08/01/2001
Excerpt: State's Boucher Calls Targeted Killings "Wrong"
(Says Mitchell recommendations best way to achieve peace)

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher has condemned Israel's practice of targeted killings.

"We think...that the policy of targeted killings is wrong. We don't believe it should exist at all," Boucher said in a briefing at the State Department in Washington July 31.

Boucher said the fact that the United States supplies weapons to Israel for its legitimate defensive needs can not be taken to mean that the United States condones the practice of targeted killings.

"We provide these weapons for Israel's defensive needs, for their legitimate defensive needs, but we've made absolutely clear that we're against this practice of targeted killings," Boucher said.

Regarding the Israeli helicopter attack on an apartment complex in the West Bank city of Nablus that killed eight people July 31, Boucher said Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer have raised this matter at senior levels of the Israeli government.

Concerning the preparations for the U.N.-sponsored conference on racism in Durban, South Africa in late August and early September, Boucher said the United States remains "very concerned about some of the issues that are being raised in the preparatory part of the conference. We're very concerned specifically about these statements ... equating Zionism with racism, or almost in effect doing that. He said Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy and Labor Lorne Craner is in Geneva, and "we'll continue to work hard on this throughout the preparatory meeting."

Commenting on a briefing by several Arab ambassadors posted to Washington and Arab-American leaders to several members of Congress in Washington July 31, Boucher said the U.S. government understands the emotions, passions, views and interests raised by Israeli-Palestinian disputes in the Arab world.

Boucher said the U.S. government believes that both Israelis and Palestinians deserve to lead normal lives free from violence. He said the best way to achieve that is to implement the recommendations of the Mitchell Committee: cessation of violence, cooling off period, confidence-building measures, resumption of political negotiations.

Following are excerpts related to the Middle East from the transcript of Boucher's August 1 briefing:

(begin excerpt)

QUESTION: The Israeli Cabinet has held a security meeting this morning, and they declared afterwards that they will continue with their targeted killing assassination of activists -- Palestinian activists. Do you have any comment?

MR. BOUCHER: I wasn't aware of that particular news, but I think our views on this are fairly well known.

QUESTION: Can you just restate them please, for the benefit of --

MR. BOUCHER: We are against the practice of targeted killings.

QUESTION: Many people in the Middle East, if I may follow up, see you as partner in this policy, as part of your condemnation of such policy, because American-made weapons are used in these killings, such as the Apache helicopters which were used yesterday in the bombing of Hamas press office.

MR. BOUCHER: Well, I don't think that could be taken in any way to express -- to believe that we somehow condone these killings. We provide these weapons for Israel's defensive needs, for their legitimate defensive needs, but we have made it absolutely clear that we are against this practice of targeted killings.

QUESTION: But now that you see that they are used in killing even children civilians -- two children were killed yesterday in the Apache helicopter attack -- are you taking up this matter with the Israeli Government?

MR. BOUCHER: We have raised the matter of this attack in particular with the Israeli Government. Deputy Secretary Armitage met yesterday with the Israeli Chief of Cabinet. They discussed the current situation and he expressed our serious concern about those air strikes yesterday. In addition, Ambassador Kurtzer in Israel has raised our concerns with the highest levels of the Israeli Government.

....

QUESTION: New subject. We have gone over this before, but where do things stand in terms of the US attending the racism conference?

MR. BOUCHER: They stand where they stood before, that we would like to go to the conference. The Secretary has said he would like to go to the conference. But our participation depends on how some things turn out. We are very concerned about some of the issues that are being raised in the preparatory part of the conference. We are very concerned specifically about these statements about interjecting the Middle East conflict into this conference, equating Zionism with racism or almost, in effect, doing that. And those are the issues that we are out working on in Geneva.

We have a strong delegation in Geneva at the preparatory conference. We are going to try to work on some of these things and make sure they don't become obstacles or side-track the conference itself.

QUESTION: Do you think you are making any progress in that direction?

MR. BOUCHER: Well, this just began. It is a two-week meeting, I think, that just began. Our Assistant Secretary for Democracy and Labor Affairs Lorne Craner will get there, I think, over the weekend or at least by the weekend. So he will be working on it in the second week and we will continue to work hard on this throughout the preparatory meeting.

....

QUESTION: Yes, do you have any comment on Yasser Arafat's visit to Saudi Arabia? Whether they are discussing Mitchell or anything?

MR. BOUCHER: No. We hope that everybody everywhere agrees, and we think they do agree, that it is important to get on with ceasing the violence and implementing the Mitchell recommendations.

QUESTION: Yesterday, Congressman Dingell had sort of a hearing. He had several Arab diplomats, and James Zogby was there, and the general theme was that there is -- Arab governments are saying that the US isn't sensitive enough to the Palestinians' plight, that certainly the Arab public feels that, and that there is a widening gap, et cetera, et cetera.

I just wondered if any representation of this sort has been made in any serious way to either the State Department or to embassies? Are you hearing especially new complaints that US policy isn't sufficiently sensitive to the Palestinians?

MR. BOUCHER: New complaints? I mean -- (laughter).

QUESTION: Well, I mean, people must complain all --

MR. BOUCHER: Difference than we've heard for the last 40 or 50 years?

QUESTION: Well, you've talked -- the Administration talked yesterday about it escalating. They were more critical of Israel than they have been for a while.

MR. BOUCHER: Let me try to put it in this context. This Administration has made quite clear from the beginning that we understood the regional implications of these policies, that we wanted to address policies in a regional manner, and that we wanted to be able to have relationships with individual countries in the Middle East that went beyond the regional matters, but reflected our bilateral interests and concerns with those countries.

So we do have active bilateral dialogues in the region, as well as general dialogues with people. And we do hear a lot about the Israeli-Palestinian disputes. We all know the emotions, the passions, the views and the interests that are raised by events in the Israel and Palestinian areas. At the same time, we always make the case that what the Palestinians need -- in fact, what the Israelis need -- is a return to normal life, and a return to the prospect of peace, and that the Mitchell Committee recommendations are the best way of doing that.

And so we hear from a lot of governments, but we also hear from them that they understand that the way to proceed is for both parties to fully implement the Mitchell Committee recommendations, and that means getting on with the process of ceasing the violence, going through the cooling -- undertaking the cooling-off period and starting to implement the recommendations of Mitchell.

So we are aware of how much different governments in the region care about this, but in the end, it seems we come to the same conclusions, that the Palestinians and Israelis deserve normal lives free from the kind of violence that we have now, and that the way to get there is to implement the Mitchell Committee recommendations.

....

QUESTION: Do you have any (inaudible) hope of cease-fire taking hold in the Middle East which he helped negotiate in the presence of such declared adopted official policy of assassination?

MR. BOUCHER: By whom?

QUESTION: By Israel.

MR. BOUCHER: I would say that we have constant hope that we can do this. We work on it very hard. We have representatives in the region that are still working to get to that point of where we can calm the situation down, and we can implement the Mitchell Committee Report. And we do that for two reasons: One, because we think -- as I said before -- people deserve normal lives, the people of the region deserve it; and, second of all, we think it's really the only path, the best path, and the only available path to get back to the process of negotiation and ultimately resolve these issues.

QUESTION: So you believe that the co-existence of the cease-fire can co-exist with the policy -- continued policy of assassination?

MR. BOUCHER: We think the continued -- that the policy of targeted killings is wrong. We don't believe it should exist at all.

QUESTION: A group of 18 Americans known as the International Solidarity Movement are in the West Bank in a house, and they call themselves independent observers, watching action in Israeli military posts and Israeli helicopter activity.

What do you think about these groups? Are they a help, are they a hindrance?

MR. BOUCHER: I am not aware of them, frankly. I don't know. There's plenty of people running around the West Bank, including journalists. So we think it is important --

QUESTION: Are they (inaudible)? (Laughter.)

MR. BOUCHER: No, I mean, this comes up every time we discuss observers, monitors, whatever. I mean, we have talked about monitors in terms of implementation of Mitchell, after we get to that phase. But we should never forget that there's tons of people running around, including journalists, reporting on what is going on, and whenever there is an incident, there's always different statements and we hear different sides of the story about what may have happened and what may not have happened. And we hear it from the journalists themselves who are out there reporting on the issues. So there are plenty of people watching.

(end excerpt)

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