MR. MCCORMACK (US Official Confesses On Transcript)..."Yeah, Radovan Karadzic said this morning that he struck a deal with Richard Holbrooke whereby if he retired from public life, he wouldn’t be prosecuted by The Hague Tribunal. Was such a deal done?MR. MCCORMACK: No change from yesterday. Yes, sir. QUESTION: Yeah, Radovan Karadzic said this morning that he struck a dealby Jill Louise Starr on Monday, 03 May 2010 at 16:01 QUESTION: Going ahead with the release of funds? MR. MCCORMACK: No change from yesterday. Yes, sir. QUESTION: Yeah, Radovan Karadzic said this morning that he struck a deal with Richard Holbrooke whereby if he retired from public life, he wouldn’t be prosecuted by The Hague Tribunal. Was such a deal done? MR. MCCORMACK: Ambassador Holbrooke has, in the past, denied such claims. I refer you to him for any further details or questions you might have about it. In terms of this Administration, we have, from the first days of the Administration, have been very consistent in urging the Serbian Government to turn over Radovan Karadzic as well as others that are wanted to the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. QUESTION: Can I have the next one? Read more: http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2008/July/20080731175005IHecuoR0.7479517.html&distid=ucs#ixzz0mtlKpbNv ============================================================ MR. MCCORMACK: No policy changes. Lambros. QUESTION: On Turkey? MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah. QUESTION: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan stated in the decision in the Constitutional Court not to ban his political party, “Democracy wins. Political and economic stability wins.” Any comment? MR. MCCORMACK: I talked about this issue yesterday when somebody asked about it. QUESTION: Yes, I saw that. MR. MCCORMACK: Good. QUESTION: One more question? MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah – no. QUESTION: When -- MR. MCCORMACK: No, behind you. QUESTION: A follow-up to Mr. Goyal’s question. MR. MCCORMACK: Sure. QUESTION: Which is, yesterday, you said no decision has been taken to change the decision to upgrade the F-16s, to release money for that. MR. MCCORMACK: Right. QUESTION: And if I remember right, today is the deadline for releasing the funds. MR. MCCORMACK: Right. QUESTION: Going ahead with the release of funds? MR. MCCORMACK: No change from yesterday. Yes, sir. QUESTION: Yeah, Radovan Karadzic said this morning that he struck a deal with Richard Holbrooke whereby if he retired from public life, he wouldn’t be prosecuted by The Hague Tribunal. Was such a deal done? MR. MCCORMACK: Ambassador Holbrooke has, in the past, denied such claims. I refer you to him for any further details or questions you might have about it. In terms of this Administration, we have, from the first days of the Administration, have been very consistent in urging the Serbian Government to turn over Radovan Karadzic as well as others that are wanted to the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. QUESTION: Can I have the next one? QUESTION: So -- QUESTION: I’m sorry, go ahead. QUESTION: It’s a follow up. Was any kind of agreement struck with Karadzic? MR. MCCORMACK: Again, the question pertains to Ambassador Holbrooke. You can ask him, but he – I will repeat that he has, in public, denied any such deal. QUESTION: Just one last one on this. What is the U.S. doing now to aid the hunt for (inaudible)? MR. MCCORMACK: We have, through the – a variety of different means, sought to provide all appropriate assistance to help bring wanted war criminals to justice. I’m not going to detail any further, though, what that assistance might entail. Yeah. QUESTION: Just one more – wacky Karadzic questions. Karadzic today said that “Holbrooke wants my death and regrets there’s no death sentence at this court. I want to know if his arm is long enough to reach me here.” Does a comment like that rise to the level of getting a State Department comment? MR. MCCORMACK: Look, the man is standing trial for war crimes. He has an opportunity to defend himself in The Hague. That is not an opportunity that was afforded to any of his victims. Yeah. QUESTION: Sean, just a quick question. The Secretary was informed or is she in touch with anybody in India as far as bombings, ongoing bombings? And also very many -- many cities in India are on a high alert because of these ongoing bombings. MR. MCCORMACK: It’s, you know, condemnable that you have these kinds of acts of terrorism and that innocent lives were lost. Secretary Rice has not, on these occasions, been in touch with the Foreign Minister. But certainly, as we do in all such similar cases, we stand with the Government of India in seeking to bring to justice those responsible for these acts of terrorism. QUESTION: And quickly, just as far as a SAARC meeting now going to start, is the U.S. – is going to be there or -- MR. MCCORMACK: Which meeting? QUESTION: SAARC, South Asian Regional -- QUESTION: Starting in Colombia. QUESTION: Starting in Colombia – Sri Lanka. MR. MCCORMACK: I’ll check for you. QUESTION: Okay, thank you. MR. MCCORMACK: Lambros. QUESTION: Yes, on HIV/AIDS. Mr. McCormack, President Bush yesterday with Presidential Global Coordinator Ambassador Mark Dybul -- MR. MCCORMACK: Right. QUESTION: -- signed into law a massive international program against HIV/AIDS and an AIDS bill of $48 billion over the next five years. MR. MCCORMACK: Right. QUESTION: Any comment on that? MR. MCCORMACK: It’s a great testament to the American people that they have devoted such massive resources to fighting AIDS – HIV/AIDS. I think it is a mark of the United States leadership on this issue. And it’s – there are many groups, organizations, people around the world that are invested in and involved in fighting HIV/AIDS. QUESTION: The $48 billion are a grant? What’s the -- MR. MCCORMACK: I don’t have the details for you, Lambros. QUESTION: And one more question. Since Ambassador Mark Dybul is the main figure on this crucial issue of HIV/AIDS -- MR. MCCORMACK: Right. QUESTION: It is possible to have him down for a special briefing? MR. MCCORMACK: I’ll ask. That certainly would be appropriate. Yeah. QUESTION: Thank you. QUESTION: In – Kurdish counselors in Kirkuk today have said Kirkuk should be part of Kurdistan. And the Arabs there are very angry and say, you know, this could have a civil more war over this or a civil war in that area. MR. MCCORMACK: Right. QUESTION: What – how would you suggest, or what do you suggest they do about solving this problem, seeing as it is threatening instability there in a relatively peaceful place, and it’s holding up the provincial election law? MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Well, we talked to the Embassy a little bit about this. And I know it’s been out in the news. I don’t think that we’ve been able to finally confirm it for ourselves. But we have had a longstanding view that the individuals or groups in Kirkuk should avoid any sort of unilateral or provocative actions. The way to resolve this is within the confines of Iraq’s laws and constitutions and – constitution, not constitutions. And what is needed is passage of a provincial election law. I know that’s something that the Iraqi parliament is working on now, but that will be critical to help resolve a lot of issues, including those related to Kirkuk. Matt. QUESTION: Yeah, I want to go back to the map issue -- MR. MCCORMACK: The map issue, sure. QUESTION: -- (inaudible) Islands. MR. MCCORMACK: Sure. QUESTION: Why, if the initial change to this map was made to bring the map into conformity with your policy, was it – was a decision made to change it back to what it had been before to something that is not reflective of policy? MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Well, the decision was taken because it was -- in the course of this exercise, it was detected that there were a number of anomalies and inaccuracies in the database. And so instead of doing these piece – addressing these piecemeal, it was decided to look at them globally, if you will, to look at all of them at the same time. And to further make sure that the technical aspects of this process, as well as the interagency process that underpins it was done in the right way, that not only took into consideration the technical aspects of these kinds of designations and decisions, but also the political, meaning diplomatic, considerations about what is and what is not sovereign territory of given states. So it was a way of, if you will, resetting back to a baseline so that you could proceed from there. QUESTION: Yeah, but I don’t understand. Now you have a map, an official map out there that is in – at odds with what your policy is. And I don’t – when you talk about the other errors in the database, does that involve other countries? Does this mean that you’re going to recognize Burma as Myanmar? I mean, exactly – you know, how much whining does a country have to do to get you guys to put something out there that is antithetical to the – to your policy? MR. MCCORMACK: Matt, I can’t really give you a better answer than I have given you, other than it was decided that this was the most appropriate course to take at this point. QUESTION: So, when will the review of all the multiple other errors -- MR. MCCORMACK: It is -- QUESTION: -- meaning this one. I mean, this is the point. You changed so that it is now an error. MR. MCCORMACK: It is ongoing and it will be – I don’t have a timetable for you, when it will be completed, but it is ongoing. Gollust. QUESTION: Sean, you may have dealt with this earlier. But the Foreign Minister of Iran Motaki suggested, I guess it was late Wednesday, that he’s unaware that his government is facing a deadline to reply to the P-5+1 proposal. He says there’s no deadline. MR. MCCORMACK: Maybe he should -- QUESTION: What’s your understanding of it? MR. MCCORMACK: Maybe he should pick up the phone and call Mr. Jalani – Jalili. (Laughter.) QUESTION: Thank you. MR. MCCORMACK: Pick up the phone and call Mr. Jalili. QUESTION: Is that it? MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, that’s it. (The briefing was concluded at 12:59 p.m.) (end transcript) Commenting guidelines Read more: http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2008/July/20080731175005IHecuoR0.7479517.html&distid=ucs#ixzz0mtlhpOBy |