Excerpts from the Press Briefing July 28, 2003

QUESTION: What kind of discussions have there been here, at the State Department, about the prospect of sending peacekeeping troops into Liberia?

MR. BOUCHER: The situation in Liberia has been a major concern of all of us. There has been a lot of attention in the Administration to the situation there. We have been in very close touch with our embassy out there. They report that Monrovia is quiet today. Most of the insurgents appear to have withdrawn to their previous positions.

We are calling on the parties to cooperate with the Joint Verification Team to implement the ceasefire immediately. And in fact, I think the first thing to point out is that we do hope to provide a member to that Joint Verification Team that would be a retired military officer who is working in the region.

We have been actively discussing how we can best support international efforts to help Liberia return to peace and the rule of law. The President, as you know, in his June 26th remarks, said that we are working with regional governments to support negotiations and map out a transition. We are determined to help the people of Liberia find a path to peace.

The Administration has been looking at several aspects of this situation, first how to protect Americans who may be there, particularly the American diplomatic presence there that, as I pointed out the other day, is important to us to be able to keep working with the parties and try to do what we can diplomatically to calm the situation and get back to implementation of the agreements of the ceasefire.

Second of all, we have been looking more broadly at the overall situation as to see what contribution we can make and how we might help work with others to calm that situation somewhat for the sake of the people of Liberia. And so that is an ongoing process. I don't have a final answer at this point on what the prospects are or what steps we might choose.

Yes. Okay.

QUESTION: On Liberia, Secretary General Kofi Annan put out a letter to the Security Council, I think, on Friday or over the weekend, calling for some kind of force. Has the Secretary spoke to him specifically about this request?

MR. BOUCHER: Yes, the Secretary has spoken to the Secretary General several times. I think they spoke ten days or so ago. They spoke again last Friday, and they might speak again today. So we have been keeping in close touch with the Secretary General as the situations evolve there.

QUESTION: Did the Secretary General specifically ask the U.S. to put forward troops there?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't know if he specifically asked. I think we are all aware of his public statements in that regard.

Adi.

QUESTION: What exactly is this Joint Verification Team? What -- who is going to be part of it and --

MR. BOUCHER: I think I will have to get the details for you. It is something that was agreed to in the ceasefire talks in Ghana. It is a small team to help verify that the parties are abiding by their commitments at the ceasefire talks.

QUESTION: Richard, could you be a bit more specific about this contribution that you're considering making to help ease the overall situation? I mean, is there serious consideration being given to a substantial military peacekeeping intervention, or --

MR. BOUCHER: I can't, at this point, be any more specific. We are trying to look at the situation both from the point of view of the security of the Americans and the American representation there, but also from the point of view of what other steps we might take that would help calm the situation and bring it back to implementation of the ceasefire commitments that the parties have made. So we are looking at various options, but I can't really describe any of them at this point.

MR. REEKER: Joint Verification Team.

MR. BOUCHER: Oh, you've got the details of what it is? Okay.

The June 17th Liberia Ceasefire Agreement authorized establishment of the Joint Verification Team. The team will provide a comprehensive overview of combatant positions for use in verifying the terms of the ceasefire. Each group of combatants is to provide the team with information about the location of its units. The team will then visit Liberia to verify the information provided and to plot unit locations on a map.

George.

QUESTION: I don't know if you can answer this, but Liberia has, over the many decades, at least until about 1980, had closer relations with the United States than almost any other country in Africa. Does this influence U.S. thinking at all?

MR. BOUCHER: It is clearly a nation that we care about. I hesitate to say we care about it more than some other place that might be meeting with difficulty and tragedy. But we have had a longstanding tie to Liberia. It is a nation that we have been concerned about. It is a nation that, at least in its foundation and much of its history, was founded on the same principles as the United States. And so, certainly, as much as anywhere else, we want to do what we can to help bring peace to the people who live there. And we recognize that perhaps a little more than anywhere else, we have had a longstanding historical tie to the people of that nation.