*EPF302 11/10/2004
Transcript: State Department Noon Briefing, November 10
(Caribbean, Secretary of State Colin Powell to travel to Santiago, Chile for APEC meetings, Secretary of State Colin Powell to travel to Egypt for Expanded Regional Conference/Query on possibility of bilateral discussions with Libya, Syria, or other countries, Query on Secretary of State Powell's future plans, Iran, Iraq, Israel/Palestinians, NATO, Macedonia, Greece, Cote d'Ivoire, Sudan) (7460)

State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher briefed reporters November 10.

Following is the transcript of the State Department briefing:

(begin transcript)

U.S. Department of State
Daily Press Briefing Index
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
12:20 p.m. EDT

Briefer: Richard Boucher, Spokesman

CARIBBEAN
-- Hurricane Relief/Recovery Program

DEPARTMENT
-- Secretary of State Colin Powell to Travel to Santiago, Chile for APEC Meetings
-- Secretary of State Colin Powell to Travel to Egypt for Expanded Regional Conference/Query on Possibility of Bilateral Discussions with Libya, Syria, or other Countries
-- Query on Secretary of State Powell's Future Plans

IRAN
-- Query on Whether There is a Possibility of Bilateral Discussions During Secretary's Visit to Morocco for Forum for the Future

IRAQ
-- Query on Kidnapped Allawi Family Members
-- Diplomacy Involved in Fallujah
-- Planned Reconstruction Projects for Fallujah/Costs/Timeframe

ISRAEL/PAELSTINIANS
-- Query on Whether Secretary of State Powell had Spoken with Nabil Shaath or Any Palestinian Officials Regarding Arafat Situation/Query on Who Would Attend Arafat Funeral
-- Arafat Succession/Transition in the Palestinian Leadership/Query on Disengagement Process During Transition Period
-- Query on American Role in Decision by Israel and Palestinians for Arafat's Burial Site to be in Ramallah

NATO
-- Query on Whether United States Sees a Political Role for NATO

MACEDONIA
-- Decision of United States to Recognize Macedonia by Constitutional Name/Query to Respond to Criticism of Decision

GREECE
-- Staffing Levels at the U.S. General Consulate in Thessaloniki

COTE D'IVOIRE
-- Situation Update/Status of U.S. Embassy/Charter Flights for Americans and Other Foreign Nationals Wanting to Leave

SUDAN
-- Developments in Darfur/Signing of Agreements Between Sudan Government and Rebels/Security Situation/U.S. Role in Future Political Discussions

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2004
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)

12:20 p.m. EST

MR. BOUCHER: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. If I can, there's a couple things I'd like to talk about at the beginning. One is hurricane relief and the other is the upcoming travel that you all know about, but we have to make the announcement.

So if I can start with hurricane relief, we are -- I think you all know that we got $100 million of additional funding from the Congress in supplemental funding bills for hurricane relief in the Caribbean. We have now made some decisions about how to spend that money and I wanted to tell you about it.

So we're launching a $100 million hurricane recovery program as part of our commitment to helping the Caribbean nations hit hardest by Hurricanes Charlie, Frances, Ivan and Jean. The money will be spent on restoring people's livelihoods and shelter while reducing the region's vulnerability to similar events in the future. You could say it goes into homes; it goes into jobs; it goes into agriculture -- restoring the agricultural base in these countries.

The primary targeted countries under this program are Grenada, Haiti and Jamaica: Grenada will receive $42 million of this money; Haiti will receive $38 million of the money; and Jamaica will receive $18 million of the money. We'll also be working with other countries in the region such as the Bahamas to develop and implement recovery projects utilizing the remaining $2 million.

You'll remember when the Secretary stopped in Grenada about -- well, last month sometime -- the Secretary had extensive discussion of the plans to go forward and to really help them recover as soon as possible. He was able, at that time, to say the President has requested this money from Congress and we're glad that a month later we're able to say that we've got the money and we're going to start spending it very soon.

So I will leave that to you now. That brings the total that we're spending $119 million. This money will bring -- is in addition to 19.4 million that we spent already on hurricane recovery in the region.

I can move right along to the -- talk about the next trip. Secretary of State Powell will leave Washington next Wednesday, November 17th, to travel to Santiago, Chile for meetings at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum. He will attend the ministerial meetings in Chile on the 17th and 18th, hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts while in Santiago. APEC meetings, of course, will focus again on trade liberalization and facilitation, and efforts to ensure security, enhanced transparency, and fight corruption in the region.

Following -- then the APEC's ministers' meetings are followed by the APEC leaders' meetings on November 20th and 21st, when President Bush will attend; and then Secretary Powell will go on from there to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to participate in the expanded regional conference that's being held November 22nd and 23rd, hosted by the Government of Egypt to discuss promoting security and stability in Iraq and Iraq's democratic transition. And after that, we'll be returning to Washington.

QUESTION: Can I check something? You said he was leaving on the 17th; then he would attend the ministerial meetings and have other bilats on the 17th and the 18th? Did you mean on the 18th and the 19th?

MR. BOUCHER: Not clear if he'll have -- if he'll arrive in time on the 17th for some events that day, so I sort of left it vague, and it's 17th, 18th -- yeah, and 19th he'll have -- the meetings are 17, 18; 19 is kind of down day that the Secretary will use to have bilateral meetings with his counterparts, and then the President's events start on the 20th.

QUESTION: And one other scheduling thing. The Secretary, briefing reporters on the plane to Mexico on Monday, said that he'd go to the OSCE meeting, and I think he also said he was going to EU and NATO meetings. Do you have dates for those?

MR. BOUCHER: The dates, I believe, are known. The exact date that the Secretary can get there for each of those meetings and how the schedule's going to fit together is not completely worked out yet. It's the -- they're all sort of, I think, like the 6th through the 10th of December, and we've got to work out all the pieces in that timeframe.

QUESTION: Thanks.

MR. BOUCHER: And then we have -- you saw yesterday we announced -- the Moroccans announced the Forum for the Future event in Morocco on December 11th and 12th. And so the Secretary will expect to be in Morocco for that; we put out a statement yesterday to that effect.

Saul.

QUESTION: The Secretary also mentioned the Sharm el-Sheikh visit and conversations that may occur with the Iranians there. Regarding that, is the United States open to the possibility that those type of conversations could involve bilateral issues and not just the issues that are relevant to the meeting?

MR. BOUCHER: The United States is going to attend a meeting that Iran is going to attend. This happens from time to time. At those meetings, the United States expresses its views. Iran expresses its views. We hear from them. They hear from us.

I think the Secretary answered the question again yesterday, said it was like the Six Plus Two meeting, remember, that we had a series of meetings on Afghanistan, one of which, I remember at the United Nations' headquarters, where the Iranian Foreign Minister and the Secretary both attended. It's a chance to hear directly from them in a forum with others, for them to hear directly from us.

He said, and I'll repeat, there is no particular meeting set up with the Iranians. There is no agenda for a meeting with the Iranians. It's a chance to attend the same meeting and hear directly what they have to say and for them to hear what we have to say. That happens from time to time. I would not make this event any different, in any way particularly different from some of the others that have happened before.

QUESTION: So you wouldn't expect any bilateral meetings with the Iranians?

MR. BOUCHER: There is nothing like that planned.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Well, on that subject.

MR. BOUCHER: Okay, slow down.

Charlie.

QUESTION: On that subject, what about possible meetings with the Libyans, Syrians at Sharm?

MR. BOUCHER: There is no schedule of bilaterals yet at Sharm el-Sheikh, but I don't know. There will probably be some time for a few meetings, but I don't know exactly which ones at this point.

Said, you had something?

QUESTION: I just wanted to follow up on the bilateral. There was a suggestion that the Secretary of State may have indicated that there may be something beyond the multilateral --

MR. BOUCHER: I don't know why you would sort of take it that way. He said it twice yesterday and he was quite clear. I don't know why others fussed it up, but he was quite clear. They're attending the same meeting. He sees, obviously, a value in that, in that it's not just being there, but it's actually -- we'll listen to what they have to say and be able to say directly what we have to say on these subjects that are very important: Iraq, and how the neighbors behave with regard to Iraq, how the neighbors and the G-8 can support Iraq's peaceful development is a very, very important subject, and Iran's behavior in that regard is very important to us.

So we'll see what they have to say at that forum.

QUESTION: Just to follow up very quickly, now, the Iranians see it as an opportunity to request a bilateral meeting with the Secretary of State. Will there be --

MR. BOUCHER: I'm sure we'll deal with it at the time if that should happen, but I'm not going to speculate at this point.

QUESTION: Do you look at this as exclusively or nearly exclusively an Iraq meeting? Because you would think, with all those folks, there are other chances to have some talks about other things like Iran's nuclear program.

MR. BOUCHER: Nothing like that planned or scheduled at this point. It's a meeting being organized by the Iraqis and the Egyptians, hosted by the Egyptians for the purpose of discussing Iraq and how the G-8 and how the neighbors can support Iraq's peaceful and stable development. As I said, there are certainly opportunities to talk to some of our friends and others in the region about important issues, but I don't have a schedule yet, but nothing's being planned with the Iranians.

Okay. Mark.

QUESTION: Just to button that up, you're not ruling out --

MR. BOUCHER: I thought I did button it up.

QUESTION: You're not ruling out a bilateral with the Iranians?

MR. BOUCHER: I'm not speculating on any sort of bilaterals at this point, and I'm not, you know, I'm sorry. I'm not in a position to speculate one way or the other, but there's nothing like that planned.

Joel.

QUESTION: Change of subject. Overnight, there have been kidnappings directly with -- of Prime Minister Allawi's family, direct cousins, cousin-in-law. And also, in Fallujah they found torture and slaughterhouses with full CD-ROM documentation, and obviously, this is getting far worse. And what is the status of the troops and also your diplomatic negotiations regarding this?

MR. BOUCHER: Well, there's a lot of things there. As far as the situation on the ground, the torture and slaughterhouses, I've just seen the news start to appear. That's something that our troops on the ground and that the Iraqis on the ground are going to address far better than I ever could, so I'll leave that to them; same with the terms of the status of the forces that are out there.

In terms of the kidnapping, I've made clear we strongly condemned all acts like this of kidnappings and killings in Iraq. We condemn the kidnapping of any civilians in Iraq and terrorists, former regime elements, and the common criminals who have carried them out deserve everyone's condemnation around the world. We call for unconditional and immediate release of all hostages, including Ghazi Allawi and his family. Iraqi security forces, multinational forces, and our Embassy in Baghdad continue to coordinate closely in securing the release of all hostages and kidnapping victims in Iraq.

You asked a bit about the diplomacy involved in Fallujah. Certainly, we've kept in touch with other governments about the matter. I'd say, you know, whenever the Secretary talks to others, this subject comes up, in addition to whatever they might be talking about. And you know, even in Mexico, he gave the Mexicans an update of the situation in Iraq and how things were going. Or I should say, for example, in Mexico, he gave the Mexicans an update of the situation in Iraq and how things were going in Fallujah.

There is also a lot of planning going into looking at how we help the people of Fallujah once they're back in the -- under, you know, in a situation where they have stability under government control once they're out of the hands of the terrorists and the hostage taker. And we've worked with the Iraqi Interim Government to identify some very high-impact projects that will ease the humanitarian situation, the liberal relief, and proceed with Fallujah's reconstruction.

Prime Minister Allawi has designated his Minister of Industry and Minerals to provide cabinet-level oversight of reconstruction in Fallujah. Representatives of the U.S. Embassy, multinational force and others have met with the Minister, Dr. Hajim, to coordinate on this.

There is going to be immediate work started once the fighting is over on cleanup projects, improving connections to the power grid, restoring water treatment plants, constructing new housing, and repairing roads. Currently, we have a total of 99 U.S.-sponsored projects valued at U.S. dollars -- at $89.12 million that are scheduled to start in Fallujah before January 31st, 2005. Obviously, projects, reconstruction work is not possible while the fighting is going on or while the insurgents have been in charge of the town. But once it's back in government hands, we'll be able to get on with these projects very quickly. The Iraqi Government has identified, as well, $50 million for Fallujah reconstruction, and it's possible that these numbers will increase once the situation is stabilized and we're able to get assessment teams on the ground.

Yeah. Adi.

QUESTION: What about local governance projects?

MR. BOUCHER: That's been a part of our effort and the Iraqi Government effort throughout the country. I expect that stuff will go forward. I'm not sure if this list -- how much of this list of 99 might include things in that area already, but certainly that's been an important area throughout Iraq. But once you -- the immediate aftermath of the fighting, you want to get in there first, clean up, fix the roads, the bridges, the water, the electricity and plans are being made to do that as quickly as possible.

QUESTION: Richard, this 99 or 89.12 million, that includes the projected costs of making the repairs in Fallujah, is that what you're saying?

MR. BOUCHER: That's not the full cost. We think an assessment team will have to go in and figure out how much more that's going to be. These are projects that are already on the books, that are already planned, that are ready to go ahead and there will be others in addition in those areas that I described.

QUESTION: Do you have an idea how long it's going to take to get things back online?

MR. BOUCHER: Well, I don't know if you can estimate the total timeframe for all projects because you'll go from the high-impact, short-duration projects to some of the longer ones and then, you know, to the broader reconstruction efforts. So reconstructing in Iraq is an ongoing effort. This is a chance for Fallujah to join it. I don't -- I think different projects will have different timeframes in terms of the immediate-impact, short-duration ones.

QUESTION: I think I'm talking more about the clean up, power, repairing roads, the --

MR. BOUCHER: Yeah, as I said, different things will take different timeframes. We may connect people to the grid and still have to replace generators. Part of it will get done sooner, part of it later.

QUESTION: Richard, is that going to be hard to do projects that were planned before this without knowing, for example, if you're going to -- if one of the projects was to work on maybe a sewer, or whatever, and that entire system has been blown away? How can you go into 99 projects that were kind of laid out in advance without knowing what the devastation is that you're going to find once you get there?

MR. BOUCHER: Well, you're going to have a fair idea what the town didn't have before, even before the fighting and know what they need, and so there are a lot of things you can plan, you know. If they need more schools, you can plan on building more schools, whatever happens in the fighting.

But, yes, there are additional needs and the needs, as I said one of the first things you do is you get a needs assessment team down there. So I'm not saying this is the full extent of what's going to happen in Fallujah. But I'm saying we're already ready with projects, with areas, with funding, and we'll be ready with assessment teams to go further, even further than that.

Yeah. Okay. Tammy.

QUESTION: Shift to the Middle East?

QUESTION: Can I just have one more on that?

MR. BOUCHER: Yeah.

QUESTION: When do you clean -- the works of the clean up and fix bridges and roads, is that because you're anticipating there will be damage from the offensive or is that type of work predating the offensive?

MR. BOUCHER: Well, what one found in Najaf and Samarra and the other towns that have been outside of government control is that there has been a lot of degradation, devastation, problems with, you know, rubble and municipal services because the people in charge have been spending their time on other things and those kind of services haven't been done in the cities.

So I think we anticipate that in Fallujah, in addition to whatever damage might happen during the fighting, that there has been a state of neglect and damage over time over the last few months that has to be repaired. I don't know what trash pick up has been like in Fallujah, but, you know, there are just a lot of things that need to be done in this city that's been outside of government hands for awhile.

QUESTION: Just to be clear, the 89.12 is to cover those kinds of immediate things?

MR. BOUCHER: The 89.12 is to cover a series of projects that are already identified.

QUESTION: Right. But I -- I'm trying to --

MR. BOUCHER: And some of those will be in these areas but there will be other projects in these areas as well. It is sort of partly overlapping but not completely in either case.

QUESTION: Richard?

MR. BOUCHER: Yes.

QUESTION: Sorry. There has been conflicting reports on how much is actually under U.S. control now in Fallujah or U.S. forces control. Could you update us on this?

MR. BOUCHER: No.

QUESTION: Some say it's 70 percent, 80 percent --

MR. BOUCHER: No.

QUESTION: -- while the fighting is still going on?

MR. BOUCHER: No. I don't talk about fighting, particularly when it's still going on.

QUESTION: To follow on the reconstruction, Richard, with -- you talked about Samarra. How much of the work there has been stalled now or delayed because the situation has changed so much?

MR. BOUCHER: I'll have to get you numbers on that. I don't know.

QUESTION: Can you do that, take that question for us?

MR. BOUCHER: I'll try to get you numbers.

QUESTION: All right.

MR. BOUCHER: Tammy.

QUESTION: Has the Secretary in the last day or so spoken with any Palestinian officials, to include Nabil Shaath? And did they discuss who from the United States might represent the U.S. at a funeral?

MR. BOUCHER: The Secretary talked yesterday with Nabil Shaath while he was in Mexico City, and they -- actually, he was with the Mexican Foreign Minister at the time, so they sort of made it -- the Secretary talked to him, but on behalf of both of them -- Mexican.

So they -- he talked yesterday with Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian Foreign Minister. They talked about the situation as it was and what plans are being made in terms of governance, and also what arrangements might be made should Chairman Arafat pass away. They didn't get into questions of who might attend whatever ceremonies or funerals there might be, and there's really nothing to say on that at his point until events occur and plans are made for -- until arrangements are made for whatever might happen.

QUESTION: Can I follow up, Richard?

MR. BOUCHER: Yeah.

QUESTION: Actually, Shaath said that he -- said in an interview that he did ask the Secretary who would be represented and that the Secretary didn't have any answers for him, and that he relayed the Palestinian request that it would be some -- that it would -- he hoped it would be either Powell or someone at a very high level. Can you talk about the type of level of representation you'd like to --

MR. BOUCHER: No. Until we know, you know -- we need -- I don't know how to explain this. Let's take this one step at a time. We can't speculate on what's -- who's going to attend something that hasn't been scheduled yet, and it hasn't been scheduled yet because the events that are anticipated have not occurred. So I don't want to get ahead of this and start, you know, speculating on what happens beyond Chairman Arafat's passing. I just don't think it's appropriate at this time, and until that actually happens, I don't think we know exactly what arrangements will be made and therefore, we can't decide who might represent the United States, but I'm certain that we'll express ourselves appropriately at the time.

QUESTION: Did the Secretary hear anything different, to try anything, or even just different, what his expectations, and everybody else's have been about the succession situation? I mean, people have been appointed to --

MR. BOUCHER: Yeah, people have been appointed. You've seen, I think, and the Secretary has spoken about this before, you've seen a relatively calm and orderly process underway in the Palestinian areas of them putting in place governing arrangements for a period of sickness and whatever might happen afterwards. You've seen people be appointed to various jobs. But above all, you have a government in place. You've had a government in place, a prime minister with ministers who are there and they've been governing, as they should.

And so this is a process that's unfolding and our interest is in seeing smooth arrangements and they appear to be being made and carried out, and we hope that the calm and the kind of orderly process that has prevailed will continue.

QUESTION: Again, but fine, that's just what I need. But there were no changes -- I won't say --

MR. BOUCHER: That was not a major issue on the call. I think it was probably referred to. And, no, it was just -- you know, it was explaining what was going on --

QUESTION: Right.

MR. BOUCHER: -- at that particular moment in time. I think, actually, some appointments have been made since that call.

Yeah. Sir.

QUESTION: The Secretary referred yesterday to the transition period, and he said this is a moment of opportunity once there is a transition in the Palestinian leadership. And I wonder if you think the disengagement process should continue whenever, or whatever leadership takes place, or there should be a pause with a renegotiation with the Palestinians and try to do it under an agreement and not unilaterally by the Israelis.

MR. BOUCHER: Our view is that the disengagement plan offers an opportunity and one that should be continued, one that should be -- the Palestinians should be prepared to take advantage of in terms of organizing themselves, to take responsibility, control, and particularly to control the violence coming from Palestinian areas and Gaza after Gaza is returned, so that we do continue to see this as an opportunity to move forward along the lines of the President's vision and the roadmap and we want to continue working with all of the parties too as it happens.

QUESTION: So continue with the disengagement, that's the bottom line?

MR. BOUCHER: That's what the Israelis are saying, and that's certainly something we'd welcome. We see it as a good thing and an opportunity.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR. BOUCHER: But also the Palestinians need to take advantage of the opportunity and get themselves -- get organized to take responsibility there.

Yeah.

QUESTION: I want to know about the Prime Minister coming, of Britain. Last time, you said I ought to identify the country if it has a prime minister. With the Prime Minister of Britain coming, does the Secretary have any plans to see Mr. Blair separately or have a separate meeting with the Foreign Secretary, apart from the White House meeting?

MR. BOUCHER: I'm not aware of anything separate at this point. I'll have to check and see if there's anything planned between him and Foreign Secretary Straw.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR. BOUCHER: Mark.

QUESTION: Can you outline the American role, if any, in the mutual decision by Israel and the Palestinians for Arafat's burial site to be in Ramallah?

MR. BOUCHER: As with other arrangements in the region, these are things for the two parties to work out. We have certainly kept in touch with the parties, whether it was a phone call or the activities of our Embassy and our Consul General or other contacts that we have with Israelis and Palestinians.

We've kept in touch with them as far as how they were working these things and what kind of arrangements they were making. But they have worked this out and made these decisions, and we're just glad it's been worked out, apparently worked out, smoothly.

Yeah. Elise.

QUESTION: New subject? This is on NATO and apparently Mr. Scheffer is coming here. Some aide said before he left to urge the United States to take a greater role in NATO and to help ensure that NATO would take a greater political role in world crises, that this could be another forum for political debate so that crises around the world don't spiral out of control. Does the United States see a political role for NATO --

MR. BOUCHER: I didn't see these particular comments you might be referring to. Certainly the United States in the North Atlantic Council has strongly supported NATO's role increasingly, not just in Europe but in various crises around the world, various challenges to all our countries that we need to meet together. That is a political matter; that is a military matter.

Secretary Powell's attends NATO meetings regularly and the kind of issues that we discuss with our counterparts there is a sure sign of that. Secretary General de Hoop Scheffer is going to be having meetings this afternoon at the White House and then with the Secretary. He'll come out at the end. You can ask him again to what extent that kind of discussion occurred.

Yeah. Sir.

QUESTION: On FYROM. Gene Rossidis, former Under Secretary to Nixon Administration, in a letter to President Bush November 5th says, inter alia, "We urge you, Mr. President, in the best interests of the United States to reconsider this misinformed and ill-advised policy and tell the State Department to waive the recognition of FYROM as Macedonia, and to tell FYROM to continue its diplomatic dialogue with Greece on the name issue in accordance with the UN and EU policy." How do you respond and could you reverse your action?

MR. BOUCHER: There have been a lot of different views expressed. We knew that as we went into our decision to recognize Macedonia under its constitutional name. We knew there would be controversy and different views. We certainly welcome hearing from people, but we do think that the action sent the right message, that it contributed to more stability in the region and to the continued implementation of the Ohrid Agreements, which we have seen as very important for the whole region. And so, the decision has been made, and that's where we're going to stay.

QUESTION: And he's writing also about you to the President, quote: "Further, regarding to Mr. Richard Boucher's comments, he attempts to justify the decision by stating that 'Macedonia is the name' that the government and the people of Macedonia have chosen for their country, and thus the name we will recognize them under." This premise is false. There is no qualified universally accepted rule of international national law that authorizes a state itself anything it wants. How do you respond to this criticism?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't take it personally. I'm glad people are paying attention to we do here. But I would hope they would also pay attention to the discussion that we did have on that point in the briefing room at that day, that it's certainly not binding, but it is one of the factors that needs to be considered, and it's certainly not authorization of doing anything anybody wants.

QUESTION: Scott Marciel, Director of the Office of the Southern European Affairs, in a letter to the American Hellenic Institute dated October 31st, underline inter alia "We understand your concern regarding Albania and the FYROM. It is U.S. foreign policy to promote the rule of law and the protection of human rights. The U.S. Government formally recognizes the former Republic of Macedonia by that name." What happened, Mr. Boucher, in 72 hours, in which you have decided the recognition November 4th?

MR. BOUCHER: Once it --

QUESTION: Since this letter.

MR. BOUCHER: I'm glad he wrote the letter on that date. We had very similar discussions about statements I made a week or two before. What happened is we looked at the situation; we made a decision -- made the decision, and announced it to you very shortly thereafter.

QUESTION: And any response to my --

MR. BOUCHER: And those who say we never change policy -- let this be a lesson that we, in fact, made a decision and changed our policy that day.

QUESTION: But any response to my pending question why you drastically reduced the personnel in the U.S. General Consulate Thessaloniki now, but the suggestion of your Ambassador to Greece, Tom Miller as a result of -- who almost expel all of them, starting from Alec Mally.

MR. BOUCHER: I think there's actually been no change in the staffing of the consulate in Thessaloniki. There may be people coming and going. That always happens.

QUESTION: But you left one person only and one --

MR. BOUCHER: As I said, there's been no change in the overall staffing pattern and the staffing level in Thessaloniki. There just may be folks coming and going at this particular time.

QUESTION: So other words, the consulate is functioning well under the personnel?

MR. BOUCHER: They're functioning well. And, you know, they have the same personnel strength as they always did, even if -- I can't tell you at any given moment how many people are physically there but the jobs are there, the people are assigned.

QUESTION: And also, the Bulgarian press --

MR. BOUCHER: We've got some other people in the room that have questions.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR. BOUCHER: Okay.

QUESTION: On personnel.

MR. BOUCHER: No, let's finish with the back row, if we can.

Ma'am.

QUESTION: Taiwan's President Chen held a national security meeting on Wednesday. One of the conclusions coming out of the meeting was to take steps to ensure the U.S. will adhere to the Taiwan Relations Act and the six assurances that Reagan Administration gave to Taiwan in 1982, which included the U.S. will not change its stance on the issue concerning Taiwan's sovereignty.

Since the six assurance were not formally documented, I'm wondering if you can tell this Administration's stance on that.

MR. BOUCHER: I'll get you something on that.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR. BOUCHER: Yeah. Sir.

QUESTION: Yes, President Chen of Taiwan proposed -- make some proposals to stabilize the situation of across the Strait, including establishing a (inaudible), and set up a consultation mechanism with China. And he also pledged to renounce the development and use of WMD. Do you have any comment on --

MR. BOUCHER: Is this a new statement?

QUESTION: Oh, yes, it's today, Taiwan time, so it was made several hours ago.

MR. BOUCHER: I am sorry. I didn't have anything on it. I'll have to check and get you something.

QUESTION: Okay, thank you.

MR. BOUCHER: Andrea.

QUESTION: Richard, there were a couple of rather high-level members of the cabinet who announced that they're leaving. Any news on Secretary Powell -- we know he was over at the White House today -- about what his future plans are?

MR. BOUCHER: Secretary Powell is Secretary of State. He's making plans for the next trip. He's making plans for the NATO trip. He's making plans for all the things that we have to do in the months ahead. And that's the situation. He's over at the White House frequently. Today was one of the -- he had an NSC meeting. He has one of the regular weekly meetings he has with the President. They talk about foreign policy. They plan up and coming things.

QUESTION: Right. But apparently, the White House has indicated that they need to know by
tomorrow if cabinet members are going to be leaving.

MR. BOUCHER: I'm not aware that that's been said about anything. I read Scott McClellan's briefings on the matter. He's not getting into the daily roundup, and I'm not going to do it either.

QUESTION: But Richard, are you saying that this meeting today was solely about foreign policy objectives and also was not about --

MR. BOUCHER: I'm saying this is one of the regular meetings that he has -- I'm not going to do a daily "did he talk to the President yet? Did he talk -- did he say anything? Did anybody else say anything?" When there's something to say, we'll say it. I'm saying that first; the Secretary has a regular weekly meeting with the President. Obviously, they see each other much more often, but today they had NSC meetings and they had their own discussion on upcoming foreign policy events, as they always do.

Yeah. You had other things, sir?

QUESTION: Can you give an update on the situation in Ivory Coast and are you considering an evacuation of the U.S. nationals in this country?

MR. BOUCHER: The situation in Abidjan today appears calmer with large crowds having dispersed. The crowds around the Hotel Ivoire and in the vicinity of the presidential palace are now gone. There are more commercial establishments open for business, and the -- but the international airport remains closed to regular civilian flights. The Embassy is closed today and will likely remain closed tomorrow, given the security situation. The Embassy continues to maintain closely contact with the American community and there are no reports at this point of violence against Americans.

In the absence of the regular commercial flights, the embassy is working with other diplomatic missions to secure seats on some of the special charter flights for Americans and other foreign nationals who might wish to depart the country. I'd point out the United States supports South African President Thabo Mbeki's appeal for discussions among the various parties to the conflict on the basis of the Linas-Marcoussis and Accra III accords.

We urge all the various parties to seize this opportunity to restart dialogue and negotiation.

QUESTION: Richard --

MR. BOUCHER: Charlie.

QUESTION: On the number of Americans -- I know you don't like to give numbers. Could you categorize -- hundreds or several thousands?

MR. BOUCHER: It's sort of in the -- in the vicinity, slightly above 1,000, we think. The numbers are never really definitive, and -- yeah. But we'll have to see how many of those people might be interested in taking advantage of this, of these flights, but we are working to get seats for people who might want to leave.

Sir.

QUESTION: Mr. Boucher, on FYROM, again, three questions. The Bulgarian press sees your recognition of FYROM as a strong slap to the European Union with the message that, "Americans are coming aggressively to the Balkans," yahoo.com -- it's my (inaudible). How do you respond in this Bulgarian criticism?

MR. BOUCHER: If you talking about the Bulgarian press, I'm sure there's a variety of views in the press out there. I'm not going to be able to comment on every one. We've made very clear this action was not directed at any third party, not the European Union, not the Greeks, not the Bulgarians, nobody. It was based on our view of the situation, and we think it was actually the right decision and has helped stabilize the region in terms of the outcome we got to the referendum last weekend.

QUESTION: The other item. The Bulgarian press is wondering, too, if you recognize also the so-called "Macedonian language," since they insist that the FYROM-ians are speaking Bulgarian. How do you respond to that?

MR. BOUCHER: I frankly don't know what position we've taken on language groupings in Europe, so I'd have to check on that for you.

QUESTION: And the last, from now on, how would you refer to the Albanians residing in the new created 16 autonomous self-rule entities in FYROM -- so-called Macedonians, FYROM-ians, Skopjians, or just Albanian citizens if you are a signatory of the Ohrid Agreement?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't know. That's an interesting question.

QUESTION: But can you take --

MR. BOUCHER: We will research it extensively for you and get back to you when we have an answer. I don't know. They're citizens of Macedonia.

QUESTION: I know, but don't you see how --

MR. BOUCHER: The people are citizens of Macedonia. That's how we'll see them and anybody else who lives in Macedonia.

QUESTION: But Mr. Boucher, it's a legal -- it's a legal question.

MR. BOUCHER: No, it's not a legal question. It becomes a description; it becomes poetry. How do you describe people? The legal question is that they're citizens of Macedonia. Beyond that, whether you want to hyphenate them, or describe them ethnically, or describe them by height -- it's a descriptive matter.

QUESTION: But I speak on the issue that this is legal, autonomous, self-rule political entities.

MR. BOUCHER: They are citizens of Macedonia, right?

QUESTION: Excuse me?

MR. BOUCHER: They are citizens of Macedonia, like everybody else in the country.

QUESTION: So you call them --

MR. BOUCHER: The same way I am a citizen of the United States like everybody else.

QUESTION: So you call the Albanians from now on Macedonians, too, correct?

MR. BOUCHER: No, we call people who are citizens of Macedonia citizens of Macedonia. We don't divide the country up ethnically. I'm an American. Some Americans like to hyphenate themselves, some Americans don't. It's a descriptive matter. We're all citizens of the United States. What Albanians who live in Macedonia call themselves; what other people who live in Macedonia call themselves is a descriptive matter. As far as the legal matter is concerned, they are citizens of Macedonia and that's where we'll stay.

QUESTION: What if you were going to send a letter to those people who (inaudible)?

MR. BOUCHER: We'll probably use their name if we're sending them a letter. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: Excuse me?

MR. BOUCHER: We'll probably call them by name, if we're sending them a letter. I mean, come on, this is not something that arises.

QUESTION: But this is the State Department -- I'm, from here, the neighbors -- I'm saying how the State Department is going to communicate with these 16 autonomous Albanian entities?

MR. BOUCHER: Describe -- those will be the governments of particular municipal and other regions.

Can we stop?

QUESTION: Go ahead.

MR. BOUCHER: Okay, Joel. What's the last question?

QUESTION: They have settled, obviously, both the security and the human aid details over Darfur and they're scheduling a political session for December 10th. The UN, the African Union, the EU are taking part. To what degree is the United States taking part, and what has to be done between then and now -- or now and then?

MR. BOUCHER: This is a big question so let me give it the answer it deserves.

A number of developments with regard to Darfur, both the conclusion of agreements in Abuja, but also some serious developments on the ground that raise particular concerns on our part.

First, let's start with the signing of the agreements in Abuja. We certainly welcome the signing by the Government of Sudan and the two major rebel groups of the protocols on the improvement of the humanitarian situation and on the enhancement of the security situation in Darfur. And certainly, the most important thing right now is for the parties to abide by what they have just signed and refrain from any provocations or retaliations.

We certainly hope that the signature protocols will contribute to improving the humanitarian situation and the security situation in Darfur. The accords are designed to facilitate efforts to allow greater access for international aid to reach needy people throughout the region. They are designed to bolster the efforts of the African Union to monitor actively the security situation. And they're designed to make the ceasefire stick that the parties have previously agreed to.

And we think that can also contribute to the search for a comprehensive and lasting political settlement of the conflict. So, as you say, the parties have agreed to resume talks on December 9th regarding a declaration of principles that would guide their future deliberations on that bigger subject and we certainly commend the African Union for everything that they've done in mediating the peace talks.

The United States has been represented in Abuja at a senior level and has played a very active role in trying to help out the parties and the Nigerians.

Now, that's a positive development, the signing is. But as I stressed, the most important thing is respect for the protocols that they've just signed and the agreements that they've just reached. We have reports today that the Government of Sudan's security forces have made efforts to forcibly relocate Internally Displaced Persons from a camp at El-Geer in the Darfur region.

We're very deeply concerned about these reports. This would be the second time in less than a week that the Government of Sudan security forces have attempted to relocate civilians by the use of force. You'll remember that on November 4th, the United States and the international community, including the United Nations, condemned Sudan for its actions, which were in direct contravention of commitments it had made on the voluntary return of Internally Displaced Persons. And so we are urging the Government of Sudan to allow those displaced from El-Geer to return voluntarily to that camp. We're looking to the African Union, trying to work with them so that they can initiate a full investigation and get people on the ground there. And certainly, we think the Government of Sudan needs to be held accountable for any problems that occur to these people.

The security situation in Sudan remains a very serious concern to us. It has deteriorated in recent weeks and has -- that in itself has hampered the ability of organizations to provide assistance. So these accords that were signed in Abuja need to be respected, and the kind of actions that we're seeing of removing people by force need to be reversed.

QUESTION: Just to clarify, Richard.

MR. BOUCHER: Yeah.

QUESTION: The report on the forcible removal came in today, or the forced removal actually followed the --

MR. BOUCHER: The report is that this action was taking place today.

QUESTION: Following the signing of the accords, then.

MR. BOUCHER: Yeah, be a following of the signing.

QUESTION: Okay, good. Thank you.

MR. BOUCHER: Okay, thank you.

(The briefing was concluded at 1:02 p.m.)

(end transcript)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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