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player ready...Buoyed by the release of a captured American pilot, President Clinton launched a broad defense of his overall foreign policy Thursday and insisted that his new strategy in Somalia is working.
Stepping up pressure on Haitians who are defying an agreement for restoring democracy there, Clinton implied that he would support a naval blockade to enforce reimposed sanctions against the island nation.
He also warned Haitians that the U.S. is committed to aiding the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
However, hours later, an agreement paving the way for Aristide’s return further unraveled with the assassination of Haitian Justice Minister Guy Francois Malary.
Clinton’s Somalia policy received a boost early Friday when the Senate, in a critical congressional test, went on record in support of the president’s timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from the turbulent east African nation.
In a post-midnight vote of 76-23, the Senate approved a measure that maintains Clinton’s withdrawal date of March 31. It would enforce that by cutting off funds for the Somalia operation at that time unless Congress specifically authorizes additional spending-a concession by the White House.
Clinton’s defense of his policies, from Haiti to Bosnia, seemed to be aimed at shoring up public confidence in his ability to conduct U.S. foreign policy, while reassuring a nervous Congress as it worked on setting a deadline for withdrawing U.S. troops from Somalia.
His comments came at a morning news conference one week after he announced a renewed emphasis on a political settlement and deployment of more troops in Somalia.
Clinton said that the Somalis’ release of U.S. Army helicopter pilot Chief Warrant Officer Michael Durant and a Nigerian peacekeeper, coming on the heels of a cease-fire, “demonstrates that we are moving in the right direction and that we are making progress.”
On Capitol Hill, where some called for an immediate troop withdrawal and others supported the March 31 deadline, both sides used Durant’s release to bolster their positions.
“The release of the prisoners changes everything,” said Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas). “Now our objective should be to have a withdrawal as orderly as possible. We should be doing nothing else, period.”
Taking the opposite view, Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the No. 2 Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, argued that Durant’s release “confirms the view that the direction the president has given is beginning to have positive results.”
Indeed, developments in Somalia apparently mollified enough of Clinton’s critics to win more support for his policy through the Senate vote early Friday.
At his news conference, Clinton repeatedly insisted that the U.S. had struck no deal with newly visible Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid in order to secure the prisoners’ release.
Clinton stopped short of saying the hunt for Aidid had been called off. But he emphasized that as U.S. officials work to achieve a political solution, he was willing to consider alternatives to Aidid’s capture as a way to resolve the deaths of 24 Pakistani peacekeepers in May.
One alternative that might be acceptable, Clinton said, is forming an independent commission to investigate the peacekeepers’ deaths. He acknowledged that the idea of a commission already was suggested by Aidid, who is a suspected of having masterminded the attack.
Clinton reiterated that it was a mistake to let the search for Aidid undermine diplomatic efforts to solve the conflict.
However, he said: “We want to know that there is some honest, unencumbered effort to investigate what happened to those Pakistanis and to have some resolution of that consistent with international law.”
Meanwhile, in a report to Congress this week, the administration disclosed that it was sending about 3,000 additional Army combat personnel to Somalia. Last week, it said only 1,700 would be sent.
Responding to criticisms that his foreign policy is naive or incoherent, Clinton defended his decision-making process for national security matters. He called it “at least as good” as that of the two previous Republican administrations, “perhaps better.”
Citing his administration’s efforts to help stabilize conditions in Russia, achieve peace in the Mideast, improve U.S. trade relations and contain nuclear proliferation around the globe, Clinton argued that his critics “have a pretty weak leg to stand on.”
“It’s easy for people who don’t have these responsibilities to use words like `naive’ or this, that or the other thing,” Clinton said.
“We’ve got to try to chart a course that is the right course for the United States to lead while avoiding things we cannot do or things that impose costs in human and financial terms.”
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While continued turbulence in the world has increased the demand for peacekeepers, Clinton said that U.S. casualties in Somalia have made him more reluctant to deploy U.S. troops for that purpose.
In particular, Clinton said he would be more cautious about putting American peacekeepers into a situation “where there was any ambiguity at all” about the military chain of command.
The administration has contended that the Somali mission, after being transferred to the United Nations, became muddled and that difficulties arose in organizing reinforcements for American troops that came under attack.
But Clinton said he would have a much higher level of confidence in the safety of American peacekeepers in Bosnia because NATO, which would take charge of that operation, has a more cohesive military organization.
As conditions were deteriorating in Haiti, Clinton declared that people there “would be sadly misguided if they think the United States has weakened its resolve” to hold authorities to an agreement for returning Aristide to power.
While insisting that steps must be taken to enforce the oil and arms embargo on Haiti, Clinton and other administration officials refrained from using the word “blockade” because, they said, it is associated with a declaration of war.
An administration source said White House officials were considering unilateral sanctions against Haiti, such as travel restrictions and the freezing of Haitian financial assets in the U.S.
Clinton also put Haitians on notice that he is concerned for the safety of Prime Minister Robert Malval, whom he described as a stabilizing figure providing the “glue” for Aristide’s return.