News

ACCESSION NUMBER:243779
FILE ID:POL104
DATE:09/21/92
TITLE:STATE DEPARTMENT REPORT, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 (09/21/92)
TEXT:*92092104.POL
STATE DEPARTMENT REPORT, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21

(Bosnia, Somalia, Mideast talks, India/Syria, Sudan)  (640)
There was no regular State Department briefing, but Joseph Snyder, a
department press spokesman, talked to reporters about the following
subjects:

SHELLING OF SARAJEVO CONTINUES
Snyder said that Bosnian Serbs "have continued their destructive and
1njustified shelling of Sarajevo and other cities" in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

The shelling of Sarajevo continues from U.N. monitored sites and undeclared
artillery sites, he noted.  The parties in Bosnia had agreed to concentrate
their heavy weapons for monitoring by U.N. forces, but Snyder said it is
clear the Bosnian Serbs have not done so.

U.S. FLIGHTS OF SOMALI AID CONTINUE
Snyder said U.S. airplanes continue to carry humanitarian aid from the
Kenyan port of Mombasa to Somalia and to refugee camps in northern Kenya.

This past weekend, he reported, there were 16 relief flights, delivering 275
metric tons of aid.  Since July 3, he said, U.S. military planes have flown
278 relief missions in Somalia and Kenya delivering some 3,500 metric tons
of humanitarian assistance.

Two U.S. planes carrying part of a 500-man Pakistani security force arrived
in Mogadishu September 21, he said.  A third flight was also due that day.
The Pakistani soldiers will guard relief shipments entering the Somali
port.

DISCUSSIONS BEGIN ON DATE FOR NEXT MIDEAST TALKS ROUND
Snyder said parties at the current round of bilateral Middle East peace
talks in Washington have suggested the talks break off September 24.  "We
are consulting with the parties about the date for the next round," he
said.

NO COMMENTS ON REPORTED INDIAN CHEMICAL SALES TO SYRIA
Snyder said the State Department would not comment on a New York Times
report that the United States has protested to India over Indian sales to
Middle East nations of chemicals needed to make poison gas.

The September 21 article says U.S. intelligence discovered the shipment from
India to Syria of a chemical that could be used for pesticides as well as
an ingredient for nerve gas.  The Times says American officials concluded
that the shipment was intended for Syria's chemical weapons program.

Later, a State Department official described the Times story as "pretty
accurate."

Snyder said the United States "strongly supports the chemical weapons
convention and its goal of banning chemical weapons completely."  When the
convention comes into force, he noted, "it will ultimately ban the
production, acquisition, stockpiling and the use of chemical weapons, and
it will restrict and ultimately prohibit the sale of chemical weapon
precursors."

The United States will continue to cooperate with the Australian Group,
formed to deal with exports of chemical weapon precursors, and "other
like-minded countries to deal with problems that come along," he added.

U.S. CONCERNED ABOUT REPORTED SUDANESE EXECUTION
The United States believes that Andrew Tombe, a senior Sudanese AID (U.S.
Agency for International Development) employee in the southern Sudan town
of Juba, has been executed after being convicted of treason by a military
tribunal, Snyder said.

"We have conveyed to the Sudanese ambassador our grave concerns about this
incident," he said.

"Given the continuing allegations of human rights abuses in the Sudan,
particularly in Juba, and the government's delay in responding to our
repeated requests for information about Tombe, we are viewing this incident
with the gravest concern," he emphasized.

The United States is "strongly reiterating its request to the Sudanese
1overnment for permission for American staff to visit Juba and to
investigate the events leading to Tombe's execution and to check on other
Sudanese staff at our facility there," Snyder added.

He said that Tombe was working for AID on its relief efforts for Sudan.
"That was his job...and this required travel in the country," Snyder said.

NNNN

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