- Title: FRANCE: DAVID OWEN HOLDS TALKS WITH FRENCH PRIME MINISTER
- Date: 9th June 1995
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (JUNE 9, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV FRENCH PRIME MINISTER MINISTER ALAIN JUPPE AND OUTGOING EUROPEAN UNION (EU) MEDIATOR IN EX-YUGOSLAVIA LORD OWEN SEATED AT MATIGNON BUILDING IN PARIS 0.10 2. SV OWEN LEAVING BUILDING AND TALKING TO REPORTERS, SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 3. SV OWEN SAID TROOPS WERE THERE ON A HUMANITARIAN MISSION AND THEY MUST NOT CROSS THE SO-CALLED "MOGADISHU LINE" BETWEEN IMPARTIALITY AND COMPETITIVENESS TO BE SEEN AS BELIGERENT (ENGLISH) 4. SV OWEN SAID IF THE UNITED NATIONS WERE NOT WANTED THEY WOULD HAVE TO LEAVE BUT HE BELIEVED THEY HAD A REAL ROLE AND THERE WAS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR NEGOTIATION. (ENGLISH) 1.42 5. SV OWEN LEAVES IN CAR 1.53 SEQUENCE 2 transcript: OWEN :'THE CREATION OF THE RAPID REACTION FORCE WAS RIGHT BECAUSE REINFORCEMENT WAS NEEDED AND FRANCE AND BRITAIN COULD NOT ACCEPT HOSTAGES BEING TAKEN WITHOUT DEMONSTRATING THEIR RESOLVE AND READINESS TO IMPROVE THE CREDIBILITY OF THE UNITED NATIONS (U.N.) ABILITY TO PERFORM IMPARTIAL HUMANITARIAN ACTION. OWEN SAID WE HAD BEEN SHORT OF TROOPS ALL ALONG AND THERE HAD NEVER BEEN ENOUGH FOR THE SAFE AREAS SO HE WELCOMED THE CREATION OF THE FORCE BUT HE WARNED AGAINST TURNING INTO A COMBATIVE FORCE." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 24th June 1995 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PARIS, FRANCE
- City:
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVABLH9EPAAX8XPHZ66KWTVS4WPD
- Story Text: Former British foreign secretary Lord Owen, who is about to step down as European Union (EU) mediator in the former Yugoslavia, held talks with French Prime Minister Alain Juppe on Friday (June 9).
Owen is due to leave the job by the end of June. He asked to step down from the job after nearly three years of fruitless mediation.
European Union leaders were set to appoint former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt as their new mediator and endorse an Anglo-French rapid reaction force to protect United Nations (U.N.) peacekeepers in Bosnia at a Paris mini-summit on Friday night.
Bildt, a natural negotiator, will be mandated to give peace negotiations a fresh push, but only after rebel Bosnian Serbs have released the remaining 145 U.N. soldiers and observers they have held hostage for the past two weeks.
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