BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA/MACEDONIA: U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL TELLS POLITICAL LEADERS IN SARAJEVO THAT BOSNIA NEEDS TO MAKE PROGESS TO BECOME MEMBER OF EUROPE
Record ID:
222956
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA/MACEDONIA: U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL TELLS POLITICAL LEADERS IN SARAJEVO THAT BOSNIA NEEDS TO MAKE PROGESS TO BECOME MEMBER OF EUROPE
- Title: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA/MACEDONIA: U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL TELLS POLITICAL LEADERS IN SARAJEVO THAT BOSNIA NEEDS TO MAKE PROGESS TO BECOME MEMBER OF EUROPE
- Date: 13th April 2001
- Summary: (W6) SARAJEVO, BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA (APRIL 13, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV AIRCRAFT TAXIING AT SARAJEVO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT 0.08 2. SV SARAJEVO AIRPORT BUILDING/BOSNIAN FLAG (2 SHOTS) 0.17 3. LV UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE, COLIN POWELL, ALIGHTS FROM AIRCRAFT/WALKING ON TARMAC (2 SHOTS) 0.35 4. SV POWELL IS WELCOMED BY U.S. AMBASSADOR TO BOSNIA, THOMAS MILLER/ SHAKES HANDS WITH S-FOR COMMANDER L. DODSON/ SHAKES HANDS WITH HIGH REPRESENTATIVE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY IN BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA, WOLFGANG PETRITSCH/SHAKES HANDS WITH HEAD OF THE OSC MISSION TO BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA 0.51 5. LV OF TARMAC INCLUDING JACQUES KLEIN, HEAD OF U.N. MISSION. 0.56 6. LV OF BUILDING 1.01 7. SV/SLV POWELL IS GREETED BY MEMBERS OF THE BOSNIAN PRESIDENCY INCLUDING; SHAKES HANDS WITH ZIVKO RADISIC, SERB MEMBER OF THE PRESIDENCY/JOZO KRIZANOVIC, CROAT MEMBER OF THE PRESIDENCY/ BERIZ BELKIC, MOSLEM MEMBER OF THE PRESIDENCY AND THE BOSNIAN FOREIGN MINISTER/POSING FOR PHOTO (4 SHOTS) 1.23 8. SV POWELL AND DELEGATES WALK IN TO MEETING 1.32 9. CU OF CAMERAMAN 1.36 10. SV/SLV POWELL EMERGES AND SHAKES HANDS WITH MEMBERS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE FEDERATION INCLUDING; PRESIDENT OF FEDERATION (FIRST ON THE LEFT) KARLO FILIPOVIC AND PRIME MINISTER OF THE FEDERATION ALIJA BEHMEN/ ALL POSE FOR PHOTOGRAPH (3 SHOTS) 1.53 11. SV POWELL WALKS TO PODIUM FOR NEWS CONFERENCE 2.00 12. MCU (English) UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE, COLIN POWELL SAYING: "Bosnia needs to make more progress to become a member of Europe. It needs an election law -- I'm pleased that one is well on the way to passage -- It needs one military and not three, and regulatory and legal reform and all indicted war criminals must be brought to justice." 2.19 13. SLV ENTRANCE TO HOLIDAY INN IN SARAJEVO 2.23 14. SLV POWELL SHAKES HANDS WITH THE REPUBLICA SERPSKA PRIME MINISTER MLADEN IVANIC 2.34 15. LV EXTERIOR OF HOLIDAY INN 2.39 (W5) SKOPJE, MACEDONIA (APRIL 13, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 16. SV/SLV OF UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE, COLIN POWELL, U.N. GOVERNOR, ETHNIC ALBANIAN AND SERB LEADERS ROUND TABLE BEFORE TALKS (3 SHOTS) 2.54 17. MCU (English) COLIN POWELL, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE SAYING: "We call on Kosovars to join us in denouncing and isolating extremists whose actions are eroding international support for Kosovo and sympathy for its people. Your dreams for a peaceful democratic future depend on such restraint and such forswearing of violence." 3.13 18. LV OF JOINT NEWS CONFERENCE BY COLIN POWELL AND HANS HAEKKERUP 3.16 19. MCU (English) COLIN POWELL, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE SAYING: "The next step now is to convene the meeting that you all know about on the 18th with representatives of the United States and the Chinese government to discuss issues such as the return of our aircraft and I'm sure lots of other issues will come up from their side and from our side, and that maritime agreement provides for this consultative mechanism so that such views can be exchanged. And I think that's the way in which this incident will be played out - exactly in accordance with the road map that was agreed to a little over a week ago. There are other issues that we have with the Chinese government -- the president touched on a number of them yesterday -- and we will now go back to our regular means of communicating with the Chinese leader and meetings with Chinese leaders, and letting know our concerns on those areas where we have disagreement and building on those areas where we do have agreement. Thank you very much."/PPWELL LEAVES NEWS CONFERENCE 4.27 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 28th April 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA AND SKOPJE, MACEDONIA
- City:
- Country: Bosnia Macedonia
- Reuters ID: LVAP6KOJLQOJ1JMGEZYWO5MWUP2
- Story Text: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, on his first trip
to the Balkans, told political leaders in Sarajevo that Bosnia
needs to make more progress to become a member of Europe.
Earlier in the day he told Kosovo Albanian leaders that
they had to do more to prevent new violence in Macedonia if
they wanted to retain international backing.
And at the news conference in Skopje, Powell was
questioned on Sino-U.S. relations in the wake of the return of
the U.S. spy plane crew from Hainan, China.
On Friday (April 13) afternoon US Secretary of State
Colin Powell flew from Skopje to Bosnia Herzegovina, where the
post-war peace -- policed by a NATO-led force since 1996 --
has been shaken by Bosnian Croat separatism in recent weeks.
His visit to the Balkan states was meant as a sign the
United States intended to maintain its commitment to the
Balkan region, where fears of a withdrawal of U.S.
peacekeepers in Bosnia and Kosovo were sparked by the election
of President George W. Bush in January.
But since his election, Powell has repeated several times
that they would not "cut and run" from the Balkans, rather
that the U.S. contingents would leave when its European allies
did.
From the time he arrived in Sarajevo on the afternoon
flight, Powell's schedule was a hectic round of hand-shaking
and meetings with high level officials crucial to achieving
the future stability of Bosnia.
"The United States is very proud to have helped end a
terrible war," Powell told reporters after meeting political
leaders of the Muslim-Croat federation and Serb republic
formed under U.S.-mediated peace accords in Dayton, Ohio.
"However we are concerned at the recent reappearance in
the country of extremist elements like those that caused so
much destruction and misery some years ago," he added.
"The challenge to the elected governments here from
hard-liners in the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) party
threatens to set back the progress that Bosnia-Herzegovina has
made in recent years," he said.
Shortly after he spoke the government of Bosnia's
Muslim-Croat Federation urged international peacekeepers to
take control of Bosnian Croat barracks, some of which have
been occupied by nationalist groups seeking Croat self-rule.
"We know full well that the overwhelming majority in this
country, Bosnian Croats and others, does not want a return to
conflict nor a return to the law of the jungle," he said.
He said rule of law, refugee returns, trade and investment
and institutional reform were the way forward for Bosnia.
Earlier Powell met the West's top peace envoy in Bosnia,
Wolfgang Petritsch, who ordered the takeover of the
Mostar-based Hercegovacka Banka and installed an international
supervisor.
In recent weeks hardline Croats have sought to break out
of their alliance with the Muslims. The HDZ, the main Croat
nationalist party, is accused of having stashed 54 million
German marks ($24.45 million) in the bank.
On Friday morning, Powell dropped plans to travel to
Kosovo, and instead met its U.N. governor and ethnic Albanian
and Serb leaders in Skopje, Macedonia.
Present at the meeting were Hans Haekkerup of Denmark,
leader of the United Nations' Kosovo administration, moderate
Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova and Hashim Thaci, former
commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) that fought the
forces of then Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Rada Trajkovic, a Kosovo Serb political leader, and Ramush
Haradinaj, another former KLA leader, were also there.
U.S. officials said low cloud and bad weather had prompted
Powell not to make the 55-minute helicopter ride to the Kosovo
capital, Pristina. They did not cite security considerations.
"We call on Kosovars to join us in denouncing and
isolating extremists whose actions are eroding international
support for Kosovo and sympathy for its people," Powell told a
news conference before travelling to Bosnia.
"In the meeting that I just completed, yes I did hear the
leaders say that they will forswear violence and I encouraged
them to speak out candidly to all the people that they
represent and the people they are leading that violence is not
the answer," he added.
Rugova, Thaci and Haradinaj have urged the ethnic Albanian
rebels in Macedonia to lay down their arms immediately and
return to their homes.
The rebels said they were fighting for more rights for
ethnic Albanians, one third of Macedonia's population.
Skopje calls them extremists who came from Kosovo and went
back there.
Powell said violence apparently had a home-grown as well
as an outside source.
He said Kosovo should concentrate on general elections and
not try to win independence from Serbia immediately.
"Elections should be held as soon as possible this year,"
he said, reiterating U.S. support for an autonomous,
self-governed Kosovo. "Let's not move forward with any
precipitous acts that might be a source of any new
instability."
"Your dreams for a peaceful and democratic future depend
on such restraint."
Powell was also asked about United States' relations with
China after the release of the spy plane air crew, Powell
said: "The next step now is to convene the meeting that you
all know about on the 18th with representatives of the United
States and the Chinese government to discuss issues such as
the return of our aircraft and I'm sure lots of other issues
will come up from their side and from our side and that
maritime agreement provides for this consultative mechanism so
that such views can be exchanged. And I think that's the way
in which this incident will be played out exactly in
accordance with the road map that was agreed to a little over
a week ago."
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None