago, Illinois)
For Immediate Release                                        June 30, 1999


                     STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY

     Today the Department of State, the Central Intelligence Agency, the
Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, and the National Archives are releasing newly declassified
and other documents related to events in Chile from 1973-78.  These
documents are part of a discretionary review of U.S. government files
related to human rights abuses, terrorism, and other acts of political
violence prior to and during the Pinochet era in Chile.  National Security
Council staff are coordinating this interagency effort on behalf of the
President.

     Virtually all of the documents in the initial release cover the period
from 1973-78, which corresponds to the period of the most flagrant human
rights abuses in Chile.  The process of review continues, and additional
documents from 1973-78 will be released later this year, along with
documents dated 1968-1973. In a subsequent phase, agencies will review and
release documents from the later years of Pinochet?s rule.

     This initial release consists of over 5,800 documents, including
approximately 5,000 from the Department of State, 490 from the CIA, 200
from the National Archives, 100 from the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
and 60 from the Department of Defense.  A limited number of documents have
not been released at this time, primarily because they relate to an ongoing
Justice Department investigation of the murder of Ronni Moffitt and Orlando
Letelier.  Information also has been withheld from some of the released
documents to protect the privacy of individuals, sensitive law enforcement
information, and intelligence sources and methods; or to prevent serious
harm to ongoing diplomatic activities of the United States.

     A complete set of the released documents is available for public
review at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland.  They also are
being released simultaneously in Chile.  In the near future, copies of the
documents will be available on the internet at http://foia.state.gov.

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