U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Office of the Spokesman August 23, 2000 JOINT PRESS AVAILABILITY SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE K. ALBRIGHT AND ALBANIAN PRIME MINISTER ILIR META Washington, D.C. Q: I'm sorry, this again is on one of your four countries and not Albania. But Madame Secretary, I know the President has already commented on this but it was the State Department whose officials met face-to-face with Colombian human rights organizations and the State Department had the responsibility for making a recommendation. These human rights groups say now that promised legislation is not a sufficient commitment from President Pastrana and I wanted to know whether, now the decision is made, you could explain a little bit more about how these concerns weighed in on the recommendation and whether you're comfortable with that decision or whether you'll still be taking some strong words to Colombia when you visit next week to make sure that Pastrana is following through on these promises. SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: First of all, I think it's very important to see the entire picture of the comprehensive Plan Colombia which is dealing with the problem of narco-trafficking, dealing with the peace process, the social and economic issues and, obviously, human rights. At the times I have talked to President Pastrana or when I was in Colombia or when Under Secretary Pickering deals with them, we have made the importance, the centrality of human rights very clear. President Pastrana has, in turn, made very clear the importance of human rights to him and I think that when he was here, standing where Prime Minister Meta is standing, he said that he didn't want to end his term or after his term be followed around with signs that said "I didn't do anything about human rights" or something to that effect. So he is very dedicated to it. I think they understand that they continue to have problems with it. The military that is providing kind of the protective package around the police that's going into Putumayo Province, each of the individuals has been vetted for not having human rights violations. And we will continue to press on this. Obviously, it is always part of what we talk to them about. We think that they have made some good faith efforts, are making very good faith efforts on this, and that they need to continue to do this. It is in our minds and will continue to be there. But we believed that the waiver was a good idea and the certification is very important and that we need to be supportive of President Pastrana in the process. (end transcript)