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Transcript: Secretary Albright on CNN's Late Edition
("Important ... for all of us to work to lessen the violence) (2410)

Following is a transcript of the program, provided by the Department of State:

(begin transcript)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
For Immediate Release October 10, 2000
2000/1098

INTERVIEW OF
SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE K. ALBRIGHT
BY
CNN'S LATE EDITION

October 8, 2000
Washington, D.C.

MR. BLITZER: Now joining us to talk about these latest developments in Yugoslavia as well as the Middle East is the US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Good to see you, Wolf.

MR. BLITZER: Welcome back to LATE EDITION. Let's begin with the crisis in the Middle East right now. As you know, yesterday, the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, imposed a 48-hour deadline. He says the Palestinians must end the fighting. It's now 24 hours -- it's been 24 hours. Is this a good idea for him to impose this kind of deadline, some call it an ultimatum?

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, I think this has to be put into context. What has been going on here is increasing violence in terms of the Israelis feeling under siege by the Palestinian rock-throwers and the street gangs, the Tanzin, and feeling that basically, as they have pulled back from places, the Palestinians have moved in.

Obviously, there is also a lot of criticism of too much use of firepower by the Israelis and tremendous frustration at the fact that they are not able to move on with the peace process. I think that in the various interviews and statements that Prime Minister Barak has made in the last days, he is showing that he really does want to have a peace process work. He wants a partner. He does want a peace process.

What is important here now is for all of us to work to lessen the violence, because this cycle of violence has to be broken. There has to be disengagement, and the security measures that we worked out in Paris have to be put into place.

MR. BLITZER: He's now raising questions, Prime Minister Barak, about Yasser Arafat's commitment to the peace process. I want you to listen to what the Prime Minister said earlier today on "Meet The Press."

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EHUD BARAK, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Until now, I ordered our people not to act but just to respond. From now on, if it will become clear that there is no partner, we will have to see him as a rival, not a partner, and to act upon this judgment accordingly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MR. BLITZER: Are you convinced that Yasser Arafat is still committed to the peace process as envisaged by the Israelis?

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I think that Yasser Arafat has made some very hard decisions in the last seven years in showing that he wants the peace process to move forward. I think that he is someone who wants peace for his people. The question is whether anyone, at this point, whether they are looking -- his people -- at the steps that are possible there to move forward in the peace process.

I hate to begin to think that Yasser Arafat is not a partner. He has been a partner. He needs to regain control over what is going on, and they need to disengage and get back to the peace track. We had been working on it; we were so close, Wolf. I think that there are many good ideas on the table. It's important for them to get back to the peace table.

MR. BLITZER: You have heard the Israelis say -- and I'm sure they have said to you directly -- that if Yasser Arafat wanted this to stop, he has the authority to stop it -- his security services. He could put out the word to stop the stone-throwing, stop the demonstrations, get back to the peace negotiations.

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I believe that it's important for him to regain control; that he has had control. He is somebody that I think is obviously the leader of the Palestinian people. He is respected. He needs to control the various layers. And there are many layers here, Wolf. I think that is part of the complication. But it is essential that both sides really work very hard to lower the level of violence and blame-placing. What has to happen here is to look to the future, and not a future of stone-throwing and tanks but of basically getting back to the peace talks.

MR. BLITZER: Are you saying he does not have the authority, the power right now, to control this situation?

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I believe that, you know, he is their recognized ruler and he needs to -- we expect him to exert the control.

MR. BLITZER: We heard from one of his chief supporters, Hanan Ashrawi, earlier today on ABC's "This Week," who is making it very clear, speaking for the Palestinians, that the situation is not their fault. It is the Israelis who are responsible for this deterioration. I want you to hear what Hanan Ashrawi said earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANAN ASHRAWI, MEMBER OF THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY'S LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL: We will not go gentle into that good night, if they insist on shooting and killing us. At least we have the right to defend ourselves. We are not occupying their territory. The Israelis are occupying Palestinian territory.... (END VIDEO CLIP)

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I think that the bottom line here is that there is violence that has escalated and that the Israelis feel besieged by the stone-throwing and the various violence on the streets, and they are reacting. The truth is that looking for who started what when, you'd have to go back thousands of years. The point here is to move forward and not get into a posture where it is impossible to break the cycle of violence.

I would hope that they could in fact move ahead. Let me tell you something very interesting. These measures that we worked out in Paris were a way that the security people from both sides would be able to meet with our facilitation. That is going on as we speak.

MR. BLITZER: But it hasn't stopped the violence.

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: No. But they -- it has gone -- there have been kind of ups and downs in it. And I think that we have to just keep watching and waiting; but these security measures have to get into place. They have to disengage. They have to. I think that we are not going to get anywhere if we try to point fingers. We just have to move forward to a future that is good for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples.

MR. BLITZER: Your Ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, immediately after the US decision to abstain on that resolution passed 14 to nothing with one abstention -- the United States -- he called it so very one sided. He, in effect, condemned the resolution. Why did the Clinton Administration -- why did President Clinton -- I assume it went up to his level -- decide to abstain instead of veto that resolution?

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I think it obviously is a one-sided resolution. We wanted it and Ambassador Holbrooke worked to try to get a more balanced resolution. It was not possible. We did think and talk about this a long time.

We have to remember what our role is. Our role in the Middle East is to try to be the negotiator, the mediator, the honest broker, and to be able to work with both sides. That is one reason that we felt that an abstention was appropriate. The other is that we have larger responsibilities within the whole region, and we had to look at the effect of a veto on that. But I truly do believe we knew that this resolution was lopsided. Ambassador Holbrooke made that statement in his, what's called the explanation of vote. And we think that this was the best position, and frankly the only position, for the United States to take at this time.

MR. BLITZER: You met with Barak and Arafat in Paris and al-Sharm el-Sheikh. Is there anything specific right now that the US Government is planning on doing to try to ease this situation, get the peace talks back on track?

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, we are talking to everybody.

MR. BLITZER: Any meetings planned, anything like that?

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: We are looking at various options. We did just meet, as you said, in Paris; Prime Minister Barak did not come to Sharm el Sheikh. But it is not just matter of meetings. What it is is trying to talk to the parties, trying to lower the temperature. We are very concerned about the fact that three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by the Hezbollah.

I spoke to Foreign Minister Shara of Syria yesterday and to President Lahud of Lebanon. I've been speaking to Kofi Annan because this is a violation of Resolution 425. And because also, as you know, some Palestinians broke through the fence that was at the border, and so we are working on lessening the tensions there and trying through these security groups with our facilitation to lower the temperature.

MR. BLITZER: Any prospect those three Israeli soldiers are about to be returned?

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I have no recent information on that, but there is a lot of concern about it not only from us and the United Nations, but other countries also.

MR. BLITZER: Very quickly, there's been some suggestion that Saddam Hussein in Iraq is looking at this situation in this month before the US presidential election, thinking that perhaps this is a time for him to do something.

Is the US Government getting any of those indications, any of those reports?

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, we're always suspicious of what Saddam Hussein is doing. But at the moment, I've been told there are no unusual movements. We have also made very clear our red lines, which are that he cannot threaten his neighbors or our forces, or reconstitute his weapons of mass destruction, or move against the Kurds in the North. We have a force in region, and we have made our position very clear.

MR. BLITZER: Let's talk about the situation in Yugoslavia. Many people have described the war in Kosovo and Bosnia in effect, but really in Kosovo, "Madeleine's War," or "Madeleine Albright's War."

When you take a look at the situation now, a new president democratically elected, but Slobodan Milosevic an indicted war criminal may be allowed to stay in Belgrade, may be allowed to exercise political power in the opposition. Would that cause the US to reconsider lifting economic sanctions against Yugoslavia if he's allowed to walk free in Belgrade?

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, first of all, I think we really should be very congratulatory to the Yugoslav people who actually went out on the streets in huge numbers, voted, and under very difficult circumstances, voted Milosevic out. The signs that they carried made very clear that they wanted him to go. They wanted more than that. I mean, a lot of them basically wanted him to end in some way or another. They have shown their feelings by their votes and by their feet, and President Kostunica now has the very difficult job of consolidating his power. As your correspondent pointed out very accurately, there are myriad problems out there that he has to deal with and we want to be as helpful as possible.

The Serb people are not the ones that are responsible for what happened. It was Milosevic who basically was an ethnic cleanser and ordered these things. So they need to have some sense of reward for what they have done. Their economy is a disaster and the Danube is blocked, and so we want to give them assistance and lift the economic sanctions.

MR. BLITZER: Even if Milosevic stays in Belgrade?

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that there are a variety of sanctions, and the immediate economic ones would be ones that help the people and help Kostunica consolidate his regime.

MR. BLITZER: You probably saw the editorial in The New York Times yesterday. Let me read a sentence from that editorial. "In recent days, Dr. Albright has been unusually quiet in her public comments about Mr. Milosevic's extradition."

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I liked the other parts of the editorial a lot. But let me say this, I have not been quiet. I have said that our position has not changed, is very clear, there is no statute of limitations. I have been a great supporter of the war crimes tribunal. In fact, one of the things I'm proudest of at the United Nations was having been there at the founding of it.

There has to be accountability, and there will never be a completely normal Yugoslavia until it's able to deal with that. The importance of the war crimes tribunal is that what it does is erase collective guilt and assign individual guilt. All these countries that have gone through changes, where they've gone from a communist dictatorship to a new democratic era, look at their past and deal with it. Yugoslavia has to do it, and former President Milosevic's time is coming. There is, as I said, no statute of limitations and you will not hear me being silent on this subject.

MR. BLITZER: We are all out of time, but I know you always wear those lovely pins and today's has an especially important meaning to you. Very briefly, tell us what they are.

SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Yes, well the large pin is from Leah Rabin, who is always saying that it takes a lot of doves to make peace in the Middle East, so it's an olive branch with doves. And the little bitty one that people maybe can't see right here, is the Seeds for Peace pin, which is a fabulous organization, and I'm wearing it in honor of the young man that was killed.

MR. BLITZER: Madame Secretary, always good to have you on LATE EDITION. Thank you so much for joining us; good luck to you.

(end transcript)

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